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

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I have noticed no new star Wars books have come out since Disney bought them. Can anyone tell me if Disney has put the kibosh on the books continuing the story since the Crucible and Fate of the Jedi series?

If they did I’m pissed, I’ve been reading these books for over 30 yrs.

Anyone? and thanks.

 


 

Moderator Edit: this thread also now serves as a ‘general discussion topic’ for any new and forthcoming releases Star Wars books. As such, the following links may be of some interest…

https://twitter.com/DelReyStarWars : www.facebook.com/starwarsbooks : www.randomhousebooks.com/campaign/star-wars-timeline

‘List of Star Wars books’ at Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books
‘List of Star Wars reference books’ at Wikiepdia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_reference_books

Be sure to check out ‘An Index & Help Thread for The Expanded Universe’ for threads on comics & books from the GFFA.
 

The ‘High Republic’ publishing project also has its own thread - ‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ era publishing project 😉

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DJW said:

I have noticed no new star Wars books have come out since Disney bought them. 

A New Dawn and Tarkin both came out post-Disney.

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Both happen before Crucible and Fate of the Jedi series ,well before. The books have went 45 yrs after "A new Dawn" . Its also just after & during the Lost Tribe series the Crucible was the last book released in this time line.

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I guess the way I should have asked is "has Disney stopped the books from continuing the story from the Crucible & Fate of the Jedi series" .

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Yes. The Expanded Universe was retired and none of the series that fell under that label will be continued.

As to why that is, when George sold Star Wars to Disney, part of the deal was an outline for the next three films VII-IX. As you should be aware, George never considered the EU as a legitimate continuation of his universe:

George Lucas said:

...there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. ... Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married...

So whatever is in that outline doesn't conform at all with the pre-existing EU timeline.

What it is specifically we don't know for certain. But we know Chewbacca is still alive and it's pretty much a given that Jaina, Jacen, Anakin Solo and Ben Skywalker never existed and Luke never married Mara Jade.

Those are things you simply cannot retcon away. And so Lucasfilm had no choice but to retire the Expanded Universe.

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In short, YES.

Only the 6 films, Clone Wars, Rebels, a couple of Insider short stories, one or two Clone Wars comic books (can't remember which ones) and the new novels are now official "canon".

Sorry, but whatever novels you have read since the Zahn trilogy and up to the release of A New Dawn & Tarkin are no longer part of the official timeline and will not be continued.

Ditto for any comic books (except one or two of the later Clone Wars stories) or games!

Here is a random link from last April stating what happened

http://mashable.com/2014/04/25/star-wars-expanded-universe-gone/

On the bright side, Chewie did not die and Planet of Twilight never happened!!

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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Yeah, that stuff's gone and good riddance, too. Nothing ruined the EU more thoroughly than the Legacy era did.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

Nothing ruined the EU more thoroughly than the Legacy era did.

This. Jacen, who was firmly on the light side in The Unifying Force becomes a Sith and becomes more powerful than The Emperor and Vader were. Luke, who forgave Vader and the Vong, doesn't forgive Jacen. A Force Vision from The Clone Wars is now something that actually occured. Krayt brings the Empire and Sith back into power and purges the Jedi AGAIN. 

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Personally, I hope Luke is or was married, and has offspring. While it wouldn't be a dealbreaker, I'd hate to see Luke as a celibate monk-type Jedi like in the PT.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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DJW said:

I guess the way I should have asked is "has Disney stopped the books from continuing the story from the Crucible & Fate of the Jedi series" .

 Yes, and none of that is canon anymore.

Canon as it currently stands is:

  • The Movies (Episodes I-VI, the sequel trilogy, the upcoming standalone movies, and the 2008 The Clone Wars movie)
  • The Clone Wars (2008 series, including the four "animatic" episodes that were unfinished; the 2003 series is no longer canon)
  • Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (Limited comic series)
  • Rebels (TV series & pre-series shorts)
  • A New Dawn (novel)
  • Tarkin (novel)
  • Ezra's Gamble (junior novel)
  • Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy (junior novel)
  • "One Thousand Levels Down" (short story)
  • "Blade Squadron" (short story)
  • "The End of History" (short story)


And everything from here on out will be canon, EXCEPT FOR future expansions to The Old Republic.

Upcoming canon material:

  • Star Wars (ongoing Marvel comic; starts this month)
  • Untitled Rebels junior graphic novel (February)
  • Darth Vader (ongoing Marvel comic; starts in February)
  • Servants of the Empire: Rebel in the Ranks (junior novel; March)
  • Princess Leia (ongoing Marvel comic; starts in March)
  • Kanan (ongoing Marvel comic; starts in April)
  • Heir to the Jedi (novel; March)
  • Lords of the Sith (novel; April)
  • Dark Disciple (novel based on unproduced The Clone Wars material; July)
  • Battlefront (video game; late 2015)


And probably some more Rebels-era junior and young adult novels.

I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT that the decanonization of everything else doesn't mean that it's completely wiped from continuity - though it seems likely that this is exactly the case for post-ROTJ stuff. But for prequel-era or earlier stuff, or even some post-ROTJ material, the writers are free to incorporate characters and events from the old EU, bringing them stories into the new canon.

The best example of this is Darth Bane - while the trilogy of books about him and his creation of the Rule of Two is no longer canon, his spirit (or something) appeared in an episode of The Clone Wars and mentioned the creation of the Rule of Two, so at least some of the Darth Bane Trilogy happened in the new canon. But the writers are free to change stuff this way - events may no longer have unfolded exactly how they did in the no-longer-canon novels, but that doesn't mean the stories full-stop never happened.

Hope this helped!

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    Hal 9000 said:

    Personally, I hope Luke is or was married, and has offspring. While it wouldn't be a dealbreaker, I'd hate to see Luke as a celibate monk-type Jedi like in the PT.

    Likewise. I'd also like to see Mara Jade show up in the new continuity, even if she ultimately doesn't end up with Luke. 

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    Since pretty much all of the things actually in it are rubbish, the concept of 'canon' has become entirely meaningless.

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    That's a matter of opinion DE , I enjoyed the books MORE than the movies to be honest. While I LOVED all the movies the books gave me years many more years of life in the Star Wars galaxy and enjoyment.

    This dose take some of the steam out of me for the up coming movies "not sure how old you are DE but I was in the theater in 1977 watching the first movie at the age of 19" and I've been there since the beginning. I even got my son hooked when he was 3 and wore out the VCR tapes of the first 3 movies many times before DVD came out.

    This is like getting hit in the balls by a force kick to me  and I'm not happy at all "pi$$ on Disney". Old George might not have like the books but he sure took the money from them didn't he & Disney could have done the same and let us and all the great writers of the books enjoy the Galaxy far far away. But its not about us its all about the $$$$$$$$$ isn't it. 

    As for Chewy still living, the books did it right you cant go on fighting and not loose close friends its just the way battle is some must die. It was his time, & saving his best friends children, what a way to go "A Hero and being in the right place at the right time for his friends" . Its how it should be and the only way for Chewbacca to go "what more would he have wanted ?" !!!

    I guess I'm done reading Star Wars books for good after 30 + years. I,ve read every book "except for the comics just not my thing" with the exception of Tarken and I wont be reading it now no sense in it as far as I'm concerned. I feel as though I lost a close friend as stupid as it sounds, I looked forward for every new release of the next book. Now its time for the withdraw to start LOL  

    I'd like thank all of you for your reply's and letting me know about the demise of the books "as much as I hated hearing it".

    Again Thank You, DJW

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    Well, what did you expect them to do? The new movie had to be set ~30 years after ROTJ, meaning if they kept the EU as is, they'd have been dropping new viewers - the vast majority of whom haven't read a single bit of EU material - into the story somewhere after the end of the New Jedi Order series. That's a lot of story to try to catch new viewers up on, with a lot of new characters.

    It's better for them to start fresh, and not have to worry about not contradicting a bunch of existing material that, frankly, contradicted itself all the time anyway. Besides, Lucas always said that the post-ROTJ EU wasn't what his post-ROTJ vision was either, and the sequel trilogy is based on his outlines.

    It's not "all about the $$$$$$$$," it's about starting with a clean slate to give us the best possible Episodes VII-IX they can without having to force them in with existing continuity that will just confuse 95% of the audience.

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    Hey Russ thanks for the thread I hadn't seen it before.

    Everyone has to remember that King George said that there would be no more movies after the last one, so the EU was all we pretty much had to continue the story. I think it is ridicules for Disney to act like it the EU never happened.

    May Disney suffer a 1000 years in the belly of a Sarlacc  for stopping the story of the EU. 

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    DJW said:

    I think it is ridicules for Disney to act like it the EU never happened.

    May Disney suffer a 1000 years in the belly of a Sarlacc  for stopping the story of the EU. 

     Disney doesn't call those kinds of shots. They leave it Lucasfilm to make those kinds of calls because they trust them to handle the franchise, as no one else knows it better. It's the same thing they did with Marvel.

    As I said before, this is all due to George's vision of the post-ROTJ galaxy and would have happened regardless of if they had sold to Disney or not.

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    REALLY !!!! You don't believe its about the $$$$$$ Eric ? What's the color of the grass in your little galaxy. Its always about the money !! If its not about the money why did the CEO of Disney get fired after "John Carter", which I enjoyed actually, even though it was vastly different than the book "The Princess of Mars" ? I go to movies for entertainment I don't care if they follow the books, very few films do in actuality.

    If King George didn't like the books & the story why did he let them continue ? Answer : $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ 

    There is no other answer "sorry Eric but its the truth".

    I understand Disney's point of view to a point . But why not just let them go and ignore the books like Star Trek did and still dose ? Like you stated a lot of people didn't read the books so what's the big deal ? My wife has never read one book of Star Wars, so it would make no difference what the movies did at all "she will enjoy the movie as I will". Yes I'll still go I saw the first and I will see the last if I live long enough. I believe Disney made a bad business move here they could have, just as George did "take the money and run to the bank" they need to get some of the money back from John Carter LOL.

    Think about it the movies cost millions upon millions to make and yes they make the same, plus more back. But the EU books were cost effective didn't cost millions to make but made millions in return. But its over and that's that there's no sense arguing about it, we have no say in it. May the force be with you my friend ;).

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    I stopped reading the books when Chewie died. Chewie's death was an unneccesary "sacrifice" that was just there for shock value.

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    To me it bought reality to the story did I like it "NO of course". Only in the movies can the good guys never die and shoot a thousand times out of a six shooter without reloading. I believe it was needed just how many times can you cheat death and keep it believable "ok its Star Wars but you know what I mean". I truly think it helped the story and all the ones that followed. Its called life and it made the Star Wars story believable and more human so to speak.

    Everyone has the right to their opinion though and while we may not agree we still loved the Star Wars story in general. I always believed it was stupid for Obi-Wan to die in the first one it really served no purpose in my opinion.

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    DJW said:

    Everyone has to remember that King George said that there would be no more movies after the last one, so the EU was all we pretty much had to continue the story. I think it is ridicules for Disney to act like it the EU never happened. 

    That ship sailed a long time ago when Lucas made TPM. Why bitch about Disney tossing out the EU now when Lucas himself has been doing it since 1999?

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    DJW said:

    REALLY !!!! You don't believe its about the $$$$$$ Eric ? What's the color of the grass in your little galaxy. Its always about the money !!

    ...

    There is no other answer "sorry Eric but its the truth".

     Of course it's about money. That's why new films are being made. But they didn't throw out the EU because of money, they threw out the EU so the new movies would be comprehensible to audiences.

    Also, no need to be such a dick about it.

    I understand Disney's point of view to a point . But why not just let them go and ignore the books like Star Trek did and still dose ?

    Is...is that not exactly what they're doing? They just made it official that they were ignoring the books, and further are making it official that they're NOT ignoring any future books.

    So, what, you'd be okay with it if they didn't make an official statement that the old books are being ignored, but since they made it official it's suddenly a shitty thing for them to do? I don't get that at all.

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    First I wasn't being a dick I was joking with you about the grass, sorry if you cant handle it, didn't mean to hurt your feelings hoss . But I can be a real big dick if you like ?

    Second you missed the point, but there is no sense beating this dead horse anymore it's done, Disney and George has seen to that.

    I'm pissed about their decision and that's that nothing I can do about it but move on. I'll start reading other books instead & give my money to someone else since they don't want it.

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    DuracellEnergizer said: That ship sailed a long time ago when Lucas made TPM. Why bitch about Disney tossing out the EU now when Lucas himself has been doing it since 1999?

    We all remember when the Republic fought against insane clones and Yoda was Obi-Wan's master.