Lit GENERAL QUESTION THREAD (What to read? Where to start? What's canon? What's not? Duros, etc.)

Just to add in to this convo--and if it moves I'll join there--I'm also an organizer by in-universe chronology. I had my old shelves arranged that way with EU and when they made it all Legends I got frustrated and boxed them all. I'll probably put them back up in a new shelf after I get more space by Release Date instead, just to keep things fresh, but my Star Wars bookshelf is now all the canon stuff. I organize them by the furthest forward in the timeline except in the case of the Kanan comics, which I consider to have "flash-forwards" and put among the Clone Wars stuff.

Also, I'd be interested in joining some sort of "book club" here on the boards. I just want it to have some structure instead of a "what do you want to read this month?" type of thing.

 

I did the same thing with the Kanan books, haha. It didn't seem suited to be put near the Rebels timeline so they're sitting next to Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (the only Dark Horse Nu Canon series, sadly) and Dark Disciple. In some ways I like that the books are in a general timeline range rather than specific years, makes it easier for me to determine an order (which I can always alter if I find out one belongs before/after another due to references). Since I still love the old EU I've dedicated one bookshelf to it (and had to use the top of it for a handful of books that wouldn't fit, so all the Old Republic pre-TPM ones are on top now. Those are all paperbacks. I have a handful of hardcovers (most I've sold off) for the old EU that I just put aside for now.

I'd be okay with some structure to a book club as well. Maybe a set series of questions/thoughts regarding theme, characters and how it fits into the rest of the EU (such as internal continuity references, contradictions, etc) and the films. I'm not interested, for instance, in debating which is better between the upcoming Thrawn novel and the original Thrawn trilogy and duology books. I also personally consider most of the books to be of average quality, and a handful to be truly great or awful. Not that it matters. Star Wars books are a pleasure, guilty or otherwise.

 

Florian has been documenting his aquisition of all the rebranded Legends titles. And... it's quite cool, actually.

 

I don't want to want to re-buy all these... but I find this really tempting for some reason...

 

I'd love to do these! I'm only now starting to really build my collection of Legends books and read them for the first time, getting really into it.

I enjoy both canon and Legends, they are just separate timelines/continuities that take place in alternate universes with the six films being the only things common to both. I see the Clone Wars TV show as only being in the new official canon. They kinda messed up a lot of things in Legends canon so it's better off the Clone Wars tv show is considered canon now so you can just move it over to canon and away from Legends.

I'd be super interested in a read through of all the books!

 

Very impressive.

So most of them have been released rebranded?

If I to order them from Amazon (UK) would I get the rebranded one or the original one?

How can I pick up that specific version?

 

I think you'd have more control if you buy new than used. Other than that... go to a brick-and-mortar bookstore?

 

Yeah that's normally a problem because the stores usually have no clue over this or do not stock them.

 

I had to lurk for a long time to get a really decent catch of the entire "Young Jedi Knights" YA series, that I'd somehow missed while growing up, got em all in one eBay auction for a pretty decent price compared to what I'd seen out there (coming to about 6-7 dollars for each book). Granted, I still hadn't read them yet, but when I realized all of these characters I didn't know when I initially went into the NJO+ stuff started from these books, I knew I had to go back and read 'em!

 

Does anyone know much about the behind-the-scenes details on how Muunilinst the Imperial banking world from the HoT duology was introduced into the PT (or PT EU) as the homeworld of banker species the Muuns? I'm rereading Specter of the Past right now, and while it's actually quite easy to interpret the banker from Muunilinst as a member of the Muun species, I suspect Zahn's original intention was that the Muunilinst bankers were human. And it's a somewhat notable prior EU connection in Clone Wars-era material. So I'm curious about how it happened.

(Barriss_Coffee)

 

The Muunilinst backstory is actually quite interesting. Let me take this opportunity to spew random crap about a topic that has as many fans as an obscure species of lichen in the Australian outback.

So yes, Zahn invented Muunilinst. A little known fact. San Hill’s connection came a little later, but it had to have been during the filming of AOTC because already they had been calling him a Muun in 2002. Insider Magazine #69 has a great section on the development of the Separatists. I can scan it if anyone wants (although be warned of a NSFW Shu Mai concept… gah…).

San Hill was designed separately by Dermot Power (usually works for Tim Burton – WHICH. EXPLAINS. A LOT.) for no particular role, just as a character model to use for somesuch. Dermot Power is amazing. I cannot say enough. Seriously, visit his website: http://www.dermotpower.com/starwars2/1/1.html

He designed Asajj, Barriss, and Hill, and you can sort of see the similarity. They’re all the coolest kids on the block. But they’ve also all got that “ridged” outfit with the flaring skirt. Unfortunately I think Power only did AOTC.

San originally had a nifty mohawk:



Hawt.

Star Wars Insider said they were determining the backgrounds of the characters before they filmed the scene, and that originally it was going to be a lot longer and each Separatist would have a slightly bigger role. Alas. But clearly Pablo or someone – and maybe we could ask – must have linked banks = Zahn bank planet = Muunilinst at least by early 2002. That could have been during the Databank updates.

The planet wasn’t supposed to be in the CW show. It was supposed to be Skako, but IIRC there was some issue about the New Droid Army game featuring Wat Tambor and George Lucas was afraid people would confuse Skako with all the planets that are not Skako in NDA someone decided Wat Tambor was a scene-stealing hog and changed it to Muunilinst. Genndy Tartakovsky and co. used the 5-dollar US bill for the basis or something when they were in development.

So that is the saga of Muunilinst. That will be $5 please.

 

*love groan*

 

The information is much appreciated, and the mohawk is hilarious, but I just noticed this:

Wait, what the hell? Are you serious?

Note that if you are I'll take your word for it - there's no need for proof.

 

Gah. Ugh. Made me think of this:

 

How was Sel-makor born?

 

So I was wondering if there is any literature that Thrawn and Tarkin interact in? They are two important figures in the Empire, and I would like to more about any history they might share.

 

I don't think so. Nearly all of Thrawn's appearances are after Tarkin's death. It wouldn't surprise me if they interact on this season of Rebels, though.

 

I'd call that a pretty safe bet.

 

I doubt it. Thrawn is a Senior Captain by the time of Choices of One, and I don't know what his rank would have been at or before A New Hope. I don't think Tarkin would have interacted that often with a mere captain. Now, if Thrawn had been a Grand Admiral before A New Hope (like he is in the new canon), then they probably would have interacted.

 

He was part of Palpatine's "inner circle" of military advisors in Rebel Force book 1, set days rather than months after ANH - he was addressed as "Captain Thrawn" in that.

 

So, I guess it's possible he interacted with Tarkin, but we never actually got to see it on screen...er...page.

 

in Dark Empire II, it's mentioned that Boba Fett used to be a stormtrooper. is this ever expanded upon or explained?

 

I think Daniel Keys Moran tried to resolve it by changing it from "Stormtrooper" to "Journeyman Protector" - keeping his killing of a superior officer- in The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett. It's possible that other authors ignored this. When he led Imperial Stormtroopers in an attack on Kamino in a computer game (Battlefront II), that might have been counted as "Boba Fett was a stormtrooper for that story arc."

 

Tales of the Bounty Hunters book, Boba's original backstory is that he was a troublemaker trooper in boot camp. Long before the whole Prequels jango clone thing