Fun, but the film works better. | Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace

A surprisingly good novel | Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace | Terry Brooks

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	• Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace Terry Brooks Del Rey, 2000 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 341 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Some good things but it still doesn't compare to watching the movie!

Reading any Star Wars book can't beat the experience of seeing a Star Wars movie. Star Wars was meant to be cinema; all the books are just extra. This is especially true about a movie novelization. So if you've seen the movie, what is the point of reading the book that is based on the movie? I want to read the stuff that happens behind the scenes and the parts of the story that are based on scenes that were cut from the film. The novelization is the opportunity to add a lot of background not in the film. It is the chance to get inside the characters' heads. Ideally, the novelization will enhance our appreciation of the film.

In `99, I saw this movie in the theater six times and absolutely loved it. It totally lives up to the classic trilogy in my mind (and the lightsaber dueling in TPM surpassed the classic duels). On an action-adventure level, this movie is awesome. And I'll admit right here that I even like the character of Jar Jar. He's funny!

Even though the movie is completely enjoyable as it is, it did raise questions in my mind. What was a Trade Federation? What were the details of the political happenings of the Senate? Why did the Supreme Chancellor have to dispatch two Jedi Knights to the Naboo trade blockade "secretly"? And what is the young queen's background. Where is her family?

Over the course of the movie's run in the theater, I decided to read the novel (mostly based on The Phantom Menace screenplay), with the previously mentioned purpose of enhancing my movie experience the next time I saw it. I was a little nervous as I remembered not liking the classic trilogy novelizations because too much was different from the movies.

Well, the good news is, I don't remember this novel changing much from the movie. And there was even an extra part that Lucas himself demanded be added to the novel. Lucas wanted a few chapter's to show Anakin before the other characters met him. Show that he is a little boy with a lot of compassion, Lucas directed Brooks. So there are a few chapters that portray the events leading up to the fateful encounter in Watto's junk shop that we see in the movie. And Lucas also gave the author a little bit about why the Sith have been thought to "have been extinct for a millenium."

But the bad news is, exactly none of my questions had been answered! So I was overall disappointed with this book. Cloak of Deception has the answers to my questions about this movie (except about Padme's family and backgroud - The Attack of the Clones novel and DVD deleted scenes help out there). I give this book 2.5-stars.

If you want to know a little more about Anakin Skywalker, the one who will bring balance to The Force, my recommendation is to read Chapters 1, 2 and 6 of this novilization and then just watch Episode I again!

I highly recommend the following 5-star novels that are extremely relevant to the film series:

Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)
Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul)
Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel)
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars)

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Fun, but the film works better.

This novel is written well enough, and giving Terry Brooks credit for his talent (he is author of the best selling Sword of Shanara series) I have to say that he did a good job with the material he was given. The Phantom Menace is a bode of contention with many and as a film and book, it seemed very scattered in its layout. The film aside, the screenplay on which the novel is based seemed to want to cover a lot of ground but lacked the cohesive-ness of the original trilogy. There is one scene that does stand out and unfortunately it never made its way into the film, in which Anakin Skywalker keeps watch over a Tusken Raider child that has been trapped out in the desert. He tried to free the child but when he can't he stays all night with it to make sure nothing comes to harm it. He wakes in the morning to find himself surrounded by the child's clan and they silently acknowledge his act of selflessness and leave. This scene would have greatly enhanced Anakin's character in the film and would have been echoed beautifully in Episode II when his mother is killed by the Tuskens. In true ironic fashion, this type of tragic element would have worked so well to further empathize viewers sympathy for the title character and it was simple to boot. But in digression, this is a must read novel for die hard Star Wars fans, but not really necessary for the casual fan.

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A surprisingly good novel

I read this book mainly out of curiosity. Even though I'm one of those SW fans who were very disappointed by the film, I was delighted and intrigued by the novel. As only a novel can do, it gave us a glimpse into the story as no film would have been able to do. Also, many irritations in the film (i.e. Boss Nass, Anakin's accidental space victory, and of course Mr. Binks himself), are somehow much less irritating in the novel. This novel would prove a relentless page-turner to even a slow and impatient reader.

In short, Terry Brooks did a great job.

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Great quality book, but....

The look of the book is great. The writing is poor. It's rather simple and bland. The word-choice is kiddish. Boring.

In barren desert lands and seedy spaceports . . . in vast underwater cities and in the blackest depths of space . . . unfolds a tale of good and evil, of myth and magic, of innocence and power. Based on the screenplay by George Lucas, this novel by master storyteller Terry Brooks probes the depths of one of the greatest tales of our time, providing rich detail and insight into the minds and motives of the characters--and shedding bold new light on Lucas' brilliant creation.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an evil legacy long believed dead is stirring. Now the dark side of the Force threatens to overwhelm the light, and only an ancient Jedi prophecy stands between hope and doom for the entire galaxy.

The Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, young Obi-Wan Kenobi, are charged with the protection of Amidala, the young Queen of Naboo, as she seeks to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. This quest brings Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and one of the Queen's young handmaidens to the sand-swept streets of Tatooine and the shop where the slave boy Anakin Skywalker toils and dreams of finding a way to win freedom from enslavement for himself and his beloved mother. His only hope lies in his extraordinary instincts and his strange gift for understanding the "rightness" of things. It is this unexpected meeting that marks the beginning of the drama that will become legend . . .

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