Splinter of the Mind's Eye: ODD74 Book Club

[mouser]

I'm putting the first two pages of Splinter of the Mind's Eye here. I see this as Fair Use and the Amazon.com page gives these two plus more, so I think we're okay. Just in case, I will suggest you check out those pages on Amazon.com and consider purchasing the book.

Link: www.amazon.com/Splinter-Minds-Eye-Star-Legends/dp/0345320239?asin=0345320239&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

The assignment: Reading over these first two pages, what are the implications for the Star Wars universe. Imagine that we are in a time before Empire Strikes Back has been released.

[Punkrabbitt]

Splinter Of The Mind's Eye was wasted on me when I first read it back in 1979. But I still thought it was a better story than Empire Strikes Back. I read it again 20 or so years later, and my opinion remained.

[Finarvyn]

My crew were all in middle school when Star Wars first came out, and were also young D&D players, so we blended the two for a campaign back in the day. It was an interesting time, between SW and ESB, since we had so few hints and resources regarding where the storyline might go. Splinter of the Mind's Eye was a huge influence for me because of that. Seemed like it advanced the plot just the way we thought it should go.

So difficult to talk about Star Wars with my son, as he grew up with the prequels and so his view on Star Wars includes all of the extra stuff that George Lucas eventually put into the movies.

But back then Star Wars was an empty canvas and Splinter was a splash of color.

[mouser]

Jun 8, 2024 4:30:22 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

My crew were all in middle school when Star Wars first came out, and were also young D&D players, so we blended the two for a campaign back in the day. It was an interesting time, between SW and ESB, since we had so few hints and resources regarding where the storyline might go. Splinter of the Mind's Eye was a huge influence for me because of that. Seemed like it advanced the plot just the way we thought it should go.

So difficult to talk about Star Wars with my son, as he grew up with the prequels and so his view on Star Wars includes all of the extra stuff that George Lucas eventually put into the movies.

But back then Star Wars was an empty canvas and Splinter was a splash of color.

One thing that stands out to me is the human focus: the feeling that this is a human-centered story and that some of humanity is questioning the point of expansion. That is what Star Wars felt like to me pre-Empire. It felt like a human story with some "monsters" scattered in the peripheral. The "long time ago" aspect fit with the Battlestar Galactica vibe of this being a shard of humanity that was separated from us in the distant past.



As Empire rolled in and ROTJ, humans began to feel less significant. The all-human Empire started to be whittled away to an organization that incorporated more aliens. (Aside: Was it Thrawn that was the turning point?) When the prequels rolled around, the Jedi Council barely had any humans...



I think that's a turn that threw me off. It felt like a human story with droids as the secondary species, but then turned into this thing where humans were a tiny element. When the Empire's creation required all these alien worlds to vote in Palpatine and somehow exclusively humans were Empire operatives...it kind of feels off.



It also felt off when, at the end of ROTJ, it was mostly humans winning this battle against the human-centric Empire. Then in the re-edit of ROTJ we see all these alien worlds celebrating, but...