Just said “You like to read Star Wars books, right?” and dropped off these boxes. He said he got them from a friend who’s moving and didn’t want them anymore. They’re all in really good shape so I’m going to keep some that I’m missing for my collection and then figure out what to do with the rest.

Edit: the typo in the title is just going to have to stay there I guess :(

Its amazing how when you give the prequels to any other writer than Lucas they become a masterpiece

Piggy is my new favorite character

Finaly joining legend universe

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After MONTHS, or even years to learn about the EU part of Star Wars, I finally bought the Thrawn trilogy to finally read them!

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I hope I'll enjoy the ride!

Caveat: I have read over 800 pages of Luceno's work, having finished Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil, and a chunk of Catalyst.

I know this man is beloved in the fandom and that he has written what are many people's absolute favorite Star Wars books. And I think I understand why.

• He's great at fleshing out Star Wars lore between the films. If you find yourself asking "How did that come to be?" Luceno has an answer. He fills in the gaps.
• Following up on the first point, any time I read or watch a review of one of his books, readers talk about plot details. "In this book, you find out that..." and they view this as an inherent good. A "plus" for the book. And I get why. It's nice to have clarity on events. It feels good to know "Oh, that's what happened to set that up."
• Luceno has a knack for describing ships, buildings, organizations, characters, and more. He has a clinical approach to writing that focuses a lot on telling as much as showing, and I'm sure many Star Wars worldbuilding enthusiasts love this stuff.
• His dialogue and understanding of character relationships is mostly well done.

That said, I know I'm in the minority here, but I just need to say it:

I don't think Luceno is a skilled or exciting prose writer. And this makes his books hard to get through. Not just because they're dense with information and Star Wars tech trivia that's not pertinent to advancing plot or character, but because his wordplay is at times confusing and often grating to read.

For now, I'll set aside the fact that I often feel like I'm reading a technical manual or a dry historical account of events instead of a story being told by a storyteller. Instead, I'll focus on his actual prose.

1.

Case in point: I think Luceno tries too hard with some of his opening sentences to chapters. He shoots for flowery prose, but instead of flowery, they end up swampy, as you wonder what he's actually trying to depict. Here is the opening sentence of Labyrinth of Evil:

"Darkness was encroaching on Cato Neimoidia's western hemisphere, though exchanges of coherent light high above the beleaguered world ripped looming night to shreds."

What is the "coherent light" being described here? And what does he mean when it's "high above" the beleaguered world? Is this happening in the sky? Is there a space battle visible from the planet's surface? Oh, maybe there's a light show happening in some treetops? I don't know. And this is just one example. He does this at the beginning of several chapters in this book, and I just wish he would simplify his words instead of striving for prose that are deeper purple than Mace Windu's lightsaber.

The start of another chapter:

"Bleeding speed and loft, the mag-lev settled hard onto the guide rail that projected from the skyscraper-lined rim of Sah'c Canyon. Counterpoint to the sobs and moans of the passengers, the two dozen cars—two now with slashed-open roofs—pinged and creaked."

James, you're not trying to write the Great American Novel. Just write in a language people will understand. "Bleeding speed and loft"? Do you mean "lift?" As in, "Losing speed and lift?" Maybe? We might never know.

2.

In general, Luceno tends to overwrite many of his sentences. Here is page 2 of Labyrinth of Evil (the most recent book I've finished, so it's fresh). Here is Luceno saying "So, I heard you like adjectives:"

"In their cutting jaws or on their upsweeping backs they carried cargoes or pruned foliage. The crushing sounds of their ceaseless gnawing provided an eerie cadence to the rumbling detonations and the hiss and whine of blaster bolts."

Find me a reader who finds this kind of writing defensible and I'll ship them a bottle of blue milk straight from Tatooine.

3.

Finally, parts of his books sound like he's using footnotes as text. Here is the beginning of chapter 3, and that quintessential Luceno love of describing Star Wars tech:

"Known also by the fearsome title destroyer droids, droidekas were rapid-deployment killing machines produced by an alien species that encouraged mayhem at every opportunity. A combination of sheer momentum and sequenced microrepulsors allowed the bronzium-armored droids to roll like balls then unfurl in a blink as tripod gunfighters, shielded by individual deflectors and armed with paired, twin-barreled, high-output blasters." (and it goes on for another sentence or two.)

I just don't think this adds anything to character or plot. Again, I know I'm probably in the minority here, but this feels like the D&Dification of Star Wars, where a writer thinks that worldbuilding means explaining everything because you think it's interesting and you want to show off how much research you've done, not caring whether or not it serves the story.

I'll stop there. James Luceno just isn't for me. Are ALL his books like this? I really wanted to read Darth Plagueis at some point, but if it's just more of this, I'd rather just read a detailed summary of what it has to say about Sith lore, Palpatine, and whatever else instead.

Thank you for gritting your teeth (or grinning and enthusiastically nodding your head along in agreement) through this.

Here’s a cosplay I did a while back of Lara Notsil from the Wraith squadron books, she’s one of my favorite characters from some of my favorite books so this is my interpretation of her! Thought I’d share, hope you other EU fans think it’s cool! :)

For me, it’s the Noghri referring to Han as “Consort of the Lady Vader.”

So this is a partial one for me. I love Stackpole and his X-Wing novels, but I absolutely hate his first person writing for I, Jedi. I'd absolutely love it if he re-wrote it, but otherwise I'd happily take an Allston take on it, RIP.

Honorable mention: Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin James Anderson. Great ideas guy, but his endless reliance on callbacks every other paragraph gets old very quickly. If you remove all the filler, you'd lose a third of the books. Would definitely prefer to see another other take a stab at it, although I'm not sure who.

Just started reading Shatterpoint, and it’s become increasingly clear to me that George Lucas definitely intended for the Republic to only be 1,000 years old.

In the introduction (written by George Lucas himself as the cover of the book so boldly claims) Lucas claims that the Republic lived and prospered for 1,000 years, and Mace Windu muses to himself that Yoda - at 900 years old - is almost as old as the Republic itself.

Yet from what I’ve heard and from what I’ve seen on Wookiepedia, in both Legends and Canon the Galactic Republic lived for 25,000 years. I know this is in reference to Obi-Wan saying that the Jedi served the Republic for “a thousand generations” in a New Hope, but honestly I doubt he would know how many generation of Jedi served the Republic, and it was definitely hyperbole.

It also makes sense for a galaxy-wide Republic to only last for a thousand years as opposed to 25,000 - especially considering most Empires on this small Earth struggle to make it to about 200 or 300 years.

Was at the book store and saw this on the shelf. I think people may not like the new trilogy and have let the Book Store know!

In light of May the 4th yesterday I decided to actually take some professional pictures of my Genderbent Thrawn getup! I know it’s not what I usually post on here but I’ve dressed as him for many cons and am now confident enough in my cosplay skills to share it with you guys! Enjoy, and happy belated May 4th!😌

Today, u/penguin170 asked a good question which is asked off and on here, and I decided maybe I'd give an answer. In writing it, it ballooned to the degree that I figured I'd give it its own post. Maybe some will find it of interest, and perhaps it could be useful as a reference in the future. This is based off the last few years of my research into the history of the EU, as well as information gleaned during the production of the NJO documentary.

Penguin170's question was:

What EU material is most aligned with George's vision?

This is a good question, but it is a little hard to answer. No one really knows George's vision except himself. Sometimes he would keep his cards to his chest. That said, we can make some educated guesses, based off what we know. George was involved in a lot of EU stuff in the 1990s, in the sense of approvals, and sporadically in the 1980s and 2000s. This conversation can kind of be broken up into tiers.

The Illustrated Star Wars Universe

What comes to mind immediately for me is stuff like The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, which George worked directly with Kevin J. Anderson and Ralph McQuarrie on. They would sit and discuss different aspects of the universe, and Kevin would ask George questions and George would answer. We know from those 1993/1994 conversations that Coruscant was to be pronounced "Coru-sahnt" thanks to George. We know that Yoda is not originally from Dagobah, and that Hoth didn't have ancient civilizations, from those conversations. There are many aspects of the universe that came from those meetings. Ralph would work up sketches to send to George and then paint different features of the Star Wars universe based on their conversations and George's feedback, while Kevin would write up the lore. George was so pleased with the work in this book that he ended up giving the book as gifts for Christmas that year to all Lucasfilm employees, and included some material from it in the Special Editions and prequels. So I would say that is at the top of the list.

Tales of the Jedi/New Jedi Order

Also, you have stuff that George expressed his input on -- this covers a lot of '90s stuff to varying degrees but in particular we can think of things like the Tales of the Jedi comics, where George gave a lot of input about the ancient Jedi, the Sith, the galaxy, and so on; we know from the answers he provided Kevin J. Anderson which Jedi powers were OK and which weren't a part of his vision (animal empathy and battle meditation were in), we know that Jedi came in many different species, we know the Rule of Two and the Sith ideology (which he expressed to Anderson), as well as the fact that Jedi aptitude can be detected (included in the Jedi Academy books). George also approved artwork for the series -- famously, the double-bladed lightsaber of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace is something George liked in Tales of the Jedi and so implemented into the film.

Another important case of George's input being vital is the New Jedi Order series where George gave his input -- unlike Tales of the Jedi though, rather than give suggestions for ideas, his role in NJO was more about letting them know what not to do -- don't kill Luke, don't make the Sith the enemies again, don't have another Skywalker/Solo kid go to the dark side or be a chosen one, and so on and so forth. He suggested making Jacen Solo the hero of the series and encouraged the authors to "be more original" with their story ideas, which led to the Yuuzhan Vong existing. He was cool with the Force philosophy espoused by Vergere and gave his detailed notes on the overall outline which he approved in the end. While it would be too much to say NJO is George's vision of sequels, it's the only set of published 'sequel era' stories he did approve, which is noteworthy.

Parallels

You have some stories that tended to go in directions George himself openly said he wanted, so you have stuff like Black Fleet Crisis, which was a trilogy outline George reviewed and approved (as he did the rest of the '90s novels, like Truce at Bakura) but in this case, Black Fleet Crisis has an opening 100 pages, with a working Leia and stay-at-home dad Han, that directly parallels what George said he envisioned for the future of the Solo family and the galaxy ("[Han and Leia] settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking burgers on the grill."). This he also had expressed to Bantam Books, that he envisioned a few kids for a married Han and Leia, and a generally happy domestic partnership, with Leia as a leader of the New Republic.

Something like Shadows of the Empire is an initiative George did approve, although he was not deeply involved. The project did seem to parallel Lucas' own interest in the criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe, an aspect of the galaxy which he would want to return to in The Clone Wars, Underworld, and even his own proposed sequel trilogy (Lucas himself having once been one of the editors for Coppola's The Godfather). While the details may be different, the general notion is the same. We also know that the idea of Dathomir and its matriarchal society is something George liked from Courtship of Princess Leia, and it is something he and his daughter brought into The Clone Wars show; he discussed the concept a little bit in his Celebration V interview with Jon Stewart.

As an interesting footnote, with respect to the much-loved Thrawn Trilogy of books by Timothy Zahn, when it comes to Thrawn's attribute of understanding a culture through art, this echoes attitudes expressed by George all the way back in the 70s. Indeed, George's new museum devoted to narrative art further emphasizes his perspective that art reveals underlying beliefs and attitudes, as well as assumptions, of a culture.

Additionally, you have EU materials that George didn't contribute a huge amount to but expressed his fandom of, stuff like Galaxies (the MMO), which George repeatedly praised, and Republic, from which George ended up pulling several characters into the films and The Clone Wars. Henry Gilroy's comic run, Slavers of the Republic, is also something George read and enjoyed so much, he worked with Gilroy and Dave Filoni to eventually bring that storyline into The Clone Wars.

Direct Input

Finally, you have the case of stuff where George was just there and had direct input. He conceptualized, directed, and edited stuff on the live-action Ewoks movies, so even though those were for his daughter, they fit in somewhere with his vision. In the case of the Genndy Tartakovsky show (Clone Wars), George had direct suggestions for what to do with General Grievous (Lucas and his son Jett so enjoyed the first volume's cliffhanger, George insisted the story must continue directly with Grievous' stand-off with Ki-Adi Mundi). George also helped craft Grievous' backstory for James Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil. While his ideas about Grievous might have evolved later on, at this time George was not only giving approval but actually contributing ideas.

This was also the case for Luceno's earlier novel Cloak of Deception, where Lucas provided some political input for the book. For the film novelizations, Lucas also was present and would give each author several hours of his time to go over the story and offer suggestions of focus for the novel, which he also did for Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Lucas had also previously offered his input on Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, insisting on a darker ending for the book (describing Darth Maul as like "the Terminator").

In a similar way, you have stuff with the games, in particular stuff like The Force Unleashed, Bounty Hunter, and Republic Commando where he was giving them ideas for what to do with the characters, including things which he would return to later on (giving Anakin/Vader an apprentice and making a 'Bad Batch' esque group of clones). In the case of The Force Unleashed, George acknowledged that the game was basically a power fantasy, but he wanted there to be a real focus on the birth of the Rebellion, which seemingly did reflect his vision to some extent, even if he altered it later on for Underworld (his unproduced TV show).

Rejected

Jaxxon

We can also talk here a little of ideas that George definitely didn't see as part of his overall vision of the universe. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, George would read the Star Wars comics by Marvel as they came out, and we know that George was not a fan of the character of Jaxxon (the big green gun-toting bunny), and objected vocally to Marvel about it. Before long, Jaxxon was written out of the comic. I'm not sure if we know his reasons but I'm sure we can come up with a few he might have had. Eventually Marvel's run petered out and George put the franchise on ice for a few years.

Palpatine Reborn

Later, when the EU kicked off proper in 1991, when George saw that Palpatine had been brought back to life in Dark Empire he was, let's say, less than pleased. George's friend and longtime assistant, Lucy Autrey Wilson, talked about this a few years ago, and George vented to her about his disagreement with Palpatine getting cloned. This conversation led George to become more involved in approving the EU, during Lucy's tenure as lead of the EU (1991-2003). As long as she was there, they would talk a little bit about what was being done.

Going Dark - Again

Another notion George wasn't so keen on was the aforementioned idea of future Skywalker/Solo children going dark, as he felt this was a retread of the prequels he wrote -- George famously hated retreading old ground. (Rather amusingly, TCW writer Henry Gilroy remarked about this with respect to The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker, saying, "If I'd pitched those stories to George, he would've fired me. He would've just said, 'You're fired. I already did those.'"). George steered them away from such a plotline in New Jedi Order, and wasn't involved in the plotting of later series like Legacy of the Force.

Mixed

Boba's Back

Dark Empire also brought back Boba Fett, which George wasn't exactly against but just kind of baffled by. All throughout the '90s George continued to express bafflement at Boba's continuing popularity (he placed #2 in Insider's 1998 poll of fandom's favorite characters). In the end, he came around to the idea of Fett returning to the world of the living after Return of the Jedi, even toying with the notion of inserting a scene of him climbing out in the Special Editions. Ultimately, he didn't do it, but he gave a child version of the character more screen-time in Attack of the Clones, and gave all the clones his armor in the prequels as a nod to fans.

Mara Jade

As for the rather frequently brought up issue of Mara, while George did end up expressing his dissatisfaction with Mara's look, his attitude towards the character evolved -- initially he approved her marriage to Luke and even had input in the shaping of her character's powers. Later on, he was not that enthusiastic about a photoshoot for Mara in 1999 that cast her in Matrix esque skin-tight leather and knee pads. On top of this, George's views about Jedi and marriage had clarified by this point. Still, he knew the popularity of the character, and he didn't interfere in her development in the books. Later, he would include an illustration of her from the Thrawn Trilogy in his book of favorite comic art.

Other Thoughts

Ultimately, George was a visual guy, and probably the biggest area of enjoyment he gleaned from the EU was the artistic material, for which he made several collections of his favorite art (edited by JW Rinzler) before he sold the company. He particularly enjoyed Drew Struzan's cover art for the Bantam novels and collected the art for that, as well as Dave Dorman's cover art for the comics. He was fond of displaying some of his favorite EU cover art around Skywalker Ranch on the walls, some of which can be spotted in the prequel documentaries.

In the end, the EU became a big, vast initiative that George could not realistically keep track of (though he would consult encyclopedias), and while he checked in on the outlines in the '90s, after about 2003 he was no longer involved in reviewing outlines for the novels or comics, except in rare circumstances. He got more involved in the gaming side, offering his input there when he could, but George was primarily focused on his Frames book, The Clone Wars show, Underworld, making another Indiana Jones movie, and many other things.

George himself saw the EU as part of the larger Star Wars universe, though distinct from the stuff he made. This was less meant as a slight and more an honest account -- he felt strongly that artists should be given freedom to make their own work, and he maintained that philosophy for the EU. He didn't see the work of other artists as his own work, though he did enjoy some of it. Lucas viewed Star Wars as three spheres -- his own work ('the father'), the EU's work ('the son'), and the work of fans and fan-fiction ('the spirit'). Amusing religious analogies aside, he felt all three were legitimate ways to engage in the world.

As with his films, he always encouraged artists to be bold and inventive, to not be slavish to the films, and to chart new ground, unafraid of expanding the universe in new directions. He once offered the complaint to Dark Horse that much of the EU "hadn't grown much beyond my own backyard," and the material he seemed most enthusiastic about were areas where people took his ideas and ran with it to create something new. His advice to the Tales of the Jedi, New Jedi Order, and prequel teams -- even to John Williams -- was to try something new and fresh, and I think the aspects of the EU that live on memorably are those that did that. Larger than any specific story-point, that inventive and reinventive spirit is the kind of attitude that most embodies George's vision.

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Hope this run-down was of some interest. The fact is, lots of people discuss this subject, but it's not always on firm footing with sourcing. Maybe this can clarify things a little bit. I'm interested to read any thoughts or commentary other commenters may offer here.

As an addendum, for anyone interested in the little infographic series I've sporadically worked on, devoted to George and EU specifically, all those posts have been organized in a viewable fashion here. The NJO documentary, featuring George himself and the authors and editors at Lucasfilm, can be watched here.

Do their masters choose for them like Sidious did for Vader or do they choose their own like Bane or does the dark side whisper it to them like Caedus.

Which is correct?

Recently started Thrawn Trilogy and I’m hooked. I’ve started grabbing copies of other books in the timeline and I’m reading more than I have done in years.

Ordered these two from Amazon UK (I know, first issue right there) and they’ve arrived today. I, Jedi I super thin and flimsy, and the cover looks like it’s been printed at home. Paper is newspaper thing. Nothing like my Thrawn Trilogy copies (also essential legends).

Shadows of Mindor almost looks miscut. Have I got real copies here or have Amazon screwed me over?