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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 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. On the green, unspoiled world of Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, arrive to protect the realm's young queen as she seeks a diplomatic solution to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. At the same time, on desert-swept Tatooine, a slave boy named Anakin Skywalker, who possesses a strange ability for understanding the "rightness" of things, toils by day and dreams by night--of becoming a Jedi Knight and finding a way to win freedom for himself and his beloved mother. It will be the unexpected meeting of Jedi, Queen, and a gifted boy that will mark the start of a drama that will become legend. This special edition features a brand-new Darth Maul short story by New York Times bestselling author James Luceno!… (more)
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Terry Brooks has
Perhaps the very best quality of this novel is that it includes several chapters of great material that wasn't included in the movie. This makes for an interesting read because you never know when something new that you have never before seen might jump out at you from among the familiar.
Overall, it's highly enjoyable and pretty easy to read too. I recommend this book to any person who likes Star Wars.
Then, as now, I enjoy the novel more than the movie. Maybe it's because it has time for scenes that provide greater depth to the characters and their relationships than seen on screen. Maybe because Brooks does a good job of providing the thoughts and points of views of several characters. Maybe it's because Jar Jar is so much less annoying in print. At any rate, reading a Star Wars book is fun.
Brooks generally follows the script of the film, but importantly adds several scenes that help give background to several key characters.
The Phantom Menace is a novelization that improves upon the film in various ways, which says something about the film itself and the quality of writing by Terry Brooks.