The Eras of Star Wars Publishing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video, I discuss the eras of Star Wars publishing. I discuss the pros and cons of each era, and why it might be someone's least favorite or most favorite.
Eras Discussed:
Bantam Era: 1991-1999
Del Rey(EU): 1999-2013
Disney/Del Rey(Lucasfilm): 2014-Present
I was a teenager in the 90s and read nearly all those Bantam books. Luke for me was not really the draw to those books even though he was all over them. Unsurprisingly it was the X-Wing series that I loved the most. While in college I didn't have the reading bandwidth to do much more than my studies. The prequels had come out, EU novels came so fast and video games were becoming larger in scope compared to how arcade-like they used to be. Star Wars went so wide so quickly that I got overwhelmed and haven't really tried to go back.
Looking at my book shelf now, I noticed that all my Aliens books from this time period are also Bantam. Kinda neat, though those books were rather crude.
I feel with Random House Worlds , we probably entered another era of publishing, I also feel like the High republic itself is a general shift that it could be argued to be the bridge between the two eras. i think the most distinct element between early Disney and the stuff we get now is that it used to solely be tie in novels that exploited specific eras, while the High republic seems to be creating a foundation for other mediums to take inspiration from.
I could make a case that the pre-Disney Del Rey era is really two distinct eras. One of the big distinctions I see about the beginning of the Del Rey era is that in 1999 we got the first of the prequels which prompted retcon of some Bantam era plots. From 1999-2007, the continuity was pretty cohesive. Then, in 2008 we got the Clone Wars series. Again, this prompted some retcon which is why I would say that 2008-2013 (early 2014) is another distinct era with its own cohesion.
Overall, the pre-Disney Del Rey era (both of them) is my favorite. I miss the excitement of the next release. That said, I've not started High Republic yet and have "High" hopes.
You make a good point for the Del Rey era being two. I just considered it one since there was no major publisher/studio change. But I have to agree that overall it wins.
That being said, the High Republic is knocking it out of the park(with the adult novels, not so much with the YA or Middle Grade), so it's definitely rising on my list.
I really didnt like master and apprentice lol but props man good video. Lots of information.
Great vid, lots of helpful stuff especially when you mentions that you could jump into a random Bantam era book and not get confused, compared to being confused reading a random Del Rey Legacy era book.
word cuz
I think its pretty cool that Bantam has published series like Star Wars and A Song of Ice and Fire
Yeah, it shows their dedication to genre storytelling. They haven’t published many big series since the 2000s though, and I hope that changes.
When Zahn wrote his original trilogy he was given a stack of West End Games star wars tabletop rpg books to use as background material. That particular game company put out i believe almost a hundred books and was one of the top tabletop rpg book series of its era.
I think the Del Rey/Disney era deserves some more love. Master & Apprentice and Lords of the Sith are every bit as entertaining as most of the Bantam and Del Rey eras.
For the record, I am primarily an EU fan. But I do have six Disney era books on my shelf!
Definitely liked how the Bantum and del ray handled the evolving beliefs of the Jedi with Luke's praxeum as well as there study and adaption of different force beliefs. As well as the handling of older characters while still bringing in great new characters. Different cultures and aliens species were more interesting as well , and the death's seemed more powerful .
What are your thoughts on the Han Solo trilogy by A. C. Crispin?
I am working on that trilogy now. Just read book 1 and about to start book 2, and I loved it!
Good to hear. Think I’ll be picking those up soon. Hope you make a video about the trilogy when you finish!
I almost didn’t watch this because it was more technical than a review or ranking. But I have heard about the differences in the publishing eras so I gave it a shot and was pleasantly surprised! Now I have my favorite era. Del Rey… or Bantam.
I think I’ll have to disagree with the Bantam era I think all the books work out well and yes some of the connections may seem a bit odd but there was a plan on how the story would resolve long term
🥺🤓
Some of those books I can only remember the quality.
Because like you said there are literally hundreds if not thousands of names.
I love how lost tribe connected to fate of the Jedi but I couldn't for the life of me remember all those names. I liked the book but I you couldn't get too invested with the characters because they would jump hundreds of years and now that character is only mentioned.
Not including all the YA series (even though I made decent headway into those) I have around 34 main novels left of the old eu. The only ones I won't read are the og episode novels simply because I feel the og films don't need adaptation.
The prequel episode novels on the other hand improved what the films lacked in quality and were able to include eu stuff.
Bantam Menace. Sorry had to get that out there. Love this video man, great work and very informative! Hoping to cover some of these stories myself, Bantam was my favourite era
Thank you for watching! It is a very interesting era. Certainly turned out some great series and standalones.
Probably my all time favorite is the bantam era
Great video! Eww, you said the Crystal Star! The stand alone books you mentioned for EU, all incredible.
Not in a positive sense. 😂 I knew I’d get a reaction like that from you.
@@jonathankoan haha!
This was very well measured and reasonable! I’ve been reading my way through Bantam whilst supplementing with the occasional Disney book from the local library (typically if the next Bantam is still in the mail from somewhere online). What you said really resonated: sometimes I looove the satisfaction of tackling a big series, but other times I simply don’t have it in me, and a character driven standalone from the library is just the ticket. So it’s been a good system for me so far.
Incidentally, how you described Del Ray is how I feel about Disney. I just cannot keep up!
I know what you mean, it can be a lot. The adult books from Disney have slowed a bit, so we are only at about 4 or maybe 5 adult books per year, which means if you can read more than that you’ll eventually catch up.
I'm pretty new to the game, but the era which I am least intersted in is probably the Del Rey New Jedi Order saga revolving around the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. This whole story arc and this evil race from beyond the known universe for me seems too much inspired by ALIENS and (of course) the Borg. While in StarTrek, the introduction of an all out evil and almost invincible race was a bold move that hasn't been done before, it feels kind of unnecessary in StarWars. Here, you have both sides of the force and the eternal battle between them, and all the races are a part of that struggle. The dark side is evil enough, but I think it was a versy 90s-thing to jump on that bandwagon and introduce "a much bigger threat". Also, I'm not so sure about the Mara Jade stories, so I kind of understand why Disney decided that they are not longer canon. Somehow, it doesn't seem to fit … but that's just me. Maybe I will pick them up later, just out of curiosity …
I really like the New Jedi Order, as it was a good way to tell a really big story with lots of authors. All other Legends/EU series had 3 or fewer authors attached, so it felt much smaller in scope. Michael Stackpole talks in interviews how Lucasfilm’s publishing teams were concerned that fans were not caring as much about the characters because almost no-one was dying in the books, so the decision to have a big threat was made to change it up. I do like your comparison to Aliens and the Borg though, they’re all very classic Sci-Fi tropes.
@@jonathankoan It’s true, normally, there is no real danger for the main characters, but that’s a problem in older shows. Nowadays they kill them off more quickly 😏 But as long as you have great premise or story to tell, it’s forgettable that there is no real threat for anyone. I don’t think Star Wars needed an external evil, you already have good and evil, almost in a biblical sense. But again, that’s just my opinion. It’s great to have different time periods and story arcs to pick your personal favorites.
Where does THE GLOVE OF DARTH VADER come in? 😋
Although it is not an adult novel per se, it is from the Bantam era, very early on.
@@jonathankoan Haha. I just saw a funny video about that book. It sounds *very* weird.
Why do you hate young adult novels ?
There are some Star Wars Young Adult that I really do like, such as “Ahsoka”, “Leia Princess of Alderaan”, and “Rebel Rising”. However, many if not most of the YA books have this tone, style, and plot lines that do not feel quite like Star Wars to me. This happens occasionally with the adult novels, but on a really really rare basis.
Part of the issue is the way that the YA authors write romance, which is more juvenile. There’s also a diction and word choice style in the YA that often doesn’t work for me. I know that’s picky, but I’ve found it with a lot of them. I also think there are some choices from an editorial perspective that the YA line does that I don’t like that the adult books do better, such as timelines, lists of authors’ previous works, line spacing and font design, etc.
A lot of these problems are also felt in the Middle Grade line of books, but I’ve found they aren’t as pronounced and sometimes are handled better there. But on the whole the adult books don’t have these problems, which is why I really like the adult books more. Plus Del Rey and Random House does so much right that I like them as a publisher.
I could go way more in detail, but I think that’s a lot of an answer. That might be a good video topic for one day. Thank you for watching and reading my response.
My favorite is del rey because my favorite book series is fate of the Jedi and it comes out in del rey
Fate of the Jedi is very popular. The way that Legends handled epic storylines in the Del Rey era was truly impressive.
It’s was the first eu books I read and that’s what got me into eu
What are your thoughts on it
@@Ashoka_tno_spelt_wrong I unfortunately was spoiled on the whole series, so I’m waiting for a little while to read it until I can read through the whole series in one go. My current estimated time is to read it in 2023 or 2024. But my roommate is a HUGE Fate of the Jedi fan, so I might read it earlier just to be able to talk to him about it. But I’ve read all the main series and trilogies and books through the Legacy of the Force on the Timeline.
Disney books suck! The end......
I wouldn’t say that. There have been some bad Star Wars books under Disney, and there’s been some great Star Wars books under Disney.
There have also been some bad Star Wars books in the EU, and some great Star Wars books in the EU.