Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Brooks, Terry

ISBN 10: 0375407448 ISBN 13: 9780375407444

Publisher: Random House Audio, 1999

Synopsis

This limited edition CD audiobook collectible package features the complete and unabridged, eight-CD recording of STAR WARS®: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE™, written by Terry Brooks and performed by Alexander Adams. Fully mixed with the original John Williams STAR WARS music, it also showcases full sound effects from the film. The special ninth CD contains a candid interview with George Lucas. Only 3,500 of the limited edition have been created and each is numbered for collectors' purposes.

Hand cut and assembled, each copy of this specially designed, black matte package features two lenticulars (also known as "shifting photos"), which depict key scenes and characters from the movie. In full color, these lenticulars bring to life the excitement and awe that THE PHANTOM MENACE inspires in all its viewers.

About this title

Review

Alexander Adams, the actor who reads this full-length novelization of Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, actually manages to do Jar Jar better than Jar Jar himself. Although he does sound a bit like a well-meaning dad doing an impression of the gangly amphibian for his kids, that added bit of restraint and unaffected goofiness actually works. Likewise, Adams's voice--all earnest and NPR-smooth--does good service to the rest of the cast, especially with Jedi teacher Qui-Gon Jinn and (surprisingly) Queen Amidala. (Only Anakin proves a little hard on the ears at first, perhaps a little too nasal.) The book's narrative receives the same competent treatment as the dialogue, with the added oomph of both John Williams's stirring score--woven in unobtrusively--and short suites of Lucasfilm sound effects that accompany every spike in the action, whether it's R2's beeping or the metallic bang of blaster fire.

Modern marketing has made movie novelizations a necessary evil and hence suspect, but Terry Brooks proves a deft embellisher of Lucas's well-loved epic, skillfully splicing in scenes and dialogue to fill out the breakneck, foreshadowing-filled story line of Phantom Menace. But that shouldn't be surprising: Brooks has long been the equal or better of Lucas when it comes to storytelling, most notably in his long-lived Shannara series, which began with The Sword of Shannara back in 1977, the same year Star Wars hit theaters. (Running time: 9.5 hours over eight discs) --Paul Hughes

From the Back Cover

"Fans expecting a typical movie novelization--one that simply parrots the screenplay for Episode I--will be pleasantly surprised. Brooks, with Lucas' cooperation, has created something else altogether; a larger story that includes all of what you've seen onscreen, but also delves deeply into the history of the galaxy and the life and mind of Anakin Skywalker."
--The Star Wars Insider

"BREATHLESS . . . FILLED WITH ACTION FROM PAGE ONE."
--The New York Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0375407448
• ISBN 13: 9780375407444
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English