SlowRain reviewed Solo: A Star Wars Story by Mur Lafferty
Review of 'Solo' on Goodreads
2 stars
The "official" story of how Han Solo got his start on the path to becoming the smuggler we all know and love in the Star Wars movies.
This is the novelization of the movie, so it can't veer far from the script. And it doesn't. It's also billed as the "Expanded Edition", which is somewhat misleading because it is (ever so slightly) expanded, but also contracted.
It's expanded in the sense that it offers a few extra scenes with a bit more information. Some of these work. For instance, Val's situation and a bit on Qi'ra's background add nicely to rounding out the story and give motivation to their actions. The best one is the added epilogue. The ones with L3-37 didn't work for me, but others may enjoy those. Unfortunately, it's not expanded where the movie needed it most, namely Han and Qi'ra's interactions and relationship.
The novelization is …
The "official" story of how Han Solo got his start on the path to becoming the smuggler we all know and love in the Star Wars movies.
This is the novelization of the movie, so it can't veer far from the script. And it doesn't. It's also billed as the "Expanded Edition", which is somewhat misleading because it is (ever so slightly) expanded, but also contracted.
It's expanded in the sense that it offers a few extra scenes with a bit more information. Some of these work. For instance, Val's situation and a bit on Qi'ra's background add nicely to rounding out the story and give motivation to their actions. The best one is the added epilogue. The ones with L3-37 didn't work for me, but others may enjoy those. Unfortunately, it's not expanded where the movie needed it most, namely Han and Qi'ra's interactions and relationship.
The novelization is contracted in the sense that the author knew only people who had already seen the movie would be reading it, so there was no need to describe anything very clearly. Just watch the movie again if you want to know what a character, location, or item looked like. This is just sloppy, negligent writing on the writer's behalf, and almost sinful considering the excellent directing and cinematography in the movie. Also, the narrative style is very thin. It is Young Adult at best. Basically, just think of a screenplay with slightly expanded descriptions of things and action.
For those familiar with some of the Star Wars novels, this one is more Kevin J. Anderson than it is Timothy Zahn. There is no real need to read it. Just know that there is a good reason for Val's actions and go to a library to read the epilogue if you have absolutely nothing to do on the weekend.
