As a tie-in novel to Attack of the Clones, The Approaching Storm fills in the time period immediately before the film. Jedi Knights Obi Wan Kenobi and Luminara Unduli, along with their Padawan learners Anakin Skywalker and Barriss Offee, must travel to the planet Ansion in an attempt to stop the planet from joining the Separatist alliance.

Penned by Alan Dean Foster, the famous ghostwriter of the original Star Wars film's novelization, this book offers the first canonical introduction to several characters who would ultimately play big roles in the future of both the war and the saga.