Books : The Force Unleashed (Star Wars)

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by: Sean Williams

: The Force Unleashed (Star Wars)

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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780345499028
ISBN: 0345499026
Label: Del Rey
Manufacturer: Del Rey
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: August 19, 2008
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: August 19, 2008
Sales Rank: 38432
Studio: Del Rey



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
“The Sith always betray one another. . . . I’m sure you’ll learn that soon enough.”

The overthrow of the Republic is complete. The Separatist forces have been smashed, the Jedi Council nearly decimated, and the rest of the Order all but destroyed. Now absolute power rests in the iron fist of Darth Sidious–the cunning Sith lord better known as the former Senator, now Emperor, Palpatine. But more remains to be done. Pockets of resistance in the galaxy must still be defeated and missing Jedi accounted for . . . and dealt with. These crucial tasks fall to the Emperor’s ruthless enforcer, Darth Vader. In turn, the Dark Lord has groomed a lethal apprentice entrusted with a top-secret mission: to comb the galaxy and dispatch the last of his masters’ enemies, thereby punctuating the dark side’s victory with the Jedi’s doom.

Since childhood, Vader’s nameless agent has known only the cold, mercenary creed of the Sith. His past is a void; his present, the carrying out of his deadly orders. But his future beckons like a glistening black jewel with the ultimate promise: to stand beside the only father he has ever known, with the galaxy at their feet. It is a destiny he can realize only by rising to the greatest challenge of his discipleship: destroying Emperor Palpatine.

The apprentice’s journeys will take him across the far reaches of the galaxy, from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to the junkyard planet of Raxus Prime. On these missions, the young Sith acolyte will forge an unlikely alliance with a ruined Jedi Master seeking redemption and wrestle with forbidden feelings for his beautiful comrade, Juno Eclipse. And he will be tested as never before–by shattering revelations that strike at the very heart of all he believes and stir within him long-forgotten hopes of reclaiming his name . . . and changing his destiny.




Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Nice idea poorly executed
This storyline had so much promise but I found it to be very disappointing. I found it difficult at times to follow and the sentence structure and flow seemed almost forced. The battles with the Jedi were over way to quick. No Jedi is going to be so easily defeated. Overall a disappointment


Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - Very Disappointing
I've been a SW fan since Episode IV was first brought out and have read every book printed, excluding Young Jedi Knights and graphic novels. There have been a few that were a little weak, but none as bad as this. I felt like I was reading a several hundred page video game synopsis. The plot was lame and predictable, you knew what was going to happen well in advance. I felt that there was barely even lip-service paid character development and what efforts were made were transparent and flimsy. This is the first SW novel I have read that became a chore to read, I felt like I wasted money on it. I work 24/48 hour shifts, so I spend a fair amoutn of time reading, but this one really left a bad taste. It panders to merchandising and I feel that it really does an injustice to the entire line of SW novels. In fact, I had to double-check to verify that it was, indeed, a legitimate and SW-approved book. Save your money and time by just playing the video game or reading one of the plethora of other, much better-written works. This was a true disappointment and quite a let-down.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars - Cool Jacket cover and no Jar Jar
This book is based on the novelization of a video game by the same name and you can tell. Sean Williams is the author for this adventure. The basic premise is that a SuperJedi becomes a Sith apprentice and wrecks havoc on the Rebellion. The question is, if the SuperJedi are only apprentices then how do the Sith ever lose to a punk like Luke Skywalker?

Dust Jacket Summary: "The Sith always betray one another. . . . I'm sure you'll learn that soon enough."

The overthrow of the Republic is complete. The Separatist forces have been smashed, the Jedi Council nearly decimated, and the rest of the Order all but destroyed. Now absolute power rests in the iron fist of Darth Sidious-the cunning Sith lord better known as the former Senator, now Emperor, Palpatine. But more remains to be done. Pockets of resistance in the galaxy must still be defeated and missing Jedi accounted for . . . and dealt with. These crucial tasks fall to the Emperor's ruthless enforcer, Darth Vader. In turn, the Dark Lord has groomed a lethal apprentice entrusted with a top-secret mission: to comb the galaxy and dispatch the last of his masters' enemies, thereby punctuating the dark side's victory with the Jedi's doom.

Since childhood, Vader's nameless agent has known only the cold, mercenary creed of the Sith. His past is a void; his present, the carrying out of his deadly orders. But his future beckons like a glistening black jewel with the ultimate promise: to stand beside the only father he has ever known, with the galaxy at their feet. It is a destiny he can realize only by rising to the greatest challenge of his discipleship: destroying Emperor Palpatine.

The apprentice's journeys will take him across the far reaches of the galaxy, from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk to the junkyard planet of Raxus Prime. On these missions, the young Sith acolyte will forge an unlikely alliance with a ruined Jedi Master seeking redemption and wrestle with forbidden feelings for his beautiful comrade, Juno Eclipse. And he will be tested as never before-by shattering revelations that strike at the very heart of all he believes and stir within him long-forgotten hopes of reclaiming his name . . . and changing his destiny.

What I liked: A good premise. At certain parts of the story the characters represent life like beings instead of killing machines. The other positive things are the presence of Wookies and Jar Jar is never, ever mentioned. It does have a cool jacket cover.

What I didn't like: Starkiller (the apprentice) is way too powerful in comparison with the other characters. He kills off Jedi Masters like they were droids and is able to move a crashing Star Destroyer with a flick of a finger. Starkiller goes on numerous missions that only pertain to the video game storyline and seams out place. Due to his superpowers, you never feel that Starkiller is in any danger.

Last word: Poorly executed novel. The video game designers were allowed way too much latitude in the Star Wars universe and it shows through due to much of the nonsense that happens in the novel. I wish the author would have deviated more from the video game storyline and allowed the story to breath. This is a wasted opportunity to breach the gap between the third and fourth movies. Skip it.

Reviewed by Matt


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - the most enjoyable offering from the unleashed multi-media event
star wars: the force unleashed is another attempt at a multi-media event by lucas arts like their mediocre attempt with shadows of the empire in the 90s. don't get me wrong, the effort they put into the event was mediocre, i actually enjoyed shadows; but this isn't a shadows review...

this time around we've got a video game/book/graphic novel combo, with one lego spaceship and one action figure (that i know of) thrown in, almost as an insulting after-thought.

but let me just talk about the main offerings. they all complement each other, but are lacking in their own merits, so i will simply review them all.

GAME: i wanted to give this game more than a 3, i really did. but with amazing games like dark forces and jedi knight coming from lucas arts more than 10 years ago, there was really no excuse for this game not being better than it was. the gameplay was fun for the most part, with the exception of the boss-battles. there's nothing i hate worse than interactive cut-scene boss battles. if you're going to have a cut-scene, let me WATCH the cut-scene. the gameplay is completely linear, which granted is to be expected since this game above all else is an interactive story. you do have one mission as darth vader, but you spend the entire rest of the game playing as the apprentice. this is entirely a melee combat game, with the addition of force powers. if you enjoy star wars for it's shoot-outs and space combat, this isn't the game for you. they could have thrown in some space combat with juno eclipse's back-story, but alas it didn't happen. this game is definitely worth playing if you're a star wars fan, but i can't recommend it at the $60 release price; rent it or wait for the price to drop. while you're waiting, give the book a read.

BOOK: sean williams is no stranger to scifi, and he has prior credits in the star wars universe. this was some pretty solid writing, considering the storyline was already predetermined. he complemented the unleashed story and still managed to add to the mythos with a back-story for juno eclipse that i would like to see williams revisit in a novel of her own. a back-story, and explore what-happened to her after unleashed, since we obviously have no mention of her in the original trilogy, despite her obvious importance [sorry, being very vague here to keep it spoiler-free]. worth a read.

GRAPHIC NOVEL: for a special event like unleashed, i expected the comic to be a little better than this. it just seemed a little rushed. i haven't taken a look at any of brian ching's other star wars work yet, so i don't know if this is his best art. there were a lot of proportion and perspective problems that made it hard for me to enjoy for the artwork alone. and some of the most incredible events in the story, such as the scuttling of the star destroyer, were reduced to a panel on a page. that awesome destruction was worthy of nothing less than a splash-page. in some ways, ching's out-of-proportion heads reminded me of carmine infantino's work on marvel's star wars in the 70's. i'm a big fan of infantino's art now, but it wasn't until some year's later with his work on the flash that i could really get into it. only time will tell if i feel the same way about ching after seeing more of his work. the graphic novel is worth a look, but overall, it adds nothing to the story. if you're already getting the video game and/or the book, you might want to skip this one and spend your money on the the art and making of star wars: the force unleashed.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Good read, not the best!
This novelization is difficult to review. The video game on which it is based is all about spectacular graphics and game play, with a somewhat nonsensical storyline contrived mainly to give players as many chances to cause massive destruction as possible. Stripped of the impressive visuals, cinematics, and gameplay, the tale of Starkiller the Secret Apprentice is a little tedious, and it doesn't help that many of the events surrounding the formation of the Rebel Alliance in this book fly in the face of sources like the original Star Wars radio drama.

Having never played the game, it is difficult to disentangle the flaws of the game's storyline and the novel. Sean Williams seems to have written a fairly straightforward adaptation of the game. Starkiller faces down Jedi after Jedi, all of which are potentially intriguing characters...but we never see the battles from their perspective. It would be interesting to know, for example, what madness caused Kazdan Paratus to construct an entire Jedi Temple out of junk and populate it with Jedi droid doppelgangers...but this bizarre eccentricity is quickly dismissed as Starkiller moves on to yet another mission.

Williams does a better job with the main characters: Starkiller, his pilot Juno Eclipse, and PROXY the training droid. Eclipse had seemed like a rather superfluous character to me (Darth Maul didn't need a pilot, after all...) but Williams provided enough background and depth to make her genuinely interesting. The relationship between Starkiller and Eclipse seemed rushed and forced, however--it was never entirely clear to me what attracted them to each other.

Starkiller is just a challenging character to relate to. Williams does his best to explore his thoughts and feelings, but the Secret Apprentice is no Kyle Katarn or Darth Revan. I'm not sure if the problem is that he's too much of a blank slate, or that his slate isn't blank enough. He has a definite name and identity, but no real character traits. His past is revealed, but it is essentially irrelevant to the plot--in fact, Starkiller doesn't get the chance to discover much about his past at all. And because Starkiller is so powerful to begin with, he has little to learn. His character doesn't develop so much as shift allegiances.


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