One of the really tough things about getting new readers into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, back before it was destroyed by the new Lucasfilm initiatives, was that it contained too much material. Removing it was said to be an effort to streamline the universe. Well, now it looks like we might head back in that direction anyway. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Lucasfilm will release twenty new books in an effort to bridge the gap between the original Star Wars trilogy and the new film, The Force Awakens. And thanks to the new Story Group initiative, all of these books are officially canon.
Not all of these are novels - the report seems to include new comics from Marvel, new sticker books from Doring Kindersly, and a "Ships of the Galaxy" book from Studio Fun. (If it's anything like the gorgeous Ships of the Line books that Trekkies have been getting, that's exciting.)
On the novel front, we're getting a book called Star Wars: Aftermath, likely to take place just after the original trilogy, with no author announced yet. (Timothy Zahn, Timothy Zahn, oh please, Timothy Zahn.) Also from the EW report:
Cecil Castellucci (author of Tin Star) will write Moving Target, an adventure following Princess Leia; Jason Fry, who earlier wrote Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy, will be the author of The Weapon of a Jedi, about Luke Skywalker; Claudia Gray, author of the Evernight series of fantasy books, will write a book titled Lost Stars; and Greg Rucka, a comic book scribe and writer of the Atticus Kodiak novels, will pen Smuggler’s Run, a Han Solo tale.
The most exciting news out of that is Greg Rucka writing a Han Solo novel - I can't wait to read that when it comes out. More news as it comes, but let us know what you think of the new, in-canon, Expanded Universe in the comics.
