The Force Unleashed (Star Wars)

For a long time I had anticipated the release of Lucasarts' new game, "The Force Unleashed." Ironically enough, I have yet to play any more than the demo, but ran out and purchased this novel and the companion graphic novel as well. Although the events laid out in literary form are indeed pivotal to the rest of the saga, they are related in a bland and distanced narrative. The characters themselves have promise, but their motives and choices are somewhat confusing and unbelievable. The 'tell it like it is' style of writing here is perhaps on par with a junior novel adaptation of a film, made all the worse by the fact that it covers the events of a video game. One can clearly pick out the "boss fights" as they would exist in the game and each chapter seems to cover a "level," as Starkiller hops from world to world. It's a format that's uninspired and sometimes downright frustrating.

For hardcore fans (like myself) you'll probably read it anyway, but for someone new to the Star Wars literary universe, pass it over and go for something along the lines of one of the Timothy Zahn novels (i.e. Heir to the Empire).

I liked the story a great deal. The book like the game is a bit short, I completed reading it in around three days of causal reading. It held my attention for sure. The pace of the book is very fast, I liked the fact that Williams didn't let it distort story or maybe the action was the story. Overall I'd give it a 4.5 stars but it didn't see an option for it.

This book had huge potential but was completely ruined by the lack of accurate information. Maybe I'm just too much of a fan, but there are some serious contradictions to the already established Expanded Universe storyline. I feel like the creators of this story either didn't do any research or didn't care about the story thus far. I don't recommend this book to any of the bigger fans of Star Wars. I think the author made a decent attempt at writing a novel based off such a over the top video game, but the misinformation was too much for me.

If you haven't read the book and you want to, the rest of this review might spoil a little bit of the story so look away!

I won't go into much, but here are a few things I had problems with. Jedi Master Shaak Ti was killed in Episode III in every form of it. The deleted scene in the movie, the novel, even LEGO Star Wars. I did hear somewhere that the game creators just wanted to use her so they decided to overlook that small detail. Vader's helmet has red lenses. The book mentions how they are black. I know that this is a very small detail, and maybe I'm wrong about the Episode III Vader. But he I know he has red lenses in the original trilogy. At one point his helmet gets knocked off during a fight. He can't breathe without his helmet and In Shadows of the Empire he just gets to the point where he can breathe without it for 2 minutes of meditation. Meditation... Not during a lightsaber fight. The rebel leaders get rounded up and put on the Death Star and escape. The Radio Drama and the Han Solo trilogy by A.C. Crispin have already told us a little about how the rebellion was formed and how it found out about the Death Star. This was not it. Completely different. Plus, if Vader and the Emperor already knew who the rebellion leaders were, then why did they let them live after the events of this book?

I know this sounds a little picky of me, and some of my examples weren't very well written out or they weren't that important. But the contradictions just kept adding up and getting bigger and bigger until this video game based book became unbearable. So maybe this book is just better for the casual fan, and not the big Star Wars fan like me.

My husband really liked this book. He said it was a good book to read and was well put together.

As much as I love Star Wars, I can't recommend this book. First, the main character, Starkiller seems too powerful. I don't believe at any time he even broke a sweat going against any non force user. I mean I know the Jedi/Sith are very strong, but come on! He performed stunts I don't think even Yoda could do on a good day!

Also, the books are supposed to harmonize. From my understanding, the Rebellion had its initial beginnings long before the time this book seems to make it (in the old Han Solo triliogy, the Rebels already had a small number of ships, and were trying to come together into an alliance.) In this book, it seems as if Starkiller did a few things that spanked the empire, and Bail Organa said, "that's cool-maybe we can rebel too!" It just seemed very unbelievable to me.

Another gripe I have with this book is that it seems to have no real idea how to make characters. I mean take the second Jedi that Starkiller went after. If you are in hiding from a galactic government that is eager to kill all Jedi, would you build a mock Jedi temple on a planet filled with scavenging scum who would sell information condemning their own mother for 2 credits? And, yes, he was obviously...unhinged, but I don't believe that explanation holds water for someone who has had the mental disciplines to be a Jedi anyway.

The only redemptive qualities of the book in my opinion are the droid Proxy (the idea of the holograms was cool!) and the Jedi Rahm Kota. His personality and fleshed-out characterization was interesting.

Another thing, why would Starkiller need a pilot? Darth Maul traveled alone, Vader can pilot a starfighter, and so it seems can any trained person. Wouldn't having another person knowing of a secret apprentice be a bad thing?

I'm sorry, but to me there are just too many plot holes for me to put this as part of Star Wars canon in my mind (like how if Bail Organa was already known as a rebel, why did Leia try to bluff her way with Vader at the beginning of a New Hope-the list goes on and on)