Money is the root of all evil, apparently. Dark Lord Lucas Agrees...

I was looking at my bookshelf today, at a series I've been reading for a while, and it reminded me of a gripe I have.

I like books. I like Karen Traviss. I like (although it depresses me to admit it, given that it really won't lend any weight to the following argument) Star Wars.

I don't like Lucasarts/ the Lucas Estate. I don't like (this is the point I've taken a few years to get to) expanded stories based on an existing universe. And here's why.



I've been reading the Republic Commando series since it was started off in Hard Contact. The series, actually a subtitle of the unmissable STAR WARS logo on the front of every book, is written by prolific sci-fi and military writer Karen Traviss. It takes the abysmal prequel trilogy of flashy effects and lines that no one would say (thanks Lucas) and twists it. The stories we get, based on the pretty good squad FPS of the same name (for PC and Xbox, in case you want a go- it's worth it), are from the point of view of Omega Squad, a band of the clones that we never get to see much of other than them getting murdered or murdering credibility with obvious CG nets.

We get to see the human side of four men who have been forced to age twice as quickly as everyone else, have been birthed in sticky pods and nursed by the emotionless Kaminoans, and then thrown into the middle of a battle they have no care about and do not want. They have no status, no say, and basically only each other. The Star Wars universe of massive battles and flashy lightsabre effects that Lucas tried to run with in the prequels becomes suddenly gritty, dark and horrible.




See?

And I loved it. Honestly, the battle scenes, that daftly made aliens, even the ridiculous sillines of a lot of the Jedi, it's all gutted and started again. Jedi here are to be obeyed but never trusted, feared and always suspicious of. They treat the clones as inferior.

The most interesting character, Kal Skirata, becomes a real anti-hero in the later books. He raised Omega Squad as an extension of the Mandalorian clans (think Boba Fett), as many of the Kaminoan hired trainers did. The Mandalorian culture is very heavily influenced by a Maori-esque way of life, and it works brilliantly through the five books- Hard Contact, Triple Zero, True Colours, Order 66 and the slightly changed title of Imperial Commando: 501st.



The problem is there is going to be no concluding part, no Imperial Commando: TITLE


And the reason?

This monstrosity-



Traviss has worked hard over the novels (and two short stories for another Lucas money spinner, the Star Wars magazine) to create a series of worlds and a believable culture for these adopted Mando'a warriors, making as real characters as you can out of cloned soldiers in a universe of lightsabre weilding magicians.

And yet the toad necked goon who thinks the Twin Suns shine out of his Tatooine decides to commision the jumped up cartoon series The Clone Wars to run a series of episodes portraying the Mandalorians and their homeworld as peaceful and 'having given up the warrior ways' even though it completely ruins not just the books' continuity but the continuity of his original three films. Still, he's getting money, so no worries.

It just means that no one will get to know what happens to a clone who's had a baby with a Jedi who's now died. No one will get to see two clones, left behind when the others made a hash of escaping the capital when the Empire was formed and Jedi exiled/ made public enemies, struggling to get free. The characters readers will care about will not get any ending or satisfying open end.

Because, well, reading is for idiots. And a TV show that portrays the few military Mandalorians as extremists is being 'topically edgy', even though kids really won't get the references. The programme is full of politics and murders and assasinations and revolution. Real teatime stuff.

My point, I suppose, is that I hate the fact Traviss felt she cannot write a last book because Lucas has in one fell swoop hit more people than her books have with a completely different version of his own story, and now her last novel is viewed as out of canon.

I hate that overarching owners can ruin perfectly good series. Okay, the books weren't perfect, it wasn't P.D. James, but it was better than the enormous piles of tat that get thrown out by so called 'sci-fi' writers. Corporations and money spinners should learn, sometimes, to leave the artist or writer alone.

Dammit! I want to know what happens to half-Jedi half-clone baby Kad.