So, the obvious question: why review a seven-year old novelization of a lackluster film which contributed to the destruction of many of our childhoods? Because around four years ago I picked up this book on a whim, and it challenged my assumptions about what writing is capable of.
This is a novel that knows the exact strengths and weaknesses of the story set before it, and is totally willing to emphasize that which helps it and sweep all the other stuff under the rug. Stover demonstrates remarkable aptitude in aggressively restructuring the tale as told in the film: the "opening" battle scene in the movie is stretched to roughly a 1/3 of the book's length, giving Stover legroom to properly introduce and breathe life into all the characters before we begin the story proper.
The general story you know well, but where this book really shines is in helping the reader grasp the characters psychologically. That might sound stupid in a soft sci-fi setting like Star Wars, but the execution is so flawless you won't think twice about it. One trick which Stover pulls several times is in using little 2nd person sections of the story to tell you exactly what a character feels or thinks at that particular moment. By describing, say, Anakin Skywalker's thoughts, reasoning, and emotions to the reader as though they were Anakin, the novel becomes incredibly gripping in a way that is really rather surprising. Having watched the film, I didn't think it was possible to empathize with the cardboard-cutout protagonist Anakin, but the novel really does an outstanding job conveying the deep, powerful emotions bubbling just under the surface without seeming tacky or under-developed.
Even beyond this, the novel succeeds in ways that were unexpected. Action, for me, doesn't often work well in prose (especially when someone is adapting a film into narrative), but by employing a more impressionistic-view of the lightsaber and space battles (i.e. focusing on the fighters' thoughts, styles and characteristics instead of drab hit-by-hit recitation), the confrontations are engaging, while actually adding to the story.
In short, this novel did what the film definitely did not: it made this universe, and this story, real and powerful for me. By shifting the focus away from the inane, confusing, and "too-complex-for-soft-sci-fi" plot and instead drawing our attention to the characters, Stover's book has conveyed the meaning and intensity of this rather dark tale in a way only a masterful novel can.
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