Books Discussion of the Han Solo Trilogy, by A.C Crispin.

I am determined to have as expansive a 'head canon' as possible. I've loped off everything post ROTJ, but am hoping everything else can fit, at least in the 'foggy lens' way. I'm also trying to complete my collection of said material, in hardback whenever possible. So... I'm looking at a $70 purchase of the Solo Trilogy HC omnibus. But I wanted the board's advice. Is there ANY WAY that this is going to end up as a feasible entry into a combined EU/NU continuity, with the prospect of a Han origin film? Daley's trilogy is surely salvageable, but Crispin's seems on the line. Should I pull the trigger?

 

Zero chance Crispin's trilogy will be folded into the new canon. It's a cornucopia of twenty years' worth of EU references to Han's past, full of existing EU characters, locations, and events. It features the founding of the Rebellion and the capture of the Death Star plans, two events that will definitely be rewritten in the new canon.

As to whether or not you should still read it, I can't say. Never read the trilogy myself. Heard it's good.

 

I quite liked the trilogy, and I think it's well worth the read. But if "canon" is what you care about, move along, move along.

 

Not 'canon,' but having most elements survive as plausible. What 'B' canon used to be.

 

I love this trilogy but no way that they leave Han's backstory alone.

 

The only way I can see some of this surviving is as an actual in-universe series of legends told about his past. Like Han saying, "This reminds me of the time I saved this one girl from a group of spice-making missionaries..." or "Hey Lando, remember that time you shot Fett with his own mind-control toxin?"

 

I agree with the consensus opinion. The AC Crispin novels aren't novels that easily stand by themselves. They're good books, and I don't want to steer you away from reading them for your own enjoyment, but they're quite heavy with ties and references to the EU that will likely be increasingly difficult to reconcile with the canon timeline as time goes on and things like the history of the Alliance are re-established.

 

IMHO it was one of the Bantam era books (trilogys) which captured the Star Wars feel best. loved it, but, yep, zero chance it'll stay

 

I'd love it if they did this!

 

I really, really appreciate the input... Especially the heads up about the missing epilogue in the HC. Everybody has a line of how far a particular work can "bend" to fit their head-canon before it "breaks." For me, the original Marvel run, Star Wood, and new Marvel sit side by side on the shelf. Clone Wars TV and multimedia project? Works great by my standards. I can't Imagine Cloak of Deception, Kenobi, or any number of pre-ROTJ novels being so directly contradicted that we can't glue it all back together. I think Tim Zahn made a statement to this effect after D Day.

 

It's completely awesome and worth the read. But it's totally going to get horribly overwritten. Depending on how flexible you are, you could probably salvage most of the events as happening in some way, but not the story as a whole.

 

Both by the biggest Mary Sue ever.

 

It occurs to me that, if this trilogy is chock full of references to Post ROTJ EU, that should not effect its plausibility as head canon. If Thracken Sal-Solo shows up, so be it. There is no "pay off" later on, but he can exist as a character in that work alone. This principle will be important to those of us interested in reconciling as much as possible in the future.

 

Anyone who uses the term "Mary Sue" from here on out needs to be sent to work in the spice mines.

 

Kyle Katarn is more of Mary Sue than Ahsoka and Bria combined.

 

Welcome to the spice mines.

 

Thankfully people weren't telling Crispin that on these boards when she was still alive, as far as I know.

 

Her role in the Rebellion was pretty minor - she was an underling of Bel Iblis's - albeit a fairly charismatic one.

Regarding the plans theft - while someone else extracted the plans from an Imperial outpost - she was the one leading the force protecting the transmission equipment that sent the plans to Leia's ship.

 

It certainly was.

She also steals the Death Star plans and transmits them to the ship of that...woman, the totally insignificant brunette who Han kinda likes because she's devoted to the cause Bria founded...what's her name...oh yeah, Princess Leia.

And Han names his pre-Millennium Falcon ship after Bria. And he pines for her for ten years. And she HAD to die (as a martyr, of course) so he could be "left free" to get together with Leia. And Han chases after the Storm Troopers in ANH because he "wants revenge" for his true first love Bria's death. And Han was "obviously" suffering from a badly broken heart in ANH, according to Crispin. Yeah, he shows how heartbroken he is by smiling easily, laughing, and winking at Leia during the medal ceremony.

Not a bad idea. Even I like some of the EU stuff.

But the pet characters...ugh, isn't there some kind of Mary Sue Repellent Spray? Even Mara isn't (quite) as Mary Sue-ish as Bria, although they have the same hyphenated (red-gold) hair.

 

I've been having a reread of Crispin's posts on the forum - and one thing that stands out is just how polite and informative she was, how meanspirited a lot of the criticisms were (as well as lots of examples of attempts to bully her off the forums) - and how unattached to Bria she comes across as.

Regarding the Solo trilogy - some of those posts might be worth looking at when it comes to answering questions about how they were written - and what the intent behind various ideas was.

 

Man, that's really too bad about her reception on the forums. Do people go in reading a book with their "Mary Sue/Gary Stu" radar on full blast, especially media tie-in books? I see endless complaints about the phenomenon, and the only time I ever dusted that radar off and switched on was when I was reading the first four Stackpole books, since Corran Horn so often is criticized of being that. Otherwise, I never go into these books deliberately look for MS/GS characters, and so I tend not to get distracted with worry about it. Thinking about it, if your going in specifically looking for it, then you're probably going to find it, even if it isn't really there. That doesn't sound like fun, why would people go into something that is supposed to be fun deliberately looking for ways to sabotage themselves...?

Also, I kind approach Crispin's trilogy as their own story, and wasn't obsessed with the detail she put into it to give it connectivity with other SW stories; but I got a general impression of an exhaustive effort to be inclusive, even when I wasn't familiar with half or more of her references. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for certain characters and situations. Generally, though, I enjoyed her prose, the books had action and adventure. There were some surprises that I didn't expect, and was accepting of because I felt it was nice to be surprised.

Hmmm, so I've seen authors well treated and badly treated on the Doctor Who forums, and I've seen authors more consistently (to my eyes) treated well on the Star Trek forums. I've hardly seen SW authors on here, except maybe John Jackson Miller. I can see it happening from how my own mind has reacted to SW over the course of my lifetime, it's cultural and spiritual aspect make it practically our own modern mythological cycle, up there alongside the Greek pantheon or King Arthur's Camelot. Canonicity with SW comes closer to it's original Biblical connotation than it would with other franchises, I imagine, if I wasn't keeping my initial thought-impulses in check.

Iron Lord: So, if I used the search engine, what keyword should I use to chase down those behind-the-scenes comments that Crispin provided? Because I really like the series, and am interested in how she developed her ideas and why she structured the books in certain ways