Look, the movie is better. I don't say that often but in this case it just is. By an order of magnitude. I mean no disrespect to Foster here, as this is a perfectly serviceable adaptation and I enjoyed reading it, but the visuals of A New Hope are so embedded in my mind that any adaptation of the film was always going to struggle. This is particularly the case in the final assault on the Death Star, which was truly exciting in the movie and honestly a bit dull in the book, but the rest of the text is likeable enough, if not exceptional in its approach. It is what it is: an adequate retelling of a exceptional movie.