Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) by Ryder Windham

Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) by Ryder Windham
Buy Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) by Ryder Windham at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Summary: A new hope, maybe, but an old story – just be grateful it's one of the world's most popular ones.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 208	Date: May 2017
Publisher: Egmont
ISBN: 9781405285421
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It takes a greater mind than mine to keep track of all the different versions of Star Wars – A New Hope that there have been. That was never the name it was known under at the start, for one thing, but beyond the exuberant cinema classic known to so many, you get the digitally retouched version, then the DVD version, which both added to and took away some of those changes. And as it is with the film, so it is with the novels. This new presentation of the YA trilogy, while bearing the 2017 Copyright mark, is the 2004 children's novelisations, as far as I can make out, minus the pictures. You do get, on this first one, a '40 years of Star Wars' sticker, which is proof this is a classic we're looking at, but more than that, just goes to make me feel old…

This is a good presentation, too – the three books definitely look a piece, with a star field and lightsaber, which varies each time, on the cover. A New Hope comes with blue lightsaber beam, and the pages have the same colour edging them, to make the whole piece look funky. But that's nothing if the writing isn't up to conveying the adventure of the film. And it can and does – noticeably so, because it uses pretty much the entire dialogue from the script.

Now I cannot remember anything in the actual novelisation of the film from 1977 itself that struck me as not child-friendly, but this certainly reduces the detail and ramps up the drama. You seldom get much beyond the lips of anyone, but now and again – Luke haring back home to make sure his folks are OK – you get into characters' minds, and see their italicised thoughts. Generally what was on the screen is on the page, however, and this does what all sensible YA variants do – allow the reader of all ages and (most) abilities to take ownership of the story, to absorb it as they would wish, and at a more cinematic speed.

So while it may not ever have been entirely necessary, it is damn good fun. The back of this book cheekily declares it the beginning of the Star Wars saga, which is a little rich – it is of course how we first met it, but the story technically doesn't begin with the fourth part. Also, in fact, with the original novel being signed off on before the film was actually finished that is left containing a few variants of its own, meaning this probably is the most accurate and complete fictional replica of the movie out there (the canonical DVD version, mind). So whether revising with this, to find as I did for the first time, what the Tusken Raiders weapon was called, or even (is it possible?) meeting the story for the first time, this is a great place to which to turn.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

Star Wars: Rogue One: Junior Novel by Matt Forbeck is the prequel to this, albeit from forty years on.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Star Wars: A New Hope Junior Novel (Star Wars Junior Novel 1) by Ryder Windham at Amazon.com.

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