A&A The Official Daniel Wallace Discussion Thread

The New Essential Chronology is out now. I started a talkback thread on my blog, and feel free to post comments here as well. I will reply as quickly as I can.

Thanks!

 

Dan,

I thought it was you, just not sure if you were working alone.

I maintain a web site devoted to cancelled EU books, comics and so forth (Lostworlds).

Is there any limited information you can you share regarding the unpublished manuscript that I could add to the entry for the Clone Wars Sourcebook?

 

Dan:

First off, fantastic job on the New Essential Chronology. The information was excellent and well researched. I have yet to be disappointed by a book your have written or assited with, and this is no exception.

I was absolutely thrilled to see you clarify the governmental structure of the Galactic Alliance. When I saw that it was a federal-style republic with a clear system of checks and balances, I practically whooped for joy!

You also threw in so many little nods to other sources. The few that I loved were the following:

1. Recopia being used as a staging point for the liberation of Brentaal. Nice little nod to Coruscant and the Core Worlds, especially the mention in it that Recopia was amongst the first Core Worlds to support the New Republic after Endor.

2. You also cleared up the "Kuat Question", regarding the plans for it to defect to the NR right after Endor. You cleared that up while maintaining the already established fact that Kuat fell to the NR four years after Endor.

3. The reference to Ord Biniir comes from the old Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels. Nice job on that!

4. When you said that "only Admiral Ackbar could be considered their equal in the New Republic Navy" in the section "The Last Grand Admiral?", I was so pleased. I have been saying it for years, but you finally put it in print.

5. Bulwark Battlecruiser from Rebellion!! I loved that. Nice little nod to that fun game, plus it brings the ship into a official light. Just like you and Kevin did with the CC-7700 interdictors in the first Chronology.

Anyways, I loved this thing. I skipped ahead to the Rebellion era, but I plan to go back and read the early Republic years.

--Adm. Nick

 

Dan, gotta say how much I loved the New Essential Chronology. The only problem that I have with it is in getting the $40 bucks I'll need in order to buy it.

Again, nice job.

 

Darth_Kevin, the Clone Wars Sourcebook was basically an in-universe exploration of the events and situations surrounding the Clone Wars. It would have been the middle section of a sourcebook, bookended by Miniatures rules and other "crunchy bits."

The layout of the CWSB went like:
I. THE GALACTIC REPUBLIC
II. THE CONFEDERACY OF INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS
III. THE FADING REPUBLIC: PRELUDE TO WAR
IV. THE BATTLE OF GEONOSIS
V. THE CLONE WARS UNFOLD
VI. AFTER THE WARS

"The Clone Wars Unfold" was the longest section, and several of the ideas were able to be salvaged and used in the New Essential Chronology.

Dan

 

Thanks AdmiralNick and TIEPilot!

Nick, I'm also an Ackbar fan and wanted to give him his due. They don't let just any slouch go up against the Death Star.

Good catch on the Bulwark battlecruiser from the game Rebellion. Note that this is actually the "Bulwark Mark I," however. It's still definitely a Rebellion tie-in, but I wanted to make sure I depowered the ship enough for it to fit into the Clone Wars timeframe.

Dan

 

Dan:

So, what was your favorite section of history that you created for this new book? Was it some of the stuff from the pre-Republic era, or from the information on Clone Wars?

Also- what are some of the "easter eggs" that you hinted are in the book?

Thanks!

--Adm. Nick

 

Hi Dan, I'd just like to congratulate you on a wonderful job with The New Essential Chronology. I seem to be quite lucky in that i am a big fan of every era and so found it a great read from start to finish. I really enjoyed the art in the book and liked seeing some images covering the NJO such as Corran's duel on Ithor, the two page spread of the Jedi against the Voxyn and Luke Skywalker Vs Shimrra, plus it was nice to learn more about General Skywalker and the Lord Shadowspawn campaign along with the great piece of artwork depicting it. Great job i cant wait for the New Essential guide to Droids.

 

My favorite was probably the "fill in the blank" eras of early Republic history, where I got to create all-new eras and flesh out some very sketchy pre-existing events (e.g. the Hundred-Year Darkness).

Hmmm... think on Easter Eggs more, I must. There's no obvious Easter Eggs like somebody's name spelled backward, but there are some particularly obscure references that I don't think anybody's caught yet. (In fact, they're so obscure I've forgotten what I wrote.)

Dan

 

Thanks Master Ikrit! I liked the Shadowspawn piece too, since it depicted something that never really existed outside the confines of the Chronology.

Dan

 

Same here. It was so much fun taking a look at the early Republic. Dan, congratulations on making a great book even better.

Take care,
Abel

 

Dan: regarding Kuat post-Endor, you said Kuat of Kuat's successor was a female--is this meant to be the amnesiac chick from the BHW (whose name I canna remember)?

So, I take it from your comments the Alliance's Bulwarks in Rebellion are Mark II?

 

"The galaxy's most notorious bounty hunters assemble for the funeral of Greedo."

 

Yeah, what's up with that? Is it even continuity-ally possible?

:hones Webster to report new word::

 

Well, they all basically hung out in The Yavin Vassilika, and Wuher might not have have shredded all of Greedo's body making Jabba that ultimate cocktail. I dunno...

But it sure is funny.

Take care,
Abel

 

Dan, would you like to flesh out the Shadowspawn events into a fully fledged novel? After all, it is still possible to go back and fit stories in that era, ala Tattoine Ghost.

 

>>>Well, they all basically hung out in The Yavin Vassilika, and Wuher might not have have shredded all of Greedo's body making Jabba that ultimate cocktail. I dunno...

But it sure is funny. <<<

It would be a whole lot funnier if they were all holding drinks...

Wuher: "Refreshments, anyone? My droid makes a mean brew..."

Man, I need this book.

 

I also wanted to thank Dan for clearing up one of the more annoying continuity gaffs, that of the Nelvaan adventures in Clone Wars Volume II. Although it may have been the intention of the canon guys to say that it was happening concurrent with the events of Labyrinth of Evil from the start, to have it get stated in print form makes my whole issue with Volume II slightly less annoying.

And was the appearance of Shadowspawn as Blackhole a happy coincidence or intentional?

 

From Tasty's blog:

"p. 134 Lord Shadowspawn
There was a sketch of a possible Lord Shadowspawn that was done for Gamer magazine that was never used that Dan dug up to use for inspiration. Note the black stormtroopers in the background."

A connection is possible, though LFL nixed the Shadowspawn = Blackhole idea for Gamer #5. Maybe they changed.

 

Dan: Were the mythosaurs of Mandalore sentient?

 

They must have, because the pic of Shadowspawn from the book looks too much like this pic to be anything but.

 

Were there any particular subjects from the CWSB that didn't make it to the NEC that you would have liked to have?

 

I'll allow that they could be Mark IIIs or IVs, depending on whether anyone ever goes back to create new ship classes. I've always thought that the New Republic got their hands on Bulwarks at some point post-ROJ, but that the Rebel Alliance never did.

Dan

 

Shadowspawn isn't Blackhole, not according to LFL. But Abel had originally wanted to make them the same, and Joe had illustrated Shadowspawn with a Blackhole silhouette before LFL put the kibosh on that idea. But since Joe's old illustration was technically the only illustration done of Blackhole, I suggested using it for the NEC anyway, and Leland was OK with it. I don't think it overturns existing lore, but perhaps it does open up the possibility of some kind of retconning connection between Blackhole and Shadowspawn.

Dan

 

I'll defer to Abel on that question if he's still hanging around these parts. The Mythosaur reference came from the first draft of Abel's "History of the Mandalorians" article, in which he attempted to link the Mythosaurs to the giant skeletons in the "city of bone" from the Marvel comics, as well as to the "bantha skull" insignia on Boba Fett's shoulder. The latter reference was nixed in the final, since there is a SW Tales story dealing with the "bantha skull" character.

Dan