Lit The mostly official Paul S. Kemp Duology thread (no, it's not canceled)

Yeah, that would probably justify the wait for me too.

 

Maybe a clone wars duology finally showing us Yoda fighting the dark Jedi on Bpfash and it somehow leading into the Mandalorian Protectors and their actions? That would justify the secrecy.

 

Or a novel explaining Yoda's origins?

 

Kemp's fiction has thus far been rather... visceral, crossed with a curious blend of hard sci-fi and mythology, which would definitely lend itself to a Legacy Era work. Yoda's origins? Not sure. Kemp's been good with writing villains and telling very conflicted hero journeys, so uncertain if a character like Yoda would fit his usual style.

Unless it was Yoda in his young days as Darth Minch.

 

That's what you say now, but when it turns out to be a bleak drama about Luke's spiral into alcoholism as he struggles to come out of the closet to his family about his long-ago relationship with Chewbacca, you'll be singing another tune.

 

Unless its a book set during the time of the Legacy comic series, a Yoda duology set during his youth is the only thing I can think of that would really surprise me. Though I will admit that the Kenobi book caught me by surprise

 

I'd be surprised if it was Yoda's backstory for two reasons. Firstly I know that LFL at least used to be very proprietary over Yoda's character and history. Sean Stewart agreed to write a Clone Wars novel to fill in for the Shaak Ti novel that didn't happen on the condition that it could be about Yoda, and they agreed, so obviously it's not totally unheard of, but also, it's not something they do casually.

But second, while that might seem like it would then be cause for such secrecy and ceremony, is it really something that mindblowing? Cool? Yes, absolutely. But, is "it's a about Yoda's youth," really something so incendiary it has to be kept secret to this degree? Then again I struggle to think of anything that could justify this level of secrecy unless he really IS writing Bib Fortuna and the Rise of the Dark Falls, the novelisation of Episode VII. :/

 

Is/was it canon that Bib Fortuna ended up as a disembodied brain in a jar?

 

Let's remember, there was a time when none of us ever expected to learn about Palpatine's youth, but then we got Darth Plagueis.

 

Tim Battershell - I think he got his brain put into another body? The Wook should be able to clear it up?

DarthJenari - totally agreed, but they were also WAY less secretive about that even though it had the potential to be way more revelatory?

 

Well, Yoda is one of the most iconic characters in the saga and has only starred in one book as a major pov character. He's been around for 900 years and we only know only a fraction of that. The last century of his life. And like DarthJenari said we didn't expect to find out much about Palpatine's backstory but we did. So why not Yoda?

 

Is Kemp as popular an author as Luceno to be likely to get that sort of assignment though?

I love Kemp's novels and am dying for the Jaden Korr finale, but their reception has been a bit hit and miss, whereas Luceno was constantly being hailed for books like TUF for many, many years before Plagueis finally got the go ahead.

 

So you're saying they've been reading the diversity thread after all?

Actually, Smuggler has a point - Yoda's origin is another good possibility.

 

I really don't think that Yoda's backstory is likely. Nothing Kemp has done so far has quite suggested that he'd be the man they'd pick for that assignment over, say, Luceno. And if he's picking his topic itself, it seems like he'd want to conclude the Jaden Korr story he started, not drop that and launch off into a ridiculously unlikely venture like "Can I write a duology about young Yoda?"

Plus, the only reason you'd keep that secret instead of hype it like crazy is if you don't want to announce it until it passes Lucas Review, which seems like an unlikely mechanism for publishing -- pay someone to write two books, then hope Lucas doesn't veto them or require extensive rewrites? It doesn't quite compute to me.

The thing that the secrecy suggests is possible to me is that maybe the premise itself is spoilery. Like, it's about Ben, or Luke, and it spoils SOTJ, or Crucible, or something, just to tell you what they're up to or if they're alive or whatever. But I wouldn't buy too much into hype that "The author said it would blow our minds, so it must be the most spectacularly unlikely thing ever!" I'm guessing it's some kind of complement to SOTJ, a post-Crucible story that focuses on someone other than Jaina. But there are plenty of other things that it could be.

 

We already know Yoda's backstory.

 

In more detail. Or first mission as a Jedi, or how he became a Jedi Knight, Master or Grand Master. How about some of his earlier apprentices? There is so much we don't know that would be great material

 

The Adventures of Yoda & Ikrit? Please, God.

 

I'd read a Jedi Apprentice esque series starring Yoda and Ikrit. For once I could forgive having 15+ volumes too.

 

So, about these top secret novels...

 

Like I said in the other thread, I think Kemp's duology is due to be about EP7(-9).

 

It seems to make sense, but a duology? If it was three, novelizations; one, bridge novel. But two? That seems weird for this.

 

Wonder now if the secret was that it could connect Episode 7. I do not know when he was contracted to write the two novels so if it was always the plan, it would seem Del Rey could have known about this in advance.

 

I suspect it'll be a lead-in, rather than an actual novelization.

 

I kind of doubt that Kemp knew about this two years ago but you never know. I do wonder if we're any closer to knowing what this mysterious super secret duology is about.