Some unexpected things have happened with my readings
habits throughout the years but one thing I never would have predicted is that
I enjoy reading novelizations of movies I like to watch. It started because of Star
Wars mostly and while I haven’t read tons of novelizations since I
discovered I like reading those kinds of books, it’s a trend that will likely
continue for many years. Recently, a little movie came out continuing the story
began so many years ago with the release of Star Wars in 1977.
That movie is Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and it’s
pretty good. It’s not a masterpiece, but I don’t think anybody was
realistically expecting one. Generally speaking, we wanted a good movie and we
got a good movie. We also got a good novelization courtesy of the Grand Master
of novelizations Alan Dean Foster.
Though it didn’t really surprise me, The Force
Awakens book was pretty darn close to the movie experience and so my
reaction was essentially the same. This is not the best novelization I’ve read
but it’s still good. In some ways, I like it more than the movie. In some other
ways, I don’t. This mostly has to do with the fact that when I read the book I
lose the good elements from the movie such as the actors’ portrayals of their
characters and the movie’s visuals. I’m well aware that I’m not saying anything
revelatory here. It kind of comes with the territory of novelizations. However,
if I’m comparing this to my experience reading other Star Wars novelizations,
this one falls a little short. That’s because the original trilogy’s visuals
and the actors performances are engraved in my mind’s eye. My multiple viewings
of the original trilogy actually supported and improved my reading of their
respective novelizations. That is not the case with The Force Awakens.
I’ve seen it once and while the viewing was fresh it my mind when I read this
book, I simply don’t have the same familiarity with it that I did with those
other movies.
