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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Sure, we know how it ends, but how did it begin?
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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
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By Terry Brooks
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Ballantine Books
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$25.00/$35.00 Canada
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Hardcover, May 1999
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ISBN 0-345-42765-3
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Review by Mark H. Walker
 long time ago there was a galaxy far, far away. In this galaxy were star systems where problems between various species festered. Truth be known, there were only two unifying entities in the entire smorgasbord: the Republic Senate and the Jedi.
The Senate, a political hotbed of self-centered officials, was too embroiled in
itself to govern effectively. The Jedi? Well, the Jedi never hoped to rule, only to assist the greater workings of the Force throughout the universe. This lack of leadership created a power vacuum, and the time was right for its filling.
Into the void stepped Darth Sidious, leader of the Sith Lords, and his protege,
Darth Maul (that menacing fellow with the red and black face). The Lords are the Jedi's sworn
enemies. Although presumed extinct after a climatic battle a thousand years
previous, the Lords have returned with both a seething hatred of the Jedi and a plan for galactic domination. It begins with a Sith Lord-inspired assault on the planet Naboo--an assault carried out by the Trade Federation--and ends with, well...Star Wars.
In the plan's way stand Qui-Gon, a Jedi Master; Qui-Gon's understudy, Obi-Wan; the beautiful Queen Amidala; and a young Jedi wannabe, Anakin Skywalker. The Phantom Menace is their story, and the opening to what is arguably the largest science fiction pop-epic of all time.
Lucas' universe, Brooks' book
The Phantom Menace is an excellent piece of work. Author Terry Brooks knows how to spin a tale, seed it with thought-provoking passages, enrich it, and move it along. Star Wars is a simple formula. There is no room for the complexity found in works like Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy or Peter Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction. Yet within this relatively confined story, Brooks has deepened the universe with fleshed-out believable characters.
Qui-Gon, the elder Jedi, is as headstrong as he is wise. His well-intentioned
crusade to assimilate young Skywalker into the order creates a delicious tension with the reader's knowledge of what Anakin will become. But the touching, real characters don't stop with this admirable Jedi. Brooks breathes a lovable man-boy persona into Anakin, suffuses Princess Amidala with a regal beauty, and injects humor with Star Wars' answer to Jerry Lewis, Jar Jar.
The action itself is fast and effortless. Podracers scream through Tatooine's sandy canyons, light-sabers crackle as Qui-Gon slashes Darth Maul, and blaster bolts rip through the Princess Amidala's palace as the Naboo troops struggle to retake their planet. Like a good Indiana Jones flick, readers will have to remind themselves to breath. So what if the Naboo battle scene has supposedly high-tech tanks and battle droids lined up shoulder to shoulder as if they were Napoleonic musketeers? No one is perfect.
And perhaps, in a subtle manner, the book has a little more to say than most
genre novels. Jar Jar throws up his hands in dismay at his bad luck: "Why me
always the one?" Anakin replies, "Because you're afraid...Fear attracts the
fearful." Qui-Gon coaches Anakin, "Your focus determines your reality." Good
words from a good book.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is a good book. A top-notch tome that throws everything most readers enjoy into a tasty stew. There is tension, memorable characters, fast action, and a little something to think about. A galaxy from long ago, from far away, has a new sage. His name is Terry Brooks.
As of this writing I've yet to see the movie. Perhaps much of what I liked was
Lucas' idea. Nevertheless, this is a well-written page-turner.
-- Mark
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Far Horizons
New stories from science fiction's most famous universes
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Far Horizons
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Edited by Robert Silverberg
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Avon Books
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$27.50/$39.50 Canada
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Hardcover, May 1999
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ISBN 0-380-97630-7
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Review by Clinton Lawrence
 ar Horizons is the science fiction companion to Robert Silverberg's 1998 original anthology Legends. In Legends, Silverberg asked well-known fantasy authors to write new stories based on their most famous series or setting. In Far Horizons, Silverberg has done the same thing for science fiction, coaxing new tales from the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin and David Brin.
The anthology starts out with Le Guin's "Old Music and the Slave Woman," in which an Ekumen diplomat is kidnapped by representatives of the government of Werel who hope to use him as a propaganda tool against revolutionaries. Joe Haldeman's "A Separate War" documents the adventures of Marygay Potter during her separation from William Mandella in The Forever War. Andrew Wiggin meets his artificial intelligence companion, Jane, in Orson Scott Card's story from the Ender series, "Investment Counselor." In Brin's new Uplift story, "Temptation," a group of dolphins are marooned on a planet where they encounter alien artifacts. In Silverberg's "Getting to Know the Dragon," part of his Roma Eterna series, a prominent scholar tries to study the life of one of Rome's great emperors while distracted by the demands of the mad crown prince.
Dan Simmons returns to his Hyperion Cantos series with "Orphans of the Helix," in which a ship of interstellar settlers responds to a distress call from old offshoot of humanity. In "Sleepless Dogs," Nancy Kress returns to her Sleepless series to tell the story of a family who buys sleepless puppies, hoping to turn them into guard dogs they can sell. In Frederik Pohl's "The Boy Who Would Live Forever," a young American orphan stranded in Turkey dreams of flying the Heechee ships. In Gregory Benford's "A Hunger for the Infinite," a mech is turning captive humans into art forms. Anne McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Returned" tells the story of a planet of peaceful religious settlers and its impending invasion by a race of brutal pirates. The book closes with Greg Bear's "The Way of All Ghosts," in which a team must close the portal to a neighboring universe.
Fine stories, but worthy of their predecessors?
Most of the stories in Far Horizons are good, while a few are outstanding. Silverberg's own "Getting to Know the Dragon" is the best of the lot, especially toward the end, where the protagonist makes a discovery that significantly alters his view of his research subject, one that he also has an emotional attachment to. LeGuin's "Old Music and the Slave Woman" is a fine anthropological work that explores the conflict on Werel, one of the planets she first featured in her novella collection Four Ways to Forgiveness. Kress, as usual, creates a vivid and personal tale that focuses on character. Bear and Benford both twist the conventions of hard science fiction to effectively create a surrealistic atmosphere in their stories. The stories by Pohl, Brin, and Simmons are also enjoyable.
Haldeman's "A Separate War" is a good read too, but it's a bit of a letdown compared to the parallel account in The Forever War--without the context of the novel, the story just doesn't reach a comparable emotional power. Similarly , McCaffrey's "The Ship Who Returns" is a solid, entertaining piece, though it's not particularly special. The one story that really falls short, however, is Card's "Investment Counselor," a mostly tedious account of the tax problems Andrew Wiggin faces when a retirement trust fund is released to him. If anything, this tale probably demonstrates why tax accounting should be avoided in fiction.
Although even the best of these stories may not capture the magic of their parent series, they do provide new perspectives, filling in gaps in some instances, and serving as an excellent introduction for those who haven't read some of the series. While everyone probably has a list of favorite series not represented here, Silverberg has assembled a very worthwhile collection. Hopefully, he'll have the chance to do more anthologies like this.
Now I'm going to have to add more books to my list of things to read.
-- Clint
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