Lit Books Star Wars Timelines (New Star Wars Sourcebook coming!!)

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-timelines-exclusive


New Star Wars sourcebook

Interesting....Interesting indeed.

 

And it's a DK book, too. This will be cool.

 

Oh, how exciting!

I wonder how far before the High Republic they are talking? To the foundation of the current republic? To the sith wars? The origins of the jedi?

...I am also curious if this will influence any of the upcoming films and when they are set.

 

The NEW New Essential Chronology. Here's hoping it's available for pre-order in the US soon.

 

They could sneakily canonise The Elder if they wanted...

 

Well the High Republic books have given us a rough idea of what transpired from about 1000 BBY to the start of the High Republic initiative.

 

@Sauron_18

Funny how we're talking about the Jedi-Sith War stuff and this book as it's advertised will explore "The Time Before The High Republic" ...at least a little bit.

 

That would fit in very nicely between the Sith Wars and the High Republic.

Honestly, given that they didn't have any constraints to be canon compliant, I am kind of surprised how many of them could easily fit into the star wars timeline without issue.

True, though it is very rough so some additional details would be nice. Like, I remember there was a comment that after the Sith war most people were too focused on survival to worry about exploration and expansion, and I am curious what they need to survive exactly? Did this refer to the simple act of rebuilding infrastructure and economy in the wake of the devastation of the sith lords, or were their active threats even after the sith had been driven into hiding?

 

Will I finally get some dates for battles in the Clone Wars and the events of "Rebels"? I hold out my hope.

 

Don't get your hopes up, it's by DK... most will be big screenshot pictures and little text. 2 new pages every year rereleased. And if lucky they do not forget some placements or feature errors like in their other books.

 

I love DK so

 

I feel like this'll be the equivalent of Battles That Changed the Galaxy. A nice coffee-table book, but nothing as in-depth as The Essential Chronologies. This bit from the official site seems key:

"Follow the Skywalker lightsaber as it passes through the generations and witness the evolution of the iconic TIE fighter across different eras. Trace the movement of the Death Star plans over the years."

Seems like it'll be lots of individual timelines for specific props, characters, etc, rather than an historical chronology from beginning to end.

 

Yeah the battles that changed the galaxy was a major disappointment.
At the moment reference books in the new disney era are a major downgrade from eu era equivalents

 

They don't want to close things off for potential future story ideas. Problem, they are so slow in filling the gaps, the fans don't like it. There has been huge slowdown in novels, too many gaps between releases. And comic lines, too much for too little gain.

 

I have considered whether or not Star Wars should ever just to Tolkein style appendixes with these types of books and just right out the history.

But as you say they don't wanna close things off for Storytellers and honestly Star Wars is more a Comic Book type mythology where it builds off it's lore with stories all building on one another.

 

As for novels Del Rey has consistently put out six to seven new novels a year in the new canon era. You are usually getting a new novel from them every two to three months. They were really trying to release too much during the legends era to the point that you could put a lot of the same complaints on them that you could with the ST with them not properly planning things out.

The entire Dark Nest Trilogy was released in a matter of months.

 

I mean one of the fun things about the sourcebooks was seeing how they smooth over the bumps and inconsistence in Legends.

In my mind Canon is far more consistent in general than the overall Legends one and thus apart from less story canon to pull from less inconstancies to smooth over.

 

That's a bit of an unfair comparison - the canon era doesn't have reference books yet equivalent to the EU's "Essential Guide"-type books. There are reasons for that, probably related to a desire to wait until the new canon had been fleshed out enough to actually require them. It may also be that, as Jid mentions, there is also less of a need for them in terms of smoothing over continuity bumps. Meanwhile, what we're getting from DK is really the same sort of material DK has always released, including back in the EU days.

This is also likely true, and a valid concern.

I'm not so certain the entirely of "the fans" would agree - the novels are coming so fast I actually can't keep up with them. Between adult and YA - not even counting the middle grade stuff - they're averaging about one a month at this point. That's not counting middle-grade, reference books, etc. And comics are still going strong at 3-4 issues per week. I actually wouldn't mind a slowdown on the Lit side of things - I can only read so much, so fast. And my bank account wouldn't mind either!

 

@The Positive Fan Yep. If you include all the Del Rey, YA books, and an occasional young reader you are probably getting at least ten books a year. When you add all the comics on top of that that is a ton of material to keep up with and I doubt very many are complaining about the output. It is true that Del Rey has slowed things down a bit from the legends days but that is probably a good thing and probably a big reason why the new stuff has been more consistent in terms of continuity.

 

I think the Marvel comics exclusive War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign, has been a pretty big profile release. To me, it's actually stolen the thunder a bit from the High Republic which is supposed to be the main lit product from LFL now.

As for this timelines sourcebook, someone just tell me when Crimson Dawn's return takes place!

 

I want to know how long after Attack of the Clones that Clone Wars begins.

 

I'm surprised that no one is commenting on this particular phrase in the official blurb:

" uncover multiple branching timelines "

 

I assume the Fandom Menace is.

But the rest of the blurb I highlighted earlier pretty much explains what they mean by that. This is a book of various timelines for different characters, technology, ships, etc.

 

Oh, another book I can look forward to buying a new edition of in 4 years. I love you DK but you're an expensive mistress.

Seriously, though, this looks like a fun one. I like it when DK tries new things.

 

I have zero interest in their take, positively or negatively.

Yes, I saw that. And it is most likely going to be that.
But it's profoundly misleading, especially with their sister IP, Marvel, doing the thing they're doing right now. Extremely poor wording. The title itself is misleading. They may as well have called it "The Star Wars Multiverse Chronology" and then clarified it's 'the multiverse of different media - TV, comics, movies!"

This looks like another 'skip', like that "Atlas" they put out a few years ago. I'll save my monies for the Mandoverse guide to finally come out, whenever that actually happens.