New Jedi Order Appreciation Thread

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

The year is 1999... The Phantom Menace was just released in theaters, and Del Rey has gotten the license to publish Star Wars novels. Common sense would suggest that, having just published the novelization of Episode I which sold over a million copies in hardcover, their first original Star Wars novel would be a continuation or spin-off of the hot new prequel film, like Rogue Planet or Cloak of Deception. Instead, we got...

BZAM!

I was thinking about Stover's writing and the mythic quality it has to it, and he had co-written a novelization of the game God of War, and God of War 3 has an opening that depicts the events of the first two games as though they're on a Grecian Urn and it sparked in my mind that you could similarly depict the events of the New Jedi Order series rather effectively through images. That series was epic or mythic or legendary or whatever you want to call it.

Just imagining the ultimate confrontation... Zonama Sekot is in the Coruscant system and it destroyed the Rainbow Bridge with its gravity mass and there's organic starfighters from Sekot to match the coralskippers! And Star Destroyers and Bothan Assault Cruisers and Mon Calamari cruisers and Clawcraft and TIE Fighters and X-Wings and every letter of the alphabet wings and a SUPER STAR DESTROYER and Coruscant is having earthquakes all across its surface and Jedi worshiping Shamed Ones are rising up against the Yuuzhan Vong across the planet and this strange new planet is in the sky and the Rainbow Bridge is gone and the Solo twins and Luke are infiltrating Shimraa's palace! And a lone Yuuzhan Vong vessel infected with Alpha Red is trying to break through the battle line to crash onto Zonama Sekot, and Wedge takes the callsign "Vader" in his attempt to shoot it down!

I thought it was a ballsy move by Del Rey that with the Star Wars prequels being released they sought to do something completely different and original, and it was awesome, and it's unfortunate that this chapter of the Expanded Universe has been swept under the rug.

Not completely, there's the Invasion comics. I've been reading them and like them. I'd recommend picking them up as TPB's though. Tom Taylor's story telling isn't issue oriented, but story oriented, so reading issue to issue doesn't have the same impact as reading a whole arc.
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Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

Invasion is pretty neat I guess. But it's like the NJO has become the red headed stepchild of the EU. When it was published, we're given the impression that this is pretty heavy stuff. Planets are getting destroyed, the Jedi are rediscovering their roots, people are dying. But its significance has become limited to itself. The Unifying Force was clearly written to be the platform off of which future stories would be written, but that didn't turn out to be the case at all.

I miss Rick Deckard and his sidekick Droma.

I could go into more depth about this, and I have elsewhere, but I want this to be a happy thread!

Edit: Actually, I think I'll get back up on the horse and try reading Vector Prime again, and keep notes in this thread! And I'll progress through the whole NJO!

I'm currently reading The New Jedi Order for the first time. I just started on Agents Of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse (the last book in year one of the war.) How far are you?

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

Knight Joined: 08 Apr 2011 Posts: 300

Though at the time it felt like it ran a little long, I highly enjoyed this series. What I really enjoyed was that it focused as much on newer characters as it did on older ones. Of course they ended up killing off many of the new characters they introduced in the course of the series.

Hopefully after Fate of the Jedi, when they stop doing the large series, we'll get more books focusing on the newer characters.

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

Plainly, the strength of a hundred-odd Jedi couldn't keep the galaxy from falling to this menace. One misstep—at one critical moment, by one pivotal person—could doom everyone they'd sworn to protect. No military force could stop this invasion, because it was a spiritual battle. And if one pivotal person fell to the dark side—or even used the ravishing, terrifying power of light in a wrong way—then this time, everything they knew might slide into stifling darkness.
Is that it? he cried toward the infinite distance.
Again, Jacen perceived the words in a voice that was familiar but too deep to be Luke's. Stand firm, Jacen.

I'm not sure which figure with arms outstretched I prefer.

When I made the thread, I forgot to mention the epic battle on Garqi between Corran Horn, Jacen Solo, Ganner Rhysode, and six Noghri versus Krag Val and some Yuuzhan Vong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOV2dGdFbGk

The New Jedi Order. Epicness that deserves to be preserved. I say we burn everything that followed and immortalize a nearly flawless era in Star Wars history. Cool

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"It's not about the legacy you leave, it's about the life you live." ~Mara Jade Skywalker

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

I think Stand firm made me excessively excited at the end of The Unifying Force.

RE-ENACTMENT:

Pretend The Unifying Force is in the other hand out of frame.

To be honest, I think there's actually a contest between whether the film saga or the New Jedi Order series is the best story told in the Star Wars universe. It's just so good. And I don't say that lightly; my recollection of the New Jedi Order was that it was a slow burn and some of the early novels were 'meh,' but now that I'm very nearly a third of the way through it, I've come to appreciate the early novels. Han Solo, Anakin Solo, and Ganner Rhysode have already had interesting developments in their character arcs, and despite my earlier claim that Jacen regresses in Balance Point the above passage shows that he actually is reacting to his vivid vision that arose out of feeling his sister near death.

It's all well thought out and expertly executed.

Those Japanese covers are great. I have a couple, but they seem pretty difficult to come by.

Knight Joined: 05 Oct 2011 Posts: 362 Location: England

Im currently on book 8 of the NJO series and loving it so far, i already no that anakin dies at somepoint in this series thru wookiepeedia, which im not looking forward too as he's probably the best character in the series

Master Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 1796 Location: Carcosa

I've just re-read Vector Prime through Balance Point in the past week and there has been no character development swinging back and forth. It's been wholly consistent.

The only errors I've noticed were how it messes up the Empire of the Hand -- which is to some degree understandable because the term "Empire of the Hand" didn't exist until 2004 -- by conflating Soontir Fel with the Chiss Ascendancy, and one small line in Remnant in which Danni Quee is said not to have met any Imperials before despite having been with Leia when she met with Pellaeon in Onslaught.

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