happydalek | I have a baaaaad feeling about this.

Remember back in May when I blogged about the Legacy of the Force novels and how much they sucked? Well, I just found out that the first book of a sequel series called Fate of the Jedi was published last week. And guess what? Just like Legacy, it's going to be another 9-volume collaborative effort between three authors. Two of those authors are Aaron Allston and Troy Denning, who were 2/3 responsible for Legacy. Karen Traviss, the third member of the Legacy triumvirate (and pretty much the only one whose books were worth reading) had to back out because she was too busy. Good for you, Karen. Run away. Run far, far away from this impending train wreck as you can. So Christie Golden will be providing the girl power this time.

I saw the first book, Outcast, in the bookstore today, and it actually made me angry. I couldn't finish Legacy of the Force. I made it to the sixth book and threw in the towel because the whole thing was just so ill-advised and poorly executed. Most of all, it was just plain unnecessary. I don't know about any of you kids out there, but here's one Star Wars fan that is suffering some major Skywalker/Solo fatigue. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...and we just keep circling around this little human family? Let it go, already! Luke, Leia and Han are pushing 70 years old, they've earned their retirement a bazillion times over. In my opinion, the only fitting way to follow this series is by pretending it never happened at all. It did terrible, terrible things to characters I had come to really enjoy, and it hurts to see them reduced to crappy fanfic caricatures for profit.

I didn't mean for this post to sound so vitriolic, but apparently I care a bit more than I thought I did. Between Lucas' inept movie sequels and these literary transgressions, I am getting seriously disillusioned with the state of Star Wars fandom. Star Wars and its fans deserve better.