Lit Could a gangster novel work in an SW setting?

I am willing to admit i only read a couple of gangster novels by Mario Puzo (not the Godfather trilogy), but i would be really curious how one would work in SW. I would love one about an undercover cop or just gon full dark side without the Force and let's have one about the rise and fall of a ganglord.

Thoughts, opinions?

 

Well, I guess I know which option I should tackle next for Star Wars and Genre. Gotta stay topical!

But, yeah, I think delving into genre in general has a lot of promise, and gangster fiction is a solid place to start. For a long time, I'd had a hankering for Tim Zahn to step away from Thrawn and Mara and do a "rise of Talon Karrde" novel that tracks his career under Car'das. I think the chaotic period where Car'das disappears and Karrde has to quickly, quietly, and efficiently take over Car'das's operation against heavy opposition from rival lieutenants is just begging to have a story set there.

 

I'd love an underworld novel, but one condition: I want the author to be willing to portray the underworld in all of its natural ugliness. I don't want a gilded underworld filled with Disney characters. While I enjoy the smuggler sections of Zahn's novels, I've never been able to shake the feeling that they just don't feel like criminals. You don't need to have your characters cursing up a storm to sell the fact that they're living on the fringe, but you do need to convey that most of these people are not nice guys, most of whom simply wouldn't be able to function in society. People like Talon Karrde should be the exception to the rule.

So yes, I'd love to see The Godfather in space. Just not a PG version. Talon Karrde comes off as a fairly nice, if opportunistic guy in the Thrawn Trilogy, but I'd love to see some of the more cutthroat things he had to do in order to reach his position. I want to see the man under the facade.

 

So if Car'das = Lucas, Karrde = Disney?

 

So Paradise Snare, Hutt Gambit and Rebel Dawn but with only the Hutt parts?

 

Then you would have to deal with the fact hat Karrde is also in LOTF. I think if Han could be included in one that would be bump sales and would look nice on the cover. I would like to see Shrike gang Han to have smaller or bigger part. No idea about the protagonists but i assume tha approach bumped sales for the Judgement books and Death Troopers.

 

Even as someone who kind of hates the character, I think Dash Rendar could make a good protagonist in this kind of story, if he's played as what he is, if not what he was possibly intended to be: a loser with an overly generous opinion of himself. Him trying to weasel out of debts and fleeing from loan sharks could easily make an entertaining novel or short story.

Despite my earlier post, I think I'd rather a novel like this take place from the point of view of the "little guys", ala Pulp Fiction, rather than the big crime bosses like the Hutts or Talon Karrde, though either one of these could make a powerful presence in an antagonistic role.

 

Hmm… how about a Rise of Xizor novel by Luceno?

 

Yeah but he would still be the smuggler with the heart of gold. I would like a move away from th good outlaw stuff if we are going to get a book about gangsters.

 

Hm, I suppose you could say Rendar has a heart of gold, but I've always seen him as a schmuck who puts self-preservation above all else (though I haven't read SOTE in awhile, and he could have been so annoying that I mentally blocked all the parts where he wasn't self-serving). Plus I'll profess an interest in reading about him getting his kneecaps broken while promising that he'll get them double the money, he just needs more time

 

Not as a protagonist. Or an imperial going undercover would also be interesting. SW is not real life where gunfights are rare so he could do stuff that Republic undercover cops could never do.

 

Well since the biggest crock in the galaxy sits on the throne of the Emperor for 22+ years

 

If it also involve exploring the falleens culture/s than I am in

 

I could see a Palpatine The Gangster novel:

http://web.archive.org/web/20081120...ca.net/something_wicked_this_way_comes_i.html

Not all of Palpatine's social connections were legitimate – or even legal. The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook mentions that Palpatine secretly backed a well-
armed pirate band, and used it to destroy the Jedi Order's Oracle at Pelgrin, which had been used for nearly 3,000 years to predict (and thereby prevent
or mitigate) galactic disasters. In The New Essential Guide to Characters, the scribe mentions his "under-the-table allies in every organization from the
Techno Union to Freedom's Sons," and Cloak of Deception mentions that his friendship with a group of Bith delegates led to contacts within the terrorist
group called the Nebula Front, active primarily along the Rimma Trade Route and well known for its hostility to the Trade Federation (TradeFed) and to
the Republican Government.

 

This is what I was thinking. A gangster novel could work, and it seems that over the past few years authors have been attempting to branch into other genres anyways. Death Troopers (Have yet to read it so I can't say how effectively it was done) was marketed as the fear Star Wars horror novel, and Kenobi, which will be released in a few short weeks, is already being recognized as the first Star Wars western. I'd be interested to see Xizor's rise to power in Black Sun, any random Hutt gaining prestige and starting his own criminal empire, or even just a random smuggler.

 

I have wanted a Count of Monte Cristo retelling in the SW setting for ages anyway.

 

One of things that's important for a 'gangster' style novel is a proper presence of The Law, even if there aren't major characters in such a work. Law enforcement is woefully underdeveloped in the Star Wars universe compared to their criminal counterparts. We know lots about the Hutts, about Black Sun, even about lesser groups like the Zann consortium, but very little about the non-military people who try to stop them.

While the Star Wars setting is clearly set to have a sort of pre-modern law enforcement scheme, in the tradition of most Westerns, to really bring out gangsters you need someone on the other side. Any gangster style novel would be an excellent place to develop that theme in Star Wars.

 

Gangster involved stuff is kinda one the four pillars of pulp stories, so I imagine they should. If a crime story isn't compatible with Star Wars then something ain't right with the world.

I'm getting really sick of right side of the law characters anyway, especially Jedi, so I'd like to see more of that kinda stuff.

 

WEG was pretty nice on explaining such stuff (the Imperial Customs office and the Sector Rangers are pretty epic), but yeah the comics and novels are really short on showing them.

 

There are the Sector Rangers, but I don't think Disney wants to touch anything that has the word "ranger" in it right now.

 

Really considering how often smugglers and criminals in general are mentioned, i'm also surprised we haven't seen some type of criminal centric novel yet. I blame it on the constant need to focus on large scale galactic threats, instead of smaller planetary problems.