Brooks's earlier fantasy works, particularly the "Shannara" series, made him an excellent candidate for this novelization.

He had built his success as a writer describing fictional worlds, full of fantastic creatures and magic. Brooks's epic fantasy novels often invoke the same sort of mythical qualities as does the "Star Wars" series. In the "Shannara" series, good struggles against evil, prophecies are fulfilled, and heroes and villains have the ability to perform supernatural acts, abilities often linked to genetic inheritance.

Of course, an extremely closely-related work is the script for the movie, upon which much of Brooks's work is based. A facsimile of the complete script has been published. Of more general relation to this novel is the multitude of "Star Wars" books written by an array of authors which currently fill several shelves at all major bookstores.