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Daveinva
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Somewhat surprised at the absence of one of the great tie-in novel series of all time: the Battletech books. VERY symbiotic, and canon to both the RPG and the computer games.
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Daveinva
11/24/09

@Daveinva: Oh, also, another -tech: the Robotech novels, in particular the "Jack McKinney" ones.

For some stupid reason, they were always very divisive among the fans, but I thought they were excellent, especially once they got to the Sentinels books (which were MUCH better IMO than Carl Macek's goofy story-sketch he had for that ill-fated series).
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Demonbird
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
I personally think it is time for a Star Wars novel reboot, and that new writers should be given a try at the universe.

The novels anymore are just
"What can we take away from the main cast, without killing any original cast, to create more drama?"
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Burke
11/24/09

@Demonbird: Ummm... they have killed original cast already.

Still, other than the whole Killiks/Joiner debacle (those were painful to read), I've rather enjoyed the extension of the franchise in a logical path that the novels have taken since Zahn's original trilogy.

The focus is getting more and more onto the next generation of characters, including Ben Skywlaker and Jaina Solo, plus a number of other characters introduced into the mix from various sources: Corran & Mirax Horn and their kids, Jag Fel, Chief of State Daala, etc
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Demonbird
11/24/09

@Burke:
I've enjoyed them too, but there is definitely a lot that could be done if a newgroup was allowed to take a swing at the franchise.

Also, Chewbacca was ultimately expendable, and is the only one to die out of all the books.

Currently, Luke, Leia, and Han still have a very big role in the stories being told, despite their age, and if that's what people want, elt them do a reboot.

Hell, even Boba Fett still gets notice.

#speakup
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Xicer
11/24/09

@Demonbird: A reboot is highly unlikely. People have talked about this before and the general consensus has been against a reboot. People have spent too much time and money on the current universe that starting it all over would just make people very angry. Plus Del Rey doesn't seem to be thinking in that direction at all so it's not likely to happen.

I would however like the focus to shift away from the movie characters. Del Rey keeps using the argument of '60 is the new 40' but that's just lazy IMO. However we are getting more standalones focusing on minor characters, like the upcoming novel Crosscurrent which takes place shortly after Legacy of the Force and focuses on Jaden Korr, a video game character and Jedi Knight of the younger generation.
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Demonbird
11/24/09

@Xicer:
I have no idea what Del Ray is going to do after they advance the story another 10-15 years. Besides having at least two massive galactic conflicts during that time.

#speakup
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Adam Whitehead
11:55 AM

@Demonbird: The have nodded in this direction in the LEGACY comics, which I suspect they may start tying in the novels with. They moved the timeline 100 years further into the future and basically just said all the regular characters are now dead but not specified the circumstances under which they died, and the story just continues with new characters. It's as close as a reboot as you can get without doing an acutal remake (KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC does a similar thing in the earlier time period). But I believe Lucas has ruled out remakes of the original movies or anything like that.
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Demonbird
12:56 PM

@Adam Whitehead:
It's far from the same, and as much a reboot as any of the standalone novels or comics were.

Oh well. I've read most all of the books and comics, but I think it would be really itneresting to see a new group of authors take a stab at the series.

#speakup
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Wookie1972
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
What I want to know is what's up with Sulu's porno stache?
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Wookie1972
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Ah, the Brian Daley Han Solo books. A great, pulpy read.
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whormongr
11/24/09

@Wookie1972: the solo books are okay- the lando books ruled- vuffi raa is still one of my favorite characters in the star wars universe, plus lando was cool and all in empire/jedi but he is way cooler in the preceding and post jedi novels
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Wookie1972
11:37 AM

@whormongr: I'll have to check them out, although are they even still in print?
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Perhaps Not
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Great post. Also an interesting iteration of this nutty phenomenon: screenplay adaptations. Guess who wrote the novelization of "The Abyss?" Orson Scott Card, for chrissakes! Guess who turned the Philip K. Dick short story-turned-screenplay back into prose for a novel-length version of "Total Recall?" None other than Piers Anthony. Does anyone else have one of these to add?
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Monty Ashley
11/24/09

@Perhaps Not: The novelization of THX 1138 is by Ben Bova, of all people.
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Perhaps Not
11/24/09

@Monty Ashley: Dude, great one.
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Adam Whitehead
11:57 AM

@Perhaps Not: Christopher Priest adapted the Cronenberg movie EXISTENZ. Matthew Stover did the novel of REVENGE OF THE SITH (which got better reviews than the actual movie).
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gorehound
11/24/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
i have a bunch of those james blish star trek paperbacks in my library.
great article as well.
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allium
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
My fifth grade teacher had Last Son of Krypton by Elliot S! Maggin in the class's free-reading bookcase. I remember its portrayal of Lex Luthor and his complex motivations contrasted strongly with the "Challenge Of The Superfriends" version of That Bastard In The Purple Sweater Wut Tried To Kill Supes.
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Allen_Richards
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Those Star Trek novels during the 80's were what started my fascination with sci-fi lit. Of course, Joe Lansdale's THE DRIVE-IN took me in an different direction once I read it...

I never knew I contributed to the success of the tie-in novel as much as I have until about a week ago when I was cleaning off a shelf and found a stack of 26 Buffy novels - all unread... I didn't even know Ray Garton wrote one, a writers who horror work I came to dig about 5 years back, until I saw his name glaring back at me like a snot-nosed kid on the school bus with this face pressed against the glass and giving me the bird...

I've enjoyed picking up movie adaptations. Mid-summer, based on a suggestion from someone here, I finally picked up BUCKAROO BANZAI. I have THE BLACK HOLE sitting on the shelf and waiting to be read - it's been waiting for years and I think it's about time. Hell, there's even an ROBOCOP 2 novelization that I'm embarrassed to admit I have....
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Chip Overclock
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
I was 12 when MISSION TO HORATIUS was published, and you can bet I whined until Mom Overclock bought it for me. (It didn't occur to me until many years later that Mom and Dad must have been _thrilled_ that I loved to read.) It was a huge eye opener... I realized that you could not only make movies from books (which I had figured out at a young age), but vice versa. Woot!
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Rasselas
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Wow. I had no idea the tie-in phenomena were so many.
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EdificeComplex
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
In the video game category you also have the Mass Effect novels. I think they succeed in fleshing out the main story of the game, but it seemed like the alien races were written like the human characters. Mass Effect established some very rich, diverse alien species and I thought the novels never really took advantage of the that aspect.

On the whole I've never really gotten into novelizations/novels based on movies, TV or games. Maybe I just haven't read the right ones, but they never seem to capitalize on the intricate worlds created by their progenitors.
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Edited by EdificeComplex at 11/23/09 6:30 PM EdificeComplex was starred EdificeComplex was unstarred

tyamar
11/24/09

@EdificeComplex: I really liked the Mass Effect novels I read. But, I didn't get the game until after I'd read them, so I didn't have any expectations.
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EdificeComplex
11/24/09

@tyamar: Yeah, I read them right after I completed the game, so maybe my expectations were too high. I think I still have them somewhere. Maybe I'll go back and re-read them again seeing as I haven't played the game in a while.
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Byronotron
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
oh man. i remember my uncle taking me to the bookstore on my 10th birthday and buying me these books: ender's game, startide rising, a fire upon the deep, starship troopers, snow crash, and heir to the empire, dark force rising, and the last command, hyperion, the forever war (a book about vietnam?! for a ten year old, really unca bill?), ringworld, and hyperion. it took me about two years, but i finished all of them. i was never again able to relate to the majority of my peers. i also read a book, but i forgot the title. it was about a soldier who was uber good at i don't know, soldierly stuff, and was a brilliant tactician but he was kind of ronin-esque. i think it had a one word title, and there was a bunch of really weird sexual situations, as well as an opening scene on some type of levi-train. i was 10! also, i was super confused about startide rising (i had already finished the book when i found out about Sundiver.
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DEK46656
11/23/09

@Byronotron: "i forgot the title. it was about a soldier who was uber good at i don't know, soldierly stuff, and was a brilliant tactician but he was kind of ronin-esque. i think it had a one word title, and there was a bunch of really weird sexual situations, as well as an opening scene on some type of levi-train"

My first thought when reading this was "Dorsai", but I don’t recall anything that overly sexual in the story. Then again, my memory isn’t what it use to be…
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Chip Overclock
11/23/09

@Byronotron: Dude, your Uncle Bill ROCKS!
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Byronotron
11/23/09

@DEK46656: Dorsai, that's it. I just read a review of it, and wow, I so missed a lot of that subtext as a kid. And Holy Crap, it was written in 1959! The cover that I remember was very Blade Runner (the Tyrell Corp Pyramid) mixed with Dune, so when I saw that the original title was "The Genetic General" I kind of flipped.

And actually I think I may have read-in a bunch of sexuality to the scenes that didn't actually exist in the book.
Interestingly enough, I still remember even to this day that the main Dorsai was achingly one dimensional. he was so good at EVERYTHING that it barely made it entertaining, much like james bond. and having finished snow crash probably three weeks before starting this, i was genuinely confused as to the character development. reason #548 not to trust sci-fi book covers.
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Byronotron
11/23/09

@DEK46656: oh and there were mechs. glorious, glorious mechs.

#calendar
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Byronotron
11/23/09

@Chip Overclock: yes. he does in fact rock.

#calendar
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Edited by Byronotron at 11/23/09 8:56 PM Byronotron was starred Byronotron was unstarred

lorq
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
Another major tie-in from the '70s was Alan Dean Foster's 10-volume set of novels based on "Star Trek: The Animated Series." Ran from '74 to '78. I remember those books quite vividly.
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Charlie Jane Anders
11/23/09

@lorq: Those were technically novelizations, although they did expand on the animated stories a great deal.
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lorq
11/23/09

@Charlie Jane Anders: Oh I see -- I wasn't thinking about the distinction.
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
It doesn't look to have liked the image.

Here is a great webcomic on the subject of video game fiction.

[www.vgcats.com]
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Edited by OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear at 11/23/09 5:51 PM

Charlie Jane Anders
11/23/09

@OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear: OMG the webcomic is hilarious! TAANK!
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
11/23/09

In reply to Untold Adventures: The Complete History Of Tie-In Novels
I read a lot of that stuff through the early 90's - Splinter, Thrawn, The Han Solo novels, Dr Who, even the Doom books. While it was fun to revisit those universes in another medium, none of them were really any good without the background to support them. It's not like I've learned my lesson since I'm 150 pages into "Paul of Dune." Can anybody recommend any of this stuff that's actually good on it's own and not one step above fanfic?
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