I think we can all agree that Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith sucked. Oh, it had a few good points, and the core concept was solid, but the execution was really horribly botched. Much like the other two prequel movies...except they didn't even have a solid core concept, not really. After I saw it, I just couldn't help wondering what might have been done with it if someone with sense and talent had been the one to have creative oversight.
Wonder no more: Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith novelization. Matthew Stover is a very talented author, and while he is still a bit handicapped by having to work with the story and script he was given to adapt the end result is much more believable, emotionally powerful, and exciting. Wisely, he sketches the action scenes in broad strokes, sometimes from vantages outside the action, sometimes in the heads of the characters, rather than focusing on every last blade swing. Some scenes in the movie are glossed over entirely to focus on the meat of things, the unfolding of the sinister trap Darth Sidious has laid for Anakin and all the other Jedi, though the nature differs. You can actually now see General Grievous as a frightening, malevolent adversary. Padme and Anakin's romance is actually quasi-romantic. Anakin's gullibility is more easily accepted as the result of worries, fear, and days without sleep or food. Heck, we even get to see why Dooku let himself be placed in the position he did.
This is still Star Wars, so it's still a bit goofy and pulp-ish, but it's a much better read than most books in the setting.
Wonder no more: Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith novelization. Matthew Stover is a very talented author, and while he is still a bit handicapped by having to work with the story and script he was given to adapt the end result is much more believable, emotionally powerful, and exciting. Wisely, he sketches the action scenes in broad strokes, sometimes from vantages outside the action, sometimes in the heads of the characters, rather than focusing on every last blade swing. Some scenes in the movie are glossed over entirely to focus on the meat of things, the unfolding of the sinister trap Darth Sidious has laid for Anakin and all the other Jedi, though the nature differs. You can actually now see General Grievous as a frightening, malevolent adversary. Padme and Anakin's romance is actually quasi-romantic. Anakin's gullibility is more easily accepted as the result of worries, fear, and days without sleep or food. Heck, we even get to see why Dooku let himself be placed in the position he did.
This is still Star Wars, so it's still a bit goofy and pulp-ish, but it's a much better read than most books in the setting.