- Mass Market Paperback: 276 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (Mm); Mti edition (Jun 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345351959
- ISBN-13: 978-0345351951
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.4 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,473,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Willow tells the story of a Nelwyn, a halfling race similar to hobbits from what I can gather, who finds a baby washed up from the river bordering his lands. It turns out that this baby is the Elora Danan, the child foretold in prophecy whose birth would bring about the downfall of the evil sorceress Bavmorda who rules over the lands. Pursued by the Death Dogs and Bavmordafs minions, Willow must find the good sorceress Fin Raziel and, together with swordsman Madmartigan and some dubious brownies, journey to the castle of Tir Asleen to save the child and defeat Bavmorda.
I feel I should start out by saying that Ifve never seen the film Willow on which this book is based. Doubtless it is very entertaining in the same amusing, 80s fantasy way that Labyrinth and Legend are. The plot is riddled with cliches, but it trundles along at a fair old pace and probably makes quite good cinema (albeit with special effects that are no doubt incredibly dated). The book, however, is genuinely dreadful.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this book is definitely a case in point. When adapting a film that is (according to Amazon) approximately two hours in length into a book, that book can either try to capture and convey properly everything that takes place in the film and thus be quite lengthy, or it can be quite short and skim along the top of the action and appear shallow. Sadly, Drew appears to have gone for the latter, depthless option (although how much choice he had in the matter I donft know; he may have been making the best of a bad lot). The writing continually states the obvious and is entirely without subtlety: no character has a thought which they donft vocalise, an emotion which doesnft show in their face or contemplates an action without immediately following through. There is no sense that any of the people Drew writes about have inner lives or even minds. Because of this, their actions often seem arbitrary, perfunctory and unreasonable. A character will suddenly decide they are in love or that al their actions up until now have been evil and they must change to fight for good, then act on these thoughts without further ado. It might work in a film, but in a book it comes across as utterly ridiculous.
The dialogue is wooden at the best of times and laughable at the worst. At one point, one character refers to another as a ejackassf, which is incredibly inappropriate vocabulary choice for a fantasy with vaguely faux-medieval overtones, as this one attempts to be (most of the time). These may be faithfully reproduced lines from the film, I donft know, but whatever the reason for them they donft make for good reading.
I feel I should start out by saying that Ifve never seen the film Willow on which this book is based. Doubtless it is very entertaining in the same amusing, 80s fantasy way that Labyrinth and Legend are. The plot is riddled with cliches, but it trundles along at a fair old pace and probably makes quite good cinema (albeit with special effects that are no doubt incredibly dated). The book, however, is genuinely dreadful.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and this book is definitely a case in point. When adapting a film that is (according to Amazon) approximately two hours in length into a book, that book can either try to capture and convey properly everything that takes place in the film and thus be quite lengthy, or it can be quite short and skim along the top of the action and appear shallow. Sadly, Drew appears to have gone for the latter, depthless option (although how much choice he had in the matter I donft know; he may have been making the best of a bad lot). The writing continually states the obvious and is entirely without subtlety: no character has a thought which they donft vocalise, an emotion which doesnft show in their face or contemplates an action without immediately following through. There is no sense that any of the people Drew writes about have inner lives or even minds. Because of this, their actions often seem arbitrary, perfunctory and unreasonable. A character will suddenly decide they are in love or that al their actions up until now have been evil and they must change to fight for good, then act on these thoughts without further ado. It might work in a film, but in a book it comes across as utterly ridiculous.
The dialogue is wooden at the best of times and laughable at the worst. At one point, one character refers to another as a ejackassf, which is incredibly inappropriate vocabulary choice for a fantasy with vaguely faux-medieval overtones, as this one attempts to be (most of the time). These may be faithfully reproduced lines from the film, I donft know, but whatever the reason for them they donft make for good reading.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Willow Ufgood is a nelwyn (little people) farmer who aspires to being a good farmer, a good father, and (if possible) the village sorcerer's next apprentice. However when he finds a daikini (tall people/us) baby, his whole world is turned upside-down. This baby is Elora Danan, a child of prophecy, destined to be the end of the evil witch-queen Bavmorda, and Bavmorda's army is looking for her. There's a destiny at work here, and Willow must see it through. But along the way he will find help in unexpected places, most unexpectedly in the form of Madmartigan, a rogue of rogues and self-proclaimed "greatest swordsman that ever lived."
All right, this book is a novel based on the screenplay for the movie of the same name. It doesn't seek to be a mere text edition of the movie, but sets out to expand and improve upon the screenplay. Do you want to know where Vohnkar learned to be a great warrior? Do you want to know about the rise of Fin Raziel and Bavmorda? Do you want to know the past of Madmartigan and Airk Thaughbaer? Well, this book is the place to look! Being a fan of the movie, I deeply enjoyed all of the background information that this book gave me. It really filled in a lot of blanks.
Now, that said, how does the book do as a standalone novel? Overall, I found it to be somewhat thin when it came to motivation. That is, the characters often seemed to be marionettes going through an act, rather than living, breathing people, caught up in a dark adventure. But, in spite of that, I did enjoy the book, and am very glad I read it. I highly recommend it to all fans of the movie, and guardedly recommend it everyone else.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Great for fans of the movie, so-so otherwise
5 Aug 2004
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Willow Ufgood is a nelwyn (little people) farmer who aspires to being a good farmer, a good father, and (if possible) the village sorcerer's next apprentice. However when he finds a daikini (tall people/us) baby, his whole world is turned upside-down. This baby is Elora Danan, a child of prophecy, destined to be the end of the evil witch-queen Bavmorda, and Bavmorda's army is looking for her. There's a destiny at work here, and Willow must see it through. But along the way he will find help in unexpected places, most unexpectedly in the form of Madmartigan, a rogue of rogues and self-proclaimed "greatest swordsman that ever lived."
All right, this book is a novel based on the screenplay for the movie of the same name. It doesn't seek to be a mere text edition of the movie, but sets out to expand and improve upon the screenplay. Do you want to know where Vohnkar learned to be a great warrior? Do you want to know about the rise of Fin Raziel and Bavmorda? Do you want to know the past of Madmartigan and Airk Thaughbaer? Well, this book is the place to look! Being a fan of the movie, I deeply enjoyed all of the background information that this book gave me. It really filled in a lot of blanks.
Now, that said, how does the book do as a standalone novel? Overall, I found it to be somewhat thin when it came to motivation. That is, the characters often seemed to be marionettes going through an act, rather than living, breathing people, caught up in a dark adventure. But, in spite of that, I did enjoy the book, and am very glad I read it. I highly recommend it to all fans of the movie, and guardedly recommend it everyone else.
All right, this book is a novel based on the screenplay for the movie of the same name. It doesn't seek to be a mere text edition of the movie, but sets out to expand and improve upon the screenplay. Do you want to know where Vohnkar learned to be a great warrior? Do you want to know about the rise of Fin Raziel and Bavmorda? Do you want to know the past of Madmartigan and Airk Thaughbaer? Well, this book is the place to look! Being a fan of the movie, I deeply enjoyed all of the background information that this book gave me. It really filled in a lot of blanks.
Now, that said, how does the book do as a standalone novel? Overall, I found it to be somewhat thin when it came to motivation. That is, the characters often seemed to be marionettes going through an act, rather than living, breathing people, caught up in a dark adventure. But, in spite of that, I did enjoy the book, and am very glad I read it. I highly recommend it to all fans of the movie, and guardedly recommend it everyone else.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Willow's Missing Bits Made This Good
28 Mar 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I am a big fan of the film and decided I would read the Chris Claremont/George Lucas trilogy that carries on the story recently.
I figured I would start with the novel before the trilogy, Willow (the film's novelization).
I have read some pretty terrible novelizations, and some really great ones. This one I'm giving an average rating. Overall it moves just like the film, although some of the action and most of the comedy that was in the film, is missing in the novel. Madmartigan's humour must have totally relied on Val Kilmer's performance. The other characters are up to par though.
The greatest reason to read this novel as a fan of the movie are the few scenes that must have been cut, or too expensive for the film. One thing that totally shocked me was the entire new character and storyline that was missing from the film! Sorsha's father! In the film you never meet him. In the novel it is great!
It's a short novel that took me a sitting to read. I don't recommend this novel to anyone other than fans of Willow, who will really enjoy the missing bits from the film!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Loved The Film, Not The Novel.
7 Mar 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I have always been a huge fan of the Willow film. Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley had great chemisty and it worked perfectly.
In the novel Kilmer's Madmartigan character doesn't come through as well. His wise-cracking antics and such are not presented well, if they are present at all.
The novel lacks description. Not of just places and people, but of actions. Too much does it rely on script-like dialogue to tell the story. Leaving the reader to figure out on their own what s happening during dialogues.
Like most novelizations, I read this one to hopefully hear a little more that went on in the story. Thankfully it was there. Some strange additions and welcome additions were in this novel. Entirely new characters and small new storylines are there. To my shock there is a red-haired king involved of which I don't want to go into too much detail, but the novel really surprised me with this little tidbit.
I grabbed a copy of this novel mainly to introduce me to the stories by George Lucas and Chris Claremont series that takes place after this story. Shadowmoon, Shadowdawn, and Shadowstar.
I don't regret that I read this novel as it only took me one sitting, but hopefully the rest of the Willowish novels will be better.
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