The Force Awakens Novelization

[Travis]

For those who have read The Force Awakens novelization, what did you think? The reviews seem up and down. I have not read a novelization of any of the Star Wars films, although I have owned a paperback containing the original trilogy novels in one volume for years.

Do you think it's coincidence they let Alan Dean Foster write this novel given he wrote the very first original Expanded Universe novel (Splinter of the Mind's Eye) and The Force Awakens was the trigger for beginning of the new canon?

[Roel]

I have read it, it is fine, but not great. And it will confuse the heck out of a lot of people.

Foster wrote the book with the script to guide him, while they were still shooting the film, so a lot of stuff in the book didn't make it to the film, it was cut or changed in the process of making it. And a lot of dialogue changed along the way, making the book very inaccurate in a lot of places. And since he had to stick to the script, the dialogue is very awkward in places, while it was polished up for the actual film.

It makes it look like Foster isn't that good of a writer, while they did a much better job on the film.
While in reality Foster was stuck with crappy first, second or third drafts, that were polished up after he was already finished with it.
I see people critisizing his less than stellar dialogue, where they should be criticizing Kazdan and Abrams's early writing. Not fair at all :P

And because the book was written before the film was done there are a lot of scenes in there that didn't actually make it to the film, and scenes that play out a bit differently.
Therefore it gives us a lot of extra information, but it might also give us information that is not accurate anymore. Making the whole thing confusing, especially for people not realizing the unique space this book occupies.

In my opinion it would have been a better idea to finish the film, and give Foster the time to finish the novelization afterwards. I get that they wanted to release them simultaneously, but I'm not sure that was a great idea.

But when you understand all that, the book is a fun read, it's fun to see how the story evolved and it's cool to see where they decided to make changes and cuts along the way.

I'd say go for it and read it. But keep in mind that you are basically reading a novelization of an earlier version of the script, not the novelization of the actually film.

[Louis]

I read it and was pretty underwhelmed. It really did not add much to the movie. I kept comparing it to the episode 3 novelization, which in my opinion is the best, and it falls very short. But let's face it, we are going to read it anyway.

[Frank]

Foster was at Star Wars Celebrations in April 2015, and in an interview he said the novel was already completed at that stage, but yeah, I agree with Louis, we're are going to read it anyway.
Interesting to see were the film was at that stage and how it developed to the final cut on the big screen.

[Jared]

I read all 7 novelizations over the past few months and will have to agree that Stover's rendition of Episode III stands far above the rest. Foster takes a very straightforward approach with the Force Awakens, whereas ROTS was extremely stylized. All in all, I think the experience of reading a film novelization is a fun one, allowing you to really take your time on the story and relate to the characters. The novels boil it all down to plot and characters, removing the visual gloss of the special effects, a liberating experiment. I didn't find Foster's writing to be as awful as the broader community seems to think it is... but maybe I'm just not as critical.

[Frank]

Funny, I've read so many comments on how Stover's novelization of Episode 3 is the best.
I don't know, I just have this thing about Stover, not that I don't rate him, I just find his books, Star Wars ones anyway, hard to read. Felt Shatterpoint and Shadows of Mindor a hard slog. Put down Episode 3 after 100 pages, and tried to read Traitor twice but just couldn't finish it. I suppose we all have authors that we just don't click with.

[Michael]

I don't know if i will read this... i'm scared to

[Jon]

The noble gives more context to the events of the movie

[Summer]

Total sidebar here.

Frank wrote: "Felt Shatterpoint and Shadows of Mindor a hard slog. "

Shatterpoint had one of my favorite SW reading moments: Mace Windu, startled wet and naked out of the shower, and still kicking ass.

[Lady]

Actually officially Timothy Zahn started the expanded universe.

[Frank]

True, but Splinters of a Minds Eye, Brian Daley's Han Solo Adventures and L. Neil Smith Lando Calrissian Adventures are all part of the EU timeline

[Rob]

I just finished the TFA novel. I actually liked it. Maybe my expectations weren't very high. No earth shattering added scenes, but I wouldn't expect that with the Story Group overseeing things. I'm sure they wanted the novel to stay close to the film and not cause a fan-driven tempest of controversy.

I liked reading some of the omitted connections, like why this Resistance droid in Maz's castle was looking for BB-8. But I also appreciate even more the editing work that JJ did. The final dialogue and pacing of the film was much better than the book - which I assume was lifted directly from the script.

Kylo Ren's dialogue in particular was a bit cringe worthy. The whole part of "I don't need to take my mask off for you Han Solo but I'll do it anyway" bit was one such moment for me.