If you already have the four one-shot comics, this trade paperback doesn't have much to recommend it other than the inclusion of 16 extra pages at the end from the hard-to-find The Phantom Menace 1/2. Each one-shot artist/writer team apparently created four more pages for their character -- Anakin, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Amidala respectively -- and they're definitely worth a read if you enjoyed the one-shots. However, they're all just jammed together without anything to delineate them, which I found confusing and disjointed at first. Anakin's pages deal with the treachery of the other podracers as they make their deals and arrangements prior to the race. Qui-Gon's pages give us more insight into the Master Jedi and his attitudes toward slavery, even attempting to expain why he doesn't simply liberate the slaves. Obi-Wan's pages contain his reflections on why Anakin might make a good Jedi after all. Amidala's pages, unfortunately, contain a lot of Jar-Jar interaction. His dialogue is bad enough to listen to -- in written form it's excruciating. I could barely make myself read this one.

The cover for this TPB has to be the ugliest, most uninspired cover for anything Dark Horse has put out in the Star Wars line. (Vader's Quest comes in a close second.) It's a photo collage of the four characters backed by other images from the films, but the photos certainly were not chosen for their visual appeal -- they are bland, at best. Not only that, but Obi-Wan's face has been reversed, and his braid has been erased. Why? The publisher would have done much better to ask Timothy Bradstreet, who created the art covers for the one-shots, to work his magic for the cover of this anthology. But then again, I think any first-year art student could have come up with a more appealing cover than what we got.

Overall, I'd give this book a C. If you really love the one-shots, you've been waiting for the trade paperback, or you're a completist, you'll want to get this. Otherwise, don't bother.

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(Toryn Farr knew everything about Star Wars back in 1977 thanks to Starlog Magazine. She's been trying to keep her know-it-all reputation ever since. During the 90 minutes per day her preschooler is napping, Toryn attempts to run an internet design business and write fantasy fiction.)