Star Wars Books Thread

[Xerxes82]

I liked KOTOR but find Revan highly overrated.

I wonder how much of that comes from the fact that Revan was... well, you. The player. The reveal in KOTOR is pretty much the game's big "oh shit!" moment, where you realize that YOU are the Dark Lord of the Sith. Which colors the context of every choice you've made the entire game, for dark or light. The memory wipe plot allows them to both have the evil Revan character, and the complete cypher of the player character which you can project onto however you see fit and both are equally valid.

I feel like a lot of the propping up of Revan is due to that fact. Which is a little odd, because you don't see nearly as much for Meetra Surik, even though she is the "official" version of the player character from KOTOR2. Which could stem from the fact that KOTOR2 was such an unfinished game, or maybe that they had to give the character a name beyond simply The Exile to work her into any of the other Legends materials, thus killing some of that player projection vibe that is so strong with Revan.

 

[Reverend]

I give up in the early 2000s as well because there were too many books coming out at once and I didn't have time to read them while working 40 hours a week.

It wasn't just the quantity for me, but the quality too. 'Darksaber' turned into a great disappointment, the Corellian Trilogy was a bunch of meandering nothing, Crystal Star was utterly dire and I never even finished Planet of Twilight or the Black Fleet Crisis because they were so utterly forgettable (seriously, I can't remember a thing about either of them!) In hindsight I wished I'd gotten into the X-Wing novels back then, but I only got around to reading them just a few years ago....though even then, if I'm honest the quality of those just sort of tails off too, after the author switch.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah, there was no real hook for me after a time. The amount made it more daunting but I wasn't exactly invested from the word go.

 

[JD]

there's no reason to leave everything in reserved for movies or TV shows that realistically are never going to use them. Star Wars was active from 1999 until the Disney sale and still had Books and Comics that weren't just the story of Padme Amidala's second cousins roommate. there is so many characters they just need to do something. even if it's just stuff to set up characters for later live action or animated appearances, they could definitely be doing a lot more. I would kill even just to see something with d-listers like Kyle katarn or dash rendar, two characters which have less of a chance of appearing on Star Wars tv or film than ET does. I could name a dozen characters that will absolutely never be used by the movies or shows but can make really good books or comics. It's not like a character appearing in a book or comic first precludes TV or movies from doing anything with them, anyway, and it would be nice to have more people involved in making creative works than just the story group and a few of their friends .

there's also the characters whose fate we know but have years of History open. We're not going to be seeing young Luke or Leia movies or shows, so some more books to be nice. Phasma is dead, so how about a book or comic that actually gives her full backstory unlike the stuff we got with her so far?

The comics get a bit of Freedom with this, certainly more than the books do. If we can get a comic series all about the cyborg Bounty Hunter from the ancient comic days, we can get books about something more important then shitty recreations of Romeo and Juliet or tales of Padme Amidala in between prequels.

As for Darth Bane, he'll almost certainly never be used again. Dave filoni only likes to use characters he created, and I'm wondering if we'll even get another Star Wars film in the next decade, and even if we do it's not going to be using Darth Bane. Its pathetic how much they're hoarding characters they know they never going to use. We're not talking about Ahsoka or rex or something like that, we're talking about the dozens if not hundreds of characters that existed before Disney bought Star Wars that could make for some great stories and have no reason to be shelved for shows or films they're never going to appear in any way

Like usual, I'm the opposite, I like the fact that the books and comics are expanding the universe, and introducing new idea characters instead of just focusing on the big names.
And they aren't totally ignoring the movie characters, we've gotten several books focused on each of the major characters from all three trilogies, along with the Ahsoka book.
For me the whole reason the books exist is to fill in the gaps, and dive deep into the characters, they're not there move things forward or give us the big events, that's what the shows and movies are for.
They seem to have pretty much settled on specific purposes for each medium, the movies and shows are the big event stories, the comics give us the medium stories that fill in the gaps around the movies, and books give us the smaller more character driven stories. This works really well for me, because it's really playing to each medium's strengths.

 

[fireproof78]

Like usual, I'm the opposite, I like the fact that the books and comics are expanding the universe, and introducing new idea characters instead of just focusing on the big names.
And they aren't totally ignoring the movie characters, we've gotten several books focused on each of the major characters from all three trilogies, along with the Ahsoka book.
For me the whole reason the books exist is to fill in the gaps, and dive deep into the characters, they're not there move things forward or give us the big events, that's what the shows and movies are for.
They seem to have pretty much settled on specific purposes for each medium, the movies and shows are the big event stories, the comics give us the medium stories that fill in the gaps around the movies, and books give us the smaller more character driven stories. This works really well for me, because it's really playing to each medium's strengths.

I do really appreciate that aspect of recognizing that each medium has a specific strength and audience reach.

 

[JD]

StarWars.com has revealed the cover for the second The High Republic novel, The Rising Storm, along with an interview with it's author, Cavan Scott.

 

[Reverend]

I won't bother linking it since it's just a rumour and should be taken with a grain of salt regardless, but there's been some chatter (some as is typical claim to have inside sources) about a possible High Republic based animated series.

As rumours go, this one seems fairly credible just from a purely business standpoint. They're clearly making a big multimedia push for the the new High Republic era of storytelling, and the one missing component here to anchor it all is some kind of movie, show, or video game.
There has been talk of three animated projects being worked on by LF. We know one is the 'Bad Batch', and HR would seem like an obvious choice for the second, and if OTHER rumours are true, that'd make the Sabine/Ahsoka show the third.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I'm half expecting some kind of screen media for The High Republic at some point.
If they do go for a Ahsoka and Sabine series, I wonder if they'd have Ashley Eckstein or Rosario Dawson due her voice.
Have any of the books ever given an approximate timeframe for how much of "a long time ago" the franchise takes place?

 

[The Wormhole]

If they do go for a Ahsoka and Sabine series, I wonder if they'd have Ashley Eckstein or Rosario Dawson due her voice.

I see no reason to assume they wouldn't go with Ashley Eckstein. Just like The Bad Batch is still going to go with Dee Bradley Baker to do the Clone voices despite Temuera Morrison now playing Boba Fett on The Mandalorian.

 

[Skywalker]

A High Republic show would make sense as a companion piece to Bad Batch, with the former focusing on Jedi adventures and the latter focusing on military (well, mercenary) action/adventure.

 

[fireproof78]

Have any of the books ever given an approximate timeframe for how much of "a long time ago" the franchise takes place?

No. Why?

 

[JD]

I've been thinking about trying my hand at a modern day Star Wars story, and I was curious if any official sources have ever given an Earth date for the stories we've gotten. I know I can just make things up, but I wanted to stick as close as I could to the official stuff.

 

[fireproof78]

I've been thinking about trying my hand at a modern day Star Wars story, and I was curious if any official sources have ever given an Earth date for the stories we've gotten. I know I can just make things up, but I wanted to stick as close as I could to the official stuff.

Lucas treated "long time ago" as "once upon a time." So, I would be surprised if anything ever nailed down a specific date and I doubt it would hold much weight any way.

 

[Reverend]

I've been thinking about trying my hand at a modern day Star Wars story, and I was curious if any official sources have ever given an Earth date for the stories we've gotten. I know I can just make things up, but I wanted to stick as close as I could to the official stuff.

Yeah, that's really not something that should be quantified. That way lies madness and fan fiction Star Trek/Doctor Who crossovers...

Here's the thing with Star Wars; it's meant to be a fairy tale. You could jump things forward 25,000 years to a time when Luke Skywalker really IS a myth and it'll still be "...A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far Far Away..."

 

[JD]

I finished up Rebel Rising last night, and I really liked it. It was basically a biography for Jynn, starting before the end of the Rogue One opening scene, and going all the way past her rescue from the prison. It really did a great job of showing why she felt the way she did about both the Empire and the Rebellion, and where all of the skills she had came from. It also got a bit darker than I was expecting at times. If you like Rogue One or Jyn Erso at all, I highly recommend it. Don't let the fact that it's technically a YA book scare you off, it really doesn't go into any of the tropes you typically expect from a YA book.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I loved Rebel Rising! Glad you enjoyed it!

 

[JD]

I'm finding myself tempted to give some of Beth Revis's original stuff a try once I get through more of the stuff I already own and haven't read.

 

[David cgc]

I just finished the ESB edition of "From A Certain Point of View." I enjoyed it. Personal highlights that initially come to mind were the L3 story, the Imperial Smashed By The Asteroid story, the space-slug story, and the revelation that Cloud City had its own version of Emperor Norton.

 

[Reverend]

I finished up Rebel Rising last night, and I really liked it. It was basically a biography for Jynn, starting before the end of the Rogue One opening scene, and going all the way past her rescue from the prison. It really did a great job of showing why she felt the way she did about both the Empire and the Rebellion, and where all of the skills she had came from. It also got a bit darker than I was expecting at times. If you like Rogue One or Jyn Erso at all, I highly recommend it. Don't let the fact that it's technically a YA book scare you off, it really doesn't go into any of the tropes you typically expect from a YA book.

I loved Rebel Rising! Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm pretty sure I've said this already somewhere here, but I rather thing that 'Catalyst', 'Rebel Rising', and the Rogue One novelization make up what is a surprisingly tight, coherent and comprehensive trilogy, which I shall henseforth dub "The Erso Saga".

 

[JD]

I haven't read the Rogue One novelization yet, but I was surprised just how well Catalyst and Rebel Rising flow together. There are several references to stuff that happened in Catalyst in Rebel Rising.