Among Star Wars fans, there seems to be a consensus regarding the best novelizations: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover and Rogue One by Alexander Freed. I have read neither. *ducks from thrown tomatoes* To be honest, novelizations are usually not my thing. I don’t have as much time to read as I’d like, and when I do, I prefer to read brand new stories rather than adaptations of films or TV shows. However, when I learned that Jason Fry was writing The Last Jedi novelization, I almost jumped for joy. I love Fry’s work, both in Star Wars (Servants of the Empire, The Weapon of a Jedi), and in his own universe (The Jupiter Pirates). I’ve been waiting for him to write a Del Rey novel for ages. To have him write about Luke Skywalker made me so excited. After I saw The Last Jedi, my first thought was “I can’t wait to read the novelization,” because I knew Fry would be writing the death of Luke Skywalker, and I knew he’d do something spectacular with it. I was not disappointed.
Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of novelizations, especially when they merely regurgitate what happens in a film. Thankfully, The Last Jedi is filled with deleted scenes from the film and entirely new scenes Fry came up with on his own, so much that the novel is actually marketed as an “Extended Edition.” The prologue depicts Luke on Ahch-To, dreaming about a life in which he never left Tatooine, and is one of the best character portraits of Luke Skywalker I’ve ever read. It does a wonderful job setting up his inner conflict, as well as the Force’s desire for him to return to the fight as a Jedi. We get to see Han Solo’s funeral, held as the Resistance is struggling to evacuate D’Qar. We also get to read about Finn, Rose, and DJ sneaking onto the Supremacy, an alternate telling of Phasma’s death, and Luke’s third lesson.
By the nature of the novelization, some of the plotlines receive more depth and care than in the film. I am not the biggest fan of the Poe and Holdo plot in the film for numerous reasons, mostly because I think the characters are so intent on being right they refuse to listen to each other. In the novelization, however, you see how Poe is struggling with being grounded, unable to help his fellow Resistance fighters on the other ships, and seeing morale fall lower and lower as they lose more and more ships. On the other hand, the reveal about going to Crait has more time to breathe in the novelization, so you understand that Leia had a plan from the beginning and that Holdo was following it to the letter. It’s still not perfect, and there are a lot of logical questions still floating around, but I think it works better on page than on screen.
The scenes on Canto Bight also benefit from increased time in the novelization. I didn’t have as much of a problem with that plot line as other fans, but I do admit much of the plan to disable the Supremacy‘s tracker seemed glossed over. (The Supremacy wasn’t at D’Qar, so how did it follow them? Was the tracker initially on the Finalizer and then Hux brought it over when he moved ships? Why would another Star Destroyer not pick up tracking duties? How did they plan to get back to the fleet after it jumped to lightspeed? What if Poe wasn’t able to get to the bridge?) The extended scenes also give more insight into Finn and Rose’s budding friendship, and makes me feel the kiss at the end was platonic.
There are some scenes that I wish had been extended more, and some parts of the novel I felt fell into the novelization trap of regurgitating the film without any additional insight. Thankfully, those moments were the minority, and the added material we got made up for it.
Not only do we get extra scenes, but we get insight into characters we couldn’t get in a movie. This was without a doubt my favorite part of the novelization, because it’s information we can’t get in a film by nature of the medium. I loved the insight into “characters” like Black One, the Millennium Falcon‘s computer, BB-8, and even the Caretakers. Fry also excelled with the First Order characters, specifically Snoke, Cannady, and Peavey. I loved how those POVs added to the story as well as the worldbuilding, which we still sorely lack for the Sequel Trilogy era.
The Canto Bight scenes also allow you to understand Finn’s motivation for running from the Resistance, and his desire to become a true hero during the Battle of Crait. Some people have said they dislike that Rose is portrayed as jealous of Rey, but I didn’t read her POV that way. Instead, I saw her as frustrated because Finn, this potentially great fighter, was blinded by his friendship with one person instead of focusing on the Resistance. To see her come to understand Finn’s mindset was enlightening for her character as well.
One of the areas I think the novelization helped most was during the middle scenes, where Rey decides to go to the cave and subsequently leave the island. I still feel like her switch from hating Kylo Ren to trusting him was too quick, but adding Luke’s third lesson helped show how hurt she was by Luke’s rejection. Seeing Luke open up to the Force for the first time in years, and feeling his desire to leave Ahch-To with Rey, makes him finding her with Kylo that much more of a betrayal.
Perhaps my favorite part of the novelization, to no surprise, involves Luke’s death and subsequent reactions to it. In the film, Luke’s dies alone on Ahch-To, with no dialogue, only music and foley work, and Mark Hamill’s eyes do all of the acting. In the novelization, Fry is able to get inside Luke’s head and show exactly what he’s thinking as he chooses to become one with the Force. The three words Luke hears right before he fades away will never not make me sob.
Even worse is Leia on the Falcon afterward, for the first time since Han’s death. In the cockpit she feels the true weight of her losses. Han is gone. Luke is gone. Ben is (probably) gone. “It’s just us now,” she tells Chewie. “But we’ll find a way.” And then she allows herself to cry. She pulls herself together, like she always does, because other people need her. But she gets a much-needed moment to herself. That scene, more than Luke’s death, affected me the most. Because in that way, I am very much like Leia. I push aside my sad emotions as much as possible. I tell myself everything will be okay and then I press on. I have things to do. People that rely on me. I don’t have time to break down or be sad. People tell me it’s because I’m strong, like Leia, but it’s really because if I allow myself those moments of grief I worry I’ll never come out. Seeing Leia finally able to grieve, and then pull herself together, made me realize that I can do that, too.
Four months after The Last Jedi‘s release into the theater, after celebrating with a Star Wars Day at Sea cruise, after watching the movie, deleted scenes, and documentary on home video, and after reading the novelization, I still have a lot of mixed feelings about The Last Jedi as a story. I both think it’s a good film and feel deeply disappointed in some of its choices. There are scenes that fall with in my top Star Wars moments ever (everything with Luke on Crait, Luke and Yoda). but I don’t know if I’ll ever stop wishing things had been different. My TLJ status is “it’s complicated.” Beyond that, though, I really enjoyed The Last Jedi novelization, in some ways more than the film itself. Jason Fry is a gifted writer and I cannot wait to see what he takes on next in the Star Wars universe.
