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Star Wars Novels/Graphical Novels 2


TheRevanchist

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On 1/12/2018 at 5:33 PM, Spaßvogel said:

All of the New Canon material that I had read prior to The Force Awakens (and after TFA) meshed perfectly with that film.  The Aftermath series, the two Leia books, various comics, etc etc, but where was the story group when it came to The Last Jedi? None of that synergy from the other published material that we had with TFA was present in TLJ. 

I can happily answer that for you.

Leia: A Princess of Alderan introduces Holdo and Crait.

Phasma provides insight into her origins and background.

Canto Bight's assorted short stories provide more background detail on Cantonica.

Legends of Luke Skywalker thematically parallel the themes explored in TLJ and tie in with the planet Cantonica and Canto Bight.

There are a few comic books as well, but I've not read those, so I can't give you any information about those, unfortunately. Sorry.

 

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5 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I heard that Luke Skywalker book was terrible. Also, isn't it aimed at, um, what's one down from YA?

This is where I say Your Mileage May Vary. I found it to be a fun, layered, and even slightly metatextual story. It's a story about stories about stories. It's really quite impressive.
 

Also, Ken Liu is a terrific writer, and I'll read anything he publishes.

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10 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Heh, yeah, now we get into opinions, I can't stand Liu's writing.

Thus my caveat of "your mileage may vary".

Honestly, I was impressed by the structure of the text as much as by the various stories. Which also leads to readers discovering that Luke visited Jaku after the Battle of Jaku.

Nothing grandiose or earth-shattering, but certainly fascinating from a character analysis approach, as we see people recounting meeting Luke Skywalker and their interactions with him, wherein he himself is uncertain and unsure of his own legacy and legend, and even is given an opportunity to hear some of the tales spun about him - a kind of galactic Chinese Whispers.

It's an interesting narrative approach, and I got a lot out of it, and enjoyed it immensely.

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  • 1 month later...

I finished it.  They pretty much picked all of the subjects that the critics hit on during the first week or two of the movie and made sure they had explanations for them.  Some of them are very convoluted.  That pretty much solidifies in my mind that the delay in publishing was due to them trying to respond to the criticisms of the film.  Early in the book, for example, they explain repeatedly that the bombers are carrying "magnetic bombs" and in case you've forgotten, when you get to the bombing run, they still remind you that these are *magnetic bombs* that fly towards their targets...magnetically. 

 

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Not hate at all...just indifference mostly.  The movie left me cold, the book left me colder.  There's now a guiding intelligence in the Star Wars universe called "The Cosmic Force"  Rey got Jedi Training from mind-melding Kylo Ren.  These things are befuddling mostly. 

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On 3/13/2018 at 3:07 PM, Spaßvogel said:

I finished it.  They pretty much picked all of the subjects that the critics hit on during the first week or two of the movie and made sure they had explanations for them.  Some of them are very convoluted.  That pretty much solidifies in my mind that the delay in publishing was due to them trying to respond to the criticisms of the film.  Early in the book, for example, they explain repeatedly that the bombers are carrying "magnetic bombs" and in case you've forgotten, when you get to the bombing run, they still remind you that these are *magnetic bombs* that fly towards their targets...magnetically. 

 

A part of me suspects that such approaches are for people such as me, who don't have a head for weaponry and are likely to quickly forget anything *remotely* technical.

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19 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Was there actually a delay? I don't remember it not being scheduled for march.

The film was released in December, but the novelisation by Jason Fry was held back until 15 March.

Am unclear as to why that decision was made, as the novelisation by Alan Dean Foster of The Force Awakens was released within a few weeks of the release of the film.

Speculation on business decisions isn't my jam, so I will refrain from offering up any suggestions, and instead suggest that someone go straight to the source.

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On 3/22/2018 at 6:19 PM, Darth Richard II said:

Right but I was under the impression it was planned like this from the start, so saying it was delayed to fix criticisms serms disingenuous to me.

There is no indication that the book was delayed to "fix" issues raised by critics.

There is always a bit of a disparity between what's on screen and what's in the book. TFA certain had its share of changes and it came out at the same time as the film.

Given how close its release was to the DVD release, I suspect that it may have been a bit of a publishing experiment, as well as a means by which to avoid having any leaked spoilers in advance of the movie's release due to galley or ARC leaks.

These are the conclusions that I have, as someone who has worked in publishing.

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Force Awakens e-book dropped the same day as the movie premiere.  Physical book was a few months later.  There was a lot more new-canon synergy with the Force Awakens, but there was relatively very little for TLJ.  Frankly I'm surprised the Star Wars story team went along with Rian Johnson since he jettisoned so many plot threads from the entire rest of the new canon, but maybe Kathleen Kennedy was the one who decided to roll the dice. 

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2 hours ago, Spaßvogel said:

Force Awakens e-book dropped the same day as the movie premiere.  Physical book was a few months later.  There was a lot more new-canon synergy with the Force Awakens, but there was relatively very little for TLJ.  Frankly I'm surprised the Star Wars story team went along with Rian Johnson since he jettisoned so many plot threads from the entire rest of the new canon, but maybe Kathleen Kennedy was the one who decided to roll the dice. 

It wasn't a Rian Johnson decision, it was a Lucasfilm Story Group decision.

 

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