Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The news came a couple weeks ago that Disney Publishing Worldwide and Lucasfilm are implementing what they are calling Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  This is a huge publishing program that will include more than 20 books ranging from books for kids, to comics, and to all kinds of novels, all with the goal of filling in some of the gaps between Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  This is the first time any sort of narration will explore the unexplored time between "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens" as part of the Lucasfilm Story Group's official canon (of course the Expanded Universe had this charted out for quite some time).  

This has me excited, but also nervous.

The analogy that came to my mind when reading through these press releases was that of a kid transferring to a new school, and I'm that kid.  I had been content and happy to live in the EU, I loved the authors that helped create the EU, and I knew the territory of the EU extremely well, having read through the New Jedi Order, Legacy of the Force, and Fate of the Jedi series multiple times.  With the declaration of the EU as "Legends" and a clean slate for the storytelling, I felt like a kid being told he was moving to a new school.  I had to leave most of my friends, I had to go to a new place with new people, and the direction that I would head was entirely unknown to me.   Most of my friends hadn't come with me (i.e. the authors I have come to love, including, but not limited to, Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, the late Aaron Allston, and Troy Denning), but some did (like Christie Golden who is writing "Star Wars: Dark Disciple" to be released this summer), and hopefully more will follow.  New friends are to be made, like Chuck Wendig who is writing the first of a trilogy of novels set after Return of the Jedi (see below).  So being the new kid in this new school, I miss what I had to leave behind terribly and want to go back, but I'm also seeing the potential of a new beginning here and am excited to venture into this new unknown territory.  

So in the end this program has got me excited a great deal.  These books to be released as part of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens will lead directly into movie and I'm certain the hype is worth it.  I am not particularly interested in the upcoming comics (not for lack of talent or content, I've just never been a fan of graphic novels; however, I do like Sunday comics and in particular Calvin and Hobbes, Zits, and Frazz).  On the other hand, I am incredibly interested in the upcoming novel releases and five of them in particular have caught my attention.  (UPDATE: I have been reading the Legends comics recently and have really enjoyed them.  Especially the Legacy comics and Jango Fett: Open Seasons.  I am now interested in Shattered Empire, which is a comic to be released this fall as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  I have not read any of the new Marvel Star Wars comics yet and Shattered Empire is first on my list).

"Star Wars: Aftermath", the first of a trilogy of novels, written by Chuck Wendig, will narrate what happened after the Battle of Endor.  The synopsis doesn't tell us a whole lot (of course), but I would say that this is the most anticipated book of the line up for me.  This will be a full blown novel set after Return of the Jedi, which is exactly what I want to read about.  I'm going to be very curious to see how many nods to the EU are present (I still really hope they bring in beloved characters from the EU in some way) and also will do my best to be attentive to the hints at what is to come in the movie.  

The other Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens books are young adult novels (I'll still shamelessly buy them and read them...I still consider myself to be a young adult after all).  "Lost Stars" is a Romeo and Juliet sort of tale between two people on opposite sides of the galactic conflict (one is a Rebel pilot and the other is an Imperial officer).  That ought to be interesting.  "Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure", "The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure", and "Smuggler's Run: A Han Solo Adventure" are all books set during the time period of the Original Trilogy.  The Weapon of a Jedi sounds promising, we get to read about Luke's first fight with a lightsaber.

This year is shaping up to be a jam packed year heading into Star Wars: The Force awakens in December.  This is such a fun time to be a Star Wars fan.  Now I just have to wait and see what surfaces at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim occurring April 16-19, 2015.  Sadly I can't make it.  What is interesting to me, though, this is the first time I've ever paid any sort of attention to Star Wars Celebration.  Actually it was the first time I'd ever really heard about Star Wars Celebration (which seems surprising, but all I used to do was bury my head in the EU novels and that was about it), and part of me really wants to go this year...but it doesn't fit in with my obligations here at home.  That particular weekend I'll be helping out at a Catholic Vocations Retreat for priesthood and the religious life in my diocese, which I am looking forward to immensely. 

What a great year we have to look forward to!

You've Taken Your First Step Into a Larger World

Well, here goes.  I know that it seems like everyone has a blog out there these days talking about, quite literally, everything (confession: I, too, have another blog where I post my homilies that I preach along with other personal related topics: Roamin' Catholic).  So, it seems like all one needs is a blog to be some sort of expert on any said topic (if it's on the internet it must be true, right?).  So you might think I'm going to end up doing just the same thing as everyone else out there, being an expert on everything and nothing because of this blog...and you'd be absolutely right.

The idea behind this blog that Sean Heller (a great friend of mine and fellow Star Wars fan) and I are putting together here, "Club Bwua'tu" (a name taken from the Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi series for an organization within the Galactic Alliance trying to uncover the various conspiracies bent on total galactic anarchy - see the wookieepedia) is for Sean and I to have an outlet where we can discuss what we think is interesting and fun regarding the exciting world of Star Wars with a Catholic perspective (whether overt or not in our posts).  I hope it to be a fairly geeky way for us to share our perspective on the new and exciting things that are currently happening in the world of Star Wars.  Additionally, this seems like an opportune time to begin such an online journey in conjunction with Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming this December.  So fair warning for you all, you know what we're planning on doing here and if you're wanting to follow along, great!  If you're laughing and shaking your head at my geeking out to Star Wars and don't follow us, that's great too, we won't be offended.

So a bit of my backstory for me...
I have loved Star Wars ever since I saw Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones in theaters back in 2002.  Since that awesome introduction I wanted more Star Wars and watched the original trilogy and also began to read the novels, my first one being "The Courtship of Princess Leia" by Dave Wolverton.  I remember feeling like those novels were my some of my closest friends in junior high school and high school.  We had a mandatory reading period in high school each day for 20 minutes and I would immerse myself in the Star Wars universe, while the rest of my classmates groaned that we were "required" to read.  I also remember specifically going on vacation one summer without my older brother (who was working that summer) and I felt alone with him.  I asked my parents if we could stop at a bookstore and I picked up "Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way" and that novel was my way of dealing with missing my brother and yet I still had a great time visiting Yellowstone with the rest of my family.  It was also my first introduction to the New Jedi Order (I know I jumped into the plot 3/4 of the way through, but I did go back and read through the whole series!).  The EU has been a big part of the leisure aspect of my life so the news that the EU would be relabeled as "Legends" hit me a bit hard (see this article on Starwars.com), I still really wanted to continue the story with the "big 3" of Jaina, Jag, and Ben (plus I was really excited for Christie Golden's Sword of the Jedi trilogy that, alas, is not meant to be).  That being said, though, I am super excited for The Force Awakens and will always be a Star Wars fan following where the new canon leads.

In high school my love for Star Wars was pretty much confined to my family.  My dad enjoyed the movies and my older brother also shared a liking for Star Wars (although he is much more of a Trekkie).  Other than them, I couldn't share my love for Star Wars with anyone else, so I was content to read the novels and badger my older brother with the plots that he knew little of, lamenting Jacen Solo's descent to the dark side to him.  This was all to change as I finally discovered a use for Twitter.  I had gotten a Twitter account a couple years ago, but never quite felt I knew what I was doing with it, other than tweeting random things...as such, what a joy it was to discover that Twitter was my ticket to joining the Star Wars fandom at large.  Last November with the impending release of the Teaser Trailer to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I found a Skype Chat via twitter, hosted by Star Wars Podcasters (Far Far Away Radio and The Forecast), where we stayed up all night hoping to watch the release of the teaser trailer at midnight Pacific Time.  But, unfortunately it was released early the next morning.  Even so, the Skype chat was so cool because I had connected with other Star Wars fans across the country all of whom I did not know.  Yet we all got together because of a shared interest and love for Star Wars and I had a blast!  And I finally understood what Twitter was for me.  It was a way for me to connect to the Star Wars fandom in ways I never could before.  Twitter finally had a purpose in my mind.

Since then I have been a listener to the above mentioned podcasts including Star Wars Bookworms (which is probably my favorite because I am such a Star Wars literature fan!) and my family and friends do think I'm a bit weird in my passion for Star Wars, but in my defense, they have their own passions that I find strange (like investing a lot of energy and emotion into the many different sporting events).  Star Wars is my fun hobby that helps keep me just a little bit saner in my busy life as a Catholic deacon and soon to be Catholic priest (May of 2016).  It is my chosen form of healthy leisure :)

With that, I have now taken my first step into a larger world.  From Twitter to Blogger...journeying to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and beyond.