The Approaching Storm (Star Wars)

Rating:
Summary: this is what happened just before Attack of the Clones
Review: Early in "Attack of the Clones" there is a line stating that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker will be available to help protect Padme Amidala because they have just returned from a mission on Ansion? This seems to be just a throwaway line in the movie, a tiny bit of detail to provide coloring to the scene. In the larger Star Wars Universe, we now wonder what it was that Obi-Wan and Anakin were doing. What was this mission? "The Approaching Storm" is the story of this mission to Ansion.

Ansion is a small, unimportant planet. At least, that is how things appear to be on the surface. In reality, Ansion is a very important planet. It is tied with treaties and agreements to numerous other nearby planets and this makes the threats that Ansion might secede from the Republic to be very serious. If Ansion secedes, an entire star system will be pulled with it. To stop this secession, Chancellor Palpatine requests the Jedi Council send a couple of Jedi to Ansion to find a diplomatic solution to quietly find a way to keep Ansion in the Republic. The Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luminara Unduli, and their Padawan apprentices Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee.

"The Approaching Storm" is somewhat of an adventure story. It is well paced, has humor, some action and some politics. What I liked best about this novel was the characters of Luminara and Barriss. We got to see some of their perspective, but I would love to see a novel focus on these two characters. They provide a perfect counter balance to Anakin and Obi-Wan, and give a greater look at the variety of personalities in the Jedi Order.

Alan Dean Foster was the ghostwriter of the first Star Wars novelization, and he wrote the first Extended Universe novel "Splinter of the Mind's Eye". His latest Star Wars novel had a great feel to it, and it was so fast paced that I was able to easily finish it in two days. This isn't high literature, but it was certainly entertaining.

-Joe Sherry

Rating:
Summary: Another good edition to Star Wars
Review: I was quite excited to learn that there was a prologue to Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, so I couldn't wait to read The Approaching Storm. It tells of Obi-Wan and Anakins daring mission on the planet Anison...

Anison is a very important planet to the Republic, but it is in danger of joining the secessionist movement. Because of Ansion's many treaties, if it seceeds, many others will also follow. The urban dewellers on Anison are tired of the constant control of the Republic, wanting to expand into the prairies outside the cities, but always stopped by the Ansion nomads and the constant rules of the Republic. If their demands are not met they will secede---and the already fragile Republic will weaken even more. To keep the peace the Jedi Council sends two Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan and Luminara Unduli(you've got it! she is a lady! YEAH!) along with their two Padawan learners Anakin and Barriss to settle the conflict and hopefully sign a peace treaty between the two conflicting sides. As the Jedi soon find out, their journey won't be easy... Not only are natural diasters in their way---there are man-made ones as well---for someone wants their mission to fail...

I really did enjoy this book by my longtime favorite Alan Dean Foster. I wish I could give it 5 stars but there were some glaring weaknesses. For one, I thought at times there was too much detail in one area and too little in places that needed more. The action scenes(what little there was) were not really well described. On the other hand there were pages describing different nomadic tribes the Jedi come upon in their journey. The first time it was actrully nice to read about the tribes, but by the second and third time it just became a total waste of time and paper, which made the story slow going. Othewise I really did enjoy this book. Probably my favorite part of this book was that there were actrully female Jedi(Luminara and Barriss). The two happen to be my favorite characters in this book. They truly bring a whole new atmosphere to this book. The Approaching Storm is definitely a worthy edition to Star Wars.

Rating:
Summary: amazed and confused
Review: I'm not sure what to think about all of the positive reviews I've read for this newest entry into the Star Wars literary universe.

I for one have been a fan of Star Wars novels for quite some time, and I have found enjoyment in a great many of them, but "The Approaching Storm" left me feeling quite empty. While some have praised its slow, drawn out pacing, I found it to be unnecessarily tedious. Some have been excited about the more in depth look at an older Anakin. I found it overbearing in its attempt to portray the young Padawan as 'conflicted'. Some have enjoyed the introduction of Luminara Unduli. I found many of her scenes to be inconsistant portrayals of the Jedi philosophy.

The so-called character development between Obi-Wan and Anakin consisted mostly of Anakin being brash while Obi-Wan gave him stern looks.

The so-called refreshing pace was less the result of methodical character development as it was a strained desire to draw out the plot of a short story into a full blown novel. The plot, 4 Jedi traveling across the plains in search of nomads with whom important negotiations must be enacted, is not necessarily a bad one. But most of the their journey is spent foiling the dasterdly plans of the standard Hutt villian, Seorgg. The true villians are in fact supposed to be a group of businesspersons and politicians, but their scenes were mostly spent being shifty-eyed and swapping standard bad-guy dialogue. All of the bad guys in "Storm" are pretty pedestrian when contrasted against the far more cunning and dymanic villians of post-ROTJ novels, such as Borsk Fey'lya or the Yuuzhan Vong.

The inconsistant depiction of the Jedi is also a pretty glaring flaw. Consider Luminara Unduli. While there are many attempts to portray her as a thoughtful and serious Jedi Master, she has many scenes which contradict how one might expect a Jedi to act. When she meets two different species native to the same world, she seems oblivious to the prejudice they feel for one another. Are Jedi so naive that they do not understand prejudice? In another scene, she becomes confused when a tribe of Ansionians do not throw her a going-away party, when earlier in the book, she discusses how Jedi do not believe in any kind of extravagances. And in what may have been the most jarring scene in the novel, Jedi Luminara begins an important negotiation (in fact, the crux of her mission) by using her Jedi powers to pour several glasses of water on an antagonistic ambassador. Foster's Jedi are true diplomats.

Throw in overly-expository dialogue, contrived plot twists, and a cartoon like supporting cast (Tooqui ranks right up there with Jar Jar in the field of needless inclusion of comic relief) and what you end up with is a dull and quite unsubtle attempt on Alan Dean Foster's part to create a serious, character driven Star Wars book.

This one is for completionists only.

Rating:
Summary: gulp
Review: Okay, so I may be a little late with my review but that's because I started reading this only just a couple of months ago, and I'm still wrestling through it. I'm one of those guys who think that if I miss one book I may miss a lot. With this one, I just keep forgetting what's being written. Basically because there are things happening that're really really not important; So what if there are creatures filled with air on this planet Ansion that need their existence explained in oh so many pages, and how about all those stupid rituals and traditions those locals live by, pfff. That's when I started to ask myself why these tribesmen were so important and why is this planet of cavemen so important for the safety of the Republic??? At first I thought only the female writers were doing a bad job of capturing the true spirit of Star Wars. (anybody read Dark Journey? Yuk!) With Foster it's clear that he isn't interested in writing Star Wars, he's just interested in writing; Mass production of many many many words that make up many many boring sentences.

So uh, can anybody tell me how it ends?

Rating:
Summary: Should have been released after the movie...
Review: This story takes place just before the opening of "Episode II", but after reading it, I felt it would probably make more sense after seeing the new movie. The political climate is easy enough to understand; it was the characterizations I had problems with. New characters like Luminara Unduli and Bariss Offee are introduced, but the author doesn't give us any background information or develop their personalities very well. Also suffering are familiar characters, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, who are portrayed completely different here than they were in "Episode I". Yes, ten years have supposedly passed, but I want to know WHY Anakin is suddenly so arrogant, blood-thirsty and self-centered. Count Dooku is supposedly pulling all the strings and causing all the grief in this story, but since he is only mentioned a couple of times in the whole book, his involvement here leaves me scratching my head. Most of the problems the Jedi encountered had little to do with what was happening in the plot. Birds and tumbleweeds--well, you'll see. There was very little action or excitement and too much political setup. Even the book's cover is deceiving. Obi-Wan and Anakin are secondary characters. The story actually centers around Luminara and Bariss. Disappointing, all around.