Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye

[Werewolf]

I know the book tends to get heavily criticized now for not being in continuity with the other SW movies. But the thing is, Splinter IS (or was) in continuity with the original SW movie.

To make a long story short (you can find much more detailed accounts online) Alan Dean Foster, who was the ghost writer for the Star Wars novelization Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, was hired by Lucas to write a low budget sequel to SW that would reuse the sets and props from the first movie. Han Solo and Chewbacca aren't in it because Ford hadn't signed on for any sequels at that time. But something unexpected happened. SW was a huge success. A box office and merchandising phenomenon like had never been seen before. So, plans for Splinter being the low budget sequel were obviously scrapped.

Just think, had SW only been a moderate success, we would have gotten the film version of Splinter instead of Empire.

[rche]

Splinter of the Mind's Eye is my favorite tangent from the original trilogy. The Han Solo books were cool, but the Splinter novel felt like it belonged in the story to me. I have not read that book in years, but can still recall my awe at finding out that lightsabers were adjustable, my revulsion at how evil the imperial officer was when he jammed the data tube into the workers eye, my curiosity about the yuzzem, and my yearning that Luke (and myself) should learn more about the Force.

I had aways hoped this could be made as a film, but then RoJ came about and sort of trampled all that with the sister reveal.

On the flip side, Empire is my favorite of the OT cinematographically so it would be rather difficult in hindsite to choose one over the other. I suppose, all in all, I am glad to have been treated to both Mr. Foster's novel and Mr. Kirschner's cinema vision.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Y'know, I just read this a few months back. It's a pretty good story, and apart from a couple of awkward bits it'd fit into established continuity quite well.

Don C.

[Bruce Banner]

Always liked SOTME.

Along with the Marvel series and the Brian Daley Han Solo novels, it was one of my often revisited childhood SW fixes between movies.