Star Wars

By

George Lucas

Paperback, November 1998

Star Wars is a science fiction adventure novel. The symbolism and characterization was really excellent in the story. The story gives a great look into the future as it has many different types of things we have not yet invented; blaster rifles, space ships that go the speed of light, fat alien slugs, and beam swords. The plot of the story sucks you into the novel and makes you want to continue reading the novel.

The plot of the story mainly reflects on a young boy, Luke Skywalker. Luke was raised on his Uncle's moisture farm on the planet Tatooine. He meets up with Obi-Wan Kenobi by following a droid, R2-D2, he had purchased through a small natives of Tatooine known as Jawas. R2-D2 believes he is the property of Obi-Wan and decides to search for its master. Luke is attacked by another group of natives, Tusken Raiders also known as sand people. Obi-Wan comes and saves Luke from the sand people and take him back to his home. Obi-Wan tells Luke a little about his father. He tells Luke that his father was his apprentice in learning the ways of the "Force". Obi-Wan gives Luke his father's old light saber and Obi-Wan finds something inside R2-D2. It is a message from Princess Leia. She sent the two droids, R2-D2 and C3-PO, to send this message to Obi-Wan. Luke and Obi-Wan head back to Luke's house and find a Sandcrawler, a vehicle the Jawas travel in, destroyed. Luke thinks that some Tusken Raiders did this, but Obi-Wan points out that Imperial Storm Troopers have attacked the Jawas. Luke then finds out that his uncle and aunt are dead. He then decides to train to be a Jedi Knight.

They head to a Mos Eisley, a spaceport to search for a pilot to get them to the planet Alderaan. Obi-Wan and Luke meet up with a smuggler named Han Solo and his co-pilot, Chewbacca the Wookie also known as Chewie. They make a deal for Han to take the two humans and the two droids to Alderaan. While preparing the ship Han runs into a crime lord, Jabba the Hutt. Jabba was mad at Han for dropping off his shipments and running with out paying him. Han promises Jabba he will have his money soon and a little more. As they start boarding the ship some Storm Troopers find them and started attacking. They take off in the Millennium Falcon and escape the Imperial forces.

While heading for the planet Alderaan, Luke trains in the Millennium Falcon. Obi-Wan suddenly feels something evil through the force. They reach the area where Alderaan is and find that it had been blown up. They see an Imperial TIE Fighter. They follow it to a small moon, but discover it is not a small moon, but a space station, The Death Star that was built by the Empire. They got sucked into the station by a tracker beam and had to hide from the Storm Troopers, who were checking the ship for the crew. Han, Luke, Obi-Wan, Chewie, and the two droids hid in secret compartments Han used to smuggle goods. When some rookie Storm Troopers came aboard they mugged them and took their uniforms to sneak through the Death Star.

Obi-Wan headed alone to deactivate the tracker beam from inside the Death Star. Luke, Han, and Chewie went to the prison block to free Princess Leia. They get attacked by Storm Troopers and escape into a garbage chute. There the crushing walls in the garbage chute almost flatten them, but C3-PO and R2-D2 barely save them by shutting down the garbage crushing units. After their escape from the garbage disposal unit they get chased by more Storm Troopers, but this time Luke and Leia get separated from Chewie and Han. They meet back at the Millennium Flacon. There they watch Obi-Wan battle with Darth Vader in a grueling light saber duel. Darth Vader one, but in the same time lost. Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie escape the Death Star and head for the Rebellion Base on the planet Yavin.

There, Han and Chewie get their reward money for saving Princess Leia and leave, but Luke stays to help the Rebels fight against the Empire and its deadly Death Star. The Death Star finds the rebellion base and heads towards it. The Rebels send an attack of X-Wings and Y-Wings to destroy the Death Star. After many attempts to destroy it Luke finally hits it in its only weak spot with the help of Han Solo who felt bad for leaving them with out helping. Luke, Han, and Chewie are rewarded metals for their bravery.

The novel symbolizes what George Lucas thinks the future may be like. His imagination was put to great heights to write this novel as he thought of interesting characters to introduce us to; Jabba, Chewie, Greedo, and many others. The novel gives great machinery and space age type weapons; blaster rifle, light saber, land speeder, Death Star, X-Wing, and others. He does this by writing as if we know about all this stuff.

Star Wars was a great novel. George Lucas did a very excellent job in writing this novel. He draws you into the novel by introducing you to many different, out of this world weapons and creatures. It was a pleasure in reading this novel and is my all time favorite. People who like science fiction novels or adventure novels should try to read this one.

Word Count: 926