Things that Star Wars authors do wrong...

[Kor]

"The Force" is a feature of the galaxy that Star Wars takes place in. Obi-wan said it "binds the galaxy together," meaning their galaxy that they live in and are directly familiar with, which they regard as "the galaxy."
So it would make sense for creatures from outside of the galaxy to be oblivious to it and unaffected by it.

Kor

 

[fireproof78]

1.) A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
2.) A Jedi is Force-sensitive.

Both sound appropriate. Different people use different terms to describe similar situations.

 

[Ithekro]

Pretty much all these initial complaints are from the first few series of novels that came out in the 1990s. At that time there were only three Star Wars films, and not that much else. Most of the early authors made use of the same sets of source material for their novels. Specifically they used the "Star Wars: Roleplaying Game" from West End Games and its associated sourcebooks. Additionally they used the few newer PC games that had come out from LucasArts at that time like "X-wing" and "TIE Fighter". "Force-sensitive", for example, was the yes or no stat for a player character in the roleplaying game to be allowed to train to be a Jedi or not.

Some species, such as Bothans, had only been name dropped in one film, and never seen before. So it was a task to either come up with a physical description, or they simply named dropped and waited for Lucasfilm to fill in their own blanks with a new sourcebook for West End Games (which was still coming out at that time until just before the release of The Phantom Menace).

 

[Kibbin]

My issue with the new Disney canon books is because they’re all considered canon within the universe, nothing particularly interesting happens in them.
While it’s good to see novels actually get more attention into a franchise’s lore, because not that many people read them means that nothing that could be seen as important or influential will happen in them which is a disappointing side affect from it.

It’s one of the reasons I feel they should continue the Legends line. They can do stories there with the core characters that are important to their overall narrative.

"Nothing important" happening in the books has nothing to do with them being canon, that's just how it works for tie-ins for an active franchise. Tie-ins are always secondary, so they are not going to effect the main story arc, because that has to be left for the primary mediums, in this case the books and TV shows.

I think he means that Star Wars is now in the same position as Star Trek was before the end of Nemesis. Even though we are still getting new movies and t.v series the story is being pushed forward for many characters and ships in the books and even video games (though I know Online is a different cannon than the books). It would be a shame is tng went back to the old forced mandate of having to make sure everything was put away in the book just as you found it by novels end. It's why I think this Mandalorian series or alphabet squad might work as it takes us away from the "main story" and thus we don't have to worry about making sure things stay the same too much. We're not just setting up future movies or expanding on what they said bu just trying to tell good stories in the same universe.

As for me the first thing that came to my mind was the alien metaphors that started off okay but grew until they were slightly stupid. You can't write knife through butter because it's a cliche so don't just stick in vibroknife through steel and call it a day. As I said these were okay at first because they seemed to add to the world but it felt like they grew to a ridiculous extreme. Same goes for strange new alien life forms that are just the same as life we have. If it's a horse just call it a horse. Don't give me a paragraph of information and new titles just to dress up the fact that your character is riding a horse.
The line for both of these is of course personal and I understand that. Just my two pennies worth

 

[The Wormhole]

Same goes for strange new alien life forms that are just the same as life we have. If it's a horse just call it a horse. Don't give me a paragraph of information and new titles just to dress up the fact that your character is riding a horse.

There's just no pleasing anyone on that matter. After all, just look at nu BSG, which did take a more naturalistic approach to things, a horse is a horse rather than named something different but is a horse in every other way that matters, and you have people who still bitch and moan that this is "lazy and unimaginative."

Personally, I agree with you, call a horse a damn horse.

 

[valkyrie013]

No Space Knife? or Space Condom?? Darn...
The star trek books, prior to 2009, they were mostly "Bottle Novels" with ocasionally an author doing his own "arc" in his own series. But if a character was killed, was never a "A" character, was always a book introduced character, may have been there for years, then.. boink! gone. Thats where Star wars is now, Sad thing is, the period between ROTJ and TFA is a big "Lost Era" right now, from what I've read, the Empire is gone in 2 years, and "So Far" nothing happens between that and TFA with the First"ish" order. Also heard that, from the rare exeption like the Thrawn series, the books series kinda sucks, probably becasue, like others have said, not much happening, where the old Legends twisted and turned the whole galaxy.
So untill some series, or movie kinda hints at something larger and grander happening in that 30 year period, I don't see the new book series being any good.

 

[Tuskin38]

Also heard that, from the rare exeption like the Thrawn series, the books series kinda sucks

It really doesn't suck, quite a few of the novels have been great.

 

[JD]

No Space Knife? or Space Condom?? Darn...
The star trek books, prior to 2009, they were mostly "Bottle Novels" with ocasionally an author doing his own "arc" in his own series. But if a character was killed, was never a "A" character, was always a book introduced character, may have been there for years, then.. boink! gone. Thats where Star wars is now, Sad thing is, the period between ROTJ and TFA is a big "Lost Era" right now, from what I've read, the Empire is gone in 2 years, and "So Far" nothing happens between that and TFA with the First"ish" order. Also heard that, from the rare exeption like the Thrawn series, the books series kinda sucks, probably becasue, like others have said, not much happening, where the old Legends twisted and turned the whole galaxy.
So untill some series, or movie kinda hints at something larger and grander happening in that 30 year period, I don't see the new book series being any good.

Not every book or series needs to be some huge galaxy changing events, they can still tell smaller stories. I haven't read anything past the Dark Nest trilogy, but one of the biggest complaints I've hard about the last few years of the Legends books was that it was ridiculous how they just jumped from one massive war to antother, to another, so this change of pace for the books might be nice.

 

[The Wormhole]

The star trek books, prior to 2009, they were mostly "Bottle Novels" with ocasionally an author doing his own "arc" in his own series. But if a character was killed, was never a "A" character, was always a book introduced character, may have been there for years, then.. boink! gone.

Huh? Star Trek novels have began developing their own continuity in 2001. And as for "A" characters being killed off, they killed Janeway in a novel published in 2007. And she stayed dead until a novel published in 2012.

 

[Ithekro]

I imagine after Episode IX the doors to the 30 year gap will open up a bit for the authors to fill in the blanks a bit. Or at the very least expand on what if happening in the Galaxy during that time, as a galaxy is a very large place to tell stories, even if they have nothing to do with the Heroes of Yavin, the Clone Wars, or the Ghost Crew. Plenty of being out there that can have their story told.

 

[David cgc]

There's just no pleasing anyone on that matter. After all, just look at nu BSG, which did take a more naturalistic approach to things, a horse is a horse rather than named something different but is a horse in every other way that matters, and you have people who still bitch and moan that this is "lazy and unimaginative."

I wish I'd saved the website of the BSG '78 fan was doing bullet-pointed takedowns of every episode of the remake, who had a big issue with this and specifically lauded Starbuck torturing Leoban using a space bucket instead of a regular bucket. Of course, the "space bucket" almost certainly came from the Container Store or some other slightly-upmarket bucket-purveyor.

 

[fireproof78]

Not every book or series needs to be some huge galaxy changing events, they can still tell smaller stories. I haven't read anything past the Dark Nest trilogy, but one of the biggest complaints I've hard about the last few years of the Legends books was that it was ridiculous how they just jumped from one massive war to antother, to another, so this change of pace for the books might be nice.

Some of my favorite Star Wars tales are the anthology "Tales of the..." series, from Jabba's Palace to the Mos Eisley Cantina aliens. It's fun, interesting and shows much smaller snap shots of such a large galaxy. Give me smaller and more personal stories rather than the constant "saving the galaxy" stuff.

 

[JD]

Have you read A Certain Point of View yet? I haven't, but it sounds like it's the same kind of thing.

 

[The Wormhole]

IMO, A Certain Point of View gets a bit too silly at times. The Imperial gunners choosing not to shoot down R2 and 3PO's escape pod because of the paperwork they'd have to fill out if they did. Admiral Motti putting a complaint in with HR about Vader Force Choking him. TK-421 and the guy wondering why he wasn't at his post being romantically involved, told from the perspective of the Mouse Droid Chewie roared at. A conversation between two Whills which comes dangerously close to making The Holiday Special canon.

As for the old Tales of anthologies, I've only read Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba's Palace. The Cantina one gets tedious since it all ties in with a part of the movie which isn't really all that long. Jabba's Palace was kind of fun.

 

[fireproof78]

IMO, A Certain Point of View gets a bit too silly at times. The Imperial gunners choosing not to shoot down R2 and 3PO's escape pod because of the paperwork they'd have to fill out if they did. Admiral Motti putting a complaint in with HR about Vader Force Choking him. TK-421 and the guy wondering why he wasn't at his post being romantically involved, told from the perspective of the Mouse Droid Chewie roared at. A conversation between two Whills which comes dangerously close to making The Holiday Special canon.

As for the old Tales of anthologies, I've only read Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba's Palace. The Cantina one gets tedious since it all ties in with a part of the movie which isn't really all that long. Jabba's Palace was kind of fun.

That all sounds fun. It all sound wonderfully detail oriented that makes life in the GFFA a little more lived in. I prefer my SW a bit silly.

I agree the cantina one wasn't great, but it actually tied in to Tales of Jabba's Palace a little bit. Also, Tales of the Bounty Hunter has one of the best Boba Fett stories, in my opinion.

 

[Tuskin38]

Those stores are all meant to be ambiguous canon anyways.

 

[Reverend]

IMO, A Certain Point of View gets a bit too silly at times. The Imperial gunners choosing not to shoot down R2 and 3PO's escape pod because of the paperwork they'd have to fill out if they did. Admiral Motti putting a complaint in with HR about Vader Force Choking him. TK-421 and the guy wondering why he wasn't at his post being romantically involved, told from the perspective of the Mouse Droid Chewie roared at. A conversation between two Whills which comes dangerously close to making The Holiday Special canon.

As for the old Tales of anthologies, I've only read Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba's Palace. The Cantina one gets tedious since it all ties in with a part of the movie which isn't really all that long. Jabba's Palace was kind of fun.

While there were certainly parts I personally liked a lot less than others, I think it's fine so long as you take each story in spirit in which they were intended and yes, some of those are clearly with tongue firmly in-cheek.

I don't sweat the canon issue with this one so much since much like the 'Legends of Luke Skywalker' anthology, a lot of the stories have inherently unreliable narrators or are intentionally fourth wall breaking.

Plus, on the positive side, it kinda/sorta made the Kenobi novel kinda/sorta canon!

 

[fireproof78]

Those stores are all meant to be ambiguous canon anyways.

They are also meant to be fun!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

They don't describe a person or creature.
- For example, they call someone a Bothan or a creature a Dewback, but then the reader has no idea what those look like. Sometimes they do this with equipment, too.

Yeah, I think there's an art to this in tie-in fiction. No one would need a description of a Wookie or a Gungan but a relatively new fan wouldn't know what a Dewback is since they were never called that on screen.

A conversation between two Whills which comes dangerously close to making The Holiday Special canon.

About a decade ago, I wrote a serious fan film called Reflections of Evil which name dropped Life Day.

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The scene with the Life Day reference comes around the 20:10 mark. (BTW, the technician with the beard in the opening scene is none other than bestselling Star Wars novelist Michael Stackpole!)