Star Wars book review: Examining Terry Brooks' novelization of 'Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace'

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. - Jacket blurb, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace

For nearly 40 years, Ballantine-owned Del Rey Books has published the novelization to every Star Wars film. starting with Alan Dean Foster’s Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywallker, which hit bookstores six months before George Lucas’s now-classic space fantasy premiered on May 25, 1977.

The tradition continued in April of 1999 when Del Rey published Terry Brooks’ Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace, a novel based on the story and screenplay by writer-director George Lucas.  

Set 32 years before the events chronicled in Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, The Phantom Menace takes readers to Lucas’s far-distant galaxy during a time of turmoil. The once-mighty Galactic Republic rots from within as greedy politicians and too-big-to-fail corporations corrupt the Congress, while worlds out on the fringes are ruled by gangsters like Jabba the Hutt. Protected only by the 10,000-strong Jedi Order, the Republic is now menaced by shadowy forces thought by many to be extinct.

On the desert world Tatooine, a nine-year-old slave named Anakin Skywalker knows nothing of these momentous events that will forever alter his destiny. His immediate concerns are his precocious skills as a pilot, mechanic, and Podracer, skills that are valuable to his temperamental Toydarian  master Watto.  Anakin also finds love, comfort, and emotional balance in his mother Shmi, who is also Watto’s slave in the Tatooine town of Mos Espa.

Anakin, like many boys his age, dreams of becoming a space pilot and eventually leaving this planet that is furthest from the center of the Universe. But first he has to win his freedom, and Anakin believes the only way he can do it is by becoming a Podrace champion.

"[He] thought about what it would be like to be out there, flying battle cruisers and fighters, traveling to far worlds and strange places. He didn't care what Wald said, he wouldn't be a slave all his life. Just as he wouldn't always be a boy. He would find a way to leave Tatooine. He would find a way to take his mother with him. His dreams whirled through his head as he watched the stars, a kaleidoscope of bright images. He imagined how it would be. He saw it clearly in his mind, and it made him smile.

"One day, he thought, seeing the old spacer's face in the darkness before him, the wry smile and strange gray eyes, I'll do everything you've done. Everything.

"He took a deep breath and held it.

"I'll even fly with Jedi Knights.

"Slowly he exhaled, the promise sealed."

Meanwhile, in far-off Coruscant, the Republic’s capital world, a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious encourages the greedy Trade Federation to create a crisis over a proposal to tax trade routes to outlying worlds like Tatooine. Guided by this shadowy figure, the Neimoidians blockade the small planet of Naboo to force Supreme Chancellor Valorum and the Congress to back down and repeal this tax.

Valorum is determined to uphold the tax law and refuses to give in to the Trade Federation’s demands. Instead, he dispatches Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his 25-year-old apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to Naboo and negotiate with the Federation’s venal viceroy Nute Gunray.

Little do the Jedi suspect, however, that their mission is doomed. Darth Sidious orders his Neimoidian minions to invade Naboo with an army of battle droids and, additionally, to kill the Jedi. Sidious’ plan: to take over the planet and force 14-year-old Queen Amidala to sign a treaty that legalizes the Trade Federation’s occupation of Naboo.

But Sidious’ grand scheme goes awry when the Jedi survive the Neimoidiams’ assassination attempt and make their way to Naboo by stowing away on separate Federation invasion ships, Once they arrive in the wooded swamps on the planet surface, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan - guided by the hapless Gungan exile named Jar Jar Binks - travel to the capital city, Theed. The Jedi rescue Queen Amidala, her security chief, Captain Panaka, five handmaidens, and the crew of a Naboo Royal Cruiser. This motley crew manages to fly offworld and past the Trade Federation blockade, but not before a laser blast damages the ship’s hyperdrive.

Pursued by Sidious’s relentless apprentice, Darth Maul, Qui-Gon and his companions must find temporary refuge in which they can repair their damaged ship before taking Amidala to  Coruscant. With no other choice, the desperate travelers must land on Tatooine, where their destiny will become intertwined with that of a boy named Anakin Skywalker.

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My Take:

Terry Brooks, the best-selling author of The Sword of Shannara, gives readers an enjoyable literary version of Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Not only does he flesh out George Lucas’s screenplay with his clean, easy-to-read prose, but he also expands the story by adding two chapters set on Tatooine that delve a bit more into Anakin’s life and motivations before his fateful encounter with Qui-Gon Jinn and a young woman named Padme Naberrie

Starting in Chapter Three, Brooks sticks close to Lucas’s original screenplay, which includes scenes that are not in the finished film. In addition, the author includes details about the origins of the Sith Order and foreshadows events that will take place in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

   

Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace fills in some of the blanks in the Star Wars backstory, answering such questions as:

What were the roots of Anakin Skywalker's anger?

How did the Sith Order stay hidden from the Jedi for 1,000 years?

How did Jedi Knights serve as guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic?

How did Palpatine rise from sectoral Senator to Supreme Chancellor?

Like the movie version of The Phantom Menace, Brooks’ novel tries to be coy about the connection between Darth Sidious and Senator Palpatine. The two are depicted almost as though they’re two separate characters. The Sith Lord is always shown as a cloaked, hooded figure that oozes anger and a silky menace. Palpatine, on the other hand, is described as a kindly, principled, but somewhat ambitious politician.

12 years after the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, even casual Star Wars fans know the true nature of the Sidious/Palpatine relationship. Heck, even readers of the novelizations of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi knew what the link is.

But Brooks is such a good storyteller that Palpatine is, at this point in the tale, an ambiguous character who seems to be the galaxy’s best hope for democracy. This is quite a trick, and it’s one of the reason why the novelization of Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace works well.