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20 New Star Wars books to fill in the gaps

Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/0...ium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article



Star Wars: Episode VII
Posted March 9 2015 — 8:53 PM EDT

A lot can happen in 32 years of space-time. In the Star Wars universe, we’re about to find out just how much.

At least 20 new books—from novels for adults and teens to storybooks and stickerbooks for younger kids—will be released this fall to fill the gap between 1983’s Return of the Jedi and this December’s The Force Awakens, EW has learned exclusively.

Those hoping to find out what Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo have been up to for the past three decades will find it first on the page, with Disney Worldwide Publishing and Lucasfilm Press confirming that the titles will be filled with Easter eggs foreshadowing events in J.J. Abrams’ Dec. 18 movie.

This new initiative comes after Lucasfilm announced last April that existing novels, short stories, comics, and video games that explored the so-called “Expanded Universe” of Star Wars were being discarded from the official storyline. That freed the new movies from having to follow any previous story points, such as Luke’s relationship with the previously villainous (turned good) Jedi Mara Jade, or Han and Leia’s marriage and twins.

Fans who’d been exploring these corners of the galaxy for ages knew a reboot was coming. As Yoda once said: “You must unlearn what you have learned.” These new books, however, like the Rebels animated series on Disney XD, will be considered official canon.

This new series, which spans multiple publishers, will be known as Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Pulling it off required one clandestine society of authors to form a bond with another hush-hush society of screenwriters.

“The Force Awakens is an extraordinarily, heavily guarded storyline. To track it, a lot of top-secret meetings were happening up in San Francisco as we worked through this program,” says Andrew Sugerman, executive vice president of Disney Publishing Worldwide. The company is managing the release through its own imprints as well as at least seven outside companies, among them sci-fi publisher Del Rey, DK, and Marvel Comics.
 
Proscribe all the previous expanded universe then make the blatant cash grab.

26a705d234e2fdaf0e4fcd0a2fd5cfde.jpg
 
And yes just like I knew it could looks like Star Wars is going to go lower than it ever could under the rule of Dear Fuhrer George Lucas in any iteration of the multiverse.

YES I DID
 
norseamd said:
Proscribe all the previous expanded universe then make the blatant cash grab.

26a705d234e2fdaf0e4fcd0a2fd5cfde.jpg
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While I agree with this, there's just NO WAY that they could have succeeded in keeping true to all the EU items and then they would have have fanboys screaming foul at every turn as some little thing was forgotten or changed.

With discarding it all, they basically gave themselves a clean canvas AND were able to print their own money.
 
Fool me once... the chance that I will embrace buying novels a second time around: 0%.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that they could not keep that timeline around and make the new movies ~100 years in the future where Luke, Han, etc are dead. Screw em.

And yes, I am bitter.
 
Homerboy said:
While I agree with this, there's just NO WAY that they could have succeeded in keeping true to all the EU items and then they would have have fanboys screaming foul at every turn as some little thing was forgotten or changed.
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They could have got rid of most of the official Expanded Universe while keeping the known classics like the Thrawn trilogy.
 
And yes if you read the link you can find out that they are tempting everyone with spoilers about the next trilogy of Star Wars.

BLATANT CASH GRAB IS BLATANT CASH GRAB
 
Are the games by LucasArts still considered canon? That would make Thrawn a canon as well. At least as a character.
 
smackababy said:
Or, they could get Zahn to write another series and it be just as good.
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Zahn is a terrible author. I bought a couple of his later Star Wars books and couldn't read them for 20 minutes before throwing them in disgust.

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first set of Star Wars EU books and I suspect we all ate them up and liked them because we had gone so long without Star Wars. I don't want to try rereading them for fear that I'll also discover that they suck too.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
The Thrawn Trilogy was the first set of Star Wars EU books and I suspect we all ate them up and liked them because we had gone so long without Star Wars. I don't want to try rereading them for fear that I'll also discover that they suck too.
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Never read them but I like the idea of a grand admiral leading some of the Imperial Remnant. Overall I like some of the basic plot of the expanded universe in the short term with the Imperial Remnant being fractured and being ruled by warlords and the constant interfaction politics although the death of Chewbacca and the real long run with the New Sith and New Imperials was kinda going out there very far.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Zahn is a terrible author. I bought a couple of his later Star Wars books and couldn't read them for 20 minutes before throwing them in disgust.

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first set of Star Wars EU books and I suspect we all ate them up and liked them because we had gone so long without Star Wars. I don't want to try rereading them for fear that I'll also discover that they suck too.
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Completely agree with this statement.

His books were only good as they were the first taste of Star Wars after we'd been deprived for years. Even when I read them and he incorporated some magic lizards ("ysalamirs") that could block the force, my eyes rolled over. Lame.
 
Homerboy said:
Completely agree with this statement.

His books were only good as they were the first taste of Star Wars after we'd been deprived for years. Even when I read them and he incorporated some magic lizards ("ysalamirs") that could block the force, my eyes rolled over. Lame.
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Magic lizards are silly, but lizard people who can fly spaceships and hunt Harrison Ford for money with a bug man are just fine though!
 
Homerboy said:
Completely agree with this statement.

His books were only good as they were the first taste of Star Wars after we'd been deprived for years. Even when I read them and he incorporated some magic lizards ("ysalamirs") that could block the force, my eyes rolled over. Lame.
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I think I threw his last book I attempted in rage after the 10,000th time Leia "grimaced" or the 6,192nd time Han said "I have a bad feeling about this."
 
of course it' a cash grab? why else would they do more movies?


as for the EU it sucked. far to much crap in it. sure there is great series like Thrawn and the X-wing series. but far to much shit and if htey messed something up forums would be blowing up over it.

At first i was pissed they were just discarding it. but the more i thought about it the more it made sense.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Zahn is a terrible author. I bought a couple of his later Star Wars books and couldn't read them for 20 minutes before throwing them in disgust.

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first set of Star Wars EU books and I suspect we all ate them up and liked them because we had gone so long without Star Wars. I don't want to try rereading them for fear that I'll also discover that they suck too.
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those were the only Star Wars books of any type that I ever read. whenever it was they were released...I guess I was ~13 or so, and they were fine for me then. I don't remember much about them and I really don't care what happened then or if it never mattered now.

If the movies suck, the movies suck. I only care if the movie(s) are good or not. If they are "only good" after some sort of senseless requirement to read any book to understand what is going on in the movie, then it will be a complete failure.
 
mmntech said:
Are the games by LucasArts still considered canon? That would make Thrawn a canon as well. At least as a character.
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The biggest question is if Revan and The Old Republic are still canon because all active Star Wars properties as of this year are considered canon and SWTOR is ongoing. It is also far enough back that it is unlikely to directly clash or be a problem with modern era. But when asked outright, Disney is evasive. If Disney is unwilling to give a firm answer on Old Republic with all the extenuating circumstances it has going in it's favor, it's probably safe to say all the LucasArts games that actually could tangle with New Republic have been dumped in the non canon bin.
 
Honestly if you remember what Lucas dreamed of most was to found his own legendary story that would be remembered like the old mythological tales and folk stories. So in some ways them getting rid of the Expanded Universe is good because it destroys the hold that "canon" has over the Star Wars epic and now over time fans can make various creative possibilities for the story and so we can eventually maybe get some stuff considered what is the right star wars over the next decades or something.

We are all talking about Star Wars but have you guys heard about The Star Wars?
 
smackababy said:
Magic lizards are silly, but lizard people who can fly spaceships and hunt Harrison Ford for money with a bug man are just fine though!
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It's not that they are "silly" or "unbelievable", it's that they came out of nowhere. You think that maybe, MAYBE they might have been mentioned in the original movies. Seems something of that power would be important.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
Zahn is a terrible author. I bought a couple of his later Star Wars books and couldn't read them for 20 minutes before throwing them in disgust.

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first set of Star Wars EU books and I suspect we all ate them up and liked them because we had gone so long without Star Wars. I don't want to try rereading them for fear that I'll also discover that they suck too.
Click to expand...

I love Timothy Zahn. Angelmass and Icarus Hunt are fantastic one off sci-fi books. The Thrawn Trilogy has its ups and downs but the characters he creates are fantastic. His other Star Wars efforts are nothing special, but he is top 2-3 Star Wars authors for sure.
 
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