The Phantom Menace

The Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, young Obi-Wan Kenobi, are charged with the protection of Amidala, the Queen of Naboo, as she seeks to end the siege of her planet by Trade Federation warships. This quest brings Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and one of the Queen's young handmaidens to the sand-swept streets of Tatooine — and to the shop where the slave boy Anakin Skywalker toils and dreams of finding a way to win freedom from enslavement for himself and his beloved mother. His only hope lies in his extraordinary instincts and his strange gift for understanding the "rightness" of things. It is this unexpected meeting that marks the beginning of the drama that's become the sci-fi legend of our time.

The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977, and since then the stories of life in a galaxy far, far away have continued to capture the imaginations of viewers — and readers. Each Star Wars novelization is full of action, details, and memorable characters — plus eight pages of color photos from the movie it's based on.