Is Bantam better than Del Rey at publishing Star Wars books?

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I'm sure this has been an age long debate but I want to know who you think is better.

Heres what I think about each company;

Bantam; They usualy pubilshed fast paced, movie-like novels and only screwed up when they dident publish fast-pace books. It was a also a shock when a main character was killed off. I'm probably am one of the only Star Wars fans to think the Empire should have stayed in existance and Bantam kept the Empire as long as they could, even after the Empire was no longer even in existance, there were still the Second Imperiums an Empires Rebon. The thing they couldent pull off was a beliveable alien race to fight after the Empire, something that Del Rey could do!

Del Rey;Ok some of the Del Ray books were well... slow. Though some authers kept us intersted in the Star Wars Universe others just went on and on and on about Diplomatic Missions! Anyways the Yussion Vong were beliveable and were a good threat... if they had narrowed the series to ten books! Another thing that erks me about Del Rey is that they publish books left and right... I can't keep up with this! Also they crossed into baaaaaad waters when they killed off one of the ORIGINAL CHARACHTERS!!!!!!!!!!! (Chewie if you dident know.)

Ok thats what I think what about you?

 

I like them both, but I wish DelRey wouln't publish books by female SW authors. They should have their own publishing company called ESRA (Extremely Slow Reads Association.)

 

Uh, what in the hell is that supposed to mean?

I have my differences of opinions about the publishing companies but misogyny doesn't really enter into it...

 

In almost every department, Del Rey surpasses Bantam in terms of publishing Star Wars books.

They market better.

They certainly have more "style" to art and such for covers and binding.

They seem to have a better grasp of direction...a more long-term outlook (relatively speaking vs. Bantam).

BUT

They fall behind Bantam in the content department...which I know is subjective...but that is where the problem lies.

They can't shake this this "series" mentality.

They recycle authors like a gang of sitcom writers.

And they seem ridiculously beholden to outspoken minorities in fandom. (I think this one is just the more rampant expression of the internet age, which Bantam was only beginning to taste when it lost the license.)

In conclusion: I "like" the Bantam era better...however, I am not going to state that Bantam could do any better now then Del Rey is doing.

 

I think, overall, Del Rey has done a better job than Bantam. However, I have mixed feelings about the direction the story's taken as of late. But Del Rey did what they could in the muddled Clone Wars era (no publisher could've completely succeeded there) and the NJO, despite being long, was brilliant and featured realistic, human portrayals of the heroes that no other series has managed.

And Del Rey used to love taking chances, and I enjoy that when I read, though DR seems to be afraid of the fans nowadays and seems more than willing to suppress and limit its stories and aspirations.

Also, Del Rey has a flair for cover art that Bantam never had. Though I prefer the Japanese covers to anything Bantam and DR have come up with.

And DR has tried to build up for the long term . . . provide more 'glue' the universe and tie everything up nice and shiny.

DR DOES recycle authors far too frequently, though. They need fresh blood and they don't have enough of that.

 

Yeah, I loved the original artwork on the Bantam books, it looks way better than Del Ray's junk. As for Bantam story-lines, I think it was more the authors that ruined some of the books, not the publishing company. Zahn was good at Bantam, hes good now at Del Ray.

 

See... here's where I'm going to start to get into my pathos a little bit.

The Bantam storylines were TONS more "Star Wars-y" than the Del Rey stuff. (IMPORTANT NOTE: I will assume, for the moment, we are talking Del Rey II [1999+] vs. Del Rey I [1976+] because nothing was better than the Han Solo Adventures, Lando, SOTME and The Jedi Master's Quizbook). The Del Rey stable of authors they brought in could whup most of the Bantam authors in a quality war, should it ever come to that. Del Rey also has a keener eye as to, when they bring in new people, which ones should stay for the most part. Were there some Bantam folks who I'd like to see come back? Yup. Were there some Del Rey authors who have seemingly been jettisoned who I'd like to see come back? Yup (alas, poor Barnes and Stewart; we hardly knew thee).

So I'm hugely conflicted. While I love the authors generally more under Del Rey, I generally hate the storylines they're contracted to write, although I'm generally positive about LOTF (and downright giddy on Mindor) so hopefully this represents a tonal shift I will continue to enjoy.

 

It looks like the two companies were pretty well split in their use of female writers too as Bantam had quite a few (actually, I think they had MORE female writers), and I found Hambley's Bantam era work to be more of a trudge (if the original poster was trying to say female DR writers are boring) than anything Kathy Tyers, Ellen Cunningham, or Karen Traviss have put out.

Not to mention that there are plenty of male authors who have been a bit boring from both eras.

As said though, gender doesn't really enter into it.

 

Yes! That was what I was thinking!

 

Hmm...Bantam has TTT and the X-Wing series, but Del Rey has Matt Stover and Mandalorians...Oh dear, that's a hard one.

But seriously, both companies have their strengths and weaknesses.

I will say this about Del Rey, though: Ever since they became the publisher, I have not felt good after reading any of their books. By this, I mean I never feel like the good guys have won and all is well. There is never a sense of hope anymore, and I miss that. Oh, and while I like their one-shot stories, I can't stand their multi-book series.

 

Bantam has been far superior to Del Rey. Even their worst like The Crystal Star had some redeeming value. Del Rey... *Shakes head*

 

Good question... I doubt that I can really answer that one. I agree with some of the points made above, but I think that some of the differences seem to have more in common with a change of times than a change of publisher (although this change was a definitive catalyst, for DR wanted to stand apart from Bantam).


Bantam stuff generally has more of that single-adventure feeling. It's kind of playing in the sandbox establishe by the movies - not unlike what kids would create with their toys ("Today, Luke and the others fight against the Force Witches!")

DR, on the other hand, goes for continuity - for long series, and for stand-alone novels that function as tie-ins to something else.

Remember what Sci-Fi used to be like back when Star Trek was strong - you had the formula of every episode starting from scratch, so that the audience could jump in at any point. And it really doesn't matter if you start with Thrawn or with Crystal Star (well, maybe it does ), it's still the adventure of the year, and everything you need to know gets explained. But today, audiences seem to go more for tightly-knit franchises. TV has embraced the idea of the 24 hour movie that is a series season. SW fans get lost in the huge ocean of canon stuff that comes from every obscure corner of the galaxy. Bonus points for recalling that guy who stood in the background of the comic that accompanied that toy in 1981!

Another factor in this is the return of SW to the screen. The prequels brought back the feeling of the closed story. While it was perfectly sound to guess that Luke's adventures continued after ROTJ, the movies now come full circle and support the feeling that everything needs to belong together on a fundamental level. Making Thrawn and Palpatine heroes who tried to protect the galaxy from the Vong.


Another point already mentioned: DR has more fan contact (remember how well the "fan contact" started back after VP ). Thanks to the internet (and renewed active fan masses thanks to the PT), they can tell us everything about their great new projects. Ten years ago I barely found out about new novels; Today, it's mostly three days until I'm online again and the news come in. Also, they seem to look for what will please fans and thus improve sales. People like Fett, so they give us Fett. People like the first RC novel, so they give us more. People like certain authors, so these get asked to come back. People dislike the new view of the Force, they reboot the galaxy. People like Ep3, they give us an Ep3 world and more Sith Lords. People like bad guys, they give us Mandalorians, Stormtroopers and good Imperials. And Sith Lords.

The problem is that the best feedback you can get is always by unhappy people, for those are the ones who are loud enough. The few people who take their time and thank them for what they are doing are most probably such a minority that their opinion isn't taken into consideration. But when some people cry out that they didn't like this and didn't like that, it's bound to end in changes to appease the voices in DR's head.


In the end, I guess I miss the Bantam days. Maybe the concept of SW novels was new enough then to grant sales, and maybe Bantam would have needed to take drastic measures when their Ep2 novels would have totally failed in 2002 - but in the end, these novels were in a place. And not necessarily boring - rather, at peace with what they could do as spin-off novels to one of the biggest film franchises.

With DR, I have the feeling that they always need to top themselves, always need to go places and always need to look out what the masses will read. They always try to do as well (or better) as the movies, but let's be honest - they can't.


And as for the covers, yeah, I could use a non-experimental Bantam cover. That would be great.

 

Yeah... BanTam is kind of more starwars-y. Reading some of the Del Ray books it is like, is this a SW book or a romance novel?

 

You mean like "Children of the Jedi", "Darksaber" or "Planet of Twilight"? "Vision of the Future" or maybe some "Truce at Bakura"? Ooops, wrong publisher...

But yeah, I know what you mean. They tend to show more family interaction now that they've essentially turned the father-son conflict into a huge clan with everyone related to one another, and love being everywhere and realistic novels showing better romance emulation than your average Flash Gordon serial. In the end, I think this is due to what the perceived readers want: More realism in how the characters interact. Social models that closely mirror family values of the audience's society. Best and worst example: Ben teasing Jacen with having a child without having married. Come - on. And of course, 70 % of the Jedi and 20 % of the Clone Army falling in love, marrying and having children.

 

Don't slam Darksaber it could have arguably been a movie, it was ESBish!

 

If by "ESBish" you mean "stole a bunch of locations from ESB," I suppose.

 

The return to Hoth and Dagobah was cool who cares if they go back to Hoth I don't!

 

So, you mean the return to Dagobah was cool (figuratively) and the return to Hoth was cool (literal, as you don't care for it)?

 

Oh my gosh, I can't beleive that some people really liked that crap. Bantam had a few good books and those were only the books that had Zahn in them as a writer and the 9 different x-wing books, but boy the rest blows. The Courtship of Lea was horrible, Luke flying in the air? Yeah right, Darksaber with that........super duper force push of 17 star destroyers...Imperial class ships half way across the solar system? Damn the books of Barbara Hambly really sucked plus yep you gueesed it the Crystal Star.

The only thing bad for Del Rey were the clone war books, but now with the new animation series it will pick it up.

 

Eh? Del Rey's offerings are a real mixed bag, but then, so were Bantam's. I personally prefer Bantam's work - they felt truer to the films, and they didn't have to deal with the mess that is the ROTE era.

 

No the Hoth sene was great Wampas vs Jedi man that was great!

 

David, stop arguing with Grey. This is like the TWS.

 

Overall, I think the Del Rey books have been a lot better. While there were some standouts in the Bantam era, like Zahn's books, there was a lot of garbage that really shouldn't have "Star Wars" in the title. For all their problems, most of the post-RotJ Del Rey novels are good books, even if I don't like some of the story choices. I think the authors are better in general too.

I was going to respond to this but I see you're still at the age where you probably think girls are "icky."