The Saga Begins

A long time ago in front of a laptop far, far away....

If you have come this far, odds are good you are a Star Wars fan. Whenever there is a discussion about Star Wars these days, one subject always comes up and swallows up any hope of reasoned conversation, so I will try to put it aside first:

I was born in the 90's, and I enjoyed the prequel trilogy.

....

There, I said it.

In my own defense, hardcore and/or elderly fans, I did see the original trilogy first, on VHS. It was not the, er-hem, "special" editions either: Han shot first and the Ewoks used only acoustic instruments. Like the early-comers, I was already a fan before I saw The Phantom Menace. However, I did not have twenty years to mull over the original trilogy, conclude that it was insurpassable, and then be disappointed at the prequels. The Phantom Menace came out almost immediately after I watched Return of the Jedi for the first time, so it just seemed like a natural continuation. Plus, I was a child and therefore had no taste.

Okay, now that Most Momentous of Issues has been addressed, let me explain the purpose of this blog.

About a year ago, I happened upon a used copy of the PC game Jedi Academy. I played the single-player campaign and found it to be comprised of bullshit and finely-ground meh, but thoroughly enjoyed the multiplayer mode--and I still am.

I got involved with a roleplaying clan whose "campaign" was set two-hundred years after the films. It was fun, but the other members kept making references to things which had occurred in the Expanded Universe during the interim. I was lost.

I decided, then, to read the Star Wars novels. At this point, I was only dimly aware that there was a book franchise based on Star Wars, and I expected to make quick work of this task.

Ugh.

When I looked up a list of all the books online, I felt overwhelmed. Where to start?

I am a patient man, and I expect to finish reading all the books. However, I had no idea what to read first.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the very first Expanded Universe novel, published in 1978 and set a year after the original blockbuster. However, I was unable to find it within my county's library system, and was not yet certain enough that I wanted to read the books to track down a copy I would have to play for.

Internet forums informed me that THRAWN would be a good place to start reading, and low my local library had both books in a two-part series called The Hand of Thrawn.

Of course, those forum-goers were referring to the "Thrawn Trilogy," an entirely different series that just happened to be written by the same author and involved a character named Grand Admiral Thrawn.

I ignorantly dove into The Hand of Thrawn and found myself even more lost than before..

Sigh.

Well, I decided one foolproof way to keep things organized would be to simply read all the books in chronological order in terms of the fictional galaxy's own timeline.

A Star Wars saga told IN ORDER!? Unheard of! But that now is my project. Starting with Darth Bane and ending with Fate of the Jedi (or whatever books may be written after it in the future), I am experiencing the history of the galaxy in the way its inhabitants would: from beginning to end.

I am not going to be reading the comic books, simply because I do not like comic books, nor will I be playing every video game, due to the fact that most video games are very light on plot and of little consequence to the greater Expanded Universe.

As I go through the novels, this galactic travelog will be where I express my thoughts, feelings and opinions about the strange goings on in the galaxy far, far away.