Jeff Diamond’s Comments (group member since Jan 27, 2010)

Jeff Diamond’s comments from the The Expanded Universe group.

So, I haven't read this yet. I'm planning to listen to the audiobook (Star Wars always has great audiobooks). I figured it would be fun if we all aimed to have it read by Star Wars Day of this year. So that's what, three weeks away?

Please, for the sake of us who've not read it yet, mark at the beginning of a comment if you're putting out any spoilers ... well, what spoilers there are for a movie we've all probably seen a dozen times already. All I ask is that you be careful.

May the Force be with us all.

Becky mentioned Han and Leia's relationship yesterday, and there was something I thought was telling. On the imdb.com page, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are credited as Han Solo and Leia Solo, respectively. So we can read into that what we will.

But I don't know they'll wait another year and a half to do anything with Legends; odds are they've got several books already in the pipeline, and it's going to be a pain to delay those. That's not to say they wouldn't do it, but it'd be quite a bit of work they're likely to want to avoid. As for there not being a lot of support for continuing with new Legends stuff...I disagree. The Diz is a company, and bought Lucasfilm because it oozes money. Legends includes a LOT of NY Times bestsellers, and I doubt the powers that be will want to put that cash cow out to pasture. Customers speak with their wallets, which is also the way companies listen. We all love characters, so I'd be really surprised if Legends dies out, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this new canon become just as popular and borrow (read: steal) elements, characters, plots and possibly events from older Legends material. Does that mean we'll see Thrawn as a full-on canonical character? Maybe. Am I going to hold my breath for that day? Absolutely not.

I don't think anyone would debate that we're all bummed about this news, but I was just listening to the ForceCast, and thought of something: why can't they continue both storylines? I don't see how having one book released under the new canon will somehow interfere with another book under the "Legends" banner, but maybe I'm not seeing something. Seems to me that as long as people are interested in each continuum, they will continue to produce material in each. I know that Becky and I would probably jump on a series that starts after Fate of the Jedi, even if it's considered Legends, because the characters are interesting. And as Eric and Erik on the ForceCast mentioned, it's not like they're disappearing. I'd be willing to bet that someone will turn to those stories at some point and say "Hey, I love this story. Let's spin this one into a show," or "Let's take this from Legends and drop it into canon."

By the way, we should all get together and come up with a good name for the new canon. We have Legends and...what?

Well, let's not forget that the existing EU books were never canonical on the same level as the films. Yes, they were canon in that they were licensed and approved, but they could be superseded at any time by George Lucas. I'm sure there are some benefits to this, although I can't think of any right now.

One possibility is that some of the very best stories might make it into the new canon. It's possible that the new books and movies will reference something in the Thrawn trilogy, then Disney will decide to rebrand it and put it out as canon. It's a long shot, but hope springs eternal.

Moved this thread to the more general folder. The little bit of OCD residing in me forces me to keep the Reading Room open for books of the month...

While the Mods are trying to figure stuff out, let's read about another villainous character: Darth Revan.

Some of you may know a little about this character, but keep any spoilers to yourself! At least for a few more days...

Are you volunteering? If so, just message me.

While we're working on figuring out whether to reread Darth Plagueis, let's move on to ... Revan. That'll give us a few weeks to get our ducks in a row.

I'm going to agree with Matthew. I don't think they'll cut all the EU, but they'll probably toss a few of the one shots (Splinter of the Mind's Eye, perhaps?), but I doubt they'll get rid of the more popular ones like the Darth Bane books, The Thrawn Trilogy, or basically anything in the timeline from NJO to...the foreseeable future.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that loved ROTS. It seems a lot of the people I know are prequel haters, and it extends to everything related to them.

As for novelizations, I can't say whether I feel different about the films because of the novelizations or not. For me, it has to do more with the books and stories surrounding a film--my best example is Darth Plagueis. This one added so much depth to the character of Palpatine and the events leading up to Episode I that it actually made the movie more interesting to watch. But Terry Brooks's take on the movie...not so much. I couldn't even finish R.A. Salvatore's version of Episode II.

YES!!!

Where to start depends on what you're interested in. If you like the main characters from the films, I'd go with both Gabriel and Emre, as either the X-Wing series or the Thrawn Trilogy will give you an awesomeness overload.

I'd be careful about some until you've been familiar with Star Wars books for a while. Mainly, I'd stay away from the New Jedi Order series for a while, but there are some in there that are really good. I don't know if I would recommend what Matthew did by starting with Legacy, as I prefer a lot of shock value in my reading when something big happens. It's like when you watch The Empire Strikes Back if you see Return of the Jedi first. That Vader is Luke's father doesn't seem like such an explosively crazy thing, because you've seen him without the helmet.

Let me just make a little mea culpa right now. I'm really sorry I've not been on for a long while, but I'm glad to see Alli has been awesome and picked up the slack.

A lot of the things that have taken me away from the important stuff (read: this group) were minor things like buying a house, earning money, writing a book and taking care of the family. But we're back!

Anyway, I like Jim's suggestion. Maul: Lockdown sounds like a good choice. For March, I would like to also nominate either Path of Destruction or Darth Plagueis. While we've got the bad guy theme going, anyway. Any thoughts? I promise I'll actually be in touch now.

Here it is, one of Tim Zahn's most recent forays into Star Wars literature. The weather is getting colder, so curl up with this one!

I'm just getting going on the book, but am really excited. My wife got this one for me for Christmas the year it came out, but I haven't been able to read it yet...This is why I love October--reading freaky stuff.

Paul wrote: "Good idea! Except I just got Razor's Edge, so I could have that moved up to December at least."

Well, you could always read it now, and re-read it in January...

You might have also noticed that I've been locking the threads for books that we read three months ago. Just FYI, I'm doing this to avoid necroposting, and to try to keep people up-to speed with our current reads. That's not to say that we can't keep having conversations about these books, but I felt that we can do that in General. If anyone has any questions or wants to rant about that, feel free to do it either here or in a message to me.

Thanks!

Grand Moff Jeff

Okay. Here's what we can do. I'll go ahead and post up Death Troopers for October, but we'll go through these suggestions over the next few months. Deal? How about Death Troopers in October, Allegiance for November, Choices of One for December and Razor's Edge for January (so everyone can get it for the holidays...?)

These are good options. Maybe we can schedule some books a couple months in advance...

EDIT: fixed, because I'm dumb and tired today.

And here we are again! I'm looking for suggestions for the October book of the month. If we can't agree on one like last month, I'll post up a poll as soon as possible. But I'm going to throw a suggestion out there: Death Troopers. It seems October-ey and Halloween-ish.

Denise wrote: "I just finished Kenobi and thinking about reading Crucible although my husband has given it about a 1 star.

The only Star Wars books i have left are those pre-prequels i believe and maybe a few d..."

I'd probably recommend the Old Republic series, even though I just said that Fatal Alliance isn't very good. Once you get past that one, they got good authors to write the series.