logo Sign In

Labyrinth of Evil: The Canon Edit - a novel fanedit (Released)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I don’t know if anyone has tried this before, but would any of you be interested in edited versions of existing Star Wars novels? I’d edited my copy of Labyrinth of Evil to fit in with the new season of Clone Wars. This included restructuring some scenes, adding some new lines, extending some scenes, and a new ending. The most important change is renaming Tythe (a planet which is incredibly important in this novel) to Yerbana, the planet that is seen at the start of the Siege of Mandalore arc. This minor change necessitates the other larger changes in the novel to make it fit with the TV show. It is still James Luceno’s novel. I’ve tried to keep additional content to a minimum and use clever editing to make sure that this doesn’t become glorified fanfiction. Consequently, it serves as a direct prequel to the Siege of Mandalore arc with references to the Filoniverse (Ahsoka). I’ve also included a gap where you can throw in the Battle of Nelvaan (see NumeralJoker’s standalone Nelvaan episode). The cool thing is that events in this novel that are technically not canon to the Disney timeline are still referenced in the actual story arc. The novel ends with Mace Windu and Yoda witnessing the initial attack on Coruscant and deciding to contact Anakin and Obi Wan. The TV arc starts with Mace Windu requesting Anakin and Obi Wan to return to Coruscant. Some minimal editing and dialogue tweaks have strengthened the connection further.

I basically did this just to include the novel in my general CW marathons, but then I thought that some might be interested in it. Or at least the general idea of fanedits of novels. If you’d like a copy, just let me know. As a note, this can be considered version 1.0. This is the same copy that I made for my own purposes. I’ll definitely make changes and new versions if people want changes.

CURRENT VERSION IS 1.5
Additional lines have been rewritten and adjusted to flow more cleanly. Formatting errors in the last chapter have also been fixed. Paja’s feedback about the Nelvaan chapter needing a heading has been taken into account. Now there is a “AFTER THE BATTLE OF NELVAAN” chapter heading. You can stop reading and download NumeralJoker’s edit of the Battle of Nelvaan. Separate edits of the Battle of Nelvaan can also be found in Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6wTXHBsK4Y).

Restating that the upcoming novel “Brotherhood” will present a canon version of the Cato Nemodia incident. However, since Labyrinth of Evil has now been edited to fit into canon, you can choose which Cato Nemodia incident Obi Wan is referring to in ROTS. There is no reason why Obi Wan and Anakin can’t visit Cato Nemodia twice during the Clone Wars. Depending on how much that novel conflicts with Labyrinth and if they can even coexist, I may make another update of LOE to reconcile the two.

 

Mod Edit: Just a reminder of the Fan Edit & Preservation Rules on here, including… ‘Before obtaining any fan edits, you must be in ownership of the official retail release’.

Author
Time

Labyrinth of Evil is one of the best SW novels ever put out, so naturally I’d chomp at the bit to read a version that gels with TCW S7! I’d love a link.

Do you plan on looking at the rest of the Dark Lord Trilogy or any other Legends books?

Author
Time

Yeah, I’d be interested.

Did you write it in manuscript format?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Links sent.

Nope, I edited the original EPUB using Calibre. So it just looks like the normal ebook version.
And I don’t have any plans at present to edit the other Legends books, but you never know. I think the general idea of novel fanedits is something that has a lot of potential in the SW community.

Author
Time

For me, what would be super interesting, would be an edit of Thrawn Trilogy that would fit the movie Canon (the CW dates, Ben Solo I stead of the twins etc).

Author
Time

I’d enjoy a PM too. Have you considered doing the ROTS novelisation? I’m not sure if that’d be a bigger task or not. What I’ve read of the novel always really interested me, but I felt it was a shame that it couldn’t reference Ahsoka or TCW because of being released in 2005. You might have to get a little fanfictiony because I doubt there’s a smooth way to include thoughts of Ahsoka otherwise.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Links sent.

Actually I just realized that my response to a similar question from JKMaxx above was incorrect. I am actually planning to work on a edit of the ROTS novelization. Labyrinth of Evil and the ROTS novel are so similar thematically and stylistically that I just started to think of them as one long novel. And yeah, there will have to be some additional content to fit in canon/Filoni stuff. Like with the Labyrinth of Evil edit, I’ll try to keep the additional stuff to a minimum, but when it’s there, I’ll do my best to make it seem seamless.

As the Labyrinth edit was for my personal headcanon (which includes the Battle of Nelvaan, a Legends event), the Nelvaan subplot may seem a bit forced. It follows the official explanation on how to reconcile Nelvaan and the events of this novel, but if people find that portion distracting, I’ll remove it from future versions. All of the other additions (CW references and general references to canon content like Dark Disciple) are fairly seamless and “at home” with the rest of the novel, imo. I’ll have to reread it though and I welcome feedback.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Hal 9000 said:

I imagine people editing the Thrawn trilogy to fit in with the ST. Or things like the Han Solo Trilogy to fit in with how the Clone Wars ended up being portrayed.

Yeah I thought about approaching the Thrawn trilogy since it would be fairly simple to fit it into canon without adding anything new. The problem for me is that I’m pretty confident that the new shows and story direction will soon make it impossible to fit those books into canon. Mando S2 takes place just an year before Heir to the Empire does in Legends and the Thrawn plotline already seems to be going in a different direction.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

At present I’ve just finished adding your edit to my e-reader library, and everything displays like it should so that’s a good sign! I’ve tried editing epubs with Calibre myself in the past (to add covers to epubs that don’t have them) and I was having problems, so it’s a relief to see that your version doesn’t have formatting issues on my device. I’m not a slow reader, but I do make slow progress since I tend to only read on my commute, so I will definitely try to provide feedback as soon as I can.

I’m glad to hear that you plan to tackle RotS, as it’s easily the best of the movie novelizations and would definitely do well to exist alongside everything that has come after it. I also agree that the general prospect of novel fanediting holds a lot of potential for the SW community. On one hand, people can make canon-friendly versions of their favorite Legends novels, which is an exciting prospect for canon junkies.

Plus, on the other hand, novels that are already canon can have their inconsistencies smoothed over for easier reading. For example, Ahsoka doesn’t match the Siege of Mandalore from TCW S7, in the TFA novel Rey and Poe meet but on-screen they don’t until TLJ (among other issues with the TFA novel stemming from it using an old script), in Lords of the Sith the same royal guard dies twice, and iirc Vader Annual 2 doesn’t match Catalyst. I’ve also seen people say that Tarkin has weirdness about his flagship Executrix and debuts the Interdictor before it appears in Rebels, and a character named Arsin Crassus appears in Aftermath: Life Debt despite dying in Aftermath, though I’m less familiar with those issues as I have yet to read those novels.

edit: A few more canon issues: Escape from Vodran contradicts the Poe Dameron comic regarding Snap’s wedding (a dead character is there while Leia is not), Aftermath’s End says Leia got pregnant on Endor but Bloodline says it happened on the Falcon, Bloodline also says Leia wanted to join the rebels from 15 despite not learning until 16, Aftermath doesn’t state Akiva is a Rebel planet despite it having a Rebel prison in a comic, Lost Stars says a Star Destroyer has never been captured and also doesn’t mention Scarif, Princess of Alderaan has Leia on Crait despite Storms of Crait saying it was her first time there, and Princess of Alderaan also says that Breha was an only child and focuses strongly on Leia’s royal upbringing yet does not mention Leia’s overbearing aunts from Legends that are mentioned in Moving Target and Royal Rebel (RR also claims Leia went straight to Hoth after the Princess Leia comics, which contradicts those comics and all of the other stuff with Leia in it between ANH and ESB). Of course, most of these are extremely minor, but then I imagine most edits that would be done to most novels would be fairly minor.

Author
Time

I hadn’t even thought about editing canon novels to fix continuity issues. That’s a good idea.

You could even edit the ST novelizations to increase Palpatine foreshadowing and make them flow nicely. There’s a bit more freedom with what you can do with text when compared to just using existing film footage.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

sade1212 said:

I’d enjoy a PM too. Have you considered doing the ROTS novelisation? I’m not sure if that’d be a bigger task or not. What I’ve read of the novel always really interested me, but I felt it was a shame that it couldn’t reference Ahsoka or TCW because of being released in 2005. You might have to get a little fanfictiony because I doubt there’s a smooth way to include thoughts of Ahsoka otherwise.

I SO want to do this!!!

I’d be just fine with re-typing everything in Word using manuscript format too.

EDIT:

Heck, I already re-wrote the novelization of ‘The Force Unleashed,’ except I made it more fanon in that I replaced Starkiller with, well, my own user name.

Also made the female lead a Twi’lek named Jettana Ademordna.

Also switched the narrative to present tense.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Dark Empire I And IIs cut could be a nice idea as well. I know it d bea bit of canon soap opera with the Emperor returning as a clone again and again, BUT, it d add a lot to the story as well.

  1. it kinda would introduce the concept much earlier in the time line, and it d explain why they are not really surprised so much in IX that he came back 😄
  2. it d explore some darker traits of Lukes personality (explore more later in the VIII)
  3. it would explain some force powers the Emperor and Luke have in the sequel trilogy
  4. we d see more Jedi Leia, which would be coherent with IX
  5. some super weapon that we d see more developed in the sequel trilogy
  6. Luke as a jedi master 😉

And about making a Canon LOE version, I haven’t read “Ahsoka” but I think I ve heard there were some flashbacks to her encounter with Maul. Maybe you could just include that?
Or maybe just do a one big novel like Game of Thrones and use some parts of other Canon novels for eg. Some trimmed version of “Dark Disciple” as a Volume I, or some chapters of the Shadow Conspiracy novelization. I know it wouldn’t be one coherent story, but, you d end up with a huge Clone Wars canon chronicle.

Author
Time

Could I have a link too, please, very interested in this.

Author
Time

I still need to download epub so I can read this.

Personally, I’d prefer a PDF, to be honest; that’s just me.

Author
Time

I’m not sure I understand. Epub is just a file format. It’s not a program. Should work on nearly every device. If you’d like a pdf, just Google epub to pdf and you can use browser convertors. If I make future versions of this, I’ll add a PDF copy as well.

Author
Time

Knight of Kalee said:

I’d really like a link to your version of LOE.

Me too please! 😄

“Get over violence, madness and death? What else is there?”

Also known as Mr. Liquid Jungle.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Lately I ve been rereading The Hand of Thrawn books, and I think it could be simply and smoothly edited into new films timeline. After first few chapters those are my observations:
-changing 19ABY into, lets say, 14ABY.five years is long enough, and then the events of the TT seems more recent.
-changing Solo children into one Ben Solo (minor character anyway)
-removing references to reborned Palpatine.
-fixing some minor continuity issues
-maybe add some minor easter eggs (ST/ new canon names for eg) here and there.

JEDIT
Quick question. I wanted ask about the fanedit antipirate policy that is applied in this case.
If I owe an original book im English, it os okay to obtain a fanedit of this book in the same language in ebook format? Or look for the ebook veraion of it here?

Author
Time

Hi, would you happen to still be distributing your fan edit? I would very much appreciate if you sent the link to me. Thanks!

Author
Time
 (Edited)

It’s been a few months, and I’m still not sure how to read this thing on my laptop.

I get a window that says:

“Windows can’t open this file.”

What program am I supposed to use to open it?

EDIT:

Excuse me, never mind. I was able to open it using a thing called Cloud ePub Reader with Drive.