Note: This is a review for the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. Aside from very peripheral changes made to the scenes, this story lines up with the movie. As long as you've seen the movie, you should be fine for spoilers. Additionally, it seems weird that I'm reading Revenge of the Sith before The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, but I'm actually reading the Dark Lord Trilogy (LoE, RotS, and Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader) before the prequels. I'll probably reread RotS after TPM and AotC just because it's such an amazing novelization. 

For this review, the novelization will be referred to as RotS-N, while the movie will be referred to as simply RotS.

Well, that's enough of my bolded blah-blah. Let's get into the review.

There's been something I've been saying to my close SW associates dream-is-reality and PointeShoeJedi for a while since I started reading RotS-N. It's a very simple statement. If Labyrinth of Evil is the pearl of Star Wars reads, RotS-N is the diamond. If you recall, I had very high praise for LoE, the epic Legends prequel to RotS-N, but I have even higher praise for the latter. Today I'll be discussing how RotS-N enriched my love for the movie even more. 

As a warning, there was one additional plot point in RotS-N that was not in the movie. Though it is relatively minor, I do wish to respect people and put a spoiler warning at the beginning of the first paragraph. If you do not wish to read about it, you can skip to the next paragraph.

The first thing I wanted to comment on was how the additions made to the scenes allowed for better character development. I understand that there are some things that just couldn't be done in the movie because it would have been R-Rated (Grievous wiping Neimoidian brains onto a console after bashing a head in comes to mind....), but the additions in the book definitely affected the overall understanding of the characters. There are certain subtleties in books that movies just cannot pick up due to being primarily visual.

I'd also like to briefly commend RotS-N for their treatment of Grievous, as I did with LoE. (I won't write a mini-essay this time, I swear.) While his personality does lean closer to CW08, as that's also what we see in RotS, his skill is definitely not diminished. To comment further on the subtleties in the movies, in the books, we see a side to Grievous that the movies didn't convey well.

In LoE, he was the warrior with a curtain of grief and anger hanging over him. In RotS-N, we see that he feels only brief shadows and touches of emotion now. I believe that this change, though unintentional, is powerful (LoE was written after RotS). It marks the turn of a tide, the end of an era of feeling and descent into conscienceless evil. Perhaps I'm thinking too deeply about this. But I am convinced that Grievous is a thematic character and a crucial foreshadowing element to Vader.

We see these subtleties throughout the book. Aside from this, the book conveyed the emotion between Anakin and Obi-Wan....better than the movie did. This is primarily due to two factors. First, books generally convey emotion far better than movies do. The second element to this equation is that in the movies, we don't see a terribly huge amount of Obi-Wan and Anakin bonding. This is mainly due to the time gap between AotC and RotS. CW08 definitely fills in the gaps on this parts, but going solely by the movies, the relationship wasn't nearly as well conveyed in the movie as it was in the book. Is this a criticism of RotS, though? No, because we have CW08. (Go watch it if you haven't already.)

SPOILER WARNING: Another fine addition (heheheha) to RotS-N was a certain new plot point that wasn't in the movie. Remember this scene in the movie?

I never had an issue with this scene because Anakin's right - he should be a Master, and the Council's denying him the rank. Though Anakin comes off as whiny in this scene, it's a bit understandable, given the stress he's under. However, like several things so far, RotS-N handled it in a way I'd actually have liked to see in the movie. (I like what we have....it's just that this idea is better.)

In RotS-N, Anakin's secret is that he wants to be a Master due to a circumstance independent of his pride. He wants access to the restricted holocron vault, which he's hoping holds the Jedi secret of saving Padmé from death. Problem is, the holocron vault is locked except to Masters. And he certainly can't ask anyone to open it for him because of the risk of his and Padmé's love being exposed. Hence, he wants to be a Master. And the Jedi Council denied him the rank.

These stories are equal in quality, but the latter is more sympathetic and understandable. I believe that if Lucas had gone with this idea rather than simply that Anakin was an arrogant little prick, it would have made him much more likable. Though, by this point, he's already started to turn to the dark....so maybe he shouldn't be likable. What are your thoughts on this issue?

SPOILERS END HERE

The last main bit of praise I have is....holy smokes, the storytelling is fantastic. The theme of Anakin's fear personified as a dragon whispering malice to him shows a perspective that we'd never seen before. There's foreshadowing left and right. And the Palpatine seduction scenes....to quote an Internet friend of mine...."Delicious." It is truly a magically spun story and gives a whole new twist to a story I already love.

There are, however, a few criticisms I have. The first is that RotS-N needed another edit. While overall the wording was choicely done and very well-executed, there are occasional instances of typos and word repetition that could be fixed if someone had run the editing eye over the manuscript one more time. (If I had a penny for each time I read "flailing" during the Battle of Utapau....)

There's also the problem of some of the dialogue not matching the "voices" of the characters. I noticed this the most with Grievous, possibly because I know his speech patterns like the backs of my hands (thanks, TLQ research 😂). Unlike in LoE, I had a hard time imagining some of the lines in the books in the mouths - or vocabulators - of the characters they corresponded to. I've heard this is an issue with some of the other novelizations, however, so maybe I should be less harsh in this regard.

So, what is my final verdict?

I loved it. It was a truly stunning story, told in a beautiful way. It's honestly hard to find words to describe what a masterpiece this book is. Again, if LoE is the pearl of Star Wars reads....RotS-N is an absolute masterpiece. I totally recommend it, especially to people who didn't like the prequels. If you didn't like the movie, I do think you would like the book.