New Leadership

Am I the only one that thinks maybe its time for someone new to be in charge of what books are to be written and released?

This topic's not going anywhere that a dozen other "here's what's wrong with the EU" threads haven't already gone.

 

I miss the Bantam days...the Del Rey books just haven't been the same.

 

Sure. Rostoni & Shapiro have been in charge for far too long, these multi-author mega-series aren't working out, Traviss has quit, there's still a 1000 years of Only 2 Sith left unexplored, I still haven't been able to read the e-book A Practical Man cause no ones put it in the back of a real book yet & Traviss quit before giving me, Tricky, the Boba Fett novel & finally I feel meh about the new books coming about.

I've lowered my expectations & that helps, but if it wasn't for the prequel era & stand alone books being written during DR's stay, I might've given up on SW books for good. It was the golden age for a while with Bane, Mandos, Mara, Thrawn, Mace, Deathstar, Jax & Vader...we'll never see that much Tricky love again, ever!

 

http://boards.theforce.net/literature/b10003/30352694/p1/?26

http://boards.theforce.net/literature/b10003/30303491/p1/?37

 

I agree with this statement. I think it is about time that we have a male in charge on the EU, Rostoni and Shapiro have been in charge for well over a decade. I think the last major male editor in charge was Tom Dupree from the Bantam line?

It would be a fresh change to have a masculine approach to the direction of the EU, it has been feminized way too long. After all, Star Wars IS predominantly a boys thing...

I don't think that there would be many men in the creative control of Barbie for example.

I was actually thinking recently of posting a seperate thread about this, but may as well post my thoughts in this thread.

 

I agree with you but given how new I am to the EU(relatively speaking)I don't really know which books were done by which publisher...when did DR take over? (book-wise not date) I can say that a decade is too long for any 1 or in this case 2 people to have control of the reigns... and I have to admit, I would like the series to have a little more testosterone but wouldn't that be up to the writers? Unless of course Rostoni and Shapiro have been vetoing much more than I'm aware of

oh and Vailn those threads don't seem to relate :] they're about keepers of continuity and there being too many books for the person to keep up with(something which I disagree with and wish that there were more)

 

What is with all this hate for Sue Rostoni? I don't know if you guys frequent the official boards or not, but Sue is always going out of her way to interact with fans, answer our questions, and sometimes even pass along fan concerns to the EU powers-that-be. Heck, sometimes I feel like Sue is one of the only ones (in charge of the novels anyway) who still care about the fans.

And does it really make that much of a difference if the leadership is male or female? Sorry, but that suggestion for male leadership just smacked of chauvinism to me (and I myself am male ).

 

I think that's in the paperback edition of Sacrifice. That's a real book.

 

It's not chauvanism when females have been in charge for well over a decade. I'm just asking for the opposite ... it's time for a male to break the LFL / EU glass ceiling!

 

Man, you're really going to give Howard some gender confusion issues...not to mention George.

 

Yep, it's collected in the paperback of Sacrifice. I wouldn't bother reading it though, it's easily Karen's worst work in the EU.

 

Are you referring to Howard Roffman, well, he DOES have some gender confusion issues.

Taken from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Roffman

"Howard Roffman (born 1955) is an American lawyer representing Lucasfilms and a photographer who specializes in the male full frontal nude photograph."

"His pictures became famous in 1991 after the publication of his postcards and calendars with young males posing nude. He has published many gay themed photo-albums. He is known to recruit models by giving his business-card to people at restaurants, on the street, and in discos."

 

Errr...I tend not to trust wikis, and I've not heard anything of the like in that regard (and it also =/= the definition of "gender issues"), but my point was that we have a lot of male figures in charge of the EU, both in the form of authors and in the form of those above Sue, around Sue, and in other departments; from Randy to Leland, to Dave F, to Henry Gilroy and up to the Bearded One himself; I don't think the male voice is one that is exactly silenced in the franchise.

 

Thanks for your I assume honest opinion about the book & thanks again for letting me know where it was. I didn't see it in the HC I bought, damn good book Sacrifice! If you think it's that bad, then I wouldn't mind if you gave me spoilers saying why, I'm really interested.

Wow, a guy editor. I knew there was a reason why I just seemed to like my Bantam SW books more than this DR stuff. Not that I'm sexist or like that, Jaina has been getting a steady stream of romance short stories ever since forever. Luke too. Anakin & Tahiri, Jacen & some Jedi girls...Those fill up a huge part of the NJO, DNT, LotF & FotJ books!

 

The chauvinism is in the assumption that the female editors are the cause of the presence of romance in recent Star Wars novels, and that male editors are all less keen on romance plots than female editors. (I'll also point out that the movies themselves weren't exactly lacking in romance.) It's also unfounded, as the spread of preference for romance over one gender (i.e. individual differences) is almost certainly greater than the discrepancy between the two categories.

 

Romance is overrated.

 

Yep, DR tend to add e-books to PB editions of HBs - which seems a strange policy to me as it's quite the kick in the teeth for those who bought the Hb.

As to timeline:
1990-1999: Bantam
1999-Present: DR

As ever, the real question in regard to being dissatisfied with the books is: If not DR, then who?

I wouldn't nominate DHC - they're doing fantastic work on the comics, but there's no rule that says that success would transfer over to a different medium.

A return to Bantam? Not sure that'd work given the changed face of SW continuity, what Bantam did they did on a blank canvas.

Given their track record in regard to Trek, Pocket Books might be worth a try. They've dealt with the myriad mysteries of Trek continuity so would be well-armed for tackling SW. On their Trek stuff they've been both cautious and bold, with a slow move through the years unlike DR's high-speed road trip.

For myself, DR have been doing well on their other era work but that doesn't have the profile of their Big 3 series.

 

Perferably, I would like a publisher that isn't woefully bound to the conventions of the current sci-fi/fantasy genre. One of the reasons I dislike Del Rey's post-ROTJ stuff is that for some reason, major storylines can't last for no less than 9 books, which is apparently the industry norm in sci-fi/fantasy these days. If LFL can find someone who is more than happy to stick with trilogies and less, we'll finally be able to have ROTJ continuations that doesn't drag out everything so much just to make the Jedi look foolishly impotent but instead make everything "faster, more intense".

 

Where do you get this idea from?

 

Now that's just not fair ... what we are talking about in this thread is a difference of editors as much or more than it is a matter of publication houses. I really doubt many of the top rung at Bantam from 1991-99 are even still working there, so it's an apples and oranges comparison.

 

And isn't that what I effectively said in what you quoted? I'm not seeing the point of disagreement.

 

You're saying giving the license back to Bantam wouldn't work based on their 91-99 track record. I'm saying that comparison is almost meaningless because considering the turnover, you might as well be giving it to a whole new licensee for all the similarity you're likely to see. It doesn't tell us what Bantam is likely to do today.

 

Well I'd still say we're more in agreement than not, albeit from differnt angles. You see the likely change in personnel meaning Bantam couldn't take back the licence, I don't see it as likely due to how much the EU has changed in the last decade. WRiting stories for it now is a totally different undertaking.

 

This.

A very very underestimated point in the Star Wars EU. When The Thrawn Trilogy arrived, Timothy Zahn only had to worry about Three Movies (Which had some very vague references to prior events like the Clone Wars), Splinter of the Minds Eye, the Han and Lando books, and the Marvel comics. That amount of continuity is quite easy to work with.

Someone coming up with a new book idea now is constrained by hundreds of novels, six movies, a G-Canon Clone Wars animated series, hundreds of comics, and various other random canon sources like the Sourcebooks/New Essential Guides/Video Games. Someone has to make sure that <Insert Random Generic Jedi that appeared in a book 15 years ago> isn't described as having different colored eyes lest the fan base rise up and revolt. More than that, someone has to try to infuse fresh ideas and stories that don't feel like a rehash of one of the hundreds of already existing tales. I actually liked the NJO and Dark Nest books. LoTF left quite a bit to be desired but there were still home runs among those nine books (Notably Betrayal and Inferno, IMO). Fate of the Jedi thus far has my interest. All things considered, I think the leadership is doing a pretty decent job.

The notion that a GENDER change in leadership is needed is an absolutely absurd one. Guess what? Not every female out there hates science fiction/fantasy and wants everything to be a romance tale. Not every male out there wants awesome Jedi, Sith, and Bounty Hunter brawls to consume every page. Intellectually, women can very well think like men. Mostly, these stereotypical male/female roles are perpetuated by people who, for some reason, refuse to believe this are sure to raise their female offspring to like wearing ponies, flowers, true romantic novels, and wearing pink and their male offspring to like blowing stuff up, sword fighting, space ships, never wearing pink, and never pay any attention to those emotion things.

So a change in leadership? Maybe. Making "Sex: Male" a requirement for new leadership is just a really petty thing to do.

Now, excuse me while I copy this message and EMAIL it to my Wife. She will be extremely impressed.