Evan, IN New Star Wars Novel To Be A Work Of Horror Fiction

According to this site Lucasfilm wants a new SW novel to have a heavy dose of horror fiction embedded with it. Hmmm...interesting. My first reaction was......ZOMBIES! But let's not jump to conclusions. A few years back a juvenile line of SW books were released that were described as SW-Meets-Goosebumps. That line of books was titled Galaxy Of Fear. This new novel may have connections to those, but be written with the adult fan in mind.

Or the new novel might be the novelization of the multi-title/multi-generational comic book storyline titled Vector. In this comic book storyline we are given a Rakghoul threat. These nasty critters are like the xenomorphs from the ALIEN franchise. Only they are products of ancient Sith Lord alchemy. The Rakghouls are led by a 4000 year old female with Force powers augmented by the Muur Talisman. So Vector would certainly meet the requirements for horror element cliches.

1. Rakghouls are a cross between the ALIEN xenomorph and Rage infected persons from 28 Days/Weeks Later.
2. Morne Celeste - former Jedi Knight from 4000 BBY is akin to The Mummy or Dracula.
3. Muur Talisman is like any number of unholy artifacts with a curse attached to the object.

Another possibility is a former sub-plot that once was to be found in The Force Unleashed. According to the behind-the-scenes book for TFU a sub-plot involved the clone of Anakin's dead wife. My guess is that to help Anakin/Vader stay loyal to the ways of the Sith he would have been rewarded a clone of Padme Naberrie Amidala! I think the inspiration for that twist rests in the classic horror film titled Bride Of Frankenstein. Vader being in the role of Frankenstein's creature and the Amidala clone being in the role of the creature's bride. Which is kinda interesting. Years ago I speculated that Yassane Isard might be a clone of Padme. Remember Yassane was a high-ranking Imperial operative with one blue eye/one red eye. It might be the cloning caused the blue-red eye thing. Also it seems Yassane was slightly insane - Spaarti-based clone madness perhaps? Also fits with the Bride Of Frankenstein being slightly insane. Also in comic book depictions of Yassane we see that her hair has streaks of silver/grey at the temples running down the length of her hair - again like the creature's bride from the old Universal Studios film. So if this comes to pass then it adds another level of meaning to the New Republic era X-wing novels and comics that use Yassane Isard. Luke and Leia unknowingly fought against the clone of their dead mother! Now that's a twist on the Mommie Dearest factor, eh? It also makes for a kind of Alfred Hitchcock-like twist.

One other idea comes to mind. Remember the short comic book story from SW:Tales that had a insane darksider unleashing a machine infecting plague? Might this new novel expand this machine plague and thus we have a Maximum Overdrive effect. The GFFA characters find that they can not trust their own vehicles, tools, weapons, droids. Perhaps the defeated Yuuzhan Vong help save the GFFA. Ironic, huh? After all the Vong have a hatred of machines - why? Perhaps long ago in their home galaxy they fought a machine plague like the one seen in that SW-Tales story.

The new SW novel with horror fiction elements is targeted for November 2009.

 

Vector is bad enough as a comic, I hope they skip doing it as a book. Yes, I do think that Vector sucks sarlacc limbs.