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Are there any new Star Wars Books coming out soon? a general book discussion thread — Page 2

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To address several points brought up in this thread,

I think George should've taken a more supervisory role in the EU, rather than simply handing it off and watching the dollars flow in. It's clear that the idea of continuing the story through books was thought up in order to help Lucasfilm build itself up again financially in the early 90's. Make no mistake, they said it was the "official" continuation, which kinda makes George's statements to the contrary all the more annoying.

George needed a way of making money for the company, and the books provided that. He was too obsessed with getting the PT made to bother with the post-RotJ timeline, especially when it was already making that much money without his involvement. Besides, maybe he really did consider RotJ "the end" and thought there would never be an Ep7. He did condense the original plan for episodes 6 through 9 into just one movie, so this is kinda true anyway.

What would've been ideal is George stepping back and being the over-arching supervisor of everything, writing the story outline for the PT and the post-Jedi EU but letting other screenwriters, directors and authors fill in the details. Instead he was hyper-focused on the PT and paid little attention to anything else.

As for the PT somehow ruining the EU, I don't get the argument here. There was barely any EU there to ruin, unless you're referring to the stuff brought up in the Thrawn books. GL specifically mandated early on that no EU stories be set within that timeframe. It's a far cry from the mountains of post-RotJ material that now no longer happened.

Oh, and the ST didn't "need" to be set 30 years later. They could've set Ep7 at the 40 years later point that the books were up to. Ben Skywalker was almost 20 years old IIRC. That actually would've made a good starting point for a new series of movies. Also, they wouldn't have needed to bring up whatever's transpired in the 40 years since Jedi. They could've figured out a way to tell an original story that also happens to take place at that point in the timeline. They would've had three whole years to "build up" to it in the EU anyway.

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Fang Zei said:

What would've been ideal is George stepping back and being the over-arching supervisor of everything, writing the story outline for the PT and the post-Jedi EU but letting other screenwriters, directors and authors fill in the details. Instead he was hyper-focused on the PT and paid little attention to anything else.

What would have been ideal is if Lucas had just washed his hands of the franchise altogether and started working on something new. 

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Fang Zei said:

To address several points brought up in this thread,

I think George should've taken a more supervisory role in the EU, rather than simply handing it off and watching the dollars flow in. It's clear that the idea of continuing the story through books was thought up in order to help Lucasfilm build itself up again financially in the early 90's. Make no mistake, they said it was the "official" continuation, which kinda makes George's statements to the contrary all the more annoying.

George needed a way of making money for the company, and the books provided that. He was too obsessed with getting the PT made to bother with the post-RotJ timeline, especially when it was already making that much money without his involvement. Besides, maybe he really did consider RotJ "the end" and thought there would never be an Ep7. He did condense the original plan for episodes 6 through 9 into just one movie, so this is kinda true anyway.

What would've been ideal is George stepping back and being the over-arching supervisor of everything, writing the story outline for the PT and the post-Jedi EU but letting other screenwriters, directors and authors fill in the details. Instead he was hyper-focused on the PT and paid little attention to anything else.

As for the PT somehow ruining the EU, I don't get the argument here. There was barely any EU there to ruin, unless you're referring to the stuff brought up in the Thrawn books. GL specifically mandated early on that no EU stories be set within that timeframe. It's a far cry from the mountains of post-RotJ material that now no longer happened.

Oh, and the ST didn't "need" to be set 30 years later. They could've set Ep7 at the 40 years later point that the books were up to. Ben Skywalker was almost 20 years old IIRC. That actually would've made a good starting point for a new series of movies. Also, they wouldn't have needed to bring up whatever's transpired in the 40 years since Jedi. They could've figured out a way to tell an original story that also happens to take place at that point in the timeline. They would've had three whole years to "build up" to it in the EU anyway.

 Thank you, this is what I was pretty much trying to say, esp because Luke and the rest are old now "have you seen Mark & Carrie lately ?" it would have worked fine and makes sense and still have the extra profit from the books & comics. George would never step back he's to egotistical to let go, its that self importance thing all the big names in Hollywood seem have. Although there are a few that don't belong in that category "Robin Williams was one of the nicest guys I ever met" but they are far and few between. 

As for the comment in another post that "George washed his hands of the EU in 1999" really ? I've purchased many many books since then "1999" and I'm sure George cashed all the checks he got from them , the only washing of his hands came after touching and counting all that dirty money he got !!!

Like I said this horse is dead and the buzzards have picked it clean to the bone no sense arguing about it , we don't have the say to do anything about what they do "they own it".

I will end with "piss on the both of them Lucas and Disney" they let me down after all these yrs.

"With my last dying breath I spit at thee" Over dramatic ? LOL

 

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They "could" have made a film that fit within the EU, but that would have provided a whole host of limitations. From what little we know about TFA it's already clear that they're diverging greatly from the EU.

Dropping the EU means more creative freedom and letting the filmmakers tell the story they want to tell. Is that story a good one? We can't say until Dec. 18th.

What I do know is that I don't know anything, and I think that's fantastic. There's a mystery to it all now. What's happened since ROTJ? What's going to happen? Nixing the EU opens the universe up to millions of possibilities. The excitement and wonder of seeing a new and unknown Star Wars film is back for the first time in 32 years. That certainly makes it all worth it.

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DominicCobb said:

What I do know is that I don't know anything, and I think that's fantastic. There's a mystery to it all now. What's happened since ROTJ? What's going to happen? Nixing the EU opens the universe up to millions of possibilities. The excitement and wonder of seeing a new and unknown Star Wars film is back for the first time in 32 years. That certainly makes it all worth it.

 Exactly. A million times this.

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I for one wouldn't have been able to enjoy watching an EU-faithful ST knowing it was sandwiched between the lousy Legacy of the Force and Legacy series'.

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DominicCobb said:

They "could" have made a film that fit within the EU, but that would have provided a whole host of limitations. From what little we know about TFA it's already clear that they're diverging greatly from the EU.

Dropping the EU means more creative freedom and letting the filmmakers tell the story they want to tell. Is that story a good one? We can't say until Dec. 18th.

What I do know is that I don't know anything, and I think that's fantastic. There's a mystery to it all now. What's happened since ROTJ? What's going to happen? Nixing the EU opens the universe up to millions of possibilities. The excitement and wonder of seeing a new and unknown Star Wars film is back for the first time in 32 years. That certainly makes it all worth it.

 Well some of us enjoyed the books of the EU as much if not more than the movies. I fall into that myself saw the first Star Wars opening week in 1977 ok. George add two movies in 6 yrs then nothing for 16 yrs and then nothing till the prequel 1999 again 2 more in 6 yrs. It has now been 10 years since the last movie right ?.

Who do you think kept Star Wars alive all those yrs in-between the movies ?

We did the book & the comic readers I will add the gamers also. I will bet if it wasn't for all of those I stated Star Wars would have faded away like Buck Rodgers. The only thing that saved Star Trek was syndication and Star War didn't even have that except for the few times its shown on syfi a yr.

Believe what you want things only stick around if there's interest in it and we the readers are responsible for a major part of that, like it or not to the nay Sayers. Facts don't lie follow the money and the sales of books add up. I've invested 38 yrs into the Star Wars franchise and I'm not the only one, there's thousands of others just like me and George took our money with a smile I'm sure. This is were the betrayal lies in our opinion.    

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Those books you love are still around, right? They haven't magically faded from existence, have they? Then continue to read them and continue to enjoy them. It doesn't matter worth a damn if Lucasfilm/Lucas Licensing/Disney/whatever considers them "true" or not -- its all fiction, anyway, so none of it is true. If the stories still resonate with you, accept them as part of your personal canon and move on.

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At least Chewbacca is alive now.

But too bad about the Timothy Zahn books

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DuracellEnergizer said:

Those books you love are still around, right? They haven't magically faded from existence, have they?

No, but there's still the overwhelming feeling that it was all for nothing.

I'm just glad I never invested too much into those stories. I've got the Thrawn trilogy in paperback but never got much farther than Heir to the Empire, which I've had since the early 90's (the "Star Wars" logo is golden and embossed, unlike the other two which are later reprints (Dark Force Rising doesn't even have the Spectra logo for some reason, just the rooster), it's still in pretty good shape, all things considered). I got Vector Prime in hardback for Christmas that year, primarily because of the hubbub (Chewie's death, the switch back to del rey, the premise, and it being the first post-Jedi EU book to come out after TPM). I read Dark Tide: Onslaught and tried skipping ahead to Balance Point when it hit paperback, but then I lost interest. I actually remember picking up the "reduced price" editions of Luceno's Jedi Eclipse duology at B. Dalton's half-price going out of business sale, so they were only a couple dollars each. They sit unread in a box along with paperbacks of Tatooine Ghost, Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn duology.*

The irony is that for all the post-Jedi stuff I bought and never read, there were just as many PT-era books I got from the library and did read. Rogue Planet, Cloak of Deception, The Approaching Storm and Labyrinth of Evil all come to mind. Tried with Outbound Flight but was busy with school. I also bought (and read!) all six clone wars novels in paperback, same with Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and the prequel novelizations (I got Episode I in hardback just a few days before it hit theaters). I even have a paperback copy of Dark Lord that my friend lent me several years ago, haven't read it though.

Oh, I almost forgot Shadows of the Empire, which I got in paperback Spring of '97 and was probably the first Star Wars novel I read all the way through.

I've also got first-edition paperbacks of the OT novelizations and the 90's paperback of Splinter with the GL intro, all of which I intend to read at some point.

Anyway, all of this is to say that the post-Jedi EU became way too much for me to "catch up" on. It did hold my interest enough for me to follow the gist of it on wookieepedia, though. As I've said before, I always assumed the hundred-year gap was a placeholder for when they inevitably decided to make Episode VII, even though I realized the dilemma of an ST you'd go into already knowing the decades-later "end-point" of.

I know there were a great many complaints in the fan community of the direction LFL and del rey took the post-Jedi EU after '99. Heck, I know some people didn't even like the Thrawn trilogy. At the same time, I must echo the sarcastic "how noble of him" sentiment regarding GL and the EU.

This mess could've been avoided, but what's done is done. 

*Man, between all these unread books and the embarrassingly high number of times I saw the prequels in theaters, I must've really had some sick Star Wars addiction.

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I still highly recommend the Crispin Han Solo trilogy.

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Fang Zei said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Those books you love are still around, right? They haven't magically faded from existence, have they?

No, but there's still the overwhelming feeling that it was all for nothing.

Again, it's fiction, sprung from human imagination. None of it is real. None of it is true.

This:

has absolutely no more or less objective existence than this:

Just because some cabal stamps the former "canon" and the latter "non-canon" doesn't mean a goddamn thing; it doesn't remove the old books from your bookshelves or your memories. 

Stop relying on corporate bigwigs to decide for you what is or isn't real from works of complete fiction. Take what works you like, make them your personal canon, and discard everything you don't want; fuck the official canon.

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Ok I've been biting my tongue with you but can't anymore durawhatever "Do they call you anything besides STUPID ?"

Of Corse the books are still around but WHO WANTS TO READ THE SAME BOOKS OVER & OVER AGAIN you twit ? The EU story has ended and was erased and is DONE, FINISHED, OVER. Because that's what King George decided after taking the money from the books profit for years.

No Timothy Zahn "CAN NOT" wright more new books in the Star WARS EU galaxy ! There's a little thing called licensing "you have to have permission". If he dose it without permission his ass will be in court faster than a Manhattan minute trust me.

DUH REALLY !! Their Fiction ????? We all thought it was REAL . My God you really need to put the crack pipe down!!!!!!!!!

It dose mean a "goddamn thing" because as I said before the EU story as we knew it ended with out a end of some sorts, right in the middle of the story. The last Book the "Crucible by Troy Denning" left us hanging and that's how it will be, its DONE. Its like when they end a TV series without ending it, it sucks !! Will we live and move on "of course we will" but we still feel cheated after supporting them after all these years with our hard earned money & time. 

Not sure how old you are durawhatever but maybe someday when you grow up you might just comprehend why it pisses us off. I've already moved on, but I just couldn't take the fu#$ing stupid shit you were saying anymore you dumb shit !!! 

Hey Pancakes told you ! ;) Now I'm done and  "I feel much better" LOL 

I got my answer and I'm gone. I'm sure that makes durawhatever happy LMAO  

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DJW said:

Ok I've been biting my tongue with you but can't anymore durawhatever "Do they call you anything besides STUPID ?"

Of Corse the books are still around but WHO WANTS TO READ THE SAME BOOKS OVER & OVER AGAIN you twit ? The EU story has ended and was erased and is DONE, FINISHED, OVER. Because that's what King George decided after taking the money from the books profit for years.

No Timothy Zahn "CAN NOT" wright more new books in the Star WARS EU galaxy ! There's a little thing called licensing "you have to have permission". If he dose it without permission his ass will be in court faster than a Manhattan minute trust me.

DUH REALLY !! Their Fiction ????? We all thought it was REAL . My God you really need to put the crack pipe down!!!!!!!!!

It dose mean a "goddamn thing" because as I said before the EU story as we knew it ended with out a end of some sorts, right in the middle of the story. The last Book the "Crucible by Troy Denning" left us hanging and that's how it will be, its DONE. Its like when they end a TV series without ending it, it sucks !! Will we live and move on "of course we will" but we still feel cheated after supporting them after all these years with our hard earned money & time. 

Not sure how old you are durawhatever but maybe someday when you grow up you might just comprehend why it pisses us off. I've already moved on, but I just couldn't take the fu#$ing stupid shit you were saying anymore you dumb shit !!! 

Hey Pancakes told you ! ;) Now I'm done and  "I feel much better" LOL 

I got my answer and I'm gone. I'm sure that makes durawhatever happy LMAO  

 Super rantingly, typo-ee angry, or doing a character.  Can't tell which.

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Troll confirmed. Abandoning thread. Have fun, everyone who's sticking around to watch the trainwreck continue!

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DJW said:

Ok I've been biting my tongue with you but can't anymore durawhatever "Do they call you anything besides STUPID ?"  

They call me many names. Nyarlathotep, for one.

Of Corse the books are still around but WHO WANTS TO READ THE SAME BOOKS OVER & OVER AGAIN you twit ? The EU story has ended and was erased and is DONE, FINISHED, OVER. Because that's what King George decided after taking the money from the books profit for years.

What's stopping you from reading the new books, you twit? I'm sure some of them are going to be compatible with the old EU.

Oh, but let me guess -- the particular reason you've got a stick up your ass is because no one's going to tell you what happens to Luke & co. right? Well here's your answer: they all die and the stupid Legacy series eventually occurs. Don't like it? Blame the dumbasses who created Legacy.

No Timothy Zahn "CAN NOT" wright more new books in the Star WARS EU galaxy ! There's a little thing called licensing "you have to have permission". If he dose it without permission his ass will be in court faster than a Manhattan minute trust me.

He can always get permission to write new books, numbskull. Or did I miss the memo saying that Zahn has been forbidden from contributing to the NuEU?

DUH REALLY !! Their Fiction ????? We all thought it was REAL . My God you really need to put the crack pipe down!!!!!!!!!

Maybe you should put the crack pipe down for treating the goddamn EU like some quasi-religion in the first place.

It dose mean a "goddamn thing" because as I said before the EU story as we knew it ended with out a end of some sorts, right in the middle of the story. The last Book the "Crucible by Troy Denning" left us hanging and that's how it will be, its DONE. Its like when they end a TV series without ending it, it sucks !! Will we live and move on "of course we will" but we still feel cheated after supporting them after all these years with our hard earned money & time. 

It's a good thing I have a strong imagination and some writing ability. It allows me to create my own stories for the SW Galaxy when I find the official continuity wanting. It's what's allowed me to move beyond official canon and embrace the concept of personal canon.

But judging by your terrible spelling, I guess you can't write your own stories, can you?

Not sure how old you are durawhatever but maybe someday when you grow up you might just comprehend why it pisses us off. I've already moved on, but I just couldn't take the fu#$ing stupid shit you were saying anymore you dumb shit !!!

Physically, I'm twenty-seven. Mentally, you must be seventeen.

Hey Pancakes told you ! ;) Now I'm done and  "I feel much better" LOL 

I got my answer and I'm gone. I'm sure that makes durawhatever happy LMAO 

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DJW said:

Ok I've been biting my tongue with you but can't anymore durawhatever "Do they call you anything besides STUPID ?"

Of Corse the books are still around but WHO WANTS TO READ THE SAME BOOKS OVER & OVER AGAIN you twit ? The EU story has ended and was erased and is DONE, FINISHED, OVER. Because that's what King George decided after taking the money from the books profit for years.

No Timothy Zahn "CAN NOT" wright more new books in the Star WARS EU galaxy ! There's a little thing called licensing "you have to have permission". If he dose it without permission his ass will be in court faster than a Manhattan minute trust me.

DUH REALLY !! Their Fiction ????? We all thought it was REAL . My God you really need to put the crack pipe down!!!!!!!!!

It dose mean a "goddamn thing" because as I said before the EU story as we knew it ended with out a end of some sorts, right in the middle of the story. The last Book the "Crucible by Troy Denning" left us hanging and that's how it will be, its DONE. Its like when they end a TV series without ending it, it sucks !! Will we live and move on "of course we will" but we still feel cheated after supporting them after all these years with our hard earned money & time. 

Not sure how old you are durawhatever but maybe someday when you grow up you might just comprehend why it pisses us off. I've already moved on, but I just couldn't take the fu#$ing stupid shit you were saying anymore you dumb shit !!! 

Hey Pancakes told you ! ;) Now I'm done and  "I feel much better" LOL 

I got my answer and I'm gone. I'm sure that makes durawhatever happy LMAO  

Unfortunately, it's time to review the rules around here again.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Guidelines-for-Post-Content-and-General-Behavior-Or-How-Not-To-Get-Banned/forum/2/topic/12074/

Consider yourself warned.

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Where were you in '77?

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DJW said:

Ok I've been biting my tongue with you but can't anymore durawhatever "Do they call you anything besides STUPID ?"

Of Corse the books are still around but WHO WANTS TO READ THE SAME BOOKS OVER & OVER AGAIN you twit ? The EU story has ended and was erased and is DONE, FINISHED, OVER. Because that's what King George decided after taking the money from the books profit for years.

No Timothy Zahn "CAN NOT" wright more new books in the Star WARS EU galaxy ! There's a little thing called licensing "you have to have permission". If he dose it without permission his ass will be in court faster than a Manhattan minute trust me.

DUH REALLY !! Their Fiction ????? We all thought it was REAL . My God you really need to put the crack pipe down!!!!!!!!!

It dose mean a "goddamn thing" because as I said before the EU story as we knew it ended with out a end of some sorts, right in the middle of the story. The last Book the "Crucible by Troy Denning" left us hanging and that's how it will be, its DONE. Its like when they end a TV series without ending it, it sucks !! Will we live and move on "of course we will" but we still feel cheated after supporting them after all these years with our hard earned money & time. 

Not sure how old you are durawhatever but maybe someday when you grow up you might just comprehend why it pisses us off. I've already moved on, but I just couldn't take the fu#$ing stupid shit you were saying anymore you dumb shit !!! 

Hey Pancakes told you ! ;) Now I'm done and  "I feel much better" LOL 

I got my answer and I'm gone. I'm sure that makes durawhatever happy LMAO  

 What? 

What does "corse" mean? Why are you saying "durawhatever" when his actual username is seen clear as day above every one of his comments? Why did you capitalize "Book" in paragraph number five? I'm really confused by all of this.

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said: 

What does "corse" mean?

It's an archaic way of spelling "corpse".

Why are you saying "durawhatever" when his actual username is seen clear as day above every one of his comments?

"Durawhatever" is actually my real username; it only appears as "DuracellEnergizer" because its largely written in invisible ink. With special glasses like these

you can read it properly.

 Why did you capitalize "Book" in paragraph number five?

A "Book" capitalized like that must be a proper noun. Perhaps it's the name of a person (Reed A. Book)?

I'm really confused by all of this.

You obviously don't have the intellectual capacity to decipher DJW's erudite postings.

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Did Lucas give any input on the the Thrawn books back in the day? Who got the ball rolling on the idea of novels set post-Jedi? Why didn't it happen until 1991?

The biggest question, one we can't really know the answer to but is still puzzling, is whether GL honestly never intended to make Episode 7 as of '91 and therefore said "sure, do whatever you want, RotJ is the end as far as I'm concerned."

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Fang Zei said:

Did Lucas give any input on the the Thrawn books back in the day? Who got the ball rolling on the idea of novels set post-Jedi? Why didn't it happen until 1991?

The biggest question, one we can't really know the answer to but is still puzzling, is whether GL honestly never intended to make Episode 7 as of '91 and therefore said "sure, do whatever you want, RotJ is the end as far as I'm concerned."

 

This is a great question.  I know the word Coruscant was made up by Zahn.   I'm not sure why they didn't use Had Abaddon which was the original name for the Imperial homeworld in the old drafts.

I think back in 91 he had no intention of even making the prequels so he was fine with the sequel novels.  His usual answer to more Star Wars movies was "someday" and "when the technology was right" but I think he was torn on it.  I read somewhere that it wasn't until a financial meeting with Lucasfilm investors that it became imperative that the prequels should to be made for revenue.

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I was much like DJWhatever in my opinion of the EU when I was around 12. He would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad that a grown man could be so serious about fiction. :P

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I used to read Star Wars books before I realized there was much better literature out there.  I recommend Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

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RicOlie_2 said:

I was much like DJWhatever in my opinion of the EU when I was around 12. He would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad that a grown man could be so serious about fiction. :P

I'm hoping he's really a teenager lying about his age. The alternative is just too sad to fathom.