The NJO Critics Club

I'm not sure exactly how the rest of it got messed up, but the answer to these two points I know.

Here are a couple quotes from tf.n?s Helen Keier?s December 1999 interview with Vector Prime?s author R. A. Salvatore
( you can read the entire interview at http://www.theforce.net/jedicouncil/interview/salvatore1.shtml )

This is RAS answering Ms Keier?s question about why he thinks he was asked to write in the SWU: (the italics are mine):

Here?s another set of questions and answers dealing with fans? criticisms of VP. This explains why Kyp is not really Kyp in the NJO.(again the italics are mine)

 

It?s a crying shame that they didn?t do their job.

A real shame, I must say.

 

I have not gotten past the NJO yet. I'm currently reading the whole series for the second time. Not that I particularly like it - it's just that I've been reading all of my post-ROTJ books again, including some that I didn't have the first time around (like the X-wing series and the JJK/YJK books). I wasn't familiar with some of the characters the first time, and now I am. I haven't decided yet whether that's good or bad.

Anyway, these are my ten biggest problems with the NJO:

10. "offscreen" deaths (e.g. Mon Mothma. Until I saw that a ship had been named after her, I didn't even know that she had died! WTH?)
9. Vong biotech too farfetched - even for SW
8. too many idiotic, greedy, power-hungry politicians in charge
7. mischaracterizations
6. too little Master/apprentice interaction
5. too much of the Solo kids and their friends, too soon (why not focus more on those older than the kids but younger than Luke, Mara, etc.?)
4. 365 trillion people???
3. way too much violence, blood, gore (borders on R-rating, IMO. SW should not be like that!)
2. half of the Jedi wiped out (isn't one of the points of the post-ROTJ EU to show the growth/expansion of the New Order? Again, WTH?)
1. Anakin's death, along with the deaths of quite a few other teenage apprentices (totally unnecessary, IMO)

 

tapioca_city
Anyway, these are my ten biggest problems with the NJO:

Welcome to the thread, TC. The problems you mentioned were all problems that I had with the NJO too. I don't know if you've read some of the first pages in this thread, but many of us wrote monster posts about all the things we didn't like about the NJO. One more that I'll add to your list for now, was the fact that it was only ONE story told in 19 books and four years. This meant that if you didn't like the story, you had no options. There were no other post-RotS to choose from. It was also a VERY expensive story. Asking people to purchase NINETEEN books to just get one story, was ridiculous.

 

How are you CoW?

It's been a while since I've posted in this thread, but it's interesting to see that some of the concerns keep coming back years later.

Overall, I'm mixed about the NJO, not completely negative mind you, but definately mixed.

 

Concerning Anakin's death, I've read in UK SW Magazine that writers were forced to kill him. The way things were going, Anakin Solo would be Luke's hair, leader of Jedi one day, and writers thought it would be too confusing to have two major characters that go by the same name, so they decided to 'kill' him.

 

the actual reason is because they were going to kill Jacen at that point in time, but the folks at Lucasfilm said, "No, Jacen lives. Kill someone else."

 

Mr44

How are you CoW?

Hi, Mr44! I'm fine! I don't post here too much anymore, but I'm still a regular on the SOS Luke thread.

It's been a while since I've posted in this thread, but it's interesting to see that some of the concerns keep coming back years later.

Must be something to them then, don't you think? More than anything, I hated the darker, gloomier, more pessimistic feel that the NJO gave to SW, and that continues to this day. There is now very little fun and adventure and optimism and hope in the SW stories and galaxy anymore and that's very disappointing. The NJO books diminished the Big Three too and mischaracterized just about everyone. And the Vong biotech went WAY beyond believable, and the NJO wrecked the "family friendly" feel of SW. It was far too graphically violent.

Overall, I'm mixed about the NJO, not completely negative mind you, but definately mixed.
Maybe you're beginning to see the Light!

Amon_Amarth
I've read in UK SW Magazine that writers were forced to kill him. The way things were going, Anakin Solo would be Luke's hair, leader of Jedi one day, and writers thought it would be too confusing to have two major characters that go by the same name, so they decided to 'kill' him.

magehound

the actual reason is because they were going to kill Jacen at that point in time, but the folks at Lucasfilm said, "No, Jacen lives. Kill someone else."

As *I* understand it, Del Rey was planning to have Anakin be the big hero of the NJO and Jacen was destined to be killed. George Lucas nixed it as this was all happening as he was finishing his story onscreen. He apparantly didn't want the public to get "confused" by the two Anakins, so he said that Anakin Solo couldn't be the hero of the NJO. I don't think he said that anyone needed to be killed.

So Del Rey just flipped the brothers. Instead of letting both of them live, Del Rey made Jacen the hero of the NJO and killed off Anakin. That's the story that I heard anyway.

 

basically the same i heard, too. I still don't think either one should have died. but...playing devil's advocate here, i have to say that anakin's death was very powerful and moving on the rest of the SW Galaxy for the rest of the NJO. so, from a certain point of veiw, it was a good death.

 

Though it made Chewbacca's sacrifice null in void. Chewie did die to save Anakin after all.

 

9. I disagree and would like to say that it's very different but not at all far-fetched.

8. Wanna kill Sal-Solo since he deserved to die in Ylesia?

7. Tell me about it. I was in for a huge surprise when I read Vector Prime and Destiny's Way.

6. That might be.

5. I'd love to see some stuff on Kiranna Ti's unnamed daughter and on Valin. Add too much Ben Skywalker, as much as I love that kid, to the list.

4. Let's see here, there are millions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy and 6.4 billion people on Earth alone, so assuming that the GFFA is similar to our galaxy, that's a very small number.

3. SbS is rated R, Traitor is rated NC-17 and yet at the same time sitting on a shelf in the High School section of my local library.

1. I actually liked that once I got over the shock. What I didn't like was Alema's death.

 

Their weapons shouldn't have even scratched snubfighters, they fought with bugs and snakes and had no long ranged infantry weaponry, and organic ships making singularities? If that isn't far-fetched, I don't know what is.

 

SilSolo
5. Add too much Ben Skywalker, as much as I love that kid, to the list.

I believe Tapioca city was referring to Ben in the NJO. He was hardly in the books at all as they put him in the Maw for protection for most of it, so I don't see how there was too much Ben.

Personally, I don't think we've seen ENOUGH of Ben. I really wanted to see some father/son interaction between Luke and Ben, and we've gotten almost NONE of that. Instead, we've gotten a lot of Jacen with Ben, and that makes me VERY nervous!

And I loved Ben in Betrayal! Ben Skywalker was the best thing about that book, I think.

 

Ben's had more time than Valin, Jysella, Syal, Myri, and Wyn put together. I would've liked Betrayal more if Allana was in it.

 

I never considered Traitor to be NC-17. It's not as if Jacen Solo gets into an orgy with Vong women...I think I need to burn out my third eye now. It's a brutal book, but in no way as bad as people make it out to be.

I didn't like off-screen deaths either it felt like it cheapened the characters that died. It's like this HUGE, TITANIC, BATTLE and then, "Admiral Ackbar has died." What thy hell? I dunno...there was a lot to complain about the series, but it also had a lot going for it like character growth, and it explored the ideas of what it would take to unite the galaxy. I think it's very realistic in that area as they literally felt threatened no matter what your political allegiance.

I think the main problem of the series is that it was way too long. Nobody should be made to spend years just buying one story arc.

DN...*cringe* I'll berate that later. Suffice to say if any Star Wars series pushed the bounds it was that one.

 

About what I said to Fire_Ice_Death earlier about having a singular wit and ability to cut through sithspit... you're welcome. *Bows* It is true.

And Windy, I do like Luke... but like Dewlanna said, I can't do a direct assault on those corrupting him. Although why did I get sinlged out there as 'Striker and his friends'?

 

Thank you. I'm a bit disappointed with EU these days, but only a bit. I liked how LOTF started but Denning's going to ruin it, I just know it. He's going to use Squibs again and we're going to have a Squibbing good time with the Squibs who come from Squib and don't give a Squib if you like them. Oh and Luke's going to break out his edition of ROTS again.

 

Cuz you're kinda like a leader to the rest of us, the foremost of all of the critics.

 

"Let's see. How can we make this even more of a rehash of the prequels?"

Okay, Sil... Maybe in lit. But here?

 

Good point. But Jacen's not whiny so it's not complete. He's just a little turd who fell to evil...for a convincing argument. Somehow that sounds so wrong.

 

Oh, let's see...how about Kirana Ti (she was barely mentioned), Streen (not really sure if he's younger, but I'll include him anyway), Dorsk 82, could've had some more of Ganner and maybe a little more of Miko (interacting with his Master) and Daeshara'cor (interacting with her apprentices), Octa Ramis, Wurth Skidder (I don't like the way they killed him off), and there are probably some others that I can't think of right now. I'm not saying that I wanted these people to be the major players. I just wanted there to be a better mix of Luke, Mara, Corran (the way they should be); the teenagers (as apprentices); and those in between.

 

Yeah, that's another thing that irks me. DR largely marketed their slaughterfest to teenagers! I hope that they got lots of angry letters from parents.

 

really?? Traitor is rated nc-17??*goes to find his copy...hmm. where did you get this information. I don't see a rating anywhere on the book itself.

 

Hehe. Slaughterfest. I like that. Can I use it?