This is information I have written about the Star Wars Universe:
8-26-97
Letter to KJA on Star Wars Cronology
Dear Mr. Kevin J. Anderson,
Many Star Wars fans (including me) are worried that if you release the
Star Wars Chronology (Luke's holocron) before the Prequel movies it will
be missing information vital to the Star Wars Universe. If you have
gained or will gained the needed information from the Star Wars Prequels
then that presents another problem, you would be giving out information
that should be left a surprise when we see the movies. I understand
that Lucas is currently planning on releasing the books before the
movies, but I and many others am also against that. We all have the
right not to read the books or the Chronology before the movies come
out, but I am worried that the people who do read them will spread that
information to us who would like to be surprised whether we like it or
not.
Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and thank you for all
the great Star Wars books you have written.
Sincerely,
Joseph Connors
Here is his responce written on the 28th:
Hi Joseph,
Yes, you got the right person. Thanks for your letter and your concerns --
but rest assured, the CHRONOLOGY won't give anything away, and we are aware
that it will become out of date before too long. We are structuring the book
so that it is a living, growing document, with regular Revised Editions
planned. Luke Skywalker is creating his own Holocron and adding in all the
history he knows...but it isn't finished yet. Each revised edition will have
more and more of the story.
Kevin J. Anderson
8-16-97
The Corellian Trilogy
Right now I am reading the third of the trilogy. One thing that really bothered me was that part of the plot of these books include a weapon that can destroy stars again, just like in the Jedi Acadamy Trilogy, but with no refrences to the Sun Crusher of Anderson's books. Even Wedge, who was Qui's (creator of the Sun Crusher) boyfriend didn't remember it. He was wonding how someone could have the power to blow up a star. So far the trilogy hasn't been bad, but it wouldn't be on my recomended reading list.
Admiral Daala
After reading the Jedi Academy Trilogy and Darksaber Admiral Daala is my favorite Imperial leader, she is strong and ruthless, she thinks only of bringing back the Empire, not of personal glory or power. She is a quick thinker and she has great stratigies, her main problem is the Jedi. Almost every failure she had was somehow caused by one or more of the Jedi, probably becuase she dosn't understand or believe in the Force. Lucky for her she is good at avoiding death, every time you are sure she is dead you see her back in a few chapters. In Darksaber she looses her second in command and she eventually teams up with Pelleon, the two of them then control most of what is left of the Empire, enough to bring it back to power. Her one problem was she went up against the Jedi, any other target and the Empire may have again ruled the galaxy.
8-13-97 My Comments about a few of the Books:
I have to rate Tales of the Bounty Hunters Anthology low because I didn't find it very believable, therefore I only read 2 of the stories. I found it very well writen into the Star Wars time line and well writen, but it just didn't seem believable. Boba Fett didn't seem to be they type of person had always believe him to be from other storys and the movies. And the IG-88 story was just stupid, there isn't any more to say about that one.
I really enjoyed the Jedi Acadamy series, I also liked Anderson's style of writing. Darksaber I didn't find as good as Jedi Acadamy, and I really didn't like the ending much. I kept reading to find out what Daala would do next. I have read some places that complain that Anderson always has some sort of super weapon in his stories, although I found this to be true in what I have read of his, I liked the way he puts them in, and the diffrent levels of threat they are to the New Republic.
Shadows of the Empire was hard to read at first. I had been used to Anderson's style and this was diffrent. The begining of the book almost turned me off from reading it, after reading another book I came back to it and still felt the same, but after the first few chapters things began to pick up and it turned out very interesting. I really liked how it showed Luke maturing into a real Jedi Knight between the movies. I also liked the way it ended, very nice to have it just go right into Return of the Jedi without much of an ending of its own. It really explained a lot about the things that happen in Jabba's Pallace, probably just hours after the book ends.
You may have already heard similar ideas, but I have two ideas about
C-3P0's appearance in the Prequels.
My first idea is that Lucas is playing tricks on us, and that 3P0 will
look the same (other than his silver leg). One of the other sites about
the Star Wars Prequels [Red5 Prequels] said that his informant told him that 3P0 and R2
would not be totally CG, your site [JediNet Prequel Watch] says that CG was the only way to
accomplish his new look. This shows that one of your informants is
wrong or that, like I said Lucas is playing with us. I do know that
Lucas wants to add some continuity to the Prequels, but I don't see much
point in him changing 3P0. Remember, just changing the color of 3P0
would make him unrecognizable at first. Maybe instead of the silver leg
being a replacement, that could be the only part of him that is still an
original part.
My other idea is that 3P0 will look nothing like a protocol droid (or
CZ-3), because in the movies he said, "My first job was programming
binary load lifter...very similar to your vaporators" (taken from the
ANH script). To me that doesn't seem like a job for a droid with arms
and legs. Star Wars Screen Entertainment's Character Biographies screen
saver said that 3P0 was about 100 years old during ANH and during the
previous 10 years had served the Senate. If he had been upgraded into a
protocol droid, that is when I believe it would have happened. To add
to my theory, R2 and 3P0 are good "friends" because they share some of
the same base code (also found in the screen saver). What better way to
gain the same type of code than to have both started out as R2 units (or
some earlier astromech droid).
Joseph Connors
"TexasFett"
3-18-97
Also posted to the Boba Fett Fan Club [BFFC], this about the new ending of ROTJ in the Special Editions.
>I liked the ending this time better than the original ending. Just one thing - Just how fast is their communications?
I was thinking about that too for a while, and thought that Lucas had made a misake. Then I realized that when the death star blows up it is still bright on Endor. When Luke burns Darth's body it is night and that is when the party begins. So there is a good amount of time passing between the explosion and when the other cities get the news. All the people on Endor needed to regroup and take care of any injuries also.
Joseph Connors
3-14-97
I posted this to the BFFC, about ROTJ:SE.
I just got back from seeing ROTJ. Before I saw it I thought that the Sarlacc having a beak would look stupid, but I actually liked that. Coruscant looked cool, just before the people rip down the statue you can see a stormtrooper raised up over the people's heads like he has been beat up. The Max Rebo band scene wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I still like the old song better though. Boba Fett did put his finger on the chin of one of the dancer girls but it wasn't a kiss kind of thing, she must have said something funny or something like that. I didn't like that they got rid of the old Ewok song at the end butt the replacement music was good.
I liked the explosion of the Death Star but I still think the Alderaan explosion was the best of the three. It seemed the most powerful.
I wanted to ask if Boba Fett was added to a lot of scenes in Jabba's palace or I just never saw him much before. I know there were some added, but I never noticed him that much before.
Joseph Connors
2-22-97
I posted this to the Boba Fett Fan Club, about the Special Editions. (it turned out it was someone else)
I think I saw Boba Fett get eaten by the sarlacc in the ROTJ preview before ESB:SE. This may be Lucas's way of telling us that Fett is dead. It is harder to get out if you get chewed on. I am just guessing that it chews its food because it only showed less than a second.
2-19-97
Posted on the BFFC about the Taco Bell Toys released during the Special Editions.
For those of you who are collecting the Taco Bell toys, do you know about the toy for "children of all ages"? It's Yoda. It is the best looking one of the ones I have seen, it dosn't do anything special, just sits there.
Joseph Connors
2-15-97
Posted on the BFFC about the scene where Jabba was added to ANH:SE.
Someone said earlier that Greedo was wrong when he said that Jabba had set a large bounty on his head because when Jabba comes and talks to Han he then sets the large bounty. I just watched the movie again yesterday and noticed that Jabba says he would set an even larger bounty on Han if he didn't get him the money. Jabba said he would make the bounty so large that it would be impossible for Han to come near any civilized system.
I also have something to say about Jabba wanting to excecute Luke and Boba Fett not saying anything. According to TOTBH Fett did try to stop him but Jabba was so upset about the Rancor he didn't care what Vader wanted. I don't think that Fett would have wanted Jabba to die, who else would pay him that much money just to stay around (again According to TOTBH). I am not sure what to think about the books being something to believe, especially with what happened to the Greedo scene and the unbelievableness of 4 IG-88's (even though it was a good story). Lucas will do whatever he thinks is best even if the fans don't like it.
1-31-97
This is what I thought about ANH:SE just after seeing it (posted to the BFFC):
I just came back from seeing the movie. This was the first time I have seen it on the big screen and it was great. The added special effects were also great but I found some things that I think should never have been done or added to the movie. I thought the CG Sandcrawler looked great.
One part that looked cool was Obi-Wan's house from the outside. I liked the first Ronto shot where the Jawas fall off, but there are too many of them. The Dewback looked cool until it moved, it looked very jerky and again there were too many of those added also. In the bar they replaced the
Shistavanen Wolfman with a lizard like creature that I didn't like as much. First the Greedo/Han shoot out was very badly done, I really didn't want Greedo to shoot first. They did change "Yes, I bet you have," to "I bet you have." The shoot out looked very fake. My next complaint is Jabba,
I said earlier in the news letter that you have to rember that he is younger, but he just didn't look right. And Jabba's voice was all wrong, he didn't have that deep, powerful voice that makes him Jabba. He kept referring to Han as boy and like someone said earlier it looked like Han had Jabba
eating out of his hand. The next thing I didn't like will probably get criticized a lot but I thought the scene could have done withot Boba Fett. He had no interaction with the others and was standing too far away from the other body guards. It wouldn't have been so bad if they put him in the
background. The picture many of us have seen where Boba Fett stares right at the audience looked strange, it lasted to long to be just a glance to make sure no one follows him. The take off and exit of the Falcon in Docking Bay 94 was very cool. I said earlier that I didn't like the explosion
of the Death Star with the shock wave and I still think that. The shock wave on Alderaan was awesome, you could feel it go by, but the Death Star's didn't seem that powerful. I liked the improved space battles, but on most you could tell the difference between CG and original footage. Few if
any of the minor flaws that were very noticeable in the original were fixed. Luke's hand still jerks a lot when he ignites the light saber on the falcon the first time. I was able to see Darth's light saber just white, not glowing. And I some places were you could see light saber shadows. I
really liked all the CG Falcon scenes, they looked like original footage and it was cool to see it up so close. Over all, I thought the movie was better than ever, but I miss the movie the way it was.
Joseph Connors
1-30-97
Posted to the BFFC about SE/Books Continuity.
Lucas probably isn't sure what he will do about facts and characters created by someone else. Fans will probably have a great influence on him. I am sure that he will change something if he really feel it needs to be changed. (Just like the Greedo scene in ANH:SE) And about it not being Boba Fett in ANH, there is almost no way that he isn't Boba Fett. All Mandalorian armor is different and also (at least according to TOTBH) Jabba liked to keep Boba Fett around.
