確認してくれてありがと！
その映画の部分を計るつもりだったけど、もうやったな。約1時間か。あまりに思ったより長い。僕も驚いた！
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I am catching up on the reading now and am on chapter 5. I gather from the discussion you guys are up to around the end of chapter 6/chapter 7? I don’t want to overshoot! Thank you all for keeping up the discussion - once I’ve caught up I’ll try my best to also take part to keep this thread a bit more active.
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Great ! The more the merrier !
I think we’re aiming for a chapter a week, more or less, so “officially” we’re reading to the end of chapter 6 at the moment. But I was on holiday last week, and this week is the local “Golden Week”, and my work schedule is lighter, so I finished chapter 7 yesterday. But I only got ahead because I know things will get harder schedule-wise for me from Monday on…
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We definitely need more people reading at this book level in order to liven things up in here. Thankfully @Magyarapointe has been keeping me company lately, which I appreciate very much! 
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Just finished chapter 6 now. I originally slowed down on this book for a couple of reasons (besides being busy). Firstly, the sci-fi/action/naval vocab meant it felt outside of the 95-98% no dictionary comprehension range that I am currently trying to stick to. And secondly, I have to admit I didn’t find the very beginning very interesting. However, I found it became a lot easier to read and a lot more interesting a little bit after Luke is introduced.
It has been a whiile since I have seen the film but I must have watched it on an old VHS about 50 times as a kid so whilst reading I have been trying to remember what happens next and then feeling a bit nostalgic as the story unfolds. I am of the age that I enjoyed the prequels as children’s movies since I was a child when they were released and then was totally put off by the sequels as an adult. I tried and failed to get into one or two of the TV shows but I am not a massive TV guy these days and the magic wasn’t there for me. Basically, I am pleasantly surprised how much I am enjoying it now.
As far as the difficulty of the Japanese goes, no idea if it got objectively easier or I was especially unlucky with the vocab in the first couple of chapters or if I have unusually strong Tatooine-adjacent vocab for some reason…
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It wasn’t just you. I too felt this book was harder to read at first because of all the unknown vocabulary, as well as the author taking more time explaining the environments and describing things. However, once it gets into the dialog parts, the book is definitely much easier to read. That said, it’s still somewhat challenging for me to read. Thankfully it helps a lot to already know the story, so I can infer a lot from that even if my understanding is not 100%.
As for Star Wars in general, I’m also the same as you in terms of not really jiving with the movies/shows that have been released in recent years. I used to dislike the prequels, but even they are better than what we’ve seen lately. The only recent show I give a pass is perhaps “Andor”, which wasn’t great, but it’s not terrible either.
I think it’s just impossible to reproduce the magic behind the first trilogy. Back then it was a different time, different mentality, and the Sci Fi genre wasn’t over saturated like it is now, among MANY other factors. That’s why Disney will continue to fail, no matter how hard they try to bring back that special formula that made the old movies great. Some movies should just be left alone once their stories are told.
BTW, I was talking about Star Wars to a friend of mine from work, and I mentioned that I’m currently reading Episode IV in Japanese. He immediately brought up that he had read the books of the original trilogy back in the day and remembered how gruesome they were. I was surprised because I felt the same way about this book and thought maybe it was just the Japanese version that was like that. Apparently it’s always been the case that the books were more gory compared to the movies.
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It’s the same for me. The first chapter felt awfully hard; probably because I’m not used to reading sci-fi in japanese, and the descriptions are really, really adjective-heavy. It gets better when dialogs come in because it’s closer to day-to-day conversation, but also all the technical vocabulary (and also all the descriptions for Tatooine’s deserts and mountain range) just come back again and again. I guess that’s the problem with all genre-literature.
I really should go looking for my dad’s old copy. I know where it is, actually. It’s in the cellar. But it’s dark, and there are spiders…
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You got this! I believe in you lol.
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蜘蛛より暗黒卿と対決する方がいいけど。。。
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(草) なるほど 
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第7章を読み終わった。もしかしたら記憶力が悪いのかもしれないけど、映画での出来事は今週の章の方が前より覚えやすかったと思う。だからこの本を読んだ後でもう一回映画を見たい。そのような気がするのは僕だけかな。
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それは記憶力の問題じゃないと思う。でも、映画の初めに起こっている話は、そんなに…まあ、面白くないだろう？もちろん、ストームトルーパーとか帝国兵士とかちょっと怖いけど、ダースベーダー暗黒卿はまだあまり登場しなくて、かわいそうな反乱同盟士を殺したけど、その反乱同盟士は主人公じゃなくて、読者の僕たちは興味がない。
主人公はもちろんルークとハン・ソロだけで、初めにルークも英雄そうにみえない。ドロイドたちとケノービは二次キャラクターだけだ。レヤ姫もそうだ。
本物の冒険はこれからだ。話の6割の後で…
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確かに。これらはいいポイントだと思う。少なくとも話はやっと面白くなってきたみたいだね。次の章を読むことを楽しみにしている。
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Just checking in to say I did the reading (on Monday, by chance) although no deep or insightful points to add…
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I thought I wasn’t gonna make it, but I just finished reading Chapter 8. Even though this chapter was a bit longer than the other ones, it was very interesting. About 5 more weeks to go before the end of the book!!
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And things are finally picking up ! I got ahead of the schedule when I was on holiday, but considering how little reading I managed to do this week, I’ll probably be back on schedule soon…
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今週の章を読み終わった。また来週！
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僕もそうだ。今週も仕事はひどく忙しかったがいよいよ第９章を読んでしまった。来週の章は本当に楽しみにしている！
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I just finished chapter ten, so I think I’m a little ahead, but what I want to say is general so probably still applies without spoilers (not that I think I can spoil the story here…).
Even in English I find most action scenes in books generally quite dull, always preferring emotionally or intellectually driven plots, and I’ve found my attention drifting quite a lot during some parts. Very close to “whitenoising” territory.
Also, I really find any metaphors that reference real cultural stuff quite odd as it feels like they shouldn’t exist in Star Wars and yet also I find fake lore building references to also be a little tedious (although they aren’t too bad in this book). I’m sure it’s hard to balance this stuff as an author but my personal preference would be just a little less in the way of references, real or imaginary. I think what bothers me is in the movie some references are made but they’re left to the imagination of the audience. In the book most the references lead to a sentence or two of lore dumping since I guess if you’re a big enough fan to pick up the book then you’d want every morsel of lore possible. I’m realising I’m not the target audience here, perhaps, despite liking Star Wars in general.
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I do agree with some of your points. For me, the first half felt like it was dragging a bit, but now it has become more interesting. This week’s chapter is gonna take me longer to read than usual, since I’ve been busy with other things lately, but I look forward to it! I feel like now I’m enjoying the book more. That said, I understand the sentiment of reading something you’re not really into. It sucks.
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