Attack of the Clones

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I really enjoyed this book...surprise, surprise. You'll find that, unless I absolutely loathe something, that I'm pretty happy with most things or can at least find the good.
And there was lots of good to find in this book.

As with The Phantom Menace, I really think these are must reads for die hard Star Wars fans. The books add the depth that the movies can't because of time constraints. As well as the inner dialogue that is absolutely necessary, especially when it comes to understanding Anakin's inner turmoil.
Where the movie feels rushed and sloppy, the book takes the time to explain Anakin's journey to the Dark Side.

I was also really intrigued with how RA Salvatore added the parts about Yoda. And how he starts to understand what it means to balance the Force. It's like he knows the cost. And that is really interesting. There is also mention of Yoda exploring the Dark Side. And they also explain more about the Qui-Gonn connection which sadly gets blown over in the movie. I enjoyed that immensely.

The one thing that I still have trouble understanding, that neither book, nor movie really explained was the Jango connection. How could he be involved as the original clone template for the Republic via the Cloners on Kamino and Sifo-Dyas and also working for Count Dooku and the Separatists.
Is this just Palpatine having his hands in all the different pots? I'm sure they connected it, I just missed it and was still confused about it.
Did anyone else get a clear feeling for what was going on there?

[Jay]

I agree the Jango Fett issue is broached by Salvatore, but never actually cleared up. I'm also in the dark about if it was truly Sifo-Dyas that contracted for the clones or Palpatine/Sidious posing as him. Could go either way....Palpatine could have put Syfo-dyas up to it, and then somehow arranged his death as well. And who erased the data from the Jedi Archives? My thoughts were that it could have been Dooku, but he was surprised at the appearance of the clone army, so it's not likely he erased a planet of cloners from the databases. There are a lot of unanswered parts of this mystery that have never been addressed to the best of my knowledge. Can't blame Salvatore for that....has to go back to the source material.

As you may have seen in my review, I truly enjoyed the expanded character bits and scenes as well. The motivations behind wanting Padme dead have always bugged me, but Salvatore does a good job of trying to make sense of that. And giving Nute Gunray a meatier piece is great in accomplishing that as well.

I also enjoyed seeing the expansion of the relationship between Jango and Boba. Both characters got such a short shrift in the movie that building those scenes in the book made me feel better, and as a father, it connected me more to those characters.