Title: Attack of the Clones
Author: R.A. Salvatore
Pages: 344
Type: Love story / Adventure
Time: 22 BBY

Novel quality
Assuming you've all seen AOTC, I will focus on the differences between the novel and the movie and the extra depth the movie creates. The biggest and most important difference between the novel and the movie is the way the relationship between Anakin and Padme evolves during the story. I am not one of the people who think it was done badly in the movie, I actually loved it. However some of the changes seem to be happening a bit faster in the movie. The novel changes this by granting us a peak inside the brain of Anakin and Padme. For Anakin this doesn't change much, it was pretty clear what he wanted right from the start. For Padme it changes things dramatically. Her mind is a lot more in love than her appearance gives away. When she finally decides to tell Anakin that she loves him, it just feels good. A good job by Mr. Salvatore. We also get to see how much Schmi misses Anakin and the way the Lars family lives and "feels". Though this is quite irrelevant to the overall story, it does give the whole a more complete feeling and it adds some depth to Schmi, which is quite an important character after all. Another important difference between the novel and the movie is the information we get concerning the Jedi. Some dialogue has been included that would have been nice in the movie as well. Especially Yoda gets some more attention in the first half of the story. His thoughts and his connection with Qui-Gon really set him up as the great character he is. The last major difference is the part of Jango Fett. In the movie he is just some bad guy, while in the novel he really comes forth as sort of an anti-hero. He is in league with the wrong people and he obviously lacks sense of morality, but he is also a caring father who just wants to lay low and provide his kid with a good future. His battle-prowess comes across a lot better than in the movie and the way he treats and trains Boba explains why Boba will eventually become such a dangerous bounty hunter. He really is a simple man trying to make his way in the universe. Although the novel does provide us with some extra information about Count Dooku, we don't really get to know him a lot better. We hear a lot more about his past and his supposed skill, but learn nothing about his thoughts and motivations. Dooku is a really good character and it wouldn't have hurt to see more about him. Obi-Wan comes forward more or less the same as in the movie. His character is interesting and we see some more of the way he thinks about Anakin, but there isn't that much new going on there. So far for the differences in the storyline, we now move to the action scenes. Probably the biggest difference is the chase scene where Obi-Wan and Anakin chase Zam Wessel. This is a lot longer in the novel than it was in the movie and the way Mr. Salvatore describes it is really exciting. There is also some more depth in it because we see more interaction between Obi-Wan and Anakin. The rest of the action scenes are more or less the same with the exception of the last battle between Obi-Wan/Anakin and Dooku and later Yoda and Dooku. Especially the battle between Yoda and Dooku is even better than in the movie. The way Yoda is described makes him feel even more powerful than he felt in the movie. It's not really better, but it's definitely another look, one that doesn't hurt the story at all. This novel is quite well written and the characters development is rather good. Something that is done a bit less good is the battles. They aren't better than the ones in the movie and I feel Mr. Salvatore got a bit too much into details of the movements of the characters. It's not really necessary to describe every single move; it only makes the scenes less enjoyable. Overall this novel definitely adds to the movie by giving the characters more personality and by focusing more on the back-story. The flow of the story is a lot better than in the movie. The only downside is the extreme detail in which the battles are described. It makes them a bit less enjoyable than they could have been. If you want to enjoy the movies a bit more than you already do, I recommend reading this book. It makes the story a lot more complete.
Rating: 81/100

Personal tilt
After reading this novel AOTC feels a lot more "complete" to me than it did before. The greater detail in the characters of Jango Fett, Schmi Skywalker and others really adds to the story and to the experience. Jango Fett is really an awesome character! His actions and his skills make him one interesting character for me. In addition to this the love-story comes forward a lot better from the book than it did from the movie. Because of the access we get to the minds of the lovers, everything just makes a lot more sense. I would have liked to see more of Count Dooku and especially Darth Sidious, they are very important characters in the story and their characters don't really have any depth. In addition the way the battle scenes are described annoys me somewhat and prevents a high rating. Overall it's still a good novel and anyone Star Wars will probably enjoy it.
Rating: 80/100


Overall rating: 80.6/100

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For an overview of all reviews and a ranking see my Book review summary