Lit Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edge (Spoilers)

In what is a first ever for me, I received an advance copy of the new Leia book by Martha Wells. I asked about making a thread for this since it's less than a month since the release, but since there was no response, I thought I'd take the initiative.

Now, to be fully honest, I haven't yet in-depth read the novel, and I don't know if I'll get to it before the release, but I have skimmed through it, and I have a few general thoughts.

First, given this is the Lit forum and everyone here is an EU hound, here's how the book ties into the EU: Almost not at all. There are a (very) few EU references, but almost all of them are either species (including one that's only been in the Hand of Thrawn series) or planet names mentioned (including several cities on Alderaan from various EU sources). The one exception is that the main Rebel ship featured is the Independence. As far as I can tell, no EU characters show up and there is no reference to any EU story. I get the distinct impression that when writing the story, Wells needed a planet to reference or a city from Alderaan to have a character from, and just selected one from Wookieepedia.

There is, however, a lot of references to stuff from the OT (I wasn't able to find anything from the PT or TCW, however). Besides the strange choice of General Willard, Madine also appears, Mon Mothma is mentioned, and the plot involves the establishment of Echo Base. Plus, of course, lots of reflection on ANH. There are, however, a large cast of original characters, including several original species.

Overall it definitely seems like Martha Wells was an author who was probably a fan of the OT but not really familiar with anything else Star Wars and was being very tentative in entering the saga. It actually reminds me a lot of Legacy Vol. 2 in that regard.

In terms of the actual plot, from what I've skimmed through it's not a lot more complex than the blurb. I like the idea of Leia having a run-in with Alderaanian pirates (specifically mentioned to have been part of the former defense fleet) but not really sure how I feel Wells succeeded in making them believably be willing to turn Leia over to the Empire. The Imperial antagonist crew and the Rebel rescue crew are really nothing to write home about. Same with the characterization of the OT cast - decent enough, I guess it's a good if somewhat bland Leia, not as sure about Han.

Overall I'd say it's not a terrible read, but just kind of...exists. Don't think it will make anyone's most-hated list, but also doubt it will make it on anyone's favorite list either, and assuming the EU continues to exist, I can't really see any characters from it really being interesting enough to any other author to take their place in the wider EU.

 

Someone here mentioned that this trilogy of novels was deliberately written to be as detached from the Expanded Universe -- and each other -- as possible.

 

I can definitely see it. This is about as much of a pure standalone as any Star Wars novel can possibly be.

 

Well, that's a bit disappointing. As a Leia fan, I was really looking forward to this book. I'll still read it, but *sigh*.

 

Darn. I was holding out hope this would be an interesting series since it's basically the only new stuff we're *confirmed* to be getting for a while outside of the comics.

 

Sometimes new is good–in this era, new is necessary, with VII coming. Leaving the old EU behind isn't necessarily a bad thing–as long as these books don't contradict the EU, I see no problem with them being "disconnected" because that was the intention, just as it is with Dark Horse's Star Wars series–pretending ANH was the only thing out at the time (with the exception of Mon Mothma's mention and General Madine's appearance). Hence General Willard instead of, say, Cracken. If you want a book in this era with heavy connections to EU, that's why Allegiance and Choices of One were written. Anyways, that's my feelings on it totally based on nothing but assumptions made from the first post.

I still intend to read it, but this will probably be library material–no reason to pay hardback prices for this (or, really, any of the books in this series, probably).

 

Darn. At the very least I wanted a solid book..EU references or not.

 

And the Emperor, and the second Death Star, and the Executor, and Ackbar, and TIE Interceptors, and Boba Fett. Basically it failed its mission statement right out of the gate.

 

Ignoring Empire and Jedi was a dumb idea anyway because it's restrictive. You know there's stuff like everything listed, but you won't use it because you're "ignoring" it, but you also can't use other stuff because it would contradict the stuff which you're "ignoring."

 

Crap, you're right. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Upcoming_novels is looking pretty skimpy these days.

These are hardcovers?
... Why?

 

Ishori? Diamala?

 

All of the currently planned novels are hardcovers as I understand it, which basically means I will be waiting for the paperback if I am interested, because I can't afford hardcovers unless its something special like HttE:20thAE.

 

Friend gave me his preview copy because he is bored beyond help with this book and I can't blame him, but one EU reference is there right at the start that nearly blew my mind, an Imperial Customs Light Corvette.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Light_corvette

 

Does Ackbar appear?

Also- details on General Willard. We almost never hear about that guy, even though he was a Rebel commander at Yavin Base.

--Adm. Nick

 

And for those who don't have the book, maybe take the opinion of one person who admits to skimming with a grain or two of salt. Imagine if this had been the first word on Kenobi.

 

Isn't Echo Base found in like six comics already? And I think the end game of Star Wars will be to establish Echo base, too. It's becoming the new Death Star plans, I swear.

Could you not put a mysterious link into a spoiler-filled thread, please?

 

Apologies--the post in question is just vague opinions.

 

I was hoping it'd include Bastila/Trioculusromance.

 

My hope was that they actually were going to ignore everything after 1977 and continue from ANH as if ESB, ROTJ, and the EU didn't exist. Luke and Leia aren't siblings, Vader really did kill Luke's dad, the Emperor is just a figurehead, etc. That's a story I would have been interested in, as opposed to Post-Yavin Story #4678.

 

But... continuity...

 

You know, that actually sounds like it could be pretty sweet though. Like Nick said, we've seen almost nothing of Willard...and what has Madine done in the EU besides die?

 

Maintained a generally terrible haircut and put on some weight, from the look of it.