Splinter of the Mind's Eye

[Finarvyn]

I grabbed this from the "movie vs. novelization" thread but didn't want to hijack the conversation there.

Apr 24, 2014 23:05:46 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

The 9th comment to the article mentions that Splinter of the Mind's Eye connects the SW universe to the Cthulhu Mythos. I don't remember that in the book. Can anyone enlighten me?

Geoffrey's mention of Splinter of the Mind's Eye got me thinking ... that book has always been an odd duck in the Star Wars chronology.

1. It was the first Star Wars book (other than the original novel) released, so it didn't have the ability to look at others as a model.

2. In fact, it was before EMPIRE STRIKES BACK so its direction doesn't follow that which Lucas chose at that point in the evolution of the series.

3. It was (at the time) an authorized and sanctioned sequel in case Lucas wanted an inexpensive film to follow up Star Wars, yet now doesn't fit any of the established official timelines.

These factors make Splinter an interesting read. When I ran an OD&D Star Wars game in the 1970's, much of the campaign took place before ESB came out, so Star Wars and Splinter became the "primary source material" of the day. So much so that when ESB first came out my reaction was "no, that doesn't seem right" because it didn't fit the Star Wars universe as I imagined it.

Anyone else have impressions of SotME?

[Torreny]

I've no impressions of this book, but now I want to seek it out. Most of the SW novels I've read weren't worth the paper, so I basically gave up on them. If for nothing else, the "alternative setting" shall be interesting!

[makofan]

It was real space pulp and good fun. Luke and Leia goodness if I remember. I had a Traveller campaign set in the pre-ESB universe so it was source material

[Finarvyn]

Jun 3, 2014 4:38:40 GMT -6 Torreny said:

I've no impressions of this book, but now I want to seek it out. Most of the SW novels I've read weren't worth the paper, so I basically gave up on them. If for nothing else, the "alternative setting" shall be interesting!

1. I can't say it was great fiction, but SotME always seemed sort of pulpy and had (to me) the flavor of the original SW more than ESB & RotJ. Of course, I was biased by gaming in a SW game for a few years before the sequels came out, so my concept of what SW "ought" to be is sort of skewed.

2. I like the Zahn books. They are worth the paper.

3. I don't know how much it counts as "alternate" or not. It fits with SW but not so much with the way Lucus took the movies. My understanding is that he commissioned the story back in the days when he wanted to make a bunch of serial movies instead of a saga. That might account for the style.

[Torreny]

Jun 3, 2014 19:32:25 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

1. I can't say it was great fiction, but SotME always seemed sort of pulpy and had (to me) the flavor of the original SW more than ESB & RotJ. Of course, I was biased by gaming in a SW game for a few years before the sequels came out, so my concept of what SW "ought" to be is sort of skewed.

2. I like the Zahn books. They are worth the paper.

3. I don't know how much it counts as "alternate" or not. It fits with SW but not so much with the way Lucus took the movies. My understanding is that he commissioned the story back in the days when he wanted to make a bunch of serial movies instead of a saga. That might account for the style.

Seems my original post got eaten! So, here's more or less what I said beforehand:

Zahn's stuff wasn't bad, but only read a couple of his. And boy, was there a lot of SW novels out there, even in the 90's. So I'm sure I've missed a lot of gems.

I meant "alternative", as in different, but, yeah. And actually, a serialized Star Wars would have been neat, for its own merits. Pulpy SW with Lovecraftian undertones, I'd buy into that.