A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I started reading these books…

The Star Wars Expanded Universe is a big place, and one that’s easy to get lost in. To the extent that my bookshelf allows, every Tuesday I will be guiding you through the EU with (generally) chronologically placed reviews of Star Wars novels.

For the next couple of weeks, I should note, I won’t be continuing this series.  The reason is, next week has a double feature- a non-Star Wars release reviewed by Corax, as well as my own Spoiler-free review of Fate of the Jedi #3: Abyss by Troy Denning (which I still need to write, eek), with the week after that celebrating the release of Abyss.

This week I’m reviewing the novel adaptation of The Phantom Menace by RA Salvatore.

Ah, another movie novelization. The reason Salvatore’s Attack of the Clones is so difficult to review is that I’m tempted to compare it to two other works: The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks, and the movie version of AotC by George Lucas. Compared to these two works… I must say, the prognosis is bleak. But is this an indication of the quality of the novel, or the items I’m comparing it to? Maybe a little bit of both?

The Phantom Menace (movie), to me, was filled with one interesting character, one extremely obnoxious character, a lame attempt at action, one good and one great action scene and a good handful of undeveloped, uninteresting characters. Compare this to the novel, which had about five well developed, interesting characters, a handful of average interest, decently developed characters, no particularly grating character portrayals and a handful of imperfect action scenes. There is no doubt in my mind, then, that a much better movie will have a much worse novelization, using this as the standard method of comparison.

Let’s take a look at the film version of Attack of the Clones, then. It starts off with an explosion, goes on to an exciting chase scene, some suspense and a pretty decent action scene, some emotional scenes mixed in, more suspense, more action, still more action, and pretty much action mixed with plot from then on. Not the most interesting movie ever, but definitely a better one for me. All of the action is combat, which is automatically a step above racing in my book. There’s one main grating character, but nobody wishes he would die so much as just. Shut. Up. There’s some confusion, some vague areas, a few poorly written areas that are just hard to believe.

Now, what was I reviewing again? Ah, right. Attack of the Clones by RA Salvatore. In terms of pre-existing content… it’s pretty much step by step with the movie. It’s a little easier to empathize with Anakin, but just as hard to listen to him at times. Still, he’s a lot more relateable, and a lot more human in this version. That’s a plus. That’s not entirely an objective analysis of how he’s written, but let’s face it: by this point, the idea of me objectively reviewing anything Star Wars is impossible. After seven movies and all of their novelizations, plus an extesive amount of literature to go with it, my enjoyment of this novel will not be decided by suspense. I try to look at character-building, which is a plus for this book, but once you reach a certain stage of familiarity with a character you don’t even notice their description of his body language, appearance, and his facial expression, which makes it hard to judge it. That said, compared to the movie, at least, this novel is certainly well-written and engaging. It’s much easier to work through emotional and suspnse scenes on paper than it is on film, and I think Salvatore lived up to my expectations here. The action, combat, etc., scenes, while pretty decent, held the same complaint I always tend to have about film novelizations: it felt like a novelization. This is a work that I see could have been utterly brilliant if it was a new point of view following the same events (think I, Jedi compared to the Jedi Academy Trilogy), and it covered every event that took place in the movie. Instead, it’s like you’re sitting in the audience’s chair. And really… do back and forth competitions like the one between Yoda and Dooku have any appeal in text? Let me try one:

Iurus said, “The Dark Side is weak in you.” Iurus threw his shoe at MizzeeOH.

“Ah, but I know dodgeball!” MizzeeOH responded and caught the shoe.

Iurus kicked MizzeeOH. MizzeeOH then jumped over the kick.

“Much to learn, you still have… about jumping,” she then said gravely.

See? It works, in some media. In this format… not so much. You might read it if I went on like this… but you really don’t want me to, do you? That’s sort of what it was like reading one scene in this book. It’s only one scene, but it’s a perfect example of my major gripe with these novelizations. Even George Lucas himself has said that some things are said better in different ways in novels, comics and films, and while the comic writers seem to have taken that to heart more than a canon-fiend like myself would like, it seems the novelization writers, save one (whom I’ll get to later) don’t seem to take this advice at all.

There’s the content, now what about the characters? Well, I’ve already gotten into Anakin. Really, that’s about it over the movie. Dooku, unfortunately, we don’t get much about him, although we get a little bit of his history from Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is covered about equally, as are the Fetts. If you really need it spelled out for you, there might be something new on Padme. Really, the only new character info worth mentioning is in the expanded scenes.

There are a handful of scenes, but anything worth mentioning is part of the Lars plotline. You get the backstory of Clieg’s leg, some Shmi point of views, and a decent look at the pair who dominate the first 19 years of Luke Skywalker’s life. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s a nice bit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to change my overall opinion of the novel. It’s a decent read, a fair companion to the movie of the same name, though by no means a must-read unless you are fanatically devoted to the Lars family- everything else is pretty much even with the movie. I recommend this book to most casual readers.