Star Wars Novels - Old Style or New Style?

You are pretty much right, its does feel rather corporate, with the exception of the book: From a Certain Point of View which I think was innovative and the proceeds went to charity.

 

Yeah, I'm not thrilled with the majority of new books. It all comes down to the issue of canon. They can't go wild with the books, because there might be a story potential for a movie or whatever. This approach has its pros and cons...

Personally, I'd rather get one or two novels a year but something that's really good and something that really brings stuff to the table. Don't make a book or a comic if you don't have a substantial story to tell. In general, I'd be fine with way less content than we're getting, but the quality should be worthwhile.

We'll see how it goes. The canon is still relatively young. I think the books might get more interesting after IX comes out, because that's what nobody wants to interfere with.

On a semi-related note, I don't like how exploitative they are in comics. Soon there will be no room to tell any story between ANH and Empire. It would be cool to have some kind of Luke, Han and Leia novel set during that period. Something deeper than a comic allows for. But we might not get one, because they're filling the gap quite tightly. Same goes for Vader. Comics are going too fast IMO.

 

I think that both Legends and Canon have had really good and really bad novels: based on the ones that I've read so far, they're about tied in my eyes. For example, I'm reading the Darth Bane trilogy right now and it's very good IMO. Conversely, I think the Thrawn trilogy is overrated and the newest Thrawn novel is the best one. Meanwhile, I thought Lords of the Sith was very underwhelming, but The Rise of Darth Vader was a fantastic novel IMO. I mean, Legends had more stuff from the prequel era, which is my favorite era of Star Wars and one that Lucasfilm hasn't touched too much recently in terms of books and comics. Like others have said, they seem to have a synergy-type thing going on where they usually just release books to tie in with new movies. Legends seemed to have less of that, but Canon has better continuity overall.

 

--- Double Post Merged, Apr 3, 2018, Original Post Date: Apr 3, 2018 ---

@The Hero With No Fear, you must remember LFL is pandering to the OT fans when it comes to the books, LFL made an unforeseen amount of money with TFA with over 570 million in profit, China is wise enough to see when they're being pandered to(#ROSE) with only 42 million total at the box office for TLJ FOREIGN CHINA LOL, so yeah choose wisely, books like Rebel Dawn should be used for toilet paper, Rae Sloane was the only good thing about Rebel Dawn, I enjoyed Thrawn, Zahn is back since his hey day with Heir to the Empire! I've been a fan since 1977, ANH will alway be be my Fav HASLAB PLZ make a Jawa Fortress!!!

Read Bloodline, but don't see all the hype behind it Haven't got around to reading Lost Stars and Princess Leia of Alderann, but by god The Legend of Luke Skywalker OMG THE HYPE WAS REAL... BUT TO EACH THEIR OWN... OY VEY maybe thats why i love tlj who knows... Lords of the Sith another hyped book haven't picked that up yet too... all hype... love Vader but spare me the hype...

 

I agree, because of canon and the profit made by the movies, it seems like the books follow the movies, so there aren't many compelling new stories in the new novells.

I didn't read Legends novells so I can't compair them though

 

How unfortunate young lad, you must read boring Legend Jedi texts

 

"Page-turner they are not."

Right now I prefer the new style even though I feel "robbed" or "toyed" because in every single new canon book we get only few new informations but nothing really big. "You want to learn more? Great! Then read the following books and you can solve the puzzle."

But books like Lost Stars, Bloodline or Life Debt are much better than what the old canon did.

 

Well now ...
I dunno Where I fit in all'a This here.

I couldn't take a vote ^up^ there 'coz ...
...well, I don't fit in Neither.
Ain't None 'New' nor 'Old" ...

My opinion, I 'spose is ... They're All Stories.
I take them, Just as I Do the Films, As Stories Told To Me.
Not My Place to Say Who, How, What, Where, When They Be Told to Me.
Ain't About What I want Told To me, I am a Story Listener,
NOT a Story Teller.

Although I DO take as 'Legends' as One thing
and 'Canon' as another.

Not lookin' fer 'Hate' here .. 'k ?

I am an OG'r (Original Generation) and I most likely Do Not fit with A Lot of ... my kind.

I din't like the beginning of the 'Legends' 'Story' (aka - Original Thrawn Series).
But, like @The Hero With No Fear I Did Like the Prequels ... I Liked Alot of it.

I Do Like ... Very Much, Where, How and Why the "new" Canon has taken the Stories.

...So that's where I Am.

...dunno Where that is, with EveryOne else ... If That Matters ....

 

I prefer the new style myself. But to each his own. The Thrawn trilogy was good, but I think the new Thrawn novel is by far better than anything I ever read from the "Legends" books.

 

i didn't enjoy the old EU.
there are parts of the new EU that are kind of middling-to-terrible.

i love the Aftermath books.
i do wish the new EU was a bit more coordinated (maybe not the right word), or planned out perhaps?

i'm thinking after the ST, there will be so much more room to create bigger and more widely varied stories.
so i am waiting patiently.

but i also know i won't love everything ~ and that's okay. : D

 

Comments:
Problems with EU.
1. Tahiri's arc. Damn it, that shaping. Edge of Victory I. That was some deep stuff. She was like not even a teenager man. I'm disappointed with the author of that book.
2. Luke: Hid under a rock like TLJ Luke. Lethargic and obsessed with the dangers of What if I become worse than Vongs if Force forbid I actually fought them. until... dun dun dun.. The Vongs actually dared to threaten his kid? How dare they?! Die Vongs die!
3. Not me personally, but People had problems with the Dark Nest Trilogy because it involved bugs and bughuggers and that goddess!Jaina became JainaTaat. Frankly she deserved it.
4. Anakin Solo's death. People wanted him to survive. Because he's popular.
5. Callista: People complained that she took over the body of a Luke's student after that student was severely depressed and wanted her to take over her body. Callista was a former Jedi from the Clone Wars era.
6. JINO or Jacen in name only. Jacen was Jaina's twin and was pretty boring until Anakin's death and then ended up like Kylo Ren. Except even he didn't kill his father...
7. And then maybe people were scared of Abeloth? I can't imagine why she is more frightening than any other villain. But keep in mind Rey may be Abeloth.

Now then, were there some disappointments? Yes. Is the EU vastly superior than anything Disney came up until April 9, 2018? Hell yes!

 

Old style

 

I've always been a little more partial to the old EU/Legends. Even though I think the canon material and lore is fantastic, Legends was grander and it felt like every book had a purpose. With Canon, we're mostly getting one-off, standalone books. Which is fine, but one day I'd like to have something that feels more like a true Star Wars adventure epic, similar to the Thrawn Trilogy. So more adventures with Luke, Han, and Leia. And I know Lucasfilm wants to hold off on those stories until after Episode IX. That's probably better anyway so we don't have any contradictions and retcons.

 

EU was a mess, but how could it now be a mess? I gladly accepted the sea of good and not-so-good novels because of the very thing that Disney has taken from me: the world. The books had been boring, unexceptional and plain silly, but they all contributed to an ever-growing world, that had been expanding for 30 years. And even if the book is unreadable, at least there are new characters, ships and planets. I loved how big the universe was. Some silly characters could always become fan favourites in the hands of another writer. It was all a huge canvas.

Modern books, which I stopped reading after TLJ, also vary greatly in terms of quality. Some authors are fine (Grey), some are... not so much. Books feel less important. Some don't even feel like SW at all (Phasma reminds me more of Mad Max or Star Trek). But they are pretty meaningless for me, since I care too much about the older stories.

To answer your question, I prefer the old books. Not because the new stories can't be good, just because there was a greater, grander picture. And some fantastic characters as well. tons of them. I also feel like the writers actually cared about SW and were careful enough not to ruin what the others had build. Yes, there were screw ups, but the general picture stayed the same.

 

It's funny, I liked the Thrawn trilogy when it came out, but recently tried to re-read it and stopped not far into book one. It didn't seem quite as good as I had remembered it. The newest Thrawn novel was, I though, excellent. So I agree with that.

I LOVE the Ahsoka book. It's a good story, and I'd love to see more on her. Heck, even a full blown film. I think they will do more novels on the pre rise of the Empire era. Just gonna take some time. It's only been what, 5 years? Plus, since there was quite a few books published in the EU on that era, why not leave it alone for a while?

 

Any style - when it was freely and legally available to buy and read a novel tie-in before a new Star Wars film were released. We haven't been able to do that since Disney took over.

Novels based on films aren't available to read beforehand any longer and you're now unable to base your desicion on your experience of reading the novel whether or not you want to see the story on the big screen. You're now basically forced to watch the film "blindly" now, without any frame of reference.

 

i wouldn't be surprised if they announced one before ix launches ~ and we'll probably get more material after.
they seem to be holding a lot in until the ST is resolved.

Life Debt and Empire's End at least gave us Han and Leia kinda together (and the tiniest bit of Luke). Bloodline gave us some Han & Leia too. also Last Shot. it's Luke that's been missing out of the picture, but probably because they have been holding this thing with him and Ben so close to the chest.