Star Wars, The Force Unleashed by Prima Games (2008, Paperback)

Having read the graphic novel first, this 300+ page book serves basically as an extended version with little more depth, outside of an extended pair of sequences on Raxis Prime and the Death Star.

Based on the upcoming video game, aptly titled "The Force Unleashed," this book serves as a rough outline of the canonical story and ending of the game. This book follows the views of two main characters, the apprentice and Juno Eclipse. Within the first one hundred fifty pages the apprentice has already completed three of his missions to kill jedi, who get about three sentences of dialog apiece before being dispatched.

Little development is given to any other character, whether Darth Vader, the Emperor, or Ram Kota, each is virtually treated as a cardboard background to the shallow musings of the apprentice or Juno Eclipse. Given that it is a novel, it would have been refreshing to have seen the treatment given to novels of the prequel trilogy, whether the fishing scene between Jango Fett and his son Boba in the Attack of the Clones novelization, or the private musings of the Emperor and Vader which are explored in the Revenge of the Sith novelization. The novel explores no further than the graphic novel, and I'm sure it follows word for word the cut scenes of the video game.

It would have been nice for the author to have gone a bit deeper and given us a different vantage point to experience the story, whether from Darth Vader's point of view, or the Emperor's point of view. The novel is forgettable, and wasn't even as enjoyable as the worst of the Legacy of the Force novels.

Shadows of the Empire was also based on a video game, but at least it went a bit deeper than this book did. A novel gives the author the freedom to explore beyond the video game/movie - and it is sad when you can get virtually 100% of the experience this novel gives you from the 50 page graphic novel. I do not recommend this book for anyone outside of the most rabid of Star Wars fans who must get their hands on everything, and would point you to the graphic novel which at least is narrated by Proxy and gives a slightly different point of view to the story.

Sean Williams can write very well grammatically speaking, but artistically he expressed nothing more than could be expressed through pictures and comic bubbles. He should think about expanding beyond his source material for whatever he decides to write next time.