Ya, Matthew Stover wrote the novel, then George Lucas adapted the novel into a screenplay.
The novel was released the night that the first round of RotS toys were released at Walmart (was there for that midnight release too).
That was a few months before RotS went to the screen.
The biggest criticism I experienced was that noone knew what the fuck was happening in the movie. Having read the novel, I knew exactly what was occurring.
Was frustrating to know that Anakin wasn’t being a bitch about the title of Master specifically. He was frustrated because he needed access to the Master’s section of the Jedi Archives, where holocrons about the force ability “precognition” lived so that he could stop the premonitions he was experiencing depicting Padme’s death. That is what set him up to be prey to Palpatine who was telling him about Darth Plageus, the one who could defy death with dark side energy.
None of it described in the movies. All of it fully covered by Matthew Stover in the novel.
Lucas really made a hack job out of the adaption.
