I'm about mid way through it and I agree, AOTC's novel was much better. I read an interview on starwars.com with the author when they previewed the book, he said he didn't like Anakin. And he's also a huge Mace fan since he also wrote Shatterpoint, which explains his depiction of Mace during the fight with Palps. In general I still like the book, but I'm mainly just reading it for the cut scenes from the film so I get a better idea of what was going on than a two hour movie could show. I do really like how in the begining, he shows how the galaxy at large views the Jedi and how Ani and Obi are heroes to little kids.