Meaningless Reviews in a Galaxy Further Away: The Series
Meaningless Reviews in a Galaxy Even Further Away
But as much as money may have motivated the creation of the Expanded universe, the men and women who worked on these stories put in a not insignificant amount of time and effort and, in this era of fandom and geekery, and cinematic universes, and of the deep dive, and of cultural nostalgia too — did you hear that Stranger Things got picked up for another season? — perhaps there is enough that is interesting about these now meaningless stories that it is well worth revisiting some of these tales.
1. Vector Prime
We’re introduced to the Yuuzhan Vong, who prize the concept of pain, mutilate themselves in the name of their gods, are brave to the point of suicide in battle, and are packing advanced biotech. All of their tech, in fact, is alive — from the ships they use to their weaponry. As a result, they view the machinery of the New Republic as an abomination. It’s pretty gonzo, and takes the series in some fun places, I think.
2. Dark Tide I: Onslaught
Fey’lya was around from the inception of the expanded universe and was always portrayed as a scheming, self-interested politician. I would say that his character is almost unrealistic in his desire for political power, but it’s 2017 and so sadly he’s become almost quaint: not self-interested enough to be realistic. In the New Jedi Order, his self-interest and mustache-twirling (in space!) scheming is one of the major reasons for the success of the Yuuzhan Vong in the first half of the series.
3. Dark Tide II: Ruin
Dark Tide II: Ruin is as good as an example as any of where American culture was headed, and that it is therefore just an important piece in a larger puzzle, and also that it’s bleak, brutal, and casually violent with only a smattering of relief anywhere in the work.
4. Agents of Chaos I: Hero’s Trial
There are large sections of this thing that feel like a buddy cop/noir movie. It’s full of depressing dive bars and their inhabitants, implausible vehicle chases, snappy banter, more than a few loose cannons, and ultimately, a man seeking redemption. It’s fun.
5. Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse
The novel is mostly one about choice. Whether individual, group, or institutional, the war has forced decisions from every level of society — to acquiesce, to fight, to turn traitor, to act, to remain still.
6. Balance Point
We are now a third of the way through the series. Balance Point is a stand alone story that resolves several major plotlines of the first third, while opening up new ones for the next portion of the series.
7. Edge of Victory I: Conquest
Despite the fact that all of these movies will make a billion dollars, the issue facing Star Wars is one of narrative stagnation. Over the course of seven movies (the main storyline), the pendulum has shifted from light to dark to light and now back to dark. It’s getting old.
8. Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
The Jedi are often heard stating that they are not warriors or soldiers, and that they are guardians of peace. Unfortunately, that sentiment is usually followed by some combination of lightsaber work, blaster fire, explosions, or varying degrees of droll banter.
9. Star By Star
It’s like the overall mood of Empire Strikes Back, only dialed up to eleven.
10. Dark Journey
This novel…carries the general tone of darkness from the previous installment, making this a very fun slog through almost one thousand combined pages of grimness.
11. Enemy Lines I & II: Rebel Dream & Rebel Stand
[This Worldview] lends itself to the notion that all problems are better solved by shooting through them, that diplomacy always masks malicious ambition, that justice is better served from the cockpit of a fighter than through any due process… It’s a surprisingly pervasive theme [in the general culture] that has more to do with how we find ourselves in this current political moment than I think we would like to believe.
12. Traitor
It is my pleasure to state that Traitor is, from the very first page, the finest installment to date — and has, without a doubt, the greatest single scene in the entire series. It is better than two of the movies, and, in an alternate dimension in which Disney merely adapted the expanded universe, it would be generating “Dark Horse” Oscar buzz.
13. Destiny’s Way
This book caps off a run of stories that have seen the New Republic develop a whole host of strategies and technologies that have slowly been canceling the Yuuzhan Vong advantages on the battlefield and in the espionage department.
14. Force Heretic I: Remnant
I think that one of the more alluring ideas in fiction is the notion of forgotten cities or ancient technology, swallowed by literal or metaphorical deserts, merely waiting for rediscovery. It’s a pretty irresistible idea, like the thought of cults, or crawlspaces.
15. Force Heretic II: Refugee
A conspiracy plotline does a lot of heavy lifting on its own. Conspiracy is one of the most compelling ideas that we have in a largely secular, modern world. They combine the thrill of discovery and the tessellating satisfaction of detective work with the horror of the “true” nature of the world and the fake sense of catharsis that comes from being the only one to leave Plato’s Cave…The one in Attack of the Clones works because the conspiracy is fairly simple, the discovery of the clues is well plotted out, the size of the conspiracy is proportional to the universe it inhabits…The writers of Refugee were clearly going for something similar, but ended up just gunking up the works.
16. Force Heretic III: Reunion
Look, I get it. You want to build a little tension towards the end of the series by taking a pause. You want to tie up some loose ends. You want to ease off the gas, maybe have a few laughs before darkening the stage for the finale. All well and good. What’s not well and good is taking more than 1200 pages and three books to do all of that…I am exhausted with this series, mostly as a result of the last three books, which have stalled the entire thing up.
17. The Final Prophecy
One of the unwritten rules of the expanded universe was that the writers were obligated to mention some scenery, person, or event from the movies at least once. At least I think it was unwritten, although I wouldn’t be shocked if it was in fact inscribed above the doors of the big conference rooms at Skywalker Ranch and was in fact the central religious tenet of Lucas’s merchandising cult.
18. The Unifying Force
Remember, War is Hell, and so is writing compendiums.
