So a few weeks back I was on a major Star Wars kick and decided on a whim to pick up the 20th Anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire and thus decided to pick up the other two offerings in what is the Thrawn Trilogy.

All things considered, it was a good tale. Definitely could hear the characters voices in my head, but I really do have to express some disappointment with how The Last Command ended.

On one hand, the C'boath encounter went on for way too long and got way too silly by the end (Force Screams and Prequel-esque Flashy Finales with the roof being torn down on them). It ended well enough though.

On the other, Thrawn was offed far too quickly and without sufficient build up.

I dunno. I enjoyed it enough that I picked up Outbound Flight to get the backstory on C'boath and Thrawn, but ultimately I felt the payoff was a little too lackluster. The Jedi fight was too extended, and the fleet battle far too shoe horned in. And again, Thrawn went down like a chump - especially on a well lit command bridge. I'd have much preferred him to simply have been outmaneuvered. Thrawn's genius was a touch overplayed and I think it would have served the story better if he'd simply made a tactical mistake and paid for it.

I remember when reading it that each novel didn't feel like an individual "movie", but just a third of a big long stream of events. The first two books didn't really have big climaxes (especially the first one, which ended on a piddly battle over some drilling equipment).

But I really dug Thrawn as a replacement villain to lead the Empire's forces; I kinda wish he'd hung around in the EU, but at least he hasn't had his dignity robbed from him by being brought back as a clone like Palpatine. If the Thrawn Trilogy was a more sophisticated look at the EU, the Dark Empire Trilogy is a big dumb action movie take on it (that apparantly was written without any knowledge of the Thrawn Trilogy, so it's wildly inconsistent).

Mara Jade and Pelleon were awful characters, though. Especially Pelleon, who existed strictly to be elicit exposition from Thrawn. 99% of his dialogue constituted, "What so you mean, sir?" "How is that possible, sir?" "Do you think that is wise, sir?"

Someone told me that he was essentially Dr. Watson to Thrawn's Sherlock, but all that analogy has succeeded in doing is making me hate Dr. Watson, too.

And Mara is like every bad fanfic come to life.


...ANYWAY, I'm complaining a lot. Even if it lacked some spectacle here and there, I genuinely liked where it went with the characters and how they were all portrayed. I'd REALLY love to have seen all the Kashyyk scenes adapted in some way (was never satisfied with what we got in ROTS). The Noghri were a great supporting race of aliens and a nice counter balance to stuff like the Ewoks.

I picked up the hardback comic book adaptation of the trilogy but haven't read it yet. Just going by the novels, I think they were a good read and felt like a natural progression of the characters and the politics of the universe. They'd make good Episodes 7, 8 and 9 (which they were essentially conceived as, anyway).

It's been years since I read it (when it was first released), but I agree with all that you have said, I still think it would have made a better new trilogy of movies than the prequels but that's neither here nor there. The rumor is also that C'boath was originally going to be a clone of Obi-Wan but was told that was not going to happen by His Holiness, and if you think about it it makes more sense that way, also would have added more to the Clone Wars mythology.

I often find myself wondering if Zahn regrets killing Thrawn off after his first story arc, thereby relegating all future appearances to flashbacks (or rumored comebacks that never quite materialize, aka The Hand of Thrawn duology).

Eyup. The 20th Anniversary edition of Heir features a running commentary by Zahn, and he confirms that C'boath was supposed to be a twisted clone of Kenobi.

Ultimately, I liked C'boath as his own character, but what bugs me is how events kind of fall apart by the middle of the second book and while the second book is far too Thrawn Heavy with C'boath relegated to a supporting role. The third book, C'boath takes center stage and it's just jarring because we really don't know much about the character beyond "Batjive Crazy".

It's part of the reason I picked up Outbound Flight. I'm interested to see where C'boath came from, even as a twisted clone variant. His concept that the Jedi were hunted down by the "lesser beings" of the Galaxy was unique and interesting and ultimately...made sense in a Pre-Prequel landscape.

But I hate how he was finally ended. Like I said, that fight went on way too long. Given the implications of C'boath turning the clone into a extension of his own mind, when the clone went down C'boath should have simply been rendered a vegetable - with his survivability from the General's death based more on the fact he was "outside" the Force at the time of that.

Now you have to read all of the NJO.

I loved reading the Thrawn Trilogy back when they first came out. I tried re-reading them a couple of years ago, but found that I just couldn't get into them like I used to.

Still, my favorite set of EU books is the Jedi Academy trilogy. Something about that series just clicked with me.

Getting a bit ahead of things aren't we. But for the most part the Novel series due seem to be more Mini series like than one movie sit downs most of the time. Anyways I'd recommend the Jedi Academy trilogy, Darksaber (Though "Children of the Jedi" and "Planet of Twilight" bookend Darksaber I don't find them too engaging), The Hand of Thrawn Duo, and Survivors Quest before attempting to read the New Jedi Order era books. May even read the Young Jedi Knights books too. Being for the teen audience they aren't quite as cerebral as most of the novels but it gives Character to the Solo twins.

Back tracking a bit I'd also read "The Courtship of Princess Leia" and "Tatooine Ghost" as well since Tatooine Ghost actually leads into the Thrawn Trilogy now.

Thing is the way the EU is now I'd try sticking to one era of novels at a time. I have a hard time getting interested in the Old Republic Novels when I'm reading the Fate of the Jedi series at the same time. Really need to pick up the pace though since I really wantto read "Revan" here next week.

I recall loving them, but I've not read them in awhile. I do love me some Zahn, so they probably still hold up, but I'm uncertain.

Just finished off the 20th Anniversary version of Heir to the Empire last night. I keep forgetting where it ended though and keep trying to merge Dark Force Rising's ending to it. Still it's still one of the better EU novels even if some of the concepts in it are a bit off these days. I loved all the side notes though I wish we had gotten a few less name drops and bit more comparisons to the new things in George's continuity.

Just wrapped up the "prequel" Outbound Flight.

It's...bad.

C'baoth comes across as no different then his Clone. While it's nice to see the Council worried about him, frankly I think he'd given more then enough cause to be detained. Also, going over to the Dark Side at the very end? I'm sorry. Bullpocky. He went Dark Jedi the minute he started seizing control of Outbound Flight.

Thrawn is completely unnecessary to the narrative and added in only so he can show up. I don't accuse characters of this very often, but Thrawn really came across as a Mary Sue in this book. The whole Art Angle was a neat little trick in the trilogy, when you could believe that Thrawn's been studying the art for awhile. But his deconstructing the motives and personalities of the Trade Federation just by the ship's design was utter garbage. Plus his horrendously one sided space battles.


The good points I suppose is Zahn still has a knack for the character voices. Palpatine, Sidious, Obi-Wan, and Mace all came off very well written. Anakin was stinted, but then again he was in the prequels too so that might be intentional. It was also nice to see the "culture clash" between the Jedi and the Colonists on Outbound Flight. I would have infinitely preferred it had Zahn chosen to focus on that story, and given C'baoth some reason beyond vanity to grab more and more power for himslef, rather then saddle the novel with a "Thrawn is the coolest character since Drizzit!" fan wank side story.

running commentary??

Try the "X-Wing" novels.

That pretty much is what Thrawn has always been. He is a master tactician with incredible insights into people in an almost instant upon meeting them.

YEah, Outbound Flight was a disappointment. Obi-Wan and Anakin seem to be there because LucasFilm wants the ongoing proof that we should care about Anakin when he falls in movie 3 (see the entire Clone Wars series). It's about them...until they get to the point to say "Well, we need to leave now to be in the next movie. See you later."

I, too, recommend Jedi Academy. While the Thrawn books were like new Star Wars movies, the Jedi Academy books felt like what if Star Wars was a weekly series ala Star Trek.

Other than Dark Saber I'd say skip the other hard covers from that time period, They were often activly bad, with Truce at Bakura lifting passages from the RPG guides (the authors were given the West End RPG books to use as research material). There are points where the characters are discussing the equivilent of hit points. The Hand of Thrawn duology actually has a passage putting an end to those book cycles, which I always took as Zahn expressing his disappointment that most of the books that followed him just copied his formula.

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Pelleon was, I think, a good character who grows over a number of books. While he was mainly there so Thrawn had someone to talk to, he also very much represented the traditional movie empire, and his changes show the changes of the series.

As for Mara Jade...I like her. She was badly served in most non-Zahn novels. (Besides, I always liked Shira Brie, who was Mara 1.0)

*************

Dark Empire vs Thawn. Yeah, Dark Empire has issues. 6 of them, in fact. The reasons for the inconsistencies is that Dark Empire was written years before Heir to the Empire, sometime around 1985 iirc. It was written for Marvel's Epic Comic Line and was going to be a relaunch of their Star Wars comics, since the regular title had gone the way of losing sales in the post ROTJ world. When Heir to the Empire became a smash hit, Dark Horse grabbed up the comic license and got Dark Empire finished and on the shelf. But with story and art done, they couldn't change much, so the Empire is much stronger than it was in Heir, Leia becomes pregnant, again, and so on.

Ah, I remember finding Bakura awful but didn't know this.



Is it recommended? I've been thinking of getting back into some EU reading, I haven't read anything since (eek!) 1998 or so, and thought I might start with these, but am open to suggestions.

Is any of the Old Republic-set-stuff any good? I read the first couple of issues of the current Knight Errant Dark Horse mini-series and quite enjoyed it so was thinking of looking at the book, but it does look like there's a lot of continuity there already and I don't know where I'd start if it's not very accessible.



I liked Pelleon too. I hardly remember anything about Jade other than liking the idea in principle. Maybe I should start with a reread!



I haven't read it, but I remember a friend describing the plot of it to me at university and thinking it sounded awful, like the worst kind of fanfic. It's not in some way in-canon with Heir, etc. is it?

I tend to find the Thrawn stuff dull. I know alot of fans love it and it can be attributed for giving the series the spike in attention it needed nearly a decade after the films had ended but it's just not for me. Part of this is because I consider Star Wars to be a very visual story and another part is that it opened the door on the often awful Bantam era, where there were Imperial warlords everywhere and each of them seemed to have a Death Star calibur weapon they'd forgotten about until now.

I also agree about Mara Jade. She is to Star Wars what River Song is to Doctor Who.

I think my favourite Zahn book is actually 'Allegiance'.

I'm not sure why that is, to be honest, but there you go.

The oly reference to the Thrawn Trilogy in Dark Empire is a half-hearted scroll-style blurb at the beginning of the first volume to try and sloppily bridge the two trilogies, but as Scav mentioned, Dark Empire was written with no knowledge of the Thrawn Trilogy so their timelines don't mech up in the slightest. "Oh, by the way, the Empire took over Coruscant while no one was looking and now the Republic is the Rebel Alliance again and we're back to square one".

And though the first two volumes had some great art, yeah, the story's pretty damn fanficky. All the flack I give Mara Jade, Luke's love interest in Dark Empire is even more shallow (Krystal, I think her name was).

But again, I really liked the art in the first two volumes.

I remember liking the Hand of Thrawn Duology, but it's been years since I read it. The passage I referred to is a comment on what Hellcat complains about...they flat out state "There are no more imperial warlords with lost super weapons" it's really funny. (That trend is also what I liked about Dark Saber)

I can't comment on the Old Republic comics, not having read more than a handful, but comic wise, you can't go wrong with any John Ostrander written books, especially Legacy which was awesome til Lucas had it axed. He and Jan have a new series coming in a few months that is about the formation of the Jedi, which sounds pretty awesome too.



Dark Empire suffers mainly from the time it was written...it was the first "darker" Star Wars story told, only a few years after teddy bears destroyed the Empire. And then coming after "Heir" which was in many ways, a note perfect continuation and maturation of Star Wars, it's story compared badly. (This doesn't excuse the two follow up series, which blame lies pretty much with Rick Vietch's less talented brother writing them and the Dark Horse Problem*). Lucasfilm made a decision at the time that moving forward, it was all canon unless George contradicted something. The Han Solo and Lando books were out, as was the Marvel comics (Dark Horse editorials would actively mock the Marvel books, despite their far superior stories), Droids, Ewoks, and Holiday Special. But the novels, Dark Horse Comics, and West End RPG were all canon (with West End being the spine and knowledge keepers). As time went on, that changed, and Marvel was brought back into the fold (which seemed to be more a matter of fans of the Marvel series coming into creative positions rather than any outright decree)




*The Dark Horse Problem. Dark Horse, especially in the 90's, was building themselves on licensed titles. They got a reputation for doing books that were "just like the movies", because, the were. Whereas Now Comics had done Terminator comics about the future world, Dark Horse did comic after comic about Terminators going back in time to kill Sarah Connor (like the other ones in the phone book, or people spelled differently). Predator comics were all about a predator hunting marines in various places. and so on. Well, Dark Empire was a huge hit, due to the art, and the return of Star Wars to comics...so Dark Empire 2 came along..which was the same story, retold..and so on and so on. To be fair, the sameness of stories in all of these could well be due to the licensers more than Dark Horse itself, but that's how it goes.

Meh, Dark Empire was always one where it was a toss up whether I liked it or not. I absolutely hated the artwork in it with a passion. Why was everyone green or what ever other color seemed to overtake entire panels? And while I do like the areas it took Luke and the whole clone Palpentine deal the whole Galaxy gun/Eclipse cannon right after the other was annoying as heck.

Dark Horse did get better later on when they got away from the established characters and did their own thing with Tales of the Jedi. It still suffered from a bit of repetitiveness but with Kevin J Anderson writing the story it actually helped tie together it and the Jedi Academy novels. Personally besides TOTJ the other 90's era Dark Horse series that I loved was Crimson Empire, which made the Emperors Guards seem completely badass for never doing anything in the movies. I think Dark Horse didn't actually use the characters from the movies well until after the prequels came out.

Once again, I have to bring up Wedge Antilles. The X-Wing comics remain among the best things Dark Horse has ever produced.

Which can't hold a candle to how he's written in the X-Wing series.

Dark Empire - one colour per page. No exceptions, damnit!

Funny you should mention that since they were both written by the same guy for quite some time.

Yeah, but Stackpole had more to work with in the books.

Damn Stackpole, his X-Wing stuff made me look up his other material, and for MANY years was a Mechwarrior/Battletech junkie

I've managed to avoid his writings beyond Star Wars. XD

*Thread Revive*

So I bought Darth Plagueius on a lark a week back, and just finished it up.

It may have taken over ten years, but this book is effectively the backstory of the Prequels in one condensed package. The Blockade of Naboo, the Clones on Kamino, Dooku's fall, the rise of the Seperatists, and especially the backstory of Darth Sidious aka Palpatine...

I Loved This Book.

It hit all the unanswered questions from the Prequels and explained them in a manner befitting Star Wars. While the book's title reflects Palpatine's Master, really it's Palpatine's story. Darth Plagueius is a good character, no doubt about it, but the Muun Sith takes a backseat in the second act and never really comes back into the spotlight.

I especially love how the author manages to work in the prophecy and Anakin's "Virgin" Birth.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
The assumption that it was Plagueius or Palpatine who had Anakin conceived turns out to be false. Anakin was in fact conceived by the Force at the same time Plagueius and Sidious 'convinced' the Force to tip more towards the Dark Side. Earlier in the book it explains how every action - Light or Dark - sends a equal reaction down the chain to the opposite side. Hence why Sith Lords for centuries following Darth Bane were always careful to only act after a "positive" event - both to ensure success and also to prevent the Jedi from detecting them. When Plagueius and Sidious deliberately turned the currents of the Universe down the Dark Side, the Force responded by birthing Anakin.

I'm shocked to even say this, but I actually kind of want to watch the Prequels after reading this book. It does that good a job in setting up everything that I think I could watch the movies without gagging. Highly recommended!


EDIT: If I had one complaint about this book, it tosses around species names as though that means something to the casual reader. I had to go to Wookiepedia to find out what a "Bith" was - or even Darth Plagueius' species "Muun".

His face on the Cover looks nothing like the species.

I have this waiting for me at the library. Really been looking forward to it. There has been something of a minor controversy over the look of the Muun and Plagueis himself. I believe he wasn't original a Muun, this was changed prior to the writing of the novel. I forgot the specifics. Good to know the book is good. James Luceno is one of my favourite EU writers.

Dark Destroyer

It's on the way from the Sci-Fi Book Club along with Shadow Games and the Darth Vader Lost Command TPB.

I kinda loved both the Thwarn Trilogy AND Dark Empire....I'm weird like that, but that was MY era of Star Wars. I kind of petered out of following things after the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

Plagueius sounds like an interesting Fix-Fic more than anything, but that's just me.

Anyone read the Legacy era comics? I've caught little snippets while researching for SWTOR, and I'm thinking I might go try and find the trades next time I get some time off to go to my FLGS.

I saw this book at Barnes and Nobles last night, but didn't give it a second thought (as I abandoned reading SW novels about the same time they killed Chewbacca). But if it does that good of a story of setting up the prequels, I might go rent it from the library for a read.

I forgot to mention, the book also gives the origins of Darth Maul, and why he seemed so...odd...in the grand scheme of things.

I found his initial introduction rather silly, but props for trying to explain where Palpatine had found a Force Sensitive Zabrak.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
So with that in mind, the prophecy of bringing balance to the force wasn't something Anakin was supposed to do in the future, but was something already fulfilled by his being born? That's very interesting. I think I'm going to pick up this one.

And consequently missed out on the best arc ever!

Not sure about best arc ever but it was a nice change of pace to the constant Imperial remnant threat or super weapon and actually nerfed the Jedi for a time. And Chewie all no! Bout time one of the mains bit it by that point. I'm to the point where I want Luke to bite it at the end of FotJ.

Dang, first I buy Reven and then see all the negative reviews and now this slips by me.

Or I got burned by Reven and waited for reviews on Plagueius, whatever. But it sounds like I should buy it regardless.

Keep in mind though, that this is a review from someone relatively unfamiliar with the EU of Star Wars, and whose Star Wars library can be counted on one hand. All I can say is the book hit all the unanswered questions I had from the Prequels and made them "mesh" with the overall narrative in such a way that it actually feels like Star Wars again.

Plus, young Palpatine. The Emperor never did anything in half measures, and his turn towards the Dark Side displayed in the book is no different.

Plagueius is on my next to grab list. I just got done with Choices of One tonight after sitting on it for half a year now. Really as it is when Zahn's writing his characters Pellaeon is pretty much exposition fairy to the larger narrative.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
Mara has a really close encounter with Luke which is awkward since she never mentions it again later now. Considering they never met face to face however it makes some sense. Thrawn begins setting up his Empire of the Hand by recruiting the Hand of Justice from his last novel and also has a hand in why the rebels choose Hoth as the next base in a way. It was a cool story and it threw me off track with the villain a few times. I figured the guy on the Chimera in disguise was Thrawn the whole time and that Nuso Esva was just a ruse Thrawn had put together. I was actually surprised when it turned out Nuso Esva was the guy in disguise and Thrawn was playing a larger game in order to get him.

So I've consumed yet another SW novel. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, written by the same gent who penned Darth Plagueius.

It was a good read, all things considered. It didn't "work" quite as well as Plagueius, but that's mainly because Anakin's motives for going to the Dark Side were shaky at best. As it stands, the guy does a decent job of getting into Vader's head and how he became the man he was in the Original Trilogy.

The Jedi characters introduced in the book are all good reads, and the author does a great job pointing out that for a order that preaches no attachments, the majority of them really were attached to the Order and what it stood for - and how they couldn't stand to lose it.

Chewbacca and the Wookies even show up in a way that makes sense, and we see the fall of their homeworld to Imperial aggression.


If Zahn "gets" the character dialogue, then this gentlemen "gets" the setting. While some of the dialogue (especially from Vader) comes across as clunky, the pacing and action are all very familiar. I'm seriously considering making Labyrinth of Evil as my next purchase. I like this guy's writing style and he's very subdued when it comes to the over the top Force abilities.

Plus no Blue Skinned Mary Sues. Always a plus. (I'm sorry, Outbound Flight just ruined Thrawn and the Chiss in general for me.)

Hey, I happen to be reading that very book right now.

Legacy is, I think, bar none, the best Star Wars Comics that Dark Horse has done*. If Zahn gets characters and Plageus/Vader writer gets the setting, the Ostrander/Duursema combo get everything. It was so good, Lucas had the series killed to stop making the clone wars stuff look bad (unconfirmed)



*or perhaps HAD done, as starting this month, the Ostrander/Duursema team leave the future of Star Wars to go back to the very beginning to tell the story of THE DAWN OF THE JEDI. I've only read the 0 issue setting book so far, and it just wows!

(Ostrander also has a Rebellion era series called Agent of the Empire, which is basically the story of the Empire's James Bond...worth checking out).

Interesting.

I wonder if they'll incorporate Bioware's contributions into how the Jedi were formed. Ever since learning of the history of Kaleth in The Old Republic - not to mention the first hand look you get if you play as a Jedi Consular - I've been interested to know the history behind the Force Wars. Especially since Ragavari (The first Dark Jedi/"Sith") is not a villain in your classic sense of the word.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
I mean, his Force Ghost still lingers in the Forge Ruins because he's determined to see the Jedi put back on the "proper" path and genuinely shows remorse for twisting the Nallen's mind.

In a related note: I devoured the Heir to the Empire trilogy when it first came out, because NEW Star Wars was amazing at the time. And they were good sci fi books, but they never, even then really felt like Star Wars to me. I stoped reading Star Wars books after a few years because I realized that none of it felt like Star Wars to me.

Star Wars had a very particular mix of swash-buckling adventure, engaging humor, fun, likeable characters, sci-fi, space opera, Fantasy, and Joeseph Campbel-style Myth. The books all felt like they maybe got one of those things or two at the best, but none of them had them all and without them all it wasn't really Star Wars in any way I wanted to read.

I'll be honest, the ONLY Star Wars fiction I've felt got it 100% right since the Original Trilogy is the first "Knights of the Old Republic" game. That was REAL Star Wars right up there with Empire. Nothing, including the prequels, has hit it right since.

Anyone read any Star Wars that they really felt had all those facets that made the original beloved?


-ZacWilliam, the lack of engaging humor and mythic shape were mostly what killed the novels for me. The lack of likeable characters what killed the prequels.

I think a big problem is the various writers can't agree on just what Star Wars is supposed to be. Most fans generally see it as a fairy tale happening in a sci-fi setting but the writers seem to just see the sci-fi setting which leads to the 'Everything the Skywalkers went through was for nothing' setting of the later books. Because apparently sci-fi HAS to be depressing and grim or you aren't doing it right. Doesn't help that Lucasfilm seem to let the writers do certain things and then handwave with "It fits because we're the license holder and we say so". I think you collected some writers who really got the spirit of Star Wars and wanted to tell good stories that expanded on the movies you'd be on to a real winner. Instead, it's like the clusterhug of various people crying "MY original character is more relevant to the developing mythos!"

Why do you think I "retreated" to the Movie Timeline after Outbound Flight?

I enjoy books that expand on what was seen on the screen/fill in the gaps. I'm not exactly brimming with enthusiasm to plunge headlong into the EU Quagmire that results in what appears to be the Deaths of Everyone and Anyone not directly associated with said movies (Chewbacca being a notable exception), Super Weapons more powerful then the Death Star floating about the cosmos, and a new Galactic Spanning Threat around every Star System.

Actually I think the Sun Crusher was about the only one technical superweapon stronger than the Death Star. Every other one was some sort of derivative of the Death Star or something world destroying to a lesser degree. That's where the EU was getting stale for a while. It was always Empire warlord or such with some sort of death star wannabe and somehow Luke and Co. were expected to fix it. And really there are very few deaths really until the NJO and by that time it was about dang time. True the NJO just changed the face of the enemy and the superweapons but it made the characters vulnerable again.

I'm just pissed that none of the main characters have been killed yet. I know it sounds a bit harsh but we are currently sitting at about where Luke and Leia are about 63 and Han and Lando ought to be 70 or so. I know they are the classic characters everyone loves but with all the crud they have been through they need to pass the torch to the next gen already. Yes the different medical abilities of the world can sustain them longer than they could normally but anymore it seems like the novels are just prolonging the inevitable. I mean after Chewie Died in the beginning of the NJO, R.A. Salvatore got death threats for being the author of it, so I can see why people might be a bit hesitant. But I do want to see Jaina, Ben, Allanna and maybe Chance take up the roles someday.

That's the opposite of what I'd like to see.

I agree with Hellcat I want a Star Wars thats like the original trillogy, a fairy tale in a fun swashbuckling space costume. At the very least epic Fantasy in said dressing. These are not characters I ever want to see grow old or die.

What would it take to interest me in a Star Wars novel again? Throw out everything, EVERYTHING, after Return of the Jedi, get a good writer that really understands this sort of fantasy and then go back to telling the sort of fun, mythic-fairy tale swashbuckling sci-fi-fantasy that made the original movies great. If, after a bit, you want to jump to a future setting where the main characters are retired and their children are having said fun swashbuckling adventures for a couple books, sure, but mostly I want fiction that feels like Star Wars.


-ZacWilliam, rather than marginal liscensed sci fi dreck writen with Star Wars reference books.

Personally, I have zero interest in the 'new generation'. In my mind, Star Wars ends with that group shot on Endor. The EU has made SOME valid criticisms of that ending (the Empire by all rights should still own the galaxy) but none of the characters really spoke to me. Especially not after they started killing off the Solo kids.