Lit Do you like the new canon?

I think it would be great if we get FACPOV for the twentieth anniversary of The Phantom Menace next year.

 

I would like a FACPOV comic series along the line of SW tales i know we have SW Adventures but im talking about for an older fan and do some stuff that they cant in that series.

 

That clearly wasn't why I was reporting him.

 

Good lord.

ANYway, LucasBooks' Jennifer Heddle mentioned possible future anthology books the other day, and pointed out that while there are plans for more (not necessarily FACPOV Strikes Back), it's a sales issue.

 

Well, bugger. It's easily one of the smartest pieces of work in the new stuff and a standout book.

I can only suspect people ignored it because they thought there was nothing new to tell about ANH.

 

Well, she says anthologies in general don't sell as well as novels. Probably they seem more throwaway and inconsequential, and people seem to want stories that promise substance from their franchise tie-ins.

 

I can see that logic. It's hard to tell a really meaty story in a 10th of the words a novel has. But I think "Good story" and "Important story" are very often confused for the same thing. Aftermath is a really important book that sets up the characters and overarching conflict, but isn't a very good book. On the flip side, Stories in the Sand from FACPOV is a very basic and inconsequential story told very well.

 

Sure, and naturally more people are going to buy "the new untold story after Return of the Jedi!" than "A New Hope but from the point of view of the trash squid and thirty-nine other background characters".

 

Short story anthologies have unfortunately always sold poorly. It's why we never saw any prequel counterparts to the Tales From... anthologies.

 

I actually only recently bought FACPOV as it had come out in paperback, reading it as soon as I've finished the book I'm currently reading. Have heard only good things so really looking forward to it.

 

yeah, it’s unfortunate that the short story anthologies don’t sell that well.

At the same time, it seems like a good way for publishers to give several new authors an opportunity that could eventually lead to a full length novel. I hope we see several of the new authors in ‘from a certain point of view’ get a chance to write more Star Wars books.

 

I think Grey needs to be given a trilogy with some sort of scope to have a meaningful impact on the SW landscape. Whether she is given insight into RJ's trilogy or B&W's work and therefore can set the Galaxy up for either of those, or something else, I think we need a meaningful saga of books to really reignite passion in the books. At the moment getting one-shot character pieces or very isolated events with no meaningful impact just leaves a bit of a bland taste.

Thrawn 2 is definitely moving in the right direction though.

 

Huh, I never really noticed until you pointed it out, but you're right. Now I can't help but imagine "what if?"

I'm picturing "Tales from Mos Espa" or "Tales from the Senate" for TPM, "Tales from The Outlander" for AOTC", and "Tales from the Opera" for ROTS.

 

That would have been so much fun.

 

*looks at the crazy amount of anthologies in the horus heresy*
I guess someone didn't get the memo

I always liked short stories and novellas, a lot of times they are the right fit for a story, plus a great way to get some different people to write in a setting without needing them to commit to a full novel

 

Oh god the WH40K library is ridiculous. So many books I need to get through, including quite a few anthologies.

 

Doing more anthologies would be great, for many reasons outlined above. But for every reader that loves them there's an equal or larger number that sees them as completely nonessential or unimportant.

Anthologies don't have to mean everything,but when too many people think they don't mean anything it becomes a harder sell. And eventually you just can't do them.

 

Understandable, though quite sad. Regardless all of you at Del Rey have my thanks for giving it your best to get out anthologies when you could. Canto Bight was superbly done.

 

I may be here in the minority. I can agree that 40 years of Legends brought out a lot of stories, and some were good, bad and some outright ugly stories, but it was what we had at the time and they were revolutionary in scope. We forget with the passage of time that the stories were loved. With that said, the magic of the Legends material up to I want to say after AOTC was that unlike other franchises, Star Wars was at the top of the game. Star Trek, Battle Star Galactica, Dr. Who, Alien, Robocop, Predator, etc while good were not as cohesive and expansive as Star Wars (licensed property).

The biggest downfall of legends in my opinion was GL not giving the proper credit. He would work on some and give advise but would fall short of saying its this or that. His position, and rightly so, is that the movies and then TCW series are his and everything else is something else. That was the biggest thing that affected Legends towards the end. Especially when the second clone wars series was created. That torpedoed everything that had come before in that era.

Do I still love legends and consider it star wars? Yep, I am like Eddie1969. Everything counts. From Marvel's first star wars comic book run to Dark Horses run, and all the novels. Starkiller, Jason, Jaina, Abeloth and th Vong are just as real as Kylo Ren, Finn and Poe.

I understand that times change and things change. Its part of life and that is the beauty of star wars if one can accept it. It's for everyone. No one generation can dominate it. It belongs to the sequel, OT, prequels, rebels, clone wars series and the like. The Legends material from back then was more than just a set of books and comics, it was a rite of passage. A bench mark for what should be for licensed properties. I can't say that those stories and characters did not exists, because they were a part of me growing up.

The new canon isn't bad, but since its new it takes time to build up, but when it does it will be very good as well. I still read Darth Plegiues, LOE, The New Jedi Order books and started re-reading some of the Legacy of the Force books. Their good, and for the type of or lack of direction from GL, they were the epitome of what a franchise should aspire to be. But that's just me.

In new canon, Vader has been restored to being the true tough guy that he was always meant to be.........at least to the fans. The Emperor did not make a mistake when he said in TPM that he was watching Anakin's career with great interest. We've seen Anakin now its Vader's time.

 

I like both continuities, but I do find the near complete radio silence by the powers that be on everything Legends that isn't TOR bizarre. Was just thinking about this today; like, they couldn't even begrudge us the revised Clone Wars timeline for legends, including TCW? Leland has implied it exists, but the fans never saw it.

 

it's for the best, though, given how mismanaged the legendary canon was in its waning years. Having it a completely sealed off, 'dead' continuity means those of us who are still fans are free to come up with our own stuff without worrying about some new poorly-conceived material throwing everything out of wack again. So come up with your own Clone Wars timeline-- I can pretty much guarantee it's going to be better and have more thought put into it than anything official ever would.

 

I wonder what they are going to do with TOR. They definintely need to come out with a book that comprehensively covers the eras of the game and stuff like that. We are in 2018 and its what? Like 7 years already that we have this or 8 years? I can't remember.

Trip- Definitely, I have my own clone war timeline and I love it. The legends stuff now even more so is far more complete than the nu canon version of the clone wars. It's not complete and it opened up the doors to some weird far out stuff.

 

I have a feeling any chance of getting a Pre Phantom Menace material will have to come in a movie first before books cover this area in complete depth.

 

Considering the lack of quality in the one that IS, I'd say that's a good thing for us Legends fans.

 

Do I like the new canon?

Sort of. And my opinion isn't totally based off the content of the new canon.

First off, I'm not completely upset that Legends has been moved to, well...legends. There are excellent stories to read within all the material we have, some definitely okay ones, and plenty that are easily avoided upon future re-reads. Forty years of literature and tie-in materials haven't gone away, and can still be enjoyed by all.

And I do appreciate that Disney tried to clean up the canon and make it neater. There was honestly a lot of author infighting and discrepancies in Legends canon that made it hard to figure out what the heck was going on.

That being said, it's been only fours years, and Disney isn't holding to its promise to deliver a strong, focused canon. Tie-in material isn't matching up with what's being presented in films and novels (Han's dice, anyone?), and I'm feeling wild differences in characterization between books and movies (Holdo being one such character, or Poe having much better leadership skills in the comics, to the point where TLJ feels like a regression to me). I expected Disney to give us excellent novels, some okay ones, and a few duds here and there, but it's going to be hard for me to enjoy anything if Disney doesn't get its **** together to make sure everything coming out of the story group and art room matches up across the mediums.