I just finished 283 pages that is/was THE PHANTOM MENACE by Terry Brooks. That many pages in three days may be a record for me.

Anyway, here are my observations from the latter part of the book:

First off, the author did not make it clear that Palpatine and Sidious were the same person. I felt that it wasn't made clear in the initial film either. Yes, I knew the same actor was playing them and I knew Palpatine becomes the Emperor (thanks to James Kahn and the RETURN OF THE JEDI novel), but I did not know HOW he would become Emperor. My theory from 1999-2004 was that Palpatine and Sidious would merge into the same being. I saw Palpatine as a cunning, scummy politician, but thought that perhaps instead of being a master mind he was simply fresh fruit ripe for an evil force like Sidious to overtake. Anyway, I found it interesting that Brooks left the whole Palpatine-Sidious thing somewhat loose, maybe in 1999 no one knew how it would end up.

Believe it or not, there are actually portions (small though they are) where Jar Jar displays not only some intelligence, but genuine wisdom. I've never been a complete Jar Jar hater, but the book is much more kind to Jar Jar than the movie.

I was disappointed that Obi-Wan was still the dutiful student of Qui-Gon who only trained Anakin as a favor to his former "Master". I would like Old Ben's words of Anakin to be true, "he was a good friend", but I have seen little evidence of that in the films (really only saw it in Episode III) and have thus not seen it at all in the books (although Obi-Wan comes off as somewhat less of a jerk).

I am looking forward to beginning ATTACK OF THE CLONES. "Clones", as my frequent readers will know, is my LEAST favorite of the six films, but perhaps a good book adaptation will make me have second thoughts.