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| Werehunter wrote: |
| If Del Ray doesn't pick up the license for another time frame, then I'm sure someone will. If not then Lucas could easily step up and create his own publishing firm just for their novels. Out of all the series of books that are published like Star Wars books are, Star Wars is one of the largest. I don't see them letting that profit stream dry up. Not as long as they are making something from it. |
I think Del Rey signing a new contract is the most likely scenario. I remember back in 2004 or 2005 when their contract was ending I was really hoping a new publisher would pick it up because I didn't like what Del Rey did with the NJO... I feel the same way now but not because of the NJO... and I imagine what the EU could be like right now if someone else did pick up the license and took it in a completely different direction than LOTF...
But I think it's ominous that over a year ago Wizards of the Coast dropped their license and no one has had any interest in it. Granted, the market for roleplaying games and card games is extremely small.
I'm just pessimistic because there seems to be a lot of things that could go "wrong" for literary EU, whether it be Del Rey letting the license expire and no one else picking it up, or the lack of direction that the literary EU has taken now that it's pretty much run its course with its flagship focus of the post-ROTJ adventures of Han, Luke, and Leia.
I think the EU as a whole has somewhat overextended itself with the different time periods and settings, and saturated the market with stories. I find myself feeling nostalgic for the Bantam EU simply because it was straightforward: you had Luke, Han, and Leia for the most part and their continuing stories, and that was the focus. There were the X-Wing novels as well, and young adult stuff, but it was otherwise a continuation of the saga (quality of the stories, in retrospect, notwithstanding...). Now they've got Star Wars horror novels and Star Wars military sci-fi and Star Wars noir.
Edit: Whoever gets the next license, they really need to just develop a setting and focus on it. I don't think jumping around the timeline without a "flagship" works. I thought they had the next generation set with Jacen, Jaina, et al., but that's not happening. I don't see Ben, Vestara, and Allana working either, unless some peers are fleshed out in the next series. I like Vestara, and apparently I'm in a minority, so I think that *might* work if Ben can get out of Luke's shadow*. Otherwise they need to go post-Legacy or something. I also wonder if setting Vestara up with Ben would be detrimental to one or both characters.
*One reason I think Jacen worked so well as the protagonist to take the mantle from Luke is that he didn't have to get out from under Luke's shadow. Anakin Solo took that concept, and died, and Jacen was just an entirely different type of character, and representative of the whole theme behind the NJO, in contrast with Anakin and his "Luke successor" type character. But I digress.
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