Started: September 22, 2023 | Finished: September 24, 2023
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
According to this book, Anakin Skywalker isn't the Chosen One - he's the Messiah. We all know that Qui-Gon's bet on Anakin will go horribly wrong. In the meantime, we get to enjoy a pod race, an awesome lightsaber battle, a welcome view on the cultures of the Gungans and Naboo, and wonderful new ships and tech comprising the droid army.
I blame Jonathan Koan, his YouTube channel has such a rich store of Star Wars book videos that I've been thinking about getting into the Star Wars books myself. But where to start? There are so many books organized into multiple series and standalones. Where to start with Star Wars?
One option was: Forget the books, just watch the films. I do have a Disney+ subscription so I have access to all the Star Wars videos. I mulled this for a bit but I'm such a book guy that I wanted to read Star Wars and not just watch it. I decided on two possible starting points: the movie novelizations or the High Republic series. Ultimately I settled on the former, thus, "Episode 1 The Phantom Menace".
I've seen the movie so I was hoping the Terry Brooks novelization would add some new material; and it did. I thoroughly enjoyed the read.
When the movie first came out I was very critical about some aspects of it. Specifically, the inclusion of Jar Jar Binks who I viewed as an escapee from "The Muppets Show" who managed to show up in Star Wars and messed it up a bit. Secondly, the concept of Anakin not having a father and being a product of midichlorians, I viewed that as being too over the top.
My reading of this book changed my mind about both. Jar Jar Binks and his antics kept the storyline from being too somber and serious; I welcomed his high jinks in the novel. The whole midichlorian issue highlights the special nature of Anakin. Now, it's up to the other books in the series to show if this "specialness" is hanled well; but in Episode 1, it is handled quite well, with Qui-Gon Jinn being sure he is the "Chosen One" and Yoda having qualms about it. It also shows that the Skywalker line, so celebrated in Star Wars, is a line that was created by the Force itself.
The book was a fun ride for me and I really like the additional material that Terry Brooks added in. The last chapters in particular increases the pace and is quite thrilling to read. It was just a very enjoyable experience from beginning to end.