Star Wars The Force Awakens Novelization

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

When I saw, in TFA, that Finn was a janitor, I figured that he was joking. Then, it became clear that Finn really was a maintenance type, also confirmed by scenes in TLJ.

So, I'm thinking about this...

I could half-way buy that the First Order was such a small organization that the stormtroopers pulled double duty. That's the way it seemed in TFA.

Now, in TLJ, the FO is about to take over the entire galaxy in a few weeks. So, they've got to be an unbelievably large organization--as in a replacement for the old Empire.



So...does the FO make stormtroopers be dual experienced?

Maybe Finn was a maintenance guy before he was a graduated trooper? When we see him on Jakku, it is his first mission.

But, that still doesn't make sense in that if Finn wasn't ready to be a trooper and take his place in the line, then he'd still be filling his days with training, attempting to become the troopers.


So...how do you think the whole maintenance thing fits with Finn's background? Do all FO troopers have dual jobs?

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Poe's Escape From The Finalizer....



On my return home today from work, I heard the sequence where Finn breaks Poe out of the brig, and the two of them escape the star destroyer. It's done quite well in the book.

First off, Poe doesn't blow off every turret on the underside of the massive ship. Not even close. The book says that he blows out a bank of weapons. I'm assuming these cover the fire arc back to Jakku. Still, some weapons can fire at the two--including the ventral cannons.

The TIE that they steal is a special forces fighter, and it includes a gunner separate from the pilot, protective shields, and a hyperdrive.

Hux assumes that the escaping TIE will make a run for a jump to hyperspace, so all of the ship's turrets are faced away from the planet. This, more than anything, is what protects Poe and Finn--and they still get shot down!

Poe, of course, heads back to Jakku to find BB-8. They get tagged by the ventral cannon. Poe is knocked out. And, Finn pulls the ejection cords.





I also think it is very interesting the way the new series is portraying the New Republic. It's not, "and everyone lives happily ever after." After the death of the Emperor, there is more fighting. But, the momentum is with the Alliance/New Republic, and the remnant of the Empire is pushed back, out of civilized space, into the Unknown Regions.

The Republic, though, can't get it together. Lots of in-fighting. Lots of political opinions, all diametrically opposed to each other. Not surprisingly, in a realistic sense, there is a lot of sympathy for the Empire, with many thinking it was only Palpy that needed to go--and we don't need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. They believe a benevolent Empire is possible.

In the shadow of the shaky Republic, the fanatical First Order grows, supported by many powerful people and worlds in the Republic.

The FO has 30 years to build up forces while the Republic is busy disbanding its war-time force in order to return to a government where the individual worlds protect themselves.

There is longing for the unity the Empire brought to the galaxy, and the First Order thrives.

Leia is outed as the daughter of Darth Vader, and this does her no favors politically. In fact, it becomes the chief reason that she leaves the New Republic Senate.

Later, Luke's Jedi Academy is destroyed by Kylo Ren, and Luke retreats by going into hiding.

As The Force Awakens starts, the New Republic is about to fall, all on its own. And, the push that topples it is when the Starkiller weapon takes out the entire seat of government.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Poe's jacket means something to him. He's had it a long, long time. Giving it to Finn means something, if only to Poe.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

Access Codes.


It seems to me that ships should have a method to lock them. Access Codes. If so, why isn't the Falcon locked, sitting under that tarp at Jakku?

[Whill]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I'm at the part where Rey and Finn have escaped Jakku on the Falcon. Han and Chewie will be showing up shortly.

So far, the book has been pretty much scene for scene just like the film, except that, for every scene, there are lots of differences.

I've wondered about the scene where Rey is directing Finn to pick up a particular tool that she needs to fix the Falcon. In the film, Finn seems to be lost, not knowing any of the tools. Clueless.

Yet, in TLJ, Finn has a scene with Rose where they figure out how to disable the hyperspace tracker, and Finn seems to be very technical.

The two scenes don't match. Is he technical or not?

In the novelization of TFA, he is somewhat technical. He knows the tool. He's distracted, thinking about how to tell Rey where the Resistance base is, hoping that the can get the droid to tell her, and he's not sure which particular version of the tool that she wants. In the book, it's a sealer tool.




Also, Finn tells Rey that they've got to get out of the system. The First Order is scanning for them. Presumably, Rey has taken off in a direction that keeps the planet between the Falcon and the star destroyer. Plus, the Finalizer doesn't know yet that Finn and BB-8 have escaped because the two TIE pilots were killed (or downed) during the escape. The ship isn't looking for them yet, but Finn assumes that they are.



Before Han's new bulk freighter is even seen, the Falcon loses all local control. Rey is locked out. Even life support is no longer accessible. This must be something that Han has installed--some type of backdoor code that only he and Chewie knows exist. Han uses it to cripple the Falcon before taking her aboard in the hold of his new, bigger freighter, the Eravana.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I wondered if the book was going to explain how Han found the Falcon so fast after Rey's and Finn's escape. It did. Evidently, Han had a "beacon" concealed on the ship that activated when the ship was fired up.

This could be the reason that the ship is just sitting there in a dust field with a tarp over it on Jakku.

For those who wonder about Hyperspace tracking--how it's an issue and impossible in TLJ but Han's remark in ANH about being tracked, "Not this ship, sister," don't really seem to mesh. Here's another thing to figure...

Not one but two gangs catch up with Han on his new bulk freighter, the Eravana, in TFA. In the book, Han remarks something to the effect of, "Whatever happened to being able to loose people in hyperspace."

Just how does either game catch up with the Eravana? Unknown. Do they have a hyperspace tracker aboard, possible in some freight? Dunno.

Obviously, if either were spying on Han and his ship, they would have boarded it then instead of waiting until after following it through hyperspace.

[Whill]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Whill]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

In one of the comics, it is C-3P0's big mouth that leads the two criminal organizations to Jakku to find Han and the Falcon. They are meeting in a bar--for whatever ever reason--and members from both overhear the droid.

Thus, both sides take off after Han, until we see them in the movie.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

New and Extended Scenes....



Rey and Finn have met Solo, and they're on the Falcon. I ran into a knot of new extended scenes. Yeah, that's right, NEW scenes.

We see General Leia on D'Qar trying to piece together what happened to Poe. The Resistance has people on Jakku that report in. I guess Poe wasn't alone.



We learn that Hosnian Prime is toxic for Leia. She doesn't quite have a price on her head, but she said, if she goes to the Capital, then she won't leave alive. She'll meet with an accident, eat some food that doesn't agree with her, and such. The secret but fanatic supporters of the First Order would make sure that she would come to an end.

Plus, it seems, from the book, Bloodlines, that Leia's stock as a galactic hero has fallen quite a bit since it has gotten out that she is the daughter of Darth Vader.

Leia sends her aid, who is pictured in the scene from the movie above.



C-3P0 has an interesting talk with a dormant R2-D2 about how 3P0 failed to enable the long range tracking on BB-8 before he left.



The scene where Kylo Ren goes before Snoke first time that we see in TFA is extended with an extremely good verbal transaction between the two. Snoke asks what it was that brought down the Empire. Ren answers, "Sentiment," which is correct, according to Snoke. Had Darth Vader not given in to sentiment, says Snoke, then Skywalker would be dead. They wouldn't have to deal with him now. And, the Empire would have continued under Vader.

This is done so well that I wished that they would have had it in the movie. And, it ties in so nicely with Ben's actions later when he kills his own father.



There's a scene where Poe awakes after crashing, back on Jakku.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

This novelization is turning from good to fantastic. I enjoy novelizations that have extra scenes and give me a different perspective of the movie. Up until about the part where Han Solo shows up, the book is pretty much like the movie. The scenes are similar, as I said above, but none are exactly the same. There's extra dialogue or the scenes are extended.

After the point where Han shows up, we are treated to several completely new scenes. I'm not sure if these were cut out of the script or if they are Alan Dead Foster running away with it--as ADF is known for enhancing novelizations. That's why he's probably my favorite author to write novelizations.

I mentioned some new scenes above, earlier in the thread.





THE PRODUCTION

The book is really good. I'm glad I bought it. I know I'm enjoying a book when I'm flying through it.

The narrator is excellent. He does voices well. I just heard General Hux's speech, and it was great! He really conveyed that the fascist fanatics of the First Order (say that three times real fast) see the New Republic as an illegitimate government.

The sound effects and must are perfect. Not too much, and not too sparse.

And, you can tell when different people are speaking. Heck, his Rey ain't bad, either! Usually, male narrators have a problem with female parts, and vice versa.





UNKAR PLUTT

On Takodana, where Han & Co. got to meet Maz Kanata, Unkar Plutt shows up with some goons and bullies Rey. He says that the Falcon has an old Imperial Hyperspace tracker on it from long ago. Anyone who knows of this and has the correct codes can track the ship. He goes into detail about tracking through hyperspace not being possible (which supports TLJ), but as soon as a ship with a tracker pops out of hyperspace, a hyper signal is sent to whomever is tuned into the tracker.

Plutt gets into Rey's face. Rey puts the blaster Han gave her up to Plutt's bulbous head and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens, and Plutt slaps the weapon away. Holding it up, he tells her that she's got to disengaged the safety (and the earlier scene with Han, where he gives her the weapon, doesn't have the movie part where Han discusses the safety).

Chewie shows up.

Plutt thinks the wounded Wookiee is no match for himself plus his goons, and Plutt falls into a fighting stance.

Chewie just grabs the man's arm and rips it out of it socket! LOL! No kidding!

Plutt starts screaming. Chewie tosses the limb across the floor of the tavern. People go back to their business, just like in the Cantina scene in ANH.





REY SKYWALKER

Remember the scene in the film, where Rey is drawn down into the catacombs beneath Maz's castle, to the chest that holds the Skywalker lightsaber?

The scene is basically the same, except reading (listening) to the things that happens to Rey when she is having vision has convinced me: I now believe that Rey is a Skywalker.

I'm not sure how. Maybe she's a clone. The Emperor was into clones, so it stands to reason that he might want to clone one of the strongest Force blood lines that have ever existed. There's a fan theory that Rey was cloned from Luke's hand that was chopped off on Bespin. They found the light saber, so why not the hand?

It would also be easy for me to believe that Palpatine took enough cells from Anakin to clone him--maybe while Anakin was unconscious after his duel with Kenobi.

But, I'm saying now, Rey is a Skywalker. That's what I think. And, I think it will be revealed in Episode IX.





PHANTOM ENERGY

ADF does his best to make the Starkiller base weapon make sense, even in this Space Opera universe. I think he does a decent job. He describes "phantom energy", which, I assume was patterned after Dark Matter. The beam is not a laser, and it's not plasma like a turbo-laser. It's made up of this stuff called phantom energy.

I'd have to go back and listen again to get all the details, but basically this stuff will never degrade in velocity. It just keeps going--out of the galaxy is possible--unless it hits something with enough mass to stop it.

When it does hit something--a planet--it actually passes through the atmosphere, through the crust, to interact with the core of a target world. It disrupts the gravity of a planet, moving and heating up the gravitons, until the world explodes in what scientists call a pocket nova.

Hosnian Prime was destroyed by this shot of phantom energy, but it wasn't disrupted into nothingness. Instead, the planet was heated on the molecular level until it turned into a star.

So now, the Hosnian system is a binary star system.

ADF does write that the entire system was devoted to the government of the New Republic, and that taking it out basically destroyed the entire government. The majority of the fleet was stationed there (there aren't any out on patrol? There's got to be.).

A cut back to Leia on D'Qar shows her feeling the loss of the system in the same way that Kenobi did when Alderaan was destroyed. I thought that a cool scene that probably should have been in the movie.





COMICS TIE-IN

In the new Marvel comics, which are considered canon, it is revealed that the Resistance relies on a spy network of droids. Droids, spread out all over the galaxy, almost invisible to most sentients, doing all the hard jobs. Some droids have programming that takes over, and the droid doesn't even know that it has sent out a message.

I thought this a damn cool idea. The Resistance just needs to nab a droid here and there, add the spy programming, and send it off back to its job and master. Not even the droid knows that it acts like a spy sometimes, and if it does, the droid is programmed to keep this secret.

Brilliant idea.

In the comics, Leia has this spy network coordinated through one of her right-hand assistants, C-3P0.

In the book, although it doesn't go into this detail, we see C-3P0 receive a message from a droid on Takodana telling him that the missing BB-8 droid has been found. This isn't like the scene in the movie.

Either ADF knew about C-3P0's involvement with the droid spy network when writing the novelization, or the comics people got the idea about using 3P0 that way from the book. Either way, it's cool to see the plot fit together that way.

[Falconer]

Re: Rey Skywalker, There’s also TFA Teaser #2, in which Luke powerfully restates his speech that “The Force is strong in my family…” Now, maybe he meant Kylo Ren; on the other hand, the latter is clearly not so strong in the Force as Rey is.

There’s also her narrative function in TFA as a “clone” of Luke.

There’s also the popular understanding of the Episodes as consisting the Skywalker Saga. (Did that come from Lucas himself?) With Luke gone, I’m not sure Episode IX can be considered part of the Skywalker Saga on the basis of Kylo Ren alone.

There’s also the scene in TLJ in which IIRC she wishes to see her parents, or where she came from, or something, and she just sees a long string of Reys. Clone of a clone? Maybe.

If Abrams meant her to be a Skywalker, how does he approach Rian Johnson’s reveal? Will audiences welcome it if he throws it out (as a simple untruth or a “certain point of view”) and goes back to something closer to his original ideas? I would. So much media today preaches that family is whatever/whoever you want it to be, which is a kind message, but it does not have as grand and sagalike of an impact as when you’re dealing with actual blood relations.

Anyway, you’re making me want to try this audiobook again. Based on the timing of the release, the narrator can not have seen the movie before recording it, which means his Han voice is based on the OT, not on Ford’s current voice. Is that so?