Rating: 
Summary: 800 Years Of Experience
Review: "The Approaching Storm", is described as a prologue to, "Star Wars Attack Of The Clones". The book introduces one new Jedi and her Apprentice in depth, and mentions the name, and shares a brief dialogue with the new Dark Jedi that has been seen in the movie trailers, Count Dooku. The Count will be familiar to any who have seen, "The Lord Of The Rings", as this actor featured in that film as well.This book has its share of conflict with a quartet of lightsabers defending the two pairs of Jedi that are on a diplomatic mission. This novel is similar to an earlier book by Greg Bear, which also centered on diplomacy and it shares the same slower and bit more reflective pace. As the next movie approaches, Anakin together with his thoughts and behavior continue to become the focus of these preludes. A great deal of emphasis was placed on how old Anakin was, in Episode I, when first proposed for Jedi training, as well as his attachment to his mother and his concern for her. The reasoning is made much clearer, and appears to have less to do with how old he was, and more to do with his knowing his mother. Force sensitive Jedi candidates are supposed to come to the Jedi Academy at a very early age so they have virtually no memory of, nor attachment to their birth parents. The reasoning behind this becomes much clearer as this book progresses. Jedi choose who they want to mentor for an apprentice. This was a choice that was taken from Obi-Wan when he made a promise to train Anakin as Qui Gon Jin lay dying. It also placed him in conflict with The Jedi Council at the same moment he became a full Jedi Knight. All fans know how the encounter between Vader and Obi-Wan ends in the first movie to ever be shown on the screen, this book gives the reader issues to think about. Anakin is no longer a cute little kid, in this book he rarely says or does the correct thing, less out of bad intent, rather from not thinking first, and having strong ideas on what he is doing, as opposed to what he wished he were doing. Remember the words that Yoda admonished the young Anakin with the first time he spoke to the boy, and then read this book. Yoda's 800 years of experience are formidable, and here his original concerns begin to take shape.
Rating:
Summary: Living and breathing at last
Review: When I read Alan Dean Foster would be writing a prequel novel to Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, I was thrilled. Not because I believe Alan Dean Foster to be an immortal, literary giant, but because I knew from his previous works I could depend on him as an author to make his characters more human(oid). And Mr. Foster delivers. If you, like me, were disappointed with Greg Bear's Rogue Planet or James Luceno's Cloak of Deception (C'mon guys, I'm on a planet in a galaxy far, far away. I'd like to know how it looks/smells/feels like to the characters and I'd like more personal touches/emotional interactions.) you will read this book with delight. You get to know Anakin as a highly gifted, cocksure though slightly rebellious Padawan living those difficult teen-age years (wishing he were anywhere other than where he is, preferably with hot-rod landspeeders) and to get a feel for those personality flaws that will eventually bring the entire galaxy to its knees, you find Obi-Wan stepping out of the shadow of Anakin's great talent and see what an incredible young Jedi Knight he is in his own right, trying very hard and succeeding at being a role model anyone would look up to (he has even learned his lesson about ... life-forms tagging along), you see their interaction with the female Jedi and her Padawan who they join on their mission and discover that their innermost thoughts are not all that lofty sometimes. Their mission is to negotiate and mediate a dispute on the planet Ansion with nomads who are resisting the native city dweller expansion into their ancestral prairies. The city dwellers threaten to secede from the Republic should they not get what they want. The Jedi have a good chance to succeed. Though there are plenty of political machinations going on to make sure they don't. Though their journey to meet the nomads through the outback of Ansion reminds a fan of Foster's Flinx novels of the grasslands of Alaspin, you get a wonderful travelogue of the planet. Overall, incredibly refreshing and enjoyable and surprisingly bittersweet at times for Star Wars fans. For, as one of the native characters reflects near the end of the novel, that in spite of how powerful and talented the Jedi are, he feels sorry for them. And knowing the near future of the Jedi in the Star Wars world, we do too.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have been released after the movie...
Review: This story takes place just before the opening of "Episode II", but after reading it, I felt it would probably make more sense after seeing the new movie. The political climate is easy enough to understand; it was the characterizations I had problems with. New characters like Luminara Unduli and Bariss Offee are introduced, but the author doesn't give us any background information or develop their personalities very well. Also suffering are familiar characters, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, who are portrayed completely different here than they were in "Episode I". Yes, ten years have supposedly passed, but I want to know WHY Anakin is suddenly so arrogant, blood-thirsty and self-centered. Count Dooku is supposedly pulling all the strings and causing all the grief in this story, but since he is only mentioned a couple of times in the whole book, his involvement here leaves me scratching my head. Most of the problems the Jedi encountered had little to do with what was happening in the plot. Birds and tumbleweeds--well, you'll see. There was very little action or excitement and too much political setup. Even the book's cover is deceiving. Obi-Wan and Anakin are secondary characters. The story actually centers around Luminara and Bariss. Disappointing, all around.
Rating: 
Summary: gulp
Review: Okay, so I may be a little late with my review but that's because I started reading this only just a couple of months ago, and I'm still wrestling through it. I'm one of those guys who think that if I miss one book I may miss a lot. With this one, I just keep forgetting what's being written. Basically because there are things happening that're really really not important; So what if there are creatures filled with air on this planet Ansion that need their existence explained in oh so many pages, and how about all those stupid rituals and traditions those locals live by, pfff. That's when I started to ask myself why these tribesmen were so important and why is this planet of cavemen so important for the safety of the Republic??? At first I thought only the female writers were doing a bad job of capturing the true spirit of Star Wars. (anybody read Dark Journey? Yuk!) With Foster it's clear that he isn't interested in writing Star Wars, he's just interested in writing; Mass production of many many many words that make up many many boring sentences. So uh, can anybody tell me how it ends?
Rating:
Summary: this is what happened just before Attack of the Clones
Review: Early in "Attack of the Clones" there is a line stating that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker will be available to help protect Padme Amidala because they have just returned from a mission on Ansion? This seems to be just a throwaway line in the movie, a tiny bit of detail to provide coloring to the scene. In the larger Star Wars Universe, we now wonder what it was that Obi-Wan and Anakin were doing. What was this mission? "The Approaching Storm" is the story of this mission to Ansion. Ansion is a small, unimportant planet. At least, that is how things appear to be on the surface. In reality, Ansion is a very important planet. It is tied with treaties and agreements to numerous other nearby planets and this makes the threats that Ansion might secede from the Republic to be very serious. If Ansion secedes, an entire star system will be pulled with it. To stop this secession, Chancellor Palpatine requests the Jedi Council send a couple of Jedi to Ansion to find a diplomatic solution to quietly find a way to keep Ansion in the Republic. The Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luminara Unduli, and their Padawan apprentices Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee. "The Approaching Storm" is somewhat of an adventure story. It is well paced, has humor, some action and some politics. What I liked best about this novel was the characters of Luminara and Barriss. We got to see some of their perspective, but I would love to see a novel focus on these two characters. They provide a perfect counter balance to Anakin and Obi-Wan, and give a greater look at the variety of personalities in the Jedi Order. Alan Dean Foster was the ghostwriter of the first Star Wars novelization, and he wrote the first Extended Universe novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye". His latest Star Wars novel had a great feel to it, and it was so fast paced that I was able to easily finish it in two days. This isn't high literature, but it was certainly entertaining. -Joe Sherry
Rating: 
Summary: Too drawn out.
Review: I must start off by saying I am a big fan of all the Star Wars novels, especially the books that are compilations of short stories (Tales of Bounty Hunters/Mos Eisley Cantina/Jabba's Palace/etc.). I have read many of the "series" books as well, such as the Han Solo trilogy and the Bounty Hunter Wars. I was excited about this book because it was a prequel to one of the movies. It started off very interesting, but I found that it soon became repetitive because random things just kept happening over and over again. To me, it almost seemed like half of the stuff was filler just to make the story fill an entire 363 page book. I gave it a 3-star rating not because I thought it was a bad book, just because I thought it was not as good as other Star Wars novels I had read (storywise). As for the writing, Foster does an excellent job in his portrayel of Ansion and of the characters. I just thought that the story was way too drawn out.
Rating:
Summary: Missing some Star Wars elements
Review: Because this book is set shortly before Attack of the Clones, the book focuses on political intrigue and offers a little bit of insight about some of the people involved in the Separatist movement. I give the book 3 stars because I liked the characters of Jedi Knight Luminara and her Padawan, the pair that accompanies Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on this particular mission. I also like some of the descriptions of some of the Jedi Force-based abilities. However, there is no galatic battle scene and no thrilling lightsaber duels so unless you really like political intrigue and Jedi lore, I think you may find this dull. And if you skip this book, I don't think you would miss much.
Rating:
Summary: The Approaching Dud
Review: The Approaching Storm is by no means the worst Star Wars book out there (that honor will forever belong to The Crystal Star). It is, however, easily the most dull and bears no relation whatsoever in terms of style or quality to Foster's classic Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Apart from the similarity of names on the cover, there is nothing in this one to suggest the two novels were written by the same man. Obi-Wan and Anakin have to go to a planet named Ansion to try to prevent it from seceding from the Republic. Once there, they meet the incredibly cardboard characters of Luminara and her Padawan Bariss, as well as a couple of equally uninspiring locals. After a dull, dull, dull trip through the countryside, they convince Ansion's leaders to stay in the Republic. I apologize for giving way the secret ending, but, frankly, this book is so tedious that nobody will mind hearing that the end is blatantly obvious. Beyond the tedium, there are other flaws. The viewpoint changes too frequently, often within the same paragraph. At times, the novel seems like it was intended as an entry in the Jedi Quest series, reading like a very young adult book. Moreover, Foster was tasked with writing a book that takes place immediately before Episode II without having seen the movie. Accordingly, neither Anakin nor Obi-Wan feel right, Shu Mai (the "lady" who accuses Dooku of treason in Episode II) is playing the wrong role, and Anakin keeps pining for some unspecified place or thing (nothing in here about the dreams with his mother, either). I recognize that Foster's not to blame for his ignorance of how the movie would turn out, but the effect is, nevertheless, to further lessen any enjoyment to be had in an overall drab novel. Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye is much, much more engrossing, despite its apocryphal ending. Cloak of Deception is a far, far more effective lead in to Episode I than this one is to Episode II. In short, if you see The Approaching Storm coming take cover.
Rating:
Summary: Well done effort from a Star Wars veteran
Review: Foster, the writer of the first Star Wars books ever written rejoins the expanded universe with The Approaching Storm. Set on a backwater planet, The Approaching Storm is supposed to prepare the way for Episode II. It does to a certain extent although it downplays dark side of Anakins personality and relies on some predictable characters to move the story along. The setting was unique. In a universe filled with seedy space ports, seeing our Jedi ride herd animals and waltz over a savannah was a nice change of pace. The interation between the 4 Jedi was very well done. The original points of the story helped to make The Approaching Storm a very readable book. As for the bad, the villain is a hut of course with a tie in to Episode II villain Darth Tyrannus. The worst part of the story, is that Foster invents his own Gungan type characater in the person of Tooqui ( I know I spelled that wrong). This character generally causes mischief but by the end of the day, saves our heroes. He is not really needed. Overall, though I applud Foster's return to a galaxy far far away and hope that he consents to write another story for lucasbooks
Rating:
Summary: Light on Star Wars, but Good Science Fiction
Review: 'The Approaching Storm' is Alan Dean Foster's contribution to the prequel era of novels. Like Greg Bear's 'Rogue Planet,' it takes place in the years between Episode One and Episode 2. Also like 'Rogue Planet' it suffers from being un-Star Wars like. By this, I mean that although the story takes place in the Star Wars universe and uses Star Wars characters, it just doesn't have the feel of a Star Wars novel. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker have been sent to Ansion to join another Jedi, named Luminar, and her Padawan, Barriss. Their mission is to negotiate a truce between the Unity Council that controls the city on Ansion and the Alwari, who are nomads that roam the plains. In doing so, they hope to keep Ansion from seceding from the Republic and taking countless other worlds with them in the Seperatist movement. Although I enjoyed Foster's descriptions of the Jedi characters, I felt this story lacked too many other Star Wars elements. Established races and vehicles were lacking. A few characters that were introduced to the public at large in Episode Two make an appearance in this novel, but not enough other 'friendly' faces are present. Overall, the novel has a style that is more akin to 'Allen Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold' than a Star Wars novel, as the Jedi roam the plains interacting with various Alwari tribes and taking on the dangerous life forms that inhabit Ansion. While the adventure was fun to read, it felt like was being accomplished. The worst aspect of the novel was the character Tooqui. Anyone who hated the Ewoks from 'Return of the Jedi' or Jar Jar Binks from the first two prequel movies is really going to despise this character. Although this character has a few heroic moments without complete bumbling, his mannerism and description is incredibly annoying. Despite all of this, this is still a decent novel. There are several good insights into Anakin and his impending turn to the Dark Side. The Jedi/Padawan relationship is fleshed out nicely between Anakin and Obi-Wan and Luminar and Barriss. It is a decent adventure story, it just lacked that special something that makes the Star Wars universe so unique and fun.
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