Has Del-Rey Made A Serious Mistake?

I sent this to Shelly Shapiro about a month ago.

Dear Ms. Shapiro:
To this point, the New Jedi Order, while it was heralded as a ?bold new direction for Star Wars,? is quickly degenerating into the same-old stale stories that some had apparently criticized Bantam for. At least with Bantam a villain was only around for a single book or three books at the most, then that threat was defeated. Not so with the Vong, who, I gather, will be around for four more years?how repetitive and boring.
I purchased Vector Prime without having had any knowledge about what the New Jedi Order had in store for Star Wars. I was and still am thoroughly dissatisfied with the product for a variety of reasons that I had once solely?and mistakenly?attributed to Mr. Salvatore.
What could have truly been a great novel was reduced to a sub-par monstrosity for a variety of reasons. The most glaring of these would be leaving the launch of a new series in a franchise with quite a bit of ?history? to a newcomer and then to give this newcomer the task of bringing new and old readers alike into this new series strikes me as having been a recipe for sub-par mediocrity. Furthermore, Mr. Salvatore was not provided with sufficient background to enable him to possibly write a better novel. It strikes me as being perfectly logical to ensure that the kick-off book to a new series in an established franchise would best be handled by someone who has a good deal of familiarity with previous novels, such as Michael A. Stackpole, Timothy Zahn or Kevin J. Anderson.
Essentially, I believe that Mr. Salvatore was assigned an impossible mission. A more seasoned author, an ?old-hand,? should have been given the task since the author would have a better grasp of the characters and the technology of Star Wars, thereby possibly making your life and the lives of other editors at Del-Rey and LucasFilm Licensing a lot easier. Understanding the characters?their motivations and personalities?strikes me as being the single most important component of serial fiction. An author could always create a new ship or technology pretty much on the whim, but he or she just can?t go about changing character?s around willy-nilly; yet this is exactly what Mr. Salvatore was allowed to do.
Mr. Salvatore butchered three characters: Lando, Kyp Durron and Mara Jade. Kyp Durron has always been rough around the edges even before he temporarily fell under the sway of Exar Kun and Mr. Salvatore did portray this quality admirably. However, I don?t understand why Kyp would be chasing down smugglers, since his anger was always directed against the Empire. Kyp has never once hinted that he still harbors any ill-feelings towards the Empire, even though they pretty much made his life a living hell. A far more in-character role for Kyp could have been his still harboring ill-feelings towards the Empire and for him to obsessively patrol the border between the New Republic and the Empire, ever vigilant to ensure that the Empire isn?t trying to violate the peace treaty in any way, shape or form.
At least Kyp received better treatment than Mara Jade did. Mr. Salvatore chose to give her this disease and that strikes me as an obvious admission that he didn?t know how to write her, nor did he want to spend much time to understand her character. If he wanted to make a tribute to his deceased brother, why didn?t he give this disease to a character that he himself created? Or as the setup novel for a new series, why wasn?t Mara just infected with the spores in Vector Prime? This latter suggestion certainly would have provided increased dramatic tension.
Vector Prime brings to light all of my concerns about the New Jedi Order and Star Wars literature as a whole. Unfortunately, Mr. Salvatore was brought onboard after the previous book fell-through?apparently written by an author who even had a less-firm grasp of Star Wars than Mr. Salvatore did. Exactly what sort of criteria is Del Rey considering for choosing the authors (except for Mr. Stackpole and Ms. Tyres, who both have previously pub

 

Good god...It's alive!

GAW,
I was wondering if you could post the contact information you've been using for Ms. Shapiro?

 

Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director
Del Rey Books
1540 Broadway
NY, NY 10036 USA

 

Thanks!

 

No prob.

 

Has there been any response to that letter GAW?

 

If there had been a reply, I would have posted it.

 

I think you said it all.

 

Del-Rey has made a serious mistake in picking up Star Wars EU after Bantam had it. Bantam totally screwed it up and now Del-Rey is up to no good. Almost all of the EU has sucked with exception to the X-Wing novels and th DE trilogy.

 

DelRey has made a serious mistake by allowing the death of Jimmy.

They are such fools.

 

Arise from the grave!

 

Killing Jimmy is something that I applaud them for. Now maybe Luke and Kyp can get some more attention and Han and Leia's romance can move beyond the banter in ESB.

 

Well maybe that's what you think, but you probably just aren't a Jimmy fan.

Jimmy was too important to the story to be killed. The NJO will suffer for this. One of my favorite characters is gone.

 

Btw I meant this thread. Jimmy can't rise from the grave, because he may never set one foot in one.