If you've seen THE PHANTOM MENACE(and who hasn't!) and you read this book before you see the movie than you may be dissapointed when you see it. Not that it's a bad movie just that the book adds soooo much more that you may wonder where it is when you see the film. Even though this is a great book I would definately recommend seeing the movie first just so you could visualize while you read. In conclusion, if you want to know a larger story on THE PHANTOM MENACE read this book but if you don't care about anything STAR WARS unless it's in the movies than don't bother with this or any other of the great STAR WARS novels , but you will regret it.