Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones

Rating:
Summary: Getting Better
Review: Episode II. By now every one has seen the movie. So we basically know what transpires in this book. Yet, one should read it. Not only do we have more information as to how Shmi Skywalker Lars ended up in the hands of the Tuskan Raiders, but we learn a little bit more as to how her husband and his friends try to rescue her. We are also treated to Padmé's family and learn a little bit more about her. We also are given greater insight into the blossoming romance between young Anakin and Padmé. Even if you've seen the movie. Read this book. It will be worth it if you want to understand the bigger picture to what's going on.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A must have for all Star Wars fans! Expands on the movie plot BIG TIME and also includes scenes not included in the AOTC movie. Great battle scene descriptions, especially during the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett confrontation. However, the author tends to rush a little through the last several chapters and I think they could have been better had he taken the time to expand on them. Overall, a great book which I enjoyed reading.

Rating:
Summary: It Ruins the Movie
Review: I saw the movie first, thank God. I enjoyed it a lot more than Episode I'until I read this book. Stripped of Lucas's striking visuals, the story seems much worse than I remember.

This novelization reminds me a lot of an extremely bad prequel book called 'Rogue Planet' (by Greg Bear) in which Anakin is twelve years old. Both books start off with an long, endless 'action' scene, which are supposed to be thrilling, but because the authors lack the skills to animate them, just lay there in the books, like unpoached eggs.

There is additional material in the book, but it's so bland, it's painful to read. Padme and her family are just stick-figures; ditto Shmi and her step-family. The author doesn't bring any of these people to life. In fact, he tries only with Anakin, and even there, he's unsuccessful.

Then there's the style. For those reviewers who said this was the best book they ever read; I can only assume it was also the only one. (Cereal boxes don't count) The prose is extremely peculiar, as if something who only spoke Hungarian was translating it into English from the Japanese. It has no flow at all, and it's full of strange illiteracies. I don't know the author at all, does he write comic books? It seemed like a kid's book to me. Lucasfilm seems to have given up on the mainstream audience completely. The question is: why? Compare this to the ESB novelization, and you'll see the difference. This book would be a big hit in a creative writing course; they could use it as a 'Don't Let This Happen to You' example, it's that bad.

And no, I will not cut the author some slack because it was a rush job. I don't notice they're reducing the price because this book is a piece of garbage, are they? Um, no.

Another problem: without the visuals the borrowings become much more obvious. For the Austin Powers fans there's Jango and his Mini-Me, Boba (these scenes in the book are hilariously dumb, unintentionally, I think); for the 'Titanic' fans, there's oceans of lame romantic plot and dialogue; and for you 'Gladiator' fans, well, there's a crib of the famous Forum scene.

There's no originality, fire, interest. Just a tired milking of the genre to make money. It made me very relieved that I borrowed the book from the library and didn't spend money on it.

The bad thing is, this travesty made me reluctant to see the movie again, and the movie, as I said, was enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones
Review: very interesting book would recommend reading the book rather than seeing the movie which skips the book very much.

Also Recommend: all NJO books,Starship Troopers, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Attack of the clones novel

Rating:
Summary: Fills in gaps that were not in the movie.
Review: R.A. Salvatore is pretty much accredited to re-launching the stagnant Star Wars novels with Vector Prime (the first novel in the continuing New Jedi Order series) and killing off Chewbacca. With his style of writing, and previous work within the Star Wars universe, it was probably pretty easy for Lucasfilm to get Salvatore to pen the second movie.

I won't bore you with what you already seen in the movie, but I do believe that the novel of Attack of the Clones is required reading for all Star Wars fans, as it fills in many blanks that seemed to be missing from the movie. It also ties the spanning years between Phantom Menace and AOTC. Actually the reader won't even recognize the start of the movie until he is in chapter 5.

The first four chapters explains where Obi Wan Kenobi and a 10 year older Anakin Skywalker have been up to. We are also introduced to Padme Amidala's family back on Naboo and learn much more on how she became a queen. The detailed conversation between Padme and her sister (never seen in the movie) are a great set up on how she eventually falls for Anakin.

Also we learn how Shmi Skywalker was abducted by the Tusken Raiders, and much more origin information is given on Beru and Owen Lars (Luke's eventual uncle on Tantooine) and the dynamics of the Lars/Skywalker connection.

Throughout the remaining novel the reader is treated to more bonus material (much of which was indeed filmed, but hit the cutting room floor before release) that seems to open your eyes to the bigger political picture of that famous galaxy far, far away. Questions such as: Who were the lost 20 Jedi? How did Dooku ascend to power? Why Jango had Boba created, and how was young Fett trained? How did the Separatist factions begin? It was this great filler material which earned 4 stars for me.

However, there were a few drawbacks. Salvatore seems to rush through many of the epic battle scenes....I realize reading a novel is not the same as seeing your favorite characters and millions on CGI effects in a theatre, but I felt cheated reading the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett confrontation, the chase scene in the skylines of Courascant, and most of all the very rushed feeling of the climatic battle. I couldn't shake the feeling that Salvatore was rapidly approaching the 300 page mark, and hadn't got to the main battle at the arena on Geonosis so he had to rush the writing taking a lot of steam and strength out of what should have been the mother of all battles for the book. After that, the remaining plot points were only given a paragraph or two to be wrapped up, end of book. This should only be worth three stars, as it could have easily been expanded properly with another 30-40 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie, not so good novel
Review: I won't spend much time talking about Episode II itself, everyone knows it was absolutely fantastic and one of the best SW movies. But one earlier reviewer did say these movies didn't have the same mystery as the others. I agree, there isn't as much mystery, but if Lucas had released the movies from I to IV, the mystery is IV,V and VI wouldn't be there, so it's sort of a catch 22. There are some mysterious remaining, like how exactly Leia's force abilities were hidden, the fate of the some of characters(Mace Windu for example), and the exact circumstances that led to the remaining Jedi going into hiding.

I found the book itself a riveting read at the beginning, it explored Padme and her family a great deal, and probed deeper into her psyche than epII could, like why she entered politics. The Lars family was explored in great detail as well, including Shmi's abduction, it was all very well done.

However, later in the book is where Salvatore came apart a bit. I found his writing somewhat flawed, for action scenes where detail was vital, he would detail some small parts very well, then barely touch others, he sort of wrote in 'spurts' of detail if you will, which I found made the book frustrating to read. This happened a great deal later in the book, almost as if Salvatore was in a hurry to get it finished. Personally, after reading his woeful New Jedi Order work, I was very skeptical to buy EpII, but my love of Star Wars demanded it.

I would have also liked some more detail into the Senate affairs back on Coruscant, Bail Organa will be an important character in the future, and we learnt virtually nothing about him in this book.

Overall, not a bad read, but it's more for diehard fans. If you're a casual fan, just see the movie a few times.

Rating:
Summary: BEST BOOK EVER do
Review: I read this book before I saw the movie and after. I thought that ether way you did it, it was great. READ THIS BOOK!NOW! It was so good I read it in a day and I just turned ten DON'T READ THE REST IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE[UNLESS YOU WANT TO SPOIL THE MOVIE.] The book gives more info on things like Shim Skywalkers death, what the characters are thinking and many other things.

Rating:
Summary: A book, a dream...
Review: ... there are so many things in this book, that the movie never showed. It is, full of surprises, feeling, action, love... this definatly is, and always will be my favourite... I had just finished reading it,and you know what the worst part is...it's over. The descriptions of every movement makes you feel as if you are right there. Your feel power, and that shows that this is more than a story, this story is now reality.

Rating:
Summary: Good - but lacks the flavor of the movie....
Review: Of course you must read this book if you are a fan! For me, the highlights were the additional story development of Shmi and Padme's family. They fill the gaps and add motivation to the characters. You are given some more insight into Anakin as well. Overall - very good. However, I felt that compared to the movie, the book lacked the intesity and flavor of the big screen. I only make such a comparison because with Star Wars novels you can sometimes even hear the John Williams soundtrack in the background reinforcing the story. That wasn't the case with Attack of the CLones.

Rating:
Summary: ATTACK OF THE CLONES KICKS [BUTT]!!!!!!!
Review: This is the best book I have ever read. It to me would beat Harry Potter any day! This has some added on stuff through out the story. I love it and can't put it down because it is such a very good book. It is like the bible to me. If you have it you would know what I am talking about. God bless you all.