Chronicles of the Shadow War

Last night I dug the "Willow" novels out of a box in the basement and started rereading them. They are "Willow" by Wayland Drew & George Lucas and the "Shadow War Trilogy" by Chris Claremont and George Lucas. The "Shadow War" novels are unique in that they are, I believe, the only novels actually co-written by Lucas.

The "Willow" novelization was narrated by Lucas to its author in a pub in the UK (very fitting) and contains information and events that differ or are not found in the film. Some (not all) of this material informs the Claremont/Lucas trilogy. Lucas was more involved in the "Shadow War" novels than any other of his company's prose fiction projects before or since. Lucas and Claremont had a story meeting for each book, which Claremont recorded. Starting with outlines, all material was sent to Lucas, who collaborated on the story and text, back and forthing chapters until the books were finished.

When the books first came out (1995, 1997, 1999, respectively) I thought the writing was downright bad. While this is not prose of a high order, I now think the writing (at least) has a lot of energy and character; it's not half so bad as most Star Wars novels.

The most engrossing aspects of the trilogy are its world and its storyline. I'd forgotten how packed with details these books are. This is a major work in Lucas's canon. And it is extremely unique. Lucas dipped deep into folklore, fairy tale and myth for these stories. I'm only at the beginning of the first book but memories of the trilogy are coming back. You really have to read the books to see how huge a universe he has created. It is quite astonishing to think that Lucas was creating the densely layered "Phantom Menace" while creating this incredibly detailed world in parallel. There are even a few lines from the Prequels appearing for the first time in these books (Elora Danan says at one point, "My place is with my people!").

Definitely worth a look-see for Lucas fans who appreciate fantasy epics. Despite its flaws, this is far ahead of most fantasy novels in conception and world building. Recommended.