Books Star Wars: Rise of the Empire

The price you're paying for them would be reasonable just for the three short stories. So Tarkin and AND are really just a bonus.

 

Reasonable would be releasing a collection of short stories (that includes these 3) at this price point. This doesn't bother me unless they never release them in any other form.

 

So just going off of the preview, are the novels/short stories placed in chronological order then?

 

I didn't notice that but yes they are in chronological order.

 

This may not be relevant but hilarious regardless.

With my characters in Legends, there was an Imperial-class Star Destroyer called the Revenge. Each time it encountered a certain X-wing unit (called Echo Flight, then Echo Squadron), it kept getting damaged. First at one of the early battles (4 - 6 ABY), then just after Coruscant was taken by the New Republic in 7 ABY, then at Bilbringi in 9 ABY, then during the Dark Empire Crisis twice (10 - 11 ABY), then at Celanon in 13 ABY and finally being destroyed just months later while trying to reclaim a renegade Grand Moff from the Caloran sector when two NR interdictors brought it out of hyperspace and kept it trapped until Echo Squadron annihilated it.

As one of my characters said: "They launch a Star Destroyer after Endor called Revenge, how could it not be tempting fate?"

 

Interesting continuity issue with Mercy Mission:
Mors says that 1 year has passed since the Emperor's visit referring to Lords of the Sith. However, Del Rey said MM is set between LotS and Tarkin which are both in the same year. So how could MM be a year after LotS and still before Tarkin?

Tarkin's opening crawl says, "Five standard years have passed since Darth Sidious proclaimed himself galactic Emperor." placing it in 14 BBY.
LotS's opening crawl says, "Eight years after the Clone Wars ravaged the galaxy…" and the interior Del Rey timeline shows it before Tarkin so we know that quote is referring to the start of The Clone Wars in 22 BBY and not the end (19 BBY) also placing LotS in 14 BBY.

As far as I can tell only one of three things could have happened. 1) LotS is at the beginning of the year and Tarkin is at the end and MM is parallel with Tarkin. 2) Mors point of reference for "1 year" could be a different planet with a different length year. 3) Somebody done goofed.

 

I like your point 1); multiple things can happen across the galaxy at the same time and if I remember correctly none of the characters from Mercy Mission appear in Tarkin.

 

I got replies from the author, Melissa Scott. I have to put them in three separate links:
https://twitter.com/blueterraplane/status/640973202999480320
https://twitter.com/blueterraplane/status/640973445782605824
https://twitter.com/blueterraplane/status/640973839602593792

Basically, she assumes there's some Tarkin/Mercy Mission overlap but Mors wasn't worried about being accurate. This clears it up and also tells us that Lords of the Sith does in fact take place at the beginning of the year and Tarkin at the end which would be interesting to note for future stories that relate to them.

 

Roqoo Depot reported today that all three of the short stories can now be viewed in the excerpt available on the Random House web site, but I'm still only able to see "Mercy Mission" and a goodly chunk of Tarkin. Anyone out there happen to have any better luck than I did?

 

Same here.

 

Interesting. I thought it was pretty solid.

 

Since the Clone Wars takes place during 3+ years (as was established in the Kanan comic if I remember correctly) Lords of the Sith could take place in either 13 or 14 BBY (c. 4.5 years after Order 66). Tarkin takes place c. 5 years after Order 66, so maybe closer to 5.5 and then we have a full year in between!

 

What did the Kanan comic establish exactly? I was planning on re-reading The Last Padawan arc so I can keep an eye out for it. The Clone Wars take place between 22-19 BBY. It wouldn't make sense for LotS to be in 13 BBY since that would assume the opening crawl was referring to 21 BBY (the exact middle of TCW). Along with the other evidence I provided that only leaves 14 BBY as a possibility. And with this new Mercy Mission info we can further pinpoint it to roughly the beginning of that year.

 

EDIT: Just realized your confusion must come from me accidentally writing 13 BBY instead of 15 BBY, but I should probably explain this in more detail anyway.

Original post:

I haven't actually read the Kanan comic yet (waiting for TPB) but someone in the NU Continuity Timeline thread claimed that back when it was released (first or second issue I think).

And you may be forgetting that in the new canon we don't know in what times of the year the movies start and end. So say the Battle of Geonosis is early in 22 BBY and the war lasts 3+ years and ends around the middle of 19 BBY. That's about 3.5 years.
Then another 4 years passes and we're in the middle of 15 BBY. That's 7.5 years which could easily be rounded up to 8 years.
Another year passes and Mercy Mission takes place in the middle of 14 BBY, closely followed by Tarkin just over 5 years after the end of the Clone Wars.

Give or take a few months of course applies to all these numbers but this seems like the most likely solution to me anyway.

 

Glad I decided against buying Tarkin and AND when they came out, I can buy this without reservations.

One qualm, though - isn't that Vader picture on the cover from DV and the Lost Command? Why couldn't they just use something from Tarkin's cover? Especially since that would match up better - AND's cover features two Rebels side-by-side, and Tarkin two Imperials. Would've been a nice 'mirror' effect.

 

Actually we do. Leland Chee tweeted a little over a year ago about it. You'll notice he used a span for The Clone Wars TV show's years so if Revenge of the Sith spanned more than a year (it didn't) then he would have done the same for RotS. Also, Tarkin's opening crawl says "Five standard years have passed since Darth Sidious proclaimed himself galactic Emperor." which was at the exact end of 19 BBY going in to 18 BBY. The five years that pass are all of 18 BBY, all of 17 BBY, all of 16 BBY, all of 15 BBY, and think of it as in "December" of 14 BBY. With LotS's proof, the only placement for it is at the beginning of 14 BBY and it's opening crawl referring to the start of The Clone Wars (22 BBY).

I'm not sure what fact you're talking about that was clarified in Kanan, I wasn't asking a smart-alec or rhetorical question.

 

Yes I know about that tweet but there is nothing exact about it. It only established the time span between movies and TV series and not anything more.

If you count the TPM as the starting point, then AOTC is about 10 years later (which could be anything from 9.5 to 10.5 as long as there's still about 3 years between AOTC and ROTS and 13 between TPM and ROTS. And so on.

There is nothing in that post that suggests Palpatine proclaimed himself emperor at the exact end of 19 BBY. (I'm only stating a fact here, nothing more.)

And that is why I think my theory works because that post is basically all we know about the time span between movies.

And regarding the Kanan issue: I'm sorry but I don't know. Perhaps @ThePositiveFan can clarify as I think he was the one to state the Kanan comic established that the Clone Wars lasted 3+ years in the first place (and I'm sorry again if I'm mistaken about this).

Personally I think it makes a lot of sense as ROTS lasts at least a few months and Dark Disciple starts almost 3 years after the start of the war and then takes place during a few more months (all of it before ROTS (probably)). And remember that the Clone Wars end in the end if ROTS, so the length of the war is TCW series + ROTS.

I hope this helps!

EDIT: it seems the tagging of @ThePositiveFan didn't work?

 

I think LotS being at the beginning of 14 BBY and Mercy Mission/Tarkin being at the end is much simpler and more likely than staggering 18 years of stories by half a year. I originally had another sentence explaining the "exact end of 19 BBY" but erased it and forgot to rephrase that but it doesn't matter now anyway.

 

Well, both theories work so it all comes down to personal preference. I think my theory makes a lot of sense, but if you don't then that's absolutely fine.

 

Nope, it didn't work - sorry!! Yes, in one of Kanan's "inner monologues" in Kanan #1 he describes the Clone Wars as "three plus years of fighting between the Grand Army of the Republic and the Separatist droids."

 

No I think it makes sense, I just don't overcomplicate things when a simpler theory stands just as well.

We've already known The Clone Wars were from 22-19 BBY.

Anyway, can't wait for The Levers of Power and especially Bottleneck.

 

Indeed, but surely you mean "can't wait for Bottleneck and especially The Levers of Power" right?

 

I just really like John Jackson Miller and can't wait to read about Count Vidian again PLUS he's working with Tarkin. I've not liked Rae Sloane as much as others seem to. Not sure what's so special about her but I am anxious to read an "adult" Jason Fry story.