Mark Hamill voices Luke himself, the rest are mostly replacements. The guy who plays Han Solo sounds like a ProZD character.
Very cozy and you get tons of “slice of life” Mark Hamill being a naïve teenage Luke goofing off with his friends. It’s clearly before our favorite Maury moment, so you get a little bit of disconcerting Luke/Leia romance, but she sounds so different you can just pretend she’s an entirely different person.
Also - this was produced by NPR. Fucking awesome, we need to throw more money at them.
I enjoyed it a lot when I got it a few years ago. It’s quite a gem, actually, either as a standalone story or as an expansion to A New Hope.
There are some nuanced differences. Han Solo came across as more ruthless than the easygoing version of the movies, which made his change of heart more meaningful. The interludes on Alderaan give more background to the rebellion as well as amplify Leia’s loss. Darth Vader’s torture scene with Leia was intense.
Overall, it has the feel of an old time Flash Gordon serial.