The Approaching Storm - Alan Dean Foster
Rating: 2 out of 5The Story:The once great Republic is now crumbling. Many are beginning to question their leadership. Worlds are slowly seceding from the Republic. Four Jedi (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luminara Unduli and their respective Padawans, Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee) are sent to Ansion to do everything in their power to keep the world in the Republic. To do so, they must settle a local dispute. But can they solve this longstanding conflict between the two populations of Ansion?
Review:This book had so much potential, taking place right before Attack of the Clones. The main purpose of this book was to let people know what the setting is before the movie. It was basically two things: (1) The Republic is crumbling and (2) Anakin is very skilled, though with all his potential, there is still much risk involved. These two points we were constantly reminded of all throughout the book.Reading this book, I really got the impression that the author was just making it all up as he went along. I know to some degree that that is usually true, but it seemed as if there was about a 50-page story with 300 pages of filler that came from nowhere. In the latter part of the book, each new situation was just like the last one. It got rather predictable. And Ansion. I now know more about Ansion and their native species than I ever wanted to know. And speaking of species...Foster made up just about every alien species in this book with the exception of Twi'lek and Hutt (and Gossam is debatable). And to top it all, the one time he said it, he misspelled Tatooine (as Tattooine). And really, this is Star Wars; using the term "sucks" seems really out of place, pun or not. The few things I did like were getting to see more of Anakin and Obi-Wan, as well as getting to know two new Jedi. The four main characters were all done very well. As long as you remember the two points I listed above, you've got about all the "exciting prologue" to Attack of the Clones you'll need. |