Things that Star Wars authors do wrong...

[Captain Nebula]

I had to stop reading Star Wars novels because they just are awful. So I'm making a list of things that Star Wars authors do wrong or get wrong. Anyone can join in. These are in no particular order.

1.) They don't describe a person or creature.
- For example, they call someone a Bothan or a creature a Dewback, but then the reader has no idea what those look like. Sometimes they do this with equipment, too.

2.) They create people and creatures that can't be recognized with The Force.
- This is Star Wars. If you don't like The Force, go write something else. When Thrawn found one of the rarest of rare creatures in the galaxy, it was too much, and that should have been the end of it. But no...

3.) The phrase 'Force-sensitive'
- Who came up with this crap? It's nowhere in any movie. Is The Force strong with this one? Do they feel The Force flowing through them? Did these authors ever SEE a Star Wars movie?

4.) Changing the physics of the Star Wars galaxy.
- Yes, Kevin J. Anderson - I'm looking squarely at you. I like my starships to make sound in space, thank you.

Well, that's my 0.02 Republic dataries. Feel free to add to it.

 

[DarKush]

An interesting question here. It made me think what don't I like about Star Wars novels. I haven't read many of the Disney era novels so my complaints would be for the Del Ray books starting with the New Jedi Order series. Thinking back, I don't have a ton of complaints. Certainly I liked some stories and characters better than others, and I scratched my head and sometimes shook a fist at story directions (especially what how they dealt with Darth Caedus or Admiral Daala), but in terms of authors doing something wrong like I interpret your question to mean, there wasn't much I can think of off hand.

Though I do think there was a glut of bland Jedi, some of whom were 'fan favorites' from the games or what have you that didn't need to be in the stories as much as they were. I also think The Legacy of the Force and the Fate of the Jedi series had some overall vision problems. I liked what I read of the New Jedi Order, though I didn't read every book. I also was enjoying the Dark Nest trilogy-though I have yet to finish the third book. I also felt that Han & Leia were shoe-horned into some of the books way too much, whereas Lando didn't get enough attention. It's funny now how much I want to see the Big Three, or wanted to see the Big Three in the sequel films but was not a fan of them in the LOTF and FOTJ novels.

I think your first peeve is something Trek does as well sometimes. I guess they are writing with an assumption that the readers are somewhat in the know already about these things, and that tie-in fiction is not going to be as descriptive-or perhaps needs to be-as original science fiction. I mean, there's the films that have introduced a lot of the aliens and also ancillary material that provides illustrations of many Star Wars aliens, not to mention Wookieepedia. But all that being said, I do think it's a good point you raised.

I don't mind the creation of beings that can't be recognized with the Force because it presents the Jedi with new and different challenges.

 

[thribs]

Aren't the Vong the only creatures that can't be seen with the Force?
Don't see a problem with the phrase "force sensitive". Would you prefer Midichlorian count level?

 

[Awesome Possum]

I had to stop reading Star Wars novels because they just are awful. So I'm making a list of things that Star Wars authors do wrong or get wrong. Anyone can join in. These are in no particular order.

1.) They don't describe a person or creature.
- For example, they call someone a Bothan or a creature a Dewback, but then the reader has no idea what those look like. Sometimes they do this with equipment, too.

Yeah, but certain things are pretty well known. A dewback is one of the giant lizards the Sandtroopers used on Tatooine in A New Hope.

2.) They create people and creatures that can't be recognized with The Force.
- This is Star Wars. If you don't like The Force, go write something else. When Thrawn found one of the rarest of rare creatures in the galaxy, it was too much, and that should have been the end of it. But no...

Yeah, it's stupid. But they made the Force too crazy powerful and started needed excuses to limit it or impede it. If they had held back with the Force, they wouldn't have needed it.

3.) The phrase 'Force-sensitive'
- Who came up with this crap? It's nowhere in any movie. Is The Force strong with this one? Do they feel The Force flowing through them? Did these authors ever SEE a Star Wars movie?

It's really just an untrained Force user or implying that there are varying degrees of ability to tap into it.

4.) Changing the physics of the Star Wars galaxy.
- Yes, Kevin J. Anderson - I'm looking squarely at you. I like my starships to make sound in space, thank you.

Well, that's my 0.02 Republic dataries. Feel free to add to it.

There aren't sounds in books and any sound in a space battle is there for a viewing audience.

 

[The Wormhole]

They create people and creatures that can't be recognized with The Force.
- This is Star Wars. If you don't like The Force, go write something else. When Thrawn found one of the rarest of rare creatures in the galaxy, it was too much, and that should have been the end of it. But no...

That was in the old Legends continuity. The current Disney Canon forbids such things.

 

[thribs]

That was in the old Legends continuity. The current Disney Canon forbids such things.

Something like that would be far too interesting for the Disney canon.

 

[JD]

Is this just related to Legends EU or to the new canon too? I don't think much of this has popped up in the new canon yet, but I'm not familiar with all of the books and comics.

1.) They don't describe a person or creature.
- For example, they call someone a Bothan or a creature a Dewback, but then the reader has no idea what those look like. Sometimes they do this with equipment, too.

I'm not really that bothered by this, most of aliens and tech I'm either familiar with from the movies/shows/comics/games, and if I'm not I'll just look them up on Wookiepedia.

2.) They create people and creatures that can't be recognized with The Force.
- This is Star Wars. If you don't like The Force, go write something else. When Thrawn found one of the rarest of rare creatures in the galaxy, it was too much, and that should have been the end of it. But no...

I'm not bothered by this, it adds a nice bit of extra challenge for the Jedi to deal with.

3.) The phrase 'Force-sensitive'
- Who came up with this crap? It's nowhere in any movie. Is The Force strong with this one? Do they feel The Force flowing through them? Did these authors ever SEE a Star Wars movie?

It makes perfect sense to me, and the books need to introduce their own concepts if they want to do more that just repeat what we already got in the movies.

4.) Changing the physics of the Star Wars galaxy.
- Yes, Kevin J. Anderson - I'm looking squarely at you. I like my starships to make sound in space, thank you.

Meh, there's no sound in books, and technically there's no sound in space either, so I'm the least bothered by this one.

 

[thribs]

My issue with the new Disney canon books is because they’re all considered canon within the universe, nothing particularly interesting happens in them.
While it’s good to see novels actually get more attention into a franchise’s lore, because not that many people read them means that nothing that could be seen as important or influential will happen in them which is a disappointing side affect from it.

It’s one of the reasons I feel they should continue the Legends line. They can do stories there with the core characters that are important to their overall narrative.

 

[Tosk]

3.) The phrase 'Force-sensitive'
- Who came up with this crap? It's nowhere in any movie.

If the things you can reference must be mentioned in the movies, you just lost a lot of material.

 

[JD]

My issue with the new Disney canon books is because they’re all considered canon within the universe, nothing particularly interesting happens in them.
While it’s good to see novels actually get more attention into a franchise’s lore, because not that many people read them means that nothing that could be seen as important or influential will happen in them which is a disappointing side affect from it.

"Nothing important" happening in the books has nothing to do with them being canon, that's just how it works for tie-ins for an active franchise. Tie-ins are always secondary, so they are not going to effect the main story arc, because that has to be left for the primary mediums, in this case the books and TV shows.

It’s one of the reasons I feel they should continue the Legends line. They can do stories there with the core characters that are important to their overall narrative.

There was never even a chance the Legends EU could continue once work on the movies started, it is just to different from the new canon.

 

[thribs]

Star Wars can have more than one continuity. Most other franchises do.

 

[Ceridwen]

My issue with the new Disney canon books is because they’re all considered canon within the universe, nothing particularly interesting happens in them.

Give me five "nothing particularly interesting" novels like Bloodline before we go back to the "interesting" days of Legacy of the Force or Fate of the Jedi.

After those two series, the reboot was more of a mercy kill in my eyes.

 

[Tuskin38]

Something like that would be far too interesting for the Disney canon.

That tidbit came from George Lucas during the run of Clone Wars.
He told Filoni that nothing can not exist out side of the force.

 

[suarezguy]

3.) The phrase 'Force-sensitive'
- Who came up with this crap? It's nowhere in any movie. Is The Force strong with this one? Do they feel The Force flowing through them? Did these authors ever SEE a Star Wars movie?

Uh, how is this inconsistent? There indeed have always been characters stronger in the Force than others, how is the phrase therefore wrong (you think the movies claimed everyone had some Force sensitivity)?

 

[Kor]

Uh, how is this inconsistent? There indeed have always been characters stronger in the Force than others, how is the phrase therefore wrong (you think the movies claimed everyone had some Force sensitivity)?

Indeed. Luke's dialog from ROTJ made it clear: "The Force is strong in my family. My father has
it. I have it. And, my sister has it."

An obvious inference is that there are plenty of people in the SW universe who just don't "have it."

Kor

 

[thribs]

Give me five "nothing particularly interesting" novels like Bloodline before we go back to the "interesting" days of Legacy of the Force or Fate of the Jedi.

After those two series, the reboot was more of a mercy kill in my eyes.

Really? Things were starting to
Get interesting there.

 

[JD]

Star Wars can have more than one continuity. Most other franchises do.

Sure, but Lucasfilm chose not to go that route, and I can understand completely why they made that decision.
Don't most of the franchises with multiple continuities usually only one per medium going at a time? Like Transformers for example, I believe the movies are one continuity, while the comics are another, and the cartoons another. There are occasional movie universe comics and stuff, but the majority are their own thing.

 

[Captain Nebula]

Uh, how is this inconsistent? There indeed have always been characters stronger in the Force than others, how is the phrase therefore wrong (you think the movies claimed everyone had some Force sensitivity)?

You're misunderstanding the reason it bothers me. You see, in the movies, they don't say 'this person is Force-sensitive'. They say that 'the Force is strong with this one'. 'Force-sensitive' is not a term that is ever uttered in any Star Wars movie. This is my point. None of these authors are using anything that SOUNDS like a Star Wars movie.

Which one of these SOUNDS like Star Wars?

1.) A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
2.) A Jedi is Force-sensitive.

EDIT: Deleted rant. Sorry, it was uncalled for.

 

[thribs]

It depends if the chap is more into the science of the force or it’s mystical side.

 

[Tuskin38]

Which one of these SOUNDS like Star Wars?

1.) A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
2.) A Jedi is Force-sensitive.

They both sound like Star Wars to me as both terms have been used in the franchise for decades.

From a very quick research, the first use of force-sensitive or something similar was in the original novelization for A New Hope by Alan Dean Foster from 1976.