Wing Commander Prophecy / Star Wars

Concordia_FP

Spaceman
WIng Commander Prohecy/Star Wars

I noticed something strange while reading the "New Jedi Order" collection of SW novels. It seems a race not nativ to the galaxy is trying to conquer everyone in it. Is it just me, or is it WCP set in Star Wars?
 
Alien races invading human space is hardly a plot line that's unique to Star Wars...
 
I meant that the writer stole the idea from WCP. In other words, in a small way Wing Commander contributed to another Sci-Fi story.
 
It's hardly unique to WC, either. There's like maybe a total of a dozen sci-fi metaplots (and that's probably being generous), and a majority of them were created a loooong time ago.
 
ITs so Classic.....A dark alien race with great firepower wants to conquer the universe.....:eek:
 
Let's see...

NJO
Prophecy (actually, just from outside the surveyed area of space - no idea whether or not they're really extra galactic until someone visits the far side of the wormhole)
Independence War
Star Trek (A TOS episode featured aliens on a reconaissance mission from outside the galaxy. They attempted to hijack the Enterprise to go home. Star Fleet Battles fleshed them out into the mysterious Andromedan invaders)
Starfire (the Vestrii, although they appear to be friendly, not hostile)
And others.

Whether or not they're extra galactic (such as the Andromedans) or just from a couple of systems over (the Shivans) is pretty much irrelevant, though. The extra galactic argument is pretty much a MacGuffin to explain exactly how an entirely new species arrives on the stage that actually has enough power to threaten the current society that dominates galactic affairs. The aliens in Truce at Bakura are dangerous when compared to what's present at Bakura, but a single ISD would have wiped them out post-haste. The extra galactic status is just a convenient way to explain how the bad guys in the dreadful NJO books can come out of nowhere to raise havoc in the New Republic.
 
If I remember correctly the invasion by the Vong in NJO wasn't totally unexpected. The Chiss under the direction of former Grand Admiral Thrawn were stationed in the Unknown regions of the SW universe. They were supposed to be the first line of defense against an invasion of that kind. I think the Emperor had a suspicion something was lurking outside the regions of known space and he had the Chiss stationed to counter act this invasion. With the defeat of the Empire the New Republic had no idea what was beyond known space. That's why the invasion came as a total suprise.

I would have to agree with Junior in that NJO and Prophecy aliens came from unexplored areas of space.
 
I'm not sure if the Chiss were supposed to be guarding against something else, since they're in the "Unknown Regions" and the invasion came from the Tingel Arm, IIRC (that's what's the galaxy map is for! Use it! ;)).

I find the Vong quite interesting with their manipulation of gravity for ship movement and shielding. But I'm kinda getting sick of waiting for them to get their butts whipped - the NR seems to have a few small victories (Edge of Victory(?) I/II, Enemy Lines I/II), but the Vong still seem to hold the advantage.
 
My impression was that the Chiss were actively fighting something out in the Unexplored Regions during the time period when Luke and Mara visited them. My guess is that this was supposed to be a set up for the big story arc that is now occupied by NJO (although I have no idea if it was Zahn under his own initiative, or a directive from whoever is in charge of maintaining general plot integrity), but RA Salvatore disregarded it when he wrote his story, and no one bothered to make him change it.
However, since Zahn's books are the only ones I've read that I actually liked, I haven't bothered to read any of the NJO novels besides the first one.
 
Actually, there did seem to be some sort of connection... in the "rogue planet" single novel a Jedi going under the name Vergere disappears and in NJO reappears apparently in league with the Vong, yet helping the Jedi once in a while as well (Im a few books behind so Im not sure on the more recent developments)
 
Originally posted by Junior My impression was that the Chiss were actively (yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, blah, blah blah)

Originally posted by LeHah
Expanded Universe, as a whole, blows chunks.

So, to sum up:

Chiss blows chunks?...

(me like the *sound* of that, heheheheh):cool:
 
Those of you who don't like the Expanded Universe, just ignore it - there's no reason for you to participate in a discussion you don't want to.

Originally posted by junior
I haven't bothered to read any of the NJO novels besides the first one.
Ehh, I think the trouble with this series is that one can't really appreciate just one book on its own like in the original novel series by Bantam. The first few books are dominated by infighting among the Jedi, philosophical brooding by the Solo brothers and political inaction. I'm glad that by about "Star by Star" most of all that is gone, but the New Republic is still losing, and no longer an organised government.

Originally posted by Chernikov
...in the "Rogue Planet" single novel a Jedi going under the name Vergere disappears and in NJO reappears apparently in league with the Vong...
AFAIK, the prequel era novels and the NJO are being written at the same time. I haven't read any of the prequel novels though.

Originally posted by Bellerophon
I gave up on Star Wars books with this new series, the writing was by far inferior to the stuff Timothy Zahn and others like him did.
Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston of the original X-Wing series both make contributions to the NJO, as does Kathy Tyers who wrote "The Truce at Bakura" which takes place just after "Return of the Jedi".
 
I loved Zahn's stuff, esp his short story "Jade Solitare". I also enjoyed Steve Perry's "Shadows Of The Empire" a great deal.

Everything else will be immedeately flushed out the airlock quicker than a marriage to Don Johnson.
 
I liked how that story explained how Mara Jade received the Jade Fire.

Everyone's entitled their opinion, but I really didn't find "Shadows of the Empire" that great (but "freelance cargo delivery" is a great euphemism for "smuggling" :)).

And since everyone has different opinions, there's no reason to knock the rest of the novels.
 
I liked SotE because it was a easy read (compared to Zahn's beautiful if lengthy descriptions) and was easily the most whimsical of all the SW novels. It was just a pointless romp and a fun adventure.
 
Originally posted by Wedge009
Ehh, I think the trouble with this series is that one can't really appreciate just one book on its own like in the original novel series by Bantam. The first few books are dominated by infighting among the Jedi, philosophical brooding by the Solo brothers and political inaction. I'm glad that by about "Star by Star" most of all that is gone, but the New Republic is still losing, and no longer an organised government.

But Vector Prime (the first NJO novel, and the only one I've read) didn't really have any of that stuff, either. The closest you get to Jedi infighting is Jaicen browbeating Anakin about the Force (ditto on the philosophical brooding), and the political angle only seems to be around to say that people think that certain Jedi are getting too big for their britches.
Its just a rather dull novel, imho, and I don't see a lot to recommend it. R. A. Salvatore's claim to fame is a certain dark elf found in a series of books that I've never read, and if the rest of his writing is similar, they'll remain unread.
 
Let's face it fellas, any plot involving aliens trying to take over is a clone of Verne's War of the Worlds (or close to it...was there a story before that with the alien plot thing?).
 
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