I'm reading this book at the moment, Coruscant Nights: Jedi Twilight, a sort of noir thriller set just after Revenge Of The Sith and I have to say I have the problem I always have with Star Wars novels.
Star Wars novels are the only books where I have to supplement the reading experience with Google Image Search. The thing is I'm not sure if this is anyone's fault. The problem is that there are so many aliens in the Star Wars films that never get named. I know the pig men guys in Jabba's Palace are Gamorreans (helps that there's a Gamorrean called Piggy in the X-Wing novels) and that Twi'leks are the ones with the tentacles on their head where all the males are fuck ugly and all the females are amazing hot. Green but hot.
Star Wars novels are the only books where I have to supplement the reading experience with Google Image Search. The thing is I'm not sure if this is anyone's fault. The problem is that there are so many aliens in the Star Wars films that never get named. I know the pig men guys in Jabba's Palace are Gamorreans (helps that there's a Gamorrean called Piggy in the X-Wing novels) and that Twi'leks are the ones with the tentacles on their head where all the males are fuck ugly and all the females are amazing hot. Green but hot.
But then there's guys like this. This is a Sullustan and there's a Sullustan character in Jedi Twilight, a journalist called Den Dhur and, as ever, the description of the guy is quite minimalist. This is the problem, there is a Sullustan in the films, he's Lando's co-pilot on the Falcon in Return Of The Jedi but he's not named as such so from the original source material I don't know he's a Sullustan. Bothans appear everywhere in these novels, as well, and I thought I knew what they looked like. I had this image in my head of a sort of cross between a Wookie and a border collie but it turns out that was dead wrong.
In many ways the fault lies with me, I'm not a fan. These sorts of novels are made very much for fans, I don't know who Star Wars aliens are in the same way that I do know what Star Trek aliens look like. Take the crew of the USS Aventine in the Star Trek novels, I know with similarly minimalist description what the Zakdorn science officer Helkara looks like in spite of the Zakdorn appearing in only one TNG episode.
It is kind of strange how fans retain this information and writers come to rely upon it.
In many ways the fault lies with me, I'm not a fan. These sorts of novels are made very much for fans, I don't know who Star Wars aliens are in the same way that I do know what Star Trek aliens look like. Take the crew of the USS Aventine in the Star Trek novels, I know with similarly minimalist description what the Zakdorn science officer Helkara looks like in spite of the Zakdorn appearing in only one TNG episode.
It is kind of strange how fans retain this information and writers come to rely upon it.
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