Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Novelization

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks
1999 Del Rey, 324 pages

The word on the street after The Phantom Menace hit theaters was that the novelization contained more detail than the film, as well as moments the film left out. Helmed by the storied Terry Brooks (The Sword of Shannara), the book adaptation received kudos from most of the people I knew who read it, but I never picked up the novel, until now...

And thankfully, I can say those people were right. There are generally two things I'm looking for in a movie novelization. The first is that's its well-written. Otherwise, number two doesn't even matter. Thankfully, Terry Brooks knows how to write. His style is a bit dense, but enjoyably so. His imagery is vivid, and his dialogue sharp. This novelization is well-written. The second thing I'm looking for are moments I didn't see in the movie that still work within the framework of and that augment said movie. Thankfully, there's loads of that here. I shouldn't have used both "number two" and "loads" while describing a book I like.

The biggest pro here is the way this book expounds upon Anakin. Now the reader gets a more full exploration of the young slave and future Darth Vader's life before the film. There's passages about how Anakin visits local hangouts with friends and talks to space travelers, explaining his knowledgable dreams about getting off of Tatooine. Anakin is presented as a highly empathetic and intuitive child who is always helping his neighbors, and at one point even puts his life on the line to help an injured Tusken Raider. All of the additions here are good and feel akin to what's in the film...therefore enhancing said film.

I also enjoy the 1999 graphic design of the covers and how LucasBooks decided to basically just put character photo headshots as the collectible various covers for the novel. There are four covers to collect, overall. As you can see, I got Obi-Wan, but there are covers for Amidala, Anakin, and Darth Maul as well. Again, like many of the items I've looked at over the last month, this book is vital for major fans of the film. I wish I'd read it 25-years-ago, but I'm glad I finally got to it now.