Lit Shadows of the Empire 20th anniversary interview with Steve Perry

Getting back into the hobby of Star Wars interviews with Steve Perry, who may have just really cemented my Fandom in the late 90's with the classic Shadows. So a couple of things.

1) The usual Question suggestions.
2) Anyone who runs a fan site let me know if they are interested in running it.

 

I loved Shadows too, it filled in the period between ESB and ROTJ beautifully. I suspect the novel has aged much better than the comics and the game.

Questions: Did you have much creative freedom, working as part of a multimedia project? Did you have a strong awareness of the comic series and video game, or was the novel the main force?

 

Shadows was one of those books that really fit the timeline well. I'm so glad it was written and hope parts of it someday can be reworked into the NEU

Question: Where did the concept of Xizor come from? Was there any inspiration from real-world underworld figures?

 

My Question is: Would he ever write another star wars book if asked?

 

I loved the Vader scenes in the book. Being in Vaders head especially as he's starting to shift is a delight.

My question though was Dash his idea or something forced on him by Bantam/Lucas Arts. Even as a kid I thought it strange in having a book dealing with Our heros having to cope with Hans loss by ..... bringing in a Han Solo clone ??? !!

 

Sort of piggy-backing off of the previous post, I question I'd like asked is about Steve Perry's thoughts on writing Vader as a major point of view character (something that was a rarity at the time) and how he went about capturing him to page. (Frankly, to this day, I think this's book is the most interesting that Vader has been in the tie-ins.)

 

In the beginning, Xizor contemplates Palpatine's and Vader's ability to use The Force. Did you think that Palpatine being a Force-user was common knowledge or was that scene intended to show that Xizor knows more than most of the galaxy's citizens?

 

What type of personality did he try to interject into Dash Rendar to make sure he wasn't just Han Solo Redux and since Rendar in the videogame was literally just the video game player avatar.

 

Expanding this a little: was the concept of the SOTE story revolving more around a confrontation with an underworld figure than the Empire an idea he came up with himself, or part of the whole multimedia project from the beginning?

 

Relevant.

 

Did he have any direct interaction with Lucas for the project?

What scope did he have for coming up with personalities and visuals for the characters? Did he contribute any ideas to the development of the other parts of the SOTE series (I guess mainly the comic or game)?

How did it feel to watch ROTS and see the "Vader lava scene" that gets mentioned? For that matter, how does he feel about how Vader was depicted in later works, since SOTE seems to be held up as the first book to depict a more "sympathetic"/"softer" Vader?

 

Shame it's no longer canon, to be honest.

 

I don't understand this train of thought at all. Why should it matter if one fictional item is "less real" than another? They're of the same cloth. Just approach it as if it is all one all-encompassing story in your head. Canon should *only* matter in the case of new continuity plot points and inconsistencies within that story framework. Enjoying a story less because of its canonicity status is the height of ridiculousness.

 

Where do I say I enjoy the story any less?

 

IG_2000, if you find room for it in your interview, could you ask Steve Perry if he has seen (or at least, heard of) the Clone Wars episodes that included Falleen and Black Sun, and that Darth Maul took charge of them? And if so, what are his opinions?

This is basically a parallel question to the Wolverton one on Nightsisters in TCW -- it's impressive how these old ideas have stuck around and evolved over time. Or in the case of Maul, at least amusing.

 

(double post)

 

Not so much amusing when there is no explanation to how Maul actually returned to life (my head canon explanation at least makes me feel slightly comfortable). Mind you, Barriss Offee had it better off in Legends then she did in TCW.

Onwards though, I think I mostly enjoyed the Battle of Gall and wished that Hobbie and Tycho were identified in it (but this was pre-Tycho right?)

 

Hard to believe it's been 20 years! I have fond memories of the whole SOTE multi-media "experience". I.e., the novel, comic book, action figure line (which included some figures from ROTJ, i.e. Boushh, Han in Carbonite, etc.), great card set w/art by the Hildrebrandt brothers, and soundtrack. Re: the toyline, I remember especially enjoying the Swoop - great vehicle.

I remember going into a Border's books & seeing stacks of the SOTE HC - I read somewhere that this HC edition had more copies printed than any copies of any other SW novel up to that point.

The only aspect of SOTE I never got into was the video game, primarily because I didn't (and still don't) have a video game platform.