Matthew Stover’s novelization of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith tells the tale of the Clone Wars’ end, the fall of the Jedi and Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader. Stover takes the story of the movie and turns it into a tale of his own; is this a good thing? Read on to find out!

Revenge of the Sith starts out with a thrilling space battle above Coruscant, very well written and entertaining even to people like me who don’t usually enjoy reading long, detailed space battles.  The story starts with the Invisible Hand and lasts for about 150 pages, during which we truly come to realize that RotS isn’t any ordinary movie novelization; Stover took the story of the movie and ran with it, adding his own unique style to the tale as well as a certain depth the movie did not possess.

Some of that new found depth comes from being able to truly see inside the characters’ heads like you couldn’t with the movie (part of this is certain chapters starting with “This is” - like, “This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker, for now”, “This is how it feels to be Mace Windu”, ect. These offer amazing insights into the character it centers on.). Anakin Skywalker is still a whiny punk (sometimes more so than the movie, making you want to just smack him upside the head) but he’s much more understandable in this because you see his thoughts. You can even really sympathize with him; his desire to save Padme is focused on much more than his lust for power, whereas in the movie it seems to be the opposite (at least in my opinion). His secret relationship with Padme is also very well written - it’s not as corny as people think when they watch the movies. One complaint I do have with Anakin’s character, however, is that I wish Stover had given him a bit more internal conflict after he turned to the dark side; he doesn’t want to become Palpatine’s apprentice, then suddenly…… he’s an evil murderer. Though showing too much conflict would’ve been un-Vader like, so I can understand Stover’s decision to not go down that path. 

Speaking of all that, characters are done excellently in Revenge of the Sith - emotion is done magnificently, whether it’s Obi-Wan’s regret that he must fight his former best friend, Padme’s heartbreak, Anakin’s rage, or Palpatine’s satisfaction at successful plots. Speaking of him, Palpatine really does seem like the most powerful Sith to live in this - the way he manipulates Anakin so easily is, at the least, very impressive. On that note, the way he manipulates everyone is impressive, from the Jedi Council to the Senate; one has to wonder, though, why Jedi such as Mace Windu and Yoda didn’t suspect he was the Sith Lord (since at least the former felt a thorough dislike towards him) - it was mentioned casually that the only reason they didn’t suspect Palpatine was because he already ruled the galaxy, but that’s not a great excuse. Still though, it’s not a big complaint.

There is definitely a lot of stuff added to the novelization that adds to the storyline; for example, we see scenes with Padme and other Senators plotting against Palpatine’s rule (an entire story that was deleted from the movie). That added quite alot to the conflict between Anakin and Padme throughout the novel. But with the many new, exciting scenes added, there were also some pretty major ones taken out; the entire Kashyyyk/Yoda storyline was taken out, with the Jedi Master’s journey to the planet only being mentioned briefly. The scene with Anakin in the temple before he murders the younglings was also taken out, which surprised me - I thought Stover, being such an intense author, would write a scene like that. I would’ve like some expansion upon the Kashyyyk story as well as more scenes inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant - taking those out was a missed opportunity in my opinion.

Moving on from that, the action in this book is something that shines. The Dooku/Obi-Wan/Anakin duel on the Invisible Hand was awesome, as well as Anakin and Obi-Wan’s Mustafar battle; and the Sidious/Yoda duel, while very short, was epically well written.  It wasn’t done like an average lightsaber duel, though describing it would be very difficult; suffice to say that despite it being short, it was great. Other combat in the book is also done excellently.

Revenge of the Sith is an amazing book that adds alot to its movie counterpart; because it has to go with Episode III, the characters still do the stupid things they do in the movie, but Stover managed to explain those annoying things so they make a bit more sense. Even though it’s not vital to add to your knowledge of the SW universe, I would highly recommend this book, simply because the quality is excellent.