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.
Rating:
Summary: The Approaching Menace
Review: Alan Dean Foster is an author long connected with the Star Wars universe. After all, he ghost-wrote the original novelization (a fact which for years was pretty much an open secret in fandom), and was also responsible for Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the very first 'original' Star Wars novel (and to many fans a classic, even if it was superceded by The Empire Strikes Back). Foster, I understand, originally had plans to write more SW novels, but shelved them when Lucas forbad the publication of additional original novels after Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, a position which continued for some ten years. But now that the original novels are a mainstay for the Star Wars universe, Foster was invited back and has now produced his take on the 'first' trilogy. Although billed as an exciting prequel to Attack of the Clones, The Approaching Storm does not fill in the gaps to that film as much as, say, Cloak of Deception does for The Phantom Menace. The story is more formulaic than original, and for that it unfortunately suffers. Obi-Wan and his Padawan Annakin meet up with another Jedi/Padawan pair, Luminara and Barriss Offee. The four of them are tasked with keeping the planet Ansion from seceding from the Republic, an event which would thereby set in motion a chain of events which would see other planets doing the same. Opposing them is a Hutt and his majordomo, while behind those two is the same shadowy galaxy-spanning conspiracy that is the backdrop for the entire first set of films. The problem with the story is that the plot is rather more haphazard than it should be. The Jedi and their Padawans spend most of the novel journeying across Ansion in search of a band of nomads in order to promote a peace treaty between opposing factions among the planet's population. Along the way they encounter one obstacle after another, from storms and natural predators, to double-dealing traders and tribal politics. In this way, the story is more of a quest novel than anything, with the Holy Grail being their sought-after peace treaty. But the problem with this is that at times the book seems to wander aimlessly, with the author searching for yet another challenge to pit his characters against after the previous one has been vanquished. Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible way to tell a story, but as a narrative it does get awfully repetitive. What saves the novel, though, is the heavy dose of characterization Foster provides, something for which Foster is rather good at. We learn quite a bit about Annakin and Obi-Wan, and especially about their relationship leading into Attack of the Clones. In this way we come to see even more that the coming fall of Annakin into Darth Vader is going to be an event of truly tragic proportions, as someone who is basically a good kid is forced by circumstances to be molded into something quite evil. A hint of what is to come can be found in The Approaching Storm, and it's made even more insidious by the realization that, under the circumstance of the deteriorating Republic, there are some very sound reasons why anyone might choose the path that Annakin is destined to trod. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here... Anyway, the new Jedi/Padawan pair that Foster creates is also quite interesting, and I for one would look forward to seeing them again in another novel in the future (as Foster clearly sets up). My only real complaint here is that the nominal villains of the story, the Hutt and his majordomo, are rather lackluster and pathetic, almost tacked on as an afterthought as an excuse to send the characters gallivanting across the countryside and to literally provide fodder for Jedi lightsabers. Foster has written better, but that isn't to say this book is not worth your time. If you're a fan of the first trilogy, this is an acceptable pit stop while waiting for the third film to come 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: A charming prequel to a Prequel
Review: One of the worst things Star Wars fans have to face while new Episodes are in the works is the three-year wait between movies...I mean, Episodes. Most of us then turn to the myriads of Star Wars discussion groups and analyze the existing five movies (sometimes going off into bizarre tangents such as the "is Palpatine really Darth Sidious or isn't he?") and, like fortune tellers reading tea leaves, try to divine the particulars of the next Episode. Another thing we Star Wars fans do while we wait for new Episodes is wondering what happens to the characters between Episodes, especially when the span of time (10 years between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones...and four between Episodes II and III, for instance)is long. Or maybe we hear a line in an existing film about something that happened prior to the current movie and we want to know more. This is where the Expanded Universe novels are at their best, when they address events mentioned but not seen in the film series. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Cloak of Deception, both Episode I prequels, fill in some of the blanks dealing with the rise of Palpatine in the Senate and explain somewhat better the blockade of Naboo. Greg Bear's Rogue Planet also showed a glimpse of 12-year-old Anakin Skywalker's relationship to Obi-Wan Kenobi and his life as a Padawan learner. Of all the prequels to the Prequels, though, Alan Dean Foster's The Approaching Storm works best as an appetizer to Episode II. While it is a novel that has characters created by Foster alone, it also teems with major and minor characters who appeared in Episode II. The plot revolves around a border dispute on the planet Ansion, a minor planet by itself but bound by a series of treaties to other systems. In the shadows lurk the separatists led by Count Dooku, who makes a brief literary cameo. Although the hardcover of this novel was released 4 months before the premiere of Episode II, I only read the paperback version in December of 2002, so I wasn't bugged by the spoilers or by the constraints imposed by Lucasfilm so fans would not find out too much about the plot of Episode II far, far in advance. Because Foster wrote the novelization to Star Wars: A New Hope, he captures the voices and personalities of the movies well. He also is wonderful at creating his own characters, even if they are characters who will never be seen on film. The Approaching Storm is therefore a fun and exciting novel that makes the two-year wait for the conclusion of the Prequel Trilogy more bearable.
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: Very good for the older fan
Review: This book is full of character development and light on action. It introduces some characters like Luminara and Bariss that you actually care about. They are not the typical Jedi stereotype in the Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu tradition, which is refreshing and make them less robotic. The continued character development of Anakin was welcome, however it is hard to justify the separation he feels from his mother since Phantom Menace did such a lousy job in establishing that to begin with (the book established this better, however I had the misfortune of seeing the movie first). Personally, I don't think that any of the books/movies will ever recover from the fact that they didn't establish a believeable mother/Anakin connection to thoroughly explain why Anakin is who he is. Another issue is that they are not continuing to establish a wish for Anakin to be with Padme'. It just rekindles out of the blue with "clones"
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