Rating: 
Summary: Better than the movie!
Review: If you found the movie in any way disapointing, and even if you didn't, read this book! It's way better than the movie, which, while enjoyable was also confusing at some points, and I found it very difficult at times to connect with the characters. Not so with this book. Anakin especially was well done; I found him extremely annoying when I watched the movie, but here not only can we finally see what makes him so special, but we can even relate to him. Qui-Gon as well is much better portrayed here, and his relationship to Obi-Wan is better understood as well. The only character I felt could have been better was Padme/Amidala. The author was so intent on keeping us in the dark over who is who, that up until Padme reveals herself to Boss Nass as Queen Amidala we see her only through Anakin's adoring eyes and Qui-Gon's slightly disdainful ones. Until close to the end of the book nothing is from her point of view, which doesn't leave much room for fleshing out her character. Besides this however, I can say I would definitely recommend this book to any Star Wars fan, especially those dissapointed with how the movie turned out. A testement to how good this book is is that, for a moment or two, I even felt sympothy for Jar Jar!
Rating: 
Summary: Lucas takes a step back.
Review: The long awaited prequel trilogy to Star Wars came out with a lot of fanfare--easily the most hyped movie during my lifetime, I'd say. I was very excited, because--like any true die-hard fan--I had been waiting for this since I first saw Star Wars. I didn't see the movie in theatre right away, because i was kind of scared as to what Lucas would write. You see, I consider the Expanded Universe to be cannon, so I didn't know if he would make the movie fit with EU or not, and so on. But I read the book almost immediately, and truthfully, I was very disappointed. The main storyline was good, and the setup for Palpatine and the Empire and the fall of the Republic was very good, but there were many things that turned me off. Midi chlorians? What the heck is that? I thought the Force was a energy source or some such thing, generated by all things--no, its actually little organelles in your cells that only certain people have. Totally contradictory to EU, and, in my opinion, to the original trilogy too. And to have Anakin be from Tatooine, too? Come on. A little too much coincidence, but that could be overlooked, I guess. But then to have him build C3PO? That is [...]. EU has 3PO a lot older and such, and not from Tatooine ever. Sure, Anakin's just rebuilding or finishing building the droid from an old skeleton frame or something, but come on--that is just too much quack. And then the deal with the Sith inconsistencies. EU has Sith back 5,000 years before ANH, but TPM has the order being created only one millenium prior to. Arguments and counter-arguments could go on forever, but for me it is just a sad way to go for the prequels. So much potential...That said, I'll still see AOTC and buy the books in the prequel area and stuff. lol. Oh, and Darth Maul was almost as bad a character as Jar Jar Binks. Take that, Lucas.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for a not-so-great movie!
Review: This book was great basically from start to finish. It tells the story far better than the movie ever did. Even though books let us go into the minds of characters, it still showed far much more feeling and characterization to the characters. You understand Anakin more. He's not just some happy-go-lucky, clean dressed, "Yipee" yelling kid. The story puts him in rags, being a slave and all, and Watto a little more meaner and more like a slave-driving, money hungry being that he is. It tells about a race he's in when the story first starts out and he crashes and loses, and gets a scolding from Watto. It tells a lot more about how strong he is with the Force and how he can't explain what he can do. It shows a closer relationship between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, like father and son, the way it should've been in the movie. They sometimes bicker and disagree, which is what people do. The book gives more characterization for Panaka and the Queen. Panaka doesn't agree with the Jedi and shows it, showing his protection of the Queen. She shows much more feeling. The best part is how Obi-Wan can't stand Jar Jar and doesn't agree with Qui-Gon taking him along. It explains why Qui-Gon took him. But by the end Obi-Wan learns his lessons from Qui-Gon. You also go into the thoughts of Jar Jar, making him not...quite so bad. The end space battle makes more sense. R2-D2 was piloting the ship and the Force was using Anakin, which the movie just made it look like an accident and basically corny. Packed with extra scenes and dialogue, you get a much better understanding of the story which the movie simply didn't do. If the movie was a lot more like the book, I think it would've done better....along with a lot of Jar Jar's annoying dialogue and antics cut down too.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure pleasure.
Review: In a recent gallup poll concerning religion, a significant number of people named "Jedi" as their religion. I grew up with Star Wars, fully understanding the adventures of Luke Skywalker before I knew the adventures of Jesus of Nazareth. And when I read that poll, something clicked. Who would have ever thought that Star Wars the trilogy was really just the conclusion to a much greater story about the story of none other than Darth Vader? This book follows the movie exactly, adding bonus insight into the Jedi religion and some back story that isn't given in the movie. Terry Brooks is not only a capable author, he's a great writer, not given to cliche or boring prose. All in all, I'd have to say that this book is a must read. I'm actually going on to read the original trilogy now.
Rating:
Summary: I love Star Wars...
Review: I love Star Wars, and couldn't wait for this title to come out. I bought it in Boulder at the Star Wars fan fest, and then I ordered the Anakin cover from Amazon. This book had a slightly different feel to it. I saw Terry Brooks speak about it, and about his writing experiences in general, at the same fan event in Colorado. Evidently he knew little or nothing about all the rest of the Star Wars books prior to writing this one, which would account for his unique feel. I liked the movie and the book, but the Thrawn novels are probably still my favorite of the books.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but pedestrian, and not terribly well-written
Review: The three first chapters of this novelization taking place before the movie actually opens are easily the best thing in the entire book. Set on Tatooine, they show us extra scenes of young Anakin Skywalker's life which ground the character far more effectively than anything we'll see later, either onscreen or in the novel. Among those is a buying expedition from desert Jawas on which the boy is sent by his owner, Watto, and which ends with his risky rescue of a wounded Tusken Raider. The scenes either ended up on the movie's cutting-room floor, or perhaps were never shot: Brooks's writing here is freer, looser; we get into Anakin's head, as when he spends a watchful night under the stars, guarding the masked Tusken he found partly buried under fallen rocks, and whom he's freed with the help of the droids he's just bought. Anakin has tried to set the unconscious Tusken's shattered leg; but he doesn't know enough of Tusken physiology to do much more; neither is he sure what the fierce nomad's reaction will be when he awakes. The reader knows, of course, that Anakin, too, will ultimately become a fearsome, masked character with mysterious injuries: it is a nice bit of foreshadowing, and the conclusion of the incident leaves us aware of the duality inside both Anakin and the Tusken, neither friend nor foe. Unfortunately, the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to this early promise. Bound by the screenplay, Brooks is pedestrian at best, purplishly ham-handed all too often. Darth Maul's horns are a "stunted, wicked crown;" Yoda's eyes [close] "to slits like a contented sand panther's"; Anakin's "uncertainty work[s] within him like a caged animal seeking to break free." Bantha horns are "massive", Qui-Gon's movements are "wraithlike", the Queen is (what else) "regal" -- and the wildebeest menagerie makes an ill-advised return on page 275 to describe Darth Maul ("like a large sand panther") and Obi-Wan on page 298 ("he prowled... like a caged animal.") Young Anakin is first described in positively Dickensian terms ("disheveled... his clothes were ragged and thick with grime, and he had the look of someone about to take a beating") that don't match what we have seen in the movie, where the boy argues successfully with Watto and Sebulba (and leaves carrying as cool a black leather and nylon backpack as you can find in any Prada boutique.) Del Rey and Lucasfilm made the choice to go with a bigger "name" than the usual SW writers, and it turns out to have been a mistake in more ways than one. For one thing, any Star Wars reader is bound to feel not so much a disturbance as a great wobbling in the Force. Brooks obviously took a crash course in the SW universe, but it doesn't prevent him from ignoring many of the terms we are by now familiar with. "Repulsorlifts" have been replaced by awkward "antigrav"; "datapad" by "portable memory bank", etc. The entire feeling is of watching a familiar world through a haze. Michael Stackpole's descriptions of Coruscant in the X-Wung series did far better justice to the city-planet. Surprisingly, Jar Jar a far more sympathetic character here -- he's the one who gets the most added-value from the book. We often get scenes narrated from his point of view, and he comes across as a kind of elfin, happy-go-lucky character, a misfit in every company, with more heart, understanding and compassion than the movie's condescending slapstick allowed him. This Jar Jar makes friends with Artoo, Anakin and Padmé -- the smallest or weakest members of the group. He is aware of his own shortcomings, and on occasion they sadden him; but he is no fool. As the Queen stands at a window of her Coruscant temporary apartments, after the vote of no-confidence in Chancellor Valorum, Jar Jar, who is intimidated by her, volunteers sadly "Me wonder sometimes why Da Guds invent pain", and the hieratic girl in her elaborate Court makeup and embroidered gown answers: "To motivate us, I imagine." The book makes it clearer than the movie that Amidala decides to fly back to Naboo only after Jar Jar has mentioned the existence of a "grand [Gungan] army", something I could not catch even at a third viewing, while Palpatine believes that he has craftily maneuvered her to leave after she has opened the door to his election in the Senate. Brooks fails to convey much more personality for Darth Maul, but that's not entirely his fault - George Lucas underwrote the part from the start. (On the other hand, I could have done without the line describing his twin-bladed lightsaber as "of another make." Since each Jedi makes his own lightsaber, there can be no two alike. Where was the Lucasfilm editor?) The other mystery of the book is the Queen - we never get her point of view, although there is a lot more foreshadowing about her future relationship with Anakin ("I'm going to marry you", he says at their first meeting, after being struck by her beauty; and later, in the Naboo ship en route for Coruscant, she jokes about his being [her] "future husband," lines cut from the movie.) I did hope for a little enlightenment as to why Shmi Skywalker, a slave and homemaker on a frontier planet, would ever have a use for the protocol droid Anakin is building "to help my Mom." From what we saw (but Brooks doesn't bother to explain it further, or even give us a description of a set that must have taken hours for the filmmakers to assemble), she worked at assembling mechanical parts in a home workshop. If the "human-cyborg relations" specialty of Threepio's included talking to the chips she assembled, a line or two would have been useful. The same irritating vagueness goes for the line "the Naboo [were] removed to detention camps" after the Federation invasion. Does this mean the entire population of Theed, à la Khmer Rouge in Phnom-Penh in 1975, or just the Naboo leaders? It grated in the movie, and it really is the kind of thing you expect the novelization to set to rights. Overall, the feeling is that Brooks wasn't terribly happy writing this -- one eye on the clock and the other on his future bank statements. His book could have been enjoyable, and it's not.
Rating:
Summary: As good as the movie.
Review: Wow. Terry Brooks is amazing! He should continue writing more Star Wars books. He could be the next Timothy Zahn! I'm really glad about Episode 1 and how it was created. I love how they made Anakin a little boy. Almost everyone thinks Jar Jar Binks is annoying...I know you're probably saying "Well, yeah. We have discovered yet another pathitic lifeform!". Oh well! He's a part of Star Wars. That's good enough for me. I can't wat for the Episode 2 book and I hope Terry Brooks writes it.
Rating:
Summary: What a fascinating book!!!
Review: Hello World! I'm 18 yerars old and attend the commercial college in Austria. My english teacher gave me the task to wirte a review about a book I've read. So I decided to write only a few words to the famous&for me most fascinating book I've ever read! "STAR WARS-THE PHANTOM MENACE"-What a great book! I really like the plot, the 2 Jedis, Padmé, Anakin and of course Jar Jar Binks, the Gungan. In the episodes IV-VI I didn't really like the bad guys like the Emperor but not in "Episode I". In this episode I also like the bad ones. In a strange way, Darth Maul seems to be 'symphatic' to me. ;-) All in all: Good job George Lucas and of course Terry Brooks! Ok, see you on the net! Stef from Austria
Rating:
Summary: An Adequate but Unexceptional Adaptation
Review: One reason to purchase a book adaptation of a movie is to learn more about the universe of such a movie, to learn more about the characters, and to get info on the motivations of the characters. Sadly, little of this is available in Terry Brooks' adaptation of 1999's top grossing film. Little is learned in this book that was not covered in the movie. This adaptation sheds less light on the events of the film than the average adaptation. Still, the story of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" is presented in a an adequate manner. None of this is the fault of Brooks, who was clearly constrained by the restrictions set upon him by Lucasfilm and its mania for secrecy surrounding the release of the movie. The result is an unexceptionally written book, which fully tells the story of the movie, but offers nothing of additional substance.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book - A Compliment to the Movie!
Review: This book is wonderful! The author was a perfect choice on George Lucas's part. I have to admit, though the storyline was good and the movie was pretty good, it was a disappointment when compared to Lucas's first three. However, the book is fantastic, better than the movie! The added scenes are great, and it is too bad that they were not in the movie. And, oh, the descriptions are marvelous! The way Brooks describes the blazing light and heat of the suns on Tatooine's sands is spectacular, as is everything! It takes a great amount of skill to write the way Brooks does! How does he do it? I loved this book, and would have like for it to last forever! (Then, the already wonderful suspense would be even better!)
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