Reading: Millennium Falcon

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Books

They’re always finding new ways to get me, I’ll tellin’ ya. Back in September, I wrote a piece called Is Star Wars Over? in which I steadfastly maintained that I would no longer buy any prequel-era Star Wars material. I went to the bookstore recently and successfully avoided buying Order 66 and Coruscant Nights II. The new novel, Millennium Falcon, went home with me though, because it’s a story that takes place two years after the Legacy of the Force series - forty-three years after the original Star Wars trilogy.

Or does it?

See, this is how they get me. The book tells the story of Han Solo’s legendary ship and it includes prequel-era history (the book spans more than 60 years). Apparently, in the way that everything that ever happened to anyone in the Star Wars universe is somehow tied to the Skywalker and Solo families, the Falcon had a role in Episode III, during the Battle of Coruscant.

I was less than thrilled with the previous attempts to tie the prequel era to later books. The Rogue Planet novel set up events for the New Jedi Order series, which was completely unnecessary. I was openly disdainful of the Outbound Flight novel’s story, which I thought was fantastic until Kenobi and Skywalker showed up.

Open message to LucasArts or LucasBooks or whatever LucasThing is making these decisions: you don’t have to tie every single event in the universe to the Skywalkers or the Solos. It’s a big galaxy, after all. You don’t need to stick Anakin Skywalker into every prequel-era story and you don’t need to squeeze the Falcon into the prequel movies just to try to sell a book. It comes across as forced and unrealistic. I know, I know, realism and Star Wars don’t exactly mix - but you know what I mean.

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Andrew Wee 1 month ago 1 point
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The plot of the story is likely in response to a fan focus group.
I hardly think any hired-gun ghostwriter could come up with plot mechanics like that on his own.

I've been reading the Babylon5 spinoffs and the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k books. Especially if there's not a lot of emotional/plot baggage to deal with, it makes for a better reading experience.

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