A question about SW EU

[Krookie]

I've started to read the EU novels and have just finished the book where Chewie gets killed off. My question is, how does the author of the book (Michael Stackpole) get the permission from George Lucas to do these sorts of things? I mean, I know it's that EU is not considered 'canon' or anything, but still, Lucas's charecter. My other question is, if someone else were to write a book, after the death of Chewie, are they allowed to include them in the story? This is why I think George should write a book or something to clear up exactly what happen to the Galaxy after ROTJ.

[Skynet]

Lucas's writing was bad enough in the lastest Star Wars movies. Do we really want him to write a book?

[Calax]

The overall storyline of the NJO series was decided from the outset. Michael A. Stackpole didn't write Chewies death rather he wrote the books immediatly afterwords. No Lucas wasn't asked only the writers were and the guy's over at lucas books were (guess they got tired of using Bantam Spectra to publish their books)

[Oerwinde]

Wasn't it R.A. Salvatore that killed off Chewie?

[Nur Ab Sal]

The main problem of EU is Sue Rostoni - bitch who decides about virtually everything. Since GL isn't interested in EU at all, she is the empress and most of the released crap exists becouse of her.

[EnderAndrew]

I loathe the NJO. I read every Star Wars book published up the NJO.

 

I highly recommend:

 

The 6 Zahn books. Easily the best of the best.

Children of the Jedi

The X-Wing Series

Courtship of Princess Leia.

[julonia17]

I've read Children of the Jedi and I enjoyed it.

I tried to read another series of seemingly similar books, but they all contradicted each other and I got confused.

[EnderAndrew]

Back when Bantam had the license, you will notice in the author's notes it always mentions how the editors made all the authors get together and keep the characters and storylines consistent.

 

Then Del Rey got the license and started the NJO.

 

Timothy Zahn was handpicked by Lucas, and he got permission to use cloning and such. He said that Lucas nixxed some story ideas, and personally approved others. This was well before the prequels.

 

Zahn mentioned that Lucas specifically wanted to reserve the rights to discuss the Emperor's backstory, Vader's backstory, when Han and Chewie meet, and Boba Fett's backstory.

 

So somewhere along the line, Lucas stopped approving the books since the books went into Boba Fett's backstory.

[hysrix]

Almost all the NJO books are horrible and I wouldn't recommend any of them unless you're a die hard Star Wars fan. The ones that are okay would be, in my opinion: Star by Star, Dark Journey, Traitor, and (maybe) Destiny's Way.

 

I hated Children of the Jedi. (I read it about six years ago or so and felt it was the worst book to ever be in Star Wars, then I read Crystal Star and changed my opinion...)

 

The Zahn books for the most part are incredible though.

[EnderAndrew]

Actually I haven't read the most recent Zahn book (Survivor's Quest). I gave it to Sarah, and we live together and all, but I never read it myself yet. I loved his first five books though, and I've heard good things about the new one.

 

There is a Zahn trilogy set 5 years after RotJ that many fans consider the unofficial Episodes 7,8 and 9.

 

Heir to the Empire

Dark Fleet Rising

The Last Command

 

Then he did a two book series later that wrapped up some loose ends called:

 

Spectre of the Past

Vision of the Future

 

The new one I guess ties up another loose end, called Survivor's Quest.

[Calax]

What was Zhan's sixth book? i only have heard of The Thrawn triogy, and Specter and Vision....

 

And THe two of the NJO that were written by Stackpole are nice everything else can go too the book burning contests as resources...

[hysrix]

What was Zhan's sixth book? i only have heard of The Thrawn triogy, and Specter and Vision....

 

And THe two of the NJO that were written by Stackpole are nice everything else can go too the book burning contests as resources...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Zahn's sixth book is called Survivor's Quest, it's a fairly good book with just Mara, Luke, and R2. I read it a few months ago and can't remember too much of it, except that it involves the mission Jorus C'Baoth went on, Outbound Flight, or something... It's not as good as his previous books though...

[GhostofAnakin]

The overall storyline of the NJO series was decided from the outset. Michael A. Stackpole didn't write Chewies death rather he wrote the books immediatly afterwords. No Lucas wasn't asked only the writers were and the guy's over at lucas books were (guess they got tired of using Bantam Spectra to publish their books)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not quite. Lucas did have some input into the NJO series in a very limited capacity. For starters, the death of Anakin Solo was Lucas' choice. Lucasbooks initially wanted to have Jacen Solo be the one killed off, and Anakin Solo become the star of the series. But Lucas vetoed that decision since he felt with the Revenge of the Sith stuff and Clone Wars stuff that people would get confused if there were two Anakins (Solo and Skywalker), and thus Lucasbooks changed it around.

 

Also, Lucas gave the OK for Chewie to be killed off. The publishers wanted a death of a major character to start off the series to give the series a quick jolt and Lucas didn't want his big three touched (Luke, Han, Leia), and since Chewie was like "everyone's pet dog" he figured Chewie's death would achieve the goals the editorial team wanted to reach.

 

Lucas also was indirectly responsible for the NJO villains. He didn't come up with them, but he gave instructions that the antagonist was NOT allowed to be Sith or Dark Jedi or Darkside Force users. Thus Lucasbooks came up with the Yuuzhan Vong.

 

Overall though, Nur's right in that Sue Rostoni and the editorial team are responsible for how the SW EU has turned out. Reading the Dark Nest's first book (The Joiner King), I'm noticing that Rostoni's views of what constitutes a good story idea are definitely different than mine.

[EnderAndrew]

Lucas also said that Wookiees can't be Jedi.

 

Lucas is a Wookiee-racist.

[hysrix]

And yet there is a wookiee jedi... (at least in EU)

 

How strange...

[GhostofAnakin]

He also said that Hutts can't be Force sensitive, and yet there was a Hutt Dark Jedi as well.

 

Sometimes I wonder how these editors got their jobs when they actually approve these horrible story ideas and think "the consumers will love this".

[EnderAndrew]

The Hutt thing makes a bit more sense. The Hutts (and their cousins the Toydarians) are supposed to be largely immune to the effects of the Force, so it makes sense that they can't use it either.