This is a full-blown political novel in the Star Wars Legend Universe and a prequel to the Phantom Menace movie novelization.

This novel follows 5 storylines. Qui-gon chasing a pirate that disturbs peace in the galaxy. Supreme Chancellor Valorum in the Senate. Senator Palpatine, who manages his politics. Darth Sidious, who manipulates the trade federation and Havoc fighting for the unfairness of his people.

This was a chessboard, and watching how the pieces were moved to create the avalanche towards everything that had been set in motion with devastation that had fallen the Republic.

Yes, it has battle scenes, but that was not the main theme of this. If you find the politics in Star Wars boring . . . skip this novel.

I enjoyed watching everything fall into place. Senator Palpatine was one smart individual. He thought everything through. Every little detail is planned. ( )

While this is not the sort of Star Wars book I really like, I can definitely appreciate what it did for making sense of the taxation dispute that happened in The Phantom Menace. The entire blockade of Naboo and it's justification has always befuddled me, so having a book that gets into the background of tax legislation in the Galactic Senate and Palpatine's role in all that is helpful. Not super fun for me, because I've never been all that interested in political thrillers, but still a solid addition to the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Seeing how extremely convoluted the plan to make Palpatine chancellor - and eventually emperor - was was a little mind blowing because it almost felt like he was just adding extra layers because he wanted to prove to himself how clever he was, and not because it was actually essential to achieve his goals. Which fits with Palpatine's egotism, to be sure. Bit of a headache to puzzle out, though.

I will say, though, that the way Palpatine's thoughts were portrayed in the book was very strange. It was like our third-person omniscient narrator didn't know that Palpatine and Sideous were the same person? I actually had a small crisis wondering if I had somehow misremembered if the audience was supposed to know the connection at the point this book was published or not. But, everyone definitely knew. So the fact that Palpatine is kind of portrayed as a little oblivious at times and not obviously plotting as Sideous as we know very well he is, was disconcerting and a very strange narrative choice. Luceno wouldn't have been giving anything away if he had more explicitly portrayed Palpatine plotting behind the scenes, so it felt weird that he abstained for doing that. ( )

An immediate prequel to Episode 1. I never was a big fan of Qui Gon, so that aspect of things didn't appeal to me. This was more a book of the politics of the day and as such, wasn't very exciting. More about Palps manipulating things. That was interesting :-)
One thing I did like was the inclusion of Vergere. I wish we had the actual story of her turning though.

Sadly, this was much like of most of Luceno's Star Wars books. Not badly written, but not exciting by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't recommend this to a casual Star Wars fan. ( )

This was a great entry into the Star Wars universe. Solid writing that really captures the feel of Star Wars action and scene setting. It's a good lead up to Episode 1 and gives you a bit more back story. ( )

This was a great entry into the Star Wars universe. Solid writing that really captures the feel of Star Wars action and scene setting. It's a good lead up to Episode 1 and gives you a bit more back story. ( )