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There’s a few reasons why I finally decided to read Matthew Stover’s REVENGE OF THE SITH novelization. Up until now, I actually hadn’t read any of the novelizations for the original or prequel trilogies. I’ve read all of the novelizations for the sequel trilogy, and for Rogue One and Solo.

But it’s REVENGE OF THE SITH that I’ve heard mentioned time and time again over the years. This book has taken on an almost mythical quality, and most recently, I saw Mike Chen describe how important this book was to him while writing his upcoming Star Wars novel, BROTHERHOOD.

So between my anticipation for that upcoming book & the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, it just felt like the right time to finally read this!

I think what makes both REVENGE OF THE SITH & ROGUE ONE (which I think is still my favorite of the novelizations I’ve read) stand out is that these books just go hard. Truthfully, the novelizations for the sequel trilogy are…fine. They’re well written & do exactly what they need to do. But aside from the odd “deleted scene” that’s integrated into the story, they don’t necessarily feel like required Star Wars reading to me.

But yeah, wow. Stover was not fucking around here. I’ve read two of his other Star Wars novels, LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE SHADOWS OF MINDOR and SHATTERPOINT and they’re both fantastic! He actually gets to bring in elements from SHATTERPOINT into REVENGE OF THE SITH, which was cool to see!

I think what’s so special about this book is that Stover continually pushes a much more character driven narrative than what we see in the movie. To the point where it’s almost a little disorienting? I’m not sure how to explain it. But maybe the best way to explain it was like…as I was nearing the end of the book, I’d see how many pages were left, and check that against where I was in the story. And it just didn’t seem to add up. It seemed like there weren’t nearly enough pages left to cover the remainder of the story. But it’s because Stover doesn’t overly concern himself with describing every last thing the characters are doing.

This approach really allows us to get a look inside the minds of so many of these iconic characters, and it’s beautiful & fun & heartbreaking all at once.

The love story between Anakin & Padmé is, of course, not without its complications and issues. But in this book I think we get a sense of just how deeply Padmé’s love for Anakin really runs, which only makes the rest of the story that much more devastating. There’s one scene in particular where Padmé spots Anakin from a distance, and you can almost feel what she’s feeling..that breathless, heady excitement over seeing That Person.

This is also a fantastic Obi-Wan Kenobi book! I was just watching an interview with Stover and he describes Obi-Wan as his favorite character, and it really shows. There’s so much depth to the character, owing in large part to Ewan McGregor’s performance. But Stover really leans into these different aspects of Obi-Wan’s personality…his humor, his fears & anxieties, and the profound way his heart breaks over and over again when Anakin falls to the dark side of the Force.

So yeah, this is fucking outstanding, cover to cover. An absolutely captivating book, one that definitely stands among some of the very best Star Wars books I’ve read!

May the Force be with you!