That's no moon...it's a book!! Death Star Novel Announced
 

Those who hang around sw.com may have noticed the announcement of a new novel, which is told around the events of the creation and building of the first Death Star. It will be written by Steve Perry and Michael Reaves, who recently did the Medstar Duology. It is slated for a 2007 release and may potentially be a prelude to events that will be depicted in the live action TV series also set during this time period.

Anyone versed in film/EU/gaming lore will know that the story of the creation of the Death Star has been described in a very tangential fashion. Long before AOTC and Kevin J Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy, the SW Radio drama gave some info about the Death Star and specifically how its plans came into Alliance hands...operation skyhok

Operation Skyhook was later mentioned within the context of the first Dark Forces game, with Kyle Katarn being the mercenary named as having stolen the plans.

KJA's JA Trilogy gave us more insight into the creation of the Death Star, including revealing the Maw Installation, and characters like Qwi Xux and Bevel Lemelisk involved in its design.

Then of course AOTC showed the plans as ordered by the separatists, and by the end of ROTS we see the DS1 in early construction.

How/if these different story threads may be incorporated into the novel will be unclear, but Im sure some of these EU facts will be blended in. In addition, it will almost certainly feature Tarkin and Vader, which will make it even more interesting to check out.

Im curious as to what others think. I myself am very interested in reading anything about what happens between Ep3-4, such as the upcoming novel 'Dark Lord' and the live action TV series in 2007/8.

mtfbwya

I'm disappointed that they are replacing the Old Republic novel with this. Not that this will be bad, but I'd just like to see some Old Republic stuff.

And I thought you had no interest in this era. You gave me a hard time for it before. :)

Primeski, I would never give you a hard time about anything !!!

But I do think the Clone Wars novels were poorly planned. My exposure to Clone Wars stuff was limited but reading the very interesting "Labyrinthe of Evil" and watching the CW series was painful at times due to the terrible incongruities.

It made it then unusual to hear the criticism against the NJO which was just so well planned and executed. At the end of the day, all I will say about NJO to its detractors is to reserve their judgement til they read "Star by Star" and "The Unifying Force".. those books ARE the series in a nutshell. Its sorta like watching ESB and ROTJ and it giving you all the info you need about the SW saga, without actually seeing the other 4 movies :)

Now that Epsiode III has passed Im really not that keen on hearing anything more about the CW, so am a bit puzzled at why GL wants to do the CW CG series...

However, the post ROTS era is very interesting, that basically where the prequel universe has to somehow become the OT universe... Lucas tried to do it with a 10 second shot in ROTS(Vader, Sidious and Tarkin looking at the DS1), but theres sooo much more.... books like Dark Lord and this Death Star one will fill us in, not to mention the TV series of course :)

mtfbwya

Where's the fun in that? :)

Such as? Were there certain things in particular?

Of course IMO the NJO is certainly not without it's flaws in terms of execution, but we've gone over that many times before. The fact that two books of nine are the series says to me there is a lot of extraneous material that drags out the story too long. But this thread isn't about the NJO...

I think it is because the Clone Wars era is such a fertile ground for stories, especially for non-movie characters and unlimited locations. The Republic comic series is a testiment to that. It is a wartime era that is very familiar to the casual SW fans as well as the hardcores due to the films. And I don't think George has too much interest in doing post-ROTJ stories, as I get the impression that in his mind the Skywalker story has more or less ended at that point.

Again, I'm not saying that the DS book is a bad idea or that I won't enjoy it. It is just that I have fallen in love with the Old Republic era (KOTOR) era and would love to have a novel to flesh it out more. Just a preference. But I am also looking forward to the post-ROTS era as well...

re- clone wars series..... surely you noticed the whole "battle for coruscant" events were out of whack in each description. Never have two EU sources described the same event with such differences. eg, Jedi involved in abduction and chase of palpatine, events of chase. What Yoda and mace were doing at the time and what Obi and anakin were doing at the time...

of course, even in ROTS, the stated facts align more closely with LoE, with "The Business of Cato Neimoudia" and the mission to rescue the chancellor being led by Obi Wan. The CW series ends with Anakin rushing to his ship in a huff :p

I loved the CW series, but it was just hilarious to hear people describing Grievous cough as a deliberate move by Lucas because Mace "crushed" Grievous lungs in the series. :p

Long before the series was aired, GL was in a sound studio with Matt Wood during the recording of some of grievous lines and coughed into the mic. He insisted that cough be put into the film and Grievous be animated accordingly. GLs view of GG seems to be at odds with the Grievous portrayed in the CW series. A ruthless/unstoppable killer with a creepy metallic voice in the series, Lucas describes the General as a "moustache twirling villain, a coward, not a killer" (source - The Making of ROTS)

At the end of the day its just a very vivid example of how GL/films always supercedes any EU material. Whilst I love EU, Im not upset at that idea at all, as the SW universe is GLs creation and he has the right/freedom to change/do whatever he wants with it...this includes the whole Greedo and Shaw scandals(perhaps unfortunately??)

mtfbwya

I think it is pretty clear that the novel version of events is the canonical one. The CW is over the top in almost every respect (Mace jumping 5 miles, Mace controling a droid fighter by pulling the wires, etc.) and I think it is clear that they are an exaggerated telling of the actual events. For example, in the episode where Mace takes on hundreds of super battle droids on Dantooine, a little boy runs up to the top of the hill to watch. Perhaps what is shown is his description, which of course would look even more fantastic through a child's eyes. Just my take.

In any event, I take most of the CW as an over the top telling of the events of the clone wars. In the cases where there are contradictions, I take the books as factual. The CW group was given a lot of freedom in terms of story, whereas LoE was influenced heavily by Lucas himself. I think applying the general rules of SW canon clear things up for the most part.

Indeed. If anything, it was likely the other way around. Likely Ghendy learned or was told about GG's cough in the film, and decided to add his own explanation of why it is so. I think his is a reasonable enough solution to explain it away.

And I think that is what he is. He is a bully, plain and simple. He is confident when he is matched against foes that he is superior to. He is deadly enough, as shown in the various CW stories, but when he is stood up to by equal or greater opponents, he tends to flee when he finds he doesn't have the advantage. In RotS, he is faced by Anakin (the Chosen One) and Kenobi (A JC member and the master of the Form III lightsaber style), two of the greatest members of the Jedi Order. He choses to flee. I don't think that really contradicts what we see in EU stories where he usually faces less capable foes.

Indeed. We know he views films and the EU is different entities, and I am content to use the various levels of canon to resolve any discrepencies. Overall, the continuity of the SW saga is pretty solid, and I do appreciate the fact that Lucas is willing to give others a pretty reasonable amount of freedom when adding to the lore.

Many legopeople died to bring us this information...

Might be an interesting read but I fear for heavy amounts of technical jargon and pointless explaining every aspect of the firing beam thingy thing and yea.

That and the pointed out lack of consistancy - which is to be expected in a story on such a large level as Star Wars - will only serve to further confuse all but the most diligent fans.

That's so sad.

Never really like the whole Maw Installation story for the Death star didnt really impress me or anything so hopefully they'll completely redo the back story and have it on the same quality as the recent star wars novels from the prequel trilogy like LOE oh and some mentioning on what the geos had to do with it

c'mon Kurgz, although legopeople do inhabit the SW unverse, they are not canon !

mtfbwya

Oh sure, just 'cause they're dead now, you insensitive person!

did you know that Yahoo 'how it works' has an article about the 2 death stars?




O, and the 'death star' seen in the end of ROTS isnt the first death star, or even Qwi xux's prototype. It is actually the start of the geonesian's model being built, captured after the fall of the seperatists. I have several sources that cite this, the yahoo article being on of them. The article has some links to pretty neat articles like what happened to endor after the second death star was destroyed.

Link please?

The dark lord novel pretty much states that the construction seen at the end of ROTS IS the death star as they mention delays in construction and even start enslaving wookiees to help carry on building it

With the new book hopefully they'll retcon a hell of a lot.

SOCR, I havent seen any such sources... even if this detail is revised, it will definitely be EU.

If you have listened to GLs commentary on the ROTS DVD, you'll hear him joke that having the DS at the end of ROTS was a "bit of a stretch" and imagines that they may have had problems/delays :p

He merely put it in to tie the PT to the OT(as the whole of that last montage in ROTS does).

* * *

My Dark Lord book is making its way across the pacific ocean...it should be here in a cpl of weeks damnit :p

mtfbwya

It's as good an explanation as any really...