Hello TJW Podcast listeners - It seems like we are in a period of time when daily news updates include something new about Star Wars. And today the news seems to be about the Expanded Universe.
We have just learned that the first set of Star Wars novels from our current Expanded Universe to have the Lucasfilm approved “Legends” banner are the Han Solo Adventures by the late Brian Daley and the Lando Calrissian Adventures by L. Neil Smith.
Here are some of the details regarding these re-releases:
* Both set of “Adventures” will be the collected editions. The Han Solo collection will include Han Solo at Stars End, Han Solo’s Revenge and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. The Lando Calrissian collection will include Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka
* These new reprints have new cover art and the “Legends” banner on the top of the cover
* These will be paperbacks and it does not look like there will be a hardcover version
I think most of us were expecting the first “Legends” title to be Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire. As I mentioned in a previous post this week, this novel was the beginning of the modern Expanded Universe for many Star Wars enthusiasts. But I think there is something very significant about Lucasfilm putting the Han Solo/Lando Calrissian Adventures novels out as their first “Legends” titles.
These novels can be called the original Expanded Universe stories in the Star Wars universe. These titles came out at a time when all we had were the movies and one Marvel comic book series. Daley and Smith (as well as Alan Dean Foster who penned Splinter of the Minds Eye) were authors who gave us approximately 200 page adventures per title.
Aside: Nowadays it is strange to see a novel that is not somewhere between 300 and 500 pages long. But back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, there was still a concept of having a full novel in under 200 pages. I wish that novelists would return to this concept.
The fun of these novels was seeing how each author remained true to the character of Han and Lando yet at the same time did not feel the need to obey the rules of timelines, possible future storyline repercussions and the fear that ideas would be rejected for not falling into the universe set up in the movies. Don’t get me wrong....these are Star Wars novels and they do have a lot of “anchors” throughout the stories that remind us of the universe we are in. But there is a freshness and sense of freedom I always get when I open up one of these very early Expanded Universe novels. I am hoping that Lucasfilm will follow suit by re-releasing Splinter of Minds Eye as well under the “Legends” banner.
And perhaps Lucasfilm is giving us a small indication of how Episode 7 and the upcoming new Expanded Universe is going to play out. Perhaps by releasing these classic novels first as “Legends”, they are telling us that Star Wars is going to return to the style that made the movies and these early novels so much fun. The combination of strong characters, high adventure and a limitless universe of ideas will be what takes us into this new and exciting Star Wars era.
Let us know what you think about these re-released novels. Write us at: jundlandwastespodcast@gmail.com
All the best,
Mark
Co-host TJW Podcast
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