In the late nineties, Lucasfilm produced their first multimedia extravaganza with Shadows of the Empire. Steve Perry wrote the novel, and there was also a video game, a soundtrack, graphic novels, the whole works. It went pretty well. Now, twelve years later, Lucasfilm did it again with the Force Unleashed. This time, eh....It's obvious that the video game was the leader of this whole project, because it's a video game story. The characters are broadly drawn, and a lot of the plot consists of th...

The series based on the Republic Commando video games turned out to be fun action mixed with extremely thought-provoking questions about the morality and status of clones. This so far is not remotely the same quality. The first few chapters are so obviously the video game levels described as a story that I laugh outloud and visualize graphics during each journey through the level to a silly "boss" such as a crazy Jedi constructing a Jedi temple out of trash on a junkyard planet. The Sith kid and...

After seeing this book as a bestseller for a couple of weeks, I decided to read it. I typically don't read the Star Wars novels, but this was the second I decided to read.I read Shadows of the Empire and came away with the taste that it was a great story written very badly. The Force Unleashed, however, was written very well. I was captivated the entire book, watching "Starkiller" change into Galen, his true self.This book emphasizes changes that can be made within, no matter how dark or angry o...

The Clone Wars are long gone and the Jedi all but extinct. Darth Vader has been tasked by the Emperor to root out and destroy the remaining Jedi but what the Emperor doesn’t know is that Vader has trained an apprentice of his own both for this task and for nefarious purposes of his own… The Apprentice,we don’t find out his name until much later, must travel through a troubled galaxy killing on the command of his master. Although he is confident in his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force, the a...

I am quite torn on how to rate this book. It took me a really long time to get into it, but by the end I was engrossed in the story. I remember playing the game a few years back, so I thought why not read the book. Well, the game definitely pulled me in quicker, but the book eventually did the job as well. It is not one of my favorite Star Wars novels, but I did enjoy the overall story and couldn't put it down at the end. The first half crawled by for me with too many superfluous descriptions an...

Absolutely brilliant!I was a huge fan of the game so when I saw this book I immediately snagged it. I don't do this often but, I couldn't put the book down, I read the entire thing from front to back in one sitting. Great story. I didn't know much about Starkiller other than what was laid out in the game (which wasn't a lot.)I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars. It gives a bit of insight into what was going on between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

A good book that is intended to be complimentary to the video game coming out in September, 2008. Despite being intended as a complimentary book, it could actually stand- though not always firmly- on its own as a good addition to the Star Wars saga. The story and the characters are compelling and story itself is fascinating. It makes me even more anxious to play the game. The only problem with the book is that the action sequences, in the beginning, feels very shackled at times, as though WIlli

This book was very interesting. I enjoyed reading it because it gave a different point of view in Star Wars but there were some things that I didn't like so I gave it only 3 stars.

Some years back, a big deal was made of The Force Unleashed. There was to be a stunning new video game, a book, a comic...the whole shebang. So, I bought the game (on Wii as that was the only console we had at the time), tried it out. It was okay (I have a review of it for those interested), but I never had a desire to finish it. A while passes, and a friend of mine finishes this book, declaring it the worst Star Wars novel ever. I've read some pretty bad Star Wars novels (Jedi Trial and the Bla...

This book introduces an apprentice to Vader who does things one can't imagine. It starts to set the stage for the original movie and ponders whether or not Vader will be like other Sith apprentices before him. It also presents the idea of how people who are raised to be evil deal with seeing people with other points of view.

Before Disney released the shark jump that was The Last Jedi, Star Wars was a force to be reckoned with, and not just in celluloid form! Between bestselling books such as the Thrawn trilogy, the fabulous computer-animated Clone Wars television series, and computer and video games ranging from the critically acclaimed Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader to the various Lego titles, Lucas' space opera was more than just films. Were they all amazing? No...but, when done right, they were a wonder to beho...

Contrived.Lacks the rich texture expected of a good story...in whatever galaxy. The worst Star Wars story I've read to date.Not surprisingly, it reads like the "go path" of a video game--at the same time straining to include as many "hooks" into the Star Wars universe (the six movies).Spoiler Warning: What kind of "orthodox" Star Wars story allows it's hero to defeat and spare Darth Vader and the Emperor (at the same time) prior to Luke Skywalker's rise as a Jedi?

Some really great action, here, for someone who has never played the game. Originally I bought this novel because my nephew was Demo-ing this game last August and I was blown away at the graphics, the skills he'd learned during one of these sessions and, did I mention the amazing graphics! Knowing many of of scholars love Sci-Fi, I felt it would have a duel purpose and when a female scholar raved about it, I was more pressed than ever to read it. The first half reads like a video game, where the...

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is based on a video game of the same name. Most of the time, when I hear about a book based on a video game, I would cringe. Personally, I think that most of the time publishers are out to make an extra buck on a product. This is similar to Disney releasing multiple straight-to-video sequels of all of their popular movies; they don't care about the quality, because kids will beg their parents for it. Similarly, publishers know that hardcore fans of popular games wi...

I read this one because my kids are obsessed with Star Wars (as if I'm not...), but they saw it on my shelf and we went to town (after a quick page-through by dad). I feel like you have to be careful with graphic novels and kids because some take the "graphic" part seriously, but this one's pretty tame luckily.One of my 7-year-old twins told me, "this is my favorite book ever," so you've got that review at least.It's a pretty interesting take on he beginning of the rebellion and Vader's involvem...

I found this one to be a bit of a struggle to finish. There are many problems with this narrative, and I think that they mostly stem from the constraints inherent in it being a videogame adaptation.Characterisation is thin - since the apprentice (the main character) is the player avatar, he doesn’t get much to do. His arc is perfunctory, basically tracing the “light side” path, leading to the good ending from the game (I’ve only played the intro to the game, so I’m guessing here!). Sure, he chan...

I think I should start with my star wars history. When I was eleven my (younger) siblings rented the Original trilogy from the library, and settled in to watch these formative pieces of culture. I, being the hysterically brave creature that I am, sat outside on the patio tormenting ants, and only watching when the people were outside. I figured that anything inside was too frightening, which was possibly inspired by unwittingly walking in just in time to see Darth Vader strangle an angry guy in

This is one of the more unique Star Wars novels on the market, as part of the intense marketing blitz surrounding the much-hyped video game from 2008. Filling a hole in both the Star Wars timeline and in the real-world Star Wars media, the Force Unleashed fit nicely as something we Star Wars fans were craving in its original context. Despite being extremely excited for the game and the story concept back around the time of its original release, I never had the opportunity to play the game for mo...

There’s a lot to unpack here, not least because The Force Unleashed, like the novelisations of the Star Wars films, is not an original tale but based on pre-existing source material.I’m going to try not to talk about the game too much, but it’s impossible to leave behind entirely because of the impact it has on this book. And I will say that as a lifelong gamer and Star Wars fan, I did not like the game. There were many reasons for that, including, briefly, the bad PC port, AI stupidity, unimagi...

I really liked it but I felt like the story was really rushed.