Lit Journeys

Okay so I read Phasma, am going to get Canto Bight soon but what have we gotten pertaining to the movies in these? Nothing from Phasma in the film, unless you count the read armored guards.

 

SPOILER

 

The books are rarely important to the movies. Phasma is meant to explain the character. Canto Byte gives you some world building. The title "Journey To..." is basically false advertising. I here "The Legends of Luke Skywalker" has some interesting tidbits about Luke's character and ties in with one of the themes from TLJ. I haven't read it though.

If you're going to pick and choose what you read I would recommend thinking about your own tastes over what is important to the movies.

 

It is pretty much marketing crap.

However, I can't blame anyone for attaching more significance to the Phasma products due to how the marketing for the film amped her up.

 

Yeah you should have learnt after journey to TFA that that little red banner at the top is just a marketing ploy to sell a few extra copies

 

The books arent gonna give you any super secret plot critical information. They're there to expand minor characters and places outside the bounds of the films. If you go in thinking you'll get some super important info for TLJ, you'll be disappointed. If you go in thinking you'll get a cool little story connecting to an element of the movie, you'll be fine.

 

Phasma was such a good book!!!!

 

I think the problem isn't that people expect the "Journey to..." books to reveal the plot or spoil the new films, but they have hardly connected themselves to the new films or two each other except in the most superficial of ways. I was waiting for TLJ to maybe elaborate on some of the concepts introduced in Bloodline, or there to be something about the vague ideas introduced in Empire's End since The Force Awakens left us with mysteries that we now know weren't really mysteries but threads left hanging.

I say this as someone who has loved every new canon book I have read (and I have read most of them at this point and own them) and will continue to enjoy them, and as someone who loved TFA and TLJ. But these new films, comics, and books are notorious so far for introducing extremely interesting ideas (like the dark side cult in Aftermath, or the world building of Bloodline, the Inquisitors in the Darth Vader comics). These things aren't really elaborated on in any sense. They're just there and we're supposed to just left to wonder how and why, and some of us really want that information.

I suppose a lot of that is because I'm spoiled on stuff like Episodes I, II, and III and The Clone Wars, since we spent the last decade filling in a lot of information that we were missing from several decades earlier. Regardless of this I'm still going to read the new books because they are entertaining on their own, but I'm past the point of expecting there to be something more than superficial to fill in the spaces in this universe.

 

Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel is pretty much all I would want from a "Journey To..." title in terms of setup. I though that book was pretty boring though.

 

I thought Catalyst gave R1 more context. In R1 Krennic is hardly there but Catalyst gives you the proper background that adds a lot more. I liked Phasma and whereas I didn't need some major connection I'd have liked to see her more. The smaller ones are cool....not a big fan of Phil Noto but they're fun. And in contrast to a lot of people I liked Aftermath. Aftermath was the only real standout from TFA that added to a GFFA though.

 

Catalyst is a perfect example of what I would love to see from the new canon, but I will still read and enjoy book that comes out regardless.

 

Yeah, after reading Catalyst I thought boy was I glad I read that. If you're a casual fan you'd enjoy R1 but in reading the book you got SOOO much more. I think (so far) it was the ideal journey to book.

 

Another one I want to get is APoA. Claudia Gray does masterful work with Leia. I'm gonna pass on ones like Cobalt Squadron but I'll definitely pick up CB and APoA.

 

You're absolutely right. My original statement wasn't very clear. I was jumping from talking about the "Journey to..." publications and applying my point to the greater new canon as a whole, but now that I think about it that's a huge tangent to go off on and the discussion would probably be best suited to another thread.

Catalyst was a damn fine novel, and a paragon of the kind of book I'm looking for when I read a Star Wars book. All I want is elaboration. It helped to connect a lot of canon together, from the Clone Wars era to the time of Rogue One.

I agree with this mostly. I like that both the movies and the books stand apart. That's not the element of which I'm critical. I just think the one thing they can do better is to support each other in a more organic way--not simply for the books to service the films or vice versa.

But again, that's a tangent. I'll try to shut up about it for now.

 

I too liked Catalyst a lot. Catalyst is to Rogue One what Labyrinth of Evil is to ROTS. I'm glad I read Catalyst before I saw R1 as I feel it enhanced the movie watching experience for me.

 

I agree. I was more criticizing the "Journey to..." title. Unfortunately I've found most of the canon books boring. I took my first step into Legends recently, with Heir to the Empire, and I'm finding it incredibly refreshing to read content that can take the lead and isn't just mercenary, gap filling fluff.

My main issue with Catalyst is...

Spoiler

Galen is tricked into making the lazer. The whole book is just him being nervous, his wife getting suspicious and Krennic being sneaky. It's repetitive and misses so many opportunities. There are no ethical debates about the Death Star, there are no Oppenheimer parallels and tensions between Galen and his wife never get too serious.[spoiler/]

 

I want BOTH to stand on their own, but if we can get a book (i.e. Catalyst) that elaborates on a movie that's cool too. On that note however I don't need EVERY book/comic to connect to a movie but rather expand on Canon.

 

I guess my main issue is that people are so caught up in movies having to explain everything fans lo that when someone mentions to them to read "x Star Wars book" the movie only lose their cool and start saying how the books don't matter when they clearly do in some cases. I wouldn't mind it so much if it didn't feel like they are the majority of fans, and will go as far as to say that "x Star Wars movie" is a terrible movie because it relied on already established canon, which is partly why I want more of those kinds of movies, so that they are forced to realize that Star Wars is bigger than just a fun movie a year, that there are other stories that happened, and that the movies are only showing a small portion of a larger galaxy, and that all the stories matter, not just the ones that are chosen for the movies.

 

I agree. The Big 3 are cool, we're all fans, BUT their stories are such a small part of the GFFA. There's a multitude of opportunities to tell with characters from all eras, established or not. For example we've seen miniseries of Mace Windu, Darth Maul, and an ongoing of Aphra, albeit they're all comics but still.

 

Phasma ? She was in the movie?!?! LoL!

 

Topical.

 

I preferred Ms. G. Christie in GoT, but I guess that's a given..Her role isn't played out enough in TFA and TLJ, imho....