The Books of Sean Williams

The novelisation of the computer game touted as the next chapter in the Star Wars saga. The story follows Darth Vader's secret Sith apprentice as he hunts down the last of the Jedi and suffers the inevitable betrayals of his dark master. I've always said that game to book conversions never really work due to the very different natures of the media and, sadly, this book follows that trend. The chapters involve the apprentice (aka Starkiller aka Galen Marek) arriving at some new location, cutting and Force-pushing his way through a legion of minor enemies and then facing off against a more powerful 'boss' character. He then returns to his ship for his next assignment and the cycle starts again. There is an overwhelming sense of shallowness to this book and you can tell that it's because you don't get to take control and play the missions for yourself, the way the story was intended when it was envisioned. Williams' biggest mistake is that he doesn't turn the differences in the media to his advantage, showing the inner thoughts that the game couldn't possibly. Sure, we get a bit of Juno and a bit of Starkiller, but never enough to actually believe there's thought processes linking their scripted-for-the-game dialogue at the end/beginning of each mission. The biggest disappointment on this front is that we don't get Darth Vader's perspective at all. There's a half-hearted afterthought of a comment from Starkiller about Vader wanting a son, but that's it. Considering that Vader is the core of the Star Wars saga I would've thought the emotional implications of him having a son-figure long before Luke comes along would be worth exploring. Don't get me wrong, there are some really great concepts here, such as the Rebel Alliance being founded as Vader's weapon against the Emperor, but they're concepts created by someone else for the game. As a computer game I'm sure 'The Force Unleashed' will be phenomenal (albeit no 'Knights of the Old Republic'), but as a novel it just never really fell into place for me.