Liked the book very much!

To go and start throwing mud at the author because as someone put it, "he thinks he's a better writer than he is" is just stupid. You like the style he's giving you or you dont. Anyway... I loved the deeper plot and the descriptive angles the author takes. Fights are more than fights in the book. The lightsaber fighting between Dooku, Obi and Anakin is handled quite well. We learn more about the deception they use on the Count through different sword styles. Descriptions of the space battles are easy to follow and quite fun.

The real reason I like this book so much is the fact that it's a book. Taking the story and giving us the reader a full blow account of the details in the plot. Something like this is very difficult to pull of in film and it's why films rarely sing on the screen in comparison.

Worth the read and very entertaining.

fluff

annakin's conversion to the dark side was not convincing. the corruption of the human is one of the most fascinating and one of the most difficult subjects in literature to portray but this film flops in its attempt. i am not a star wars fan. all star wars films have too much fighting but this film has the most. i enjoy the scenery, the grand scale and the monstrous characters but the dialogue always fails. there should have been more wrangling in the senate. my senses need feed. i feel my serum gushing through crysto-canyons, splashing against knife-rocks, surging amidst storms of obsidian. i feel green gargoyles fire-breathing in jumbo, their eyes aflame with shock. banshees, victims of the thrash-night, howl through my scapes, refusing submission until their demands are gratified in copia.

kyle foley, author of lorelei pursued and wrestles with God

Overall a very good book, but for me, parts were...

Overall I really liked this book, since it goes into greater detail about some things only touched-upon briefly or not at all in the movie, but at some points the author's style became, at least for me, a little bit irritating.

Some things I enjoyed about this book were the explanations of the way Jedis are supposed to think, and their basic philosophy on life and friendship (as in, Jedi can be friends but they mustn't hesitate to kill everyone they care about if it will result in peace, and they also aren't allowed to ever get married). I also enjoyed getting more info about the way the Sith think (there are only ever two sith alive at any one time -- the master and one apprentice, and they let their passion and inward, selfish thoughts govern their actions).

This book also draws out and makes sense of certain scenes in the movie that are a bit confusing for the uninitiated. Count Dooku's duel with Annekin and the reasons for their duel are well-explained.

What a really didn't like very much about this book were the author's somewhat obvious attempts to add artistic flourishes to the book. His writing gets a bit flowery here and there, like he's trying to write classic literature in a F. Scott Fitzgerald sense instead of a contemporary action-drama. Also, sometimes his "This is what it feels like to be [insert character] right now..." gets annoying, like he thinks he's a better author than he really is and he's giving you some sensual, vicarious experience.

The few negatives hardly vitiate the many positives, among which the "turning" of Annekin by Palpatine is a well-written portion of the book. I also like the fact that Annekin actually acknowledges that Palpatine looks like a freak after his fight with Mace Windu, instead of the movie where Annekin never takes Palpatine aside and says "hey, I wasn't going to say anything, but what the heck happened to your face?"

I recommend this book, but I can't help but think that it could have been even better if a different author were chosen to adapt the screenplay. The story would have been basically the same, but maybe the different author would dump some of the pseudo-artistic literary flourishes that add a flat taste to some portions of the text.