Book Review: The Last Jedi by Jason Fry

The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The novelization of the middle film of the Disney sequel trilogy The Last Jedi hit shelves four months after the film’s premiered in theaters, written by long-time Star Wars author Jason Fry based on the script by Rian Johnson.

Following the outline of the script faithfully, Fry attempted to bring sense to the story by clearing up the plot holes and give better descriptions of characters than what the finished film displayed. While Fry tries to give a credible background to Luke Skywalker’s self-imposed exile, it didn’t really feel it was the same Luke who saved his father decades before. No explanation is given why Leia doesn’t order the bombers not to proceed nor why Hondo decides not to give hope to Resistance fighters by giving them the outlines of the plan nor why the escape pods weren’t used as a distraction. Fry does make Rose Tico more of a rounded character and he’s able to give some insight into Snoke though he’s still just a device. The disconnected chronology of Rey on Ahch-To over the course of days and the Resistance’s flight from the First Order over the course of hours—as well Rose and Finn’s journey happening in that same time frame—did not make sense even though Fry tried to write around it as best he could.

The Last Jedi is a novelization that was an attempt to adapt a poorly written film to the page that Jason Fry was able to improve a little but couldn’t overcome the source material.

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