We got a lengthy update from Del Rey’s Frank Parisi today, and what’s most of interest to our particular readership is probably the cancellation of Alex Irvine’s Nomi Sunrider novel, one of the few upcoming projects featuring a female protagonist. The novel was known – tentatively – as Mandorla and apparently featured Mandalorians. (Which takes a bit of the sting out of the news, I must say.)
The rest of the post is a few details of Drew Karpyshyn’s next Old Republic novel, including the title, Annihilation. It also has a release date, November 13, and features Republic agent Theron Shan, from the comic The Old Republic: The Lost Suns.
The schedule given is consistent with what we’ve had, though we do have a new tentative date for Zahn’s Han Solo novel – Winter 2012.
Featuring Mandalorians is probably part of what contributed to the cancellation of Mandorla. Seems like half of what they end up in gets cancelled for continuity reasons due to Clone Wars.
Which is absolutely a shame. Not that I’m the biggest fan of the Mandos, just have a soft spot for all pre-TOR “old republic” publications.
Also I’d like to hear from the more knowledgeable, what is the problem retconning facts about the Mandalorians, considering there is a span of 4 millennia between two conflicting stories?
Nah. Look at TOR. Those ancient Mandalorians are so far away as to not really affect canon.
I had been looking forward to it…the only one from that era that I was even going to bother with. But somewhere I missed the update that it was about Mandalorians, so I’m not as disappointed as I might otherwise have been. :P
TOR I think gets a pass on just about whatever they want cause it’s a cash cow. From what I can tell book publishing-wise, there’s been kind of a general stink on Mandos for them since they showed up in Clone Wars. We might have the ones Daala hired running around in Fate of the Jedi, but we don’t get any of the culture stuff we were seeing during Legacy of the Force.
Personally, I don’t think there are many issues with what’s been shown in the Clone Wars show with the pacifist Mandalorians. Like you said, there’s thousands of years between old school Mandalorians and the Clone Wars, it’s not hard to believe that there could be a change in regimes that lead to a more peaceful culture and world. Then you look at Death Watch, which is for all intents the Mandalorians we’re familiar with, armor and aggression and all. Who’s to say that by the time the Empire is formed Death Watch won’t be the ones running the show there, leaving what was done in the OT and post OT era making perfect sense?
My point was just that that’s the impression I’ve gotten from Del Rey, particularly from things that were said during book panels at Celebration V, is that they don’t want to go in depth on Mandalorians at all these days.
Let’s hope then, that when the time comes, the Nomi Sunrider novel will share with the Darth Plagueis novel the same fate.
As one loyal to the spirit of CJ, I believe it will do the franchise good PR to publish a book centered on a female protagonist, even though it won’t make a huge buzz.
Well I was rather looking forward to that book. I read one of the comics with Nomi Sunrider in and loved it.
The Mando thing doesn’t make much sense as a reason to can it, as has already been stated they are a much evolved/changed culture through the timeline.
Aw, I’m disappointed we won’t see a Nomi book. I’ve always loved that original KOTOR era of comics.
There’s a really easy retcon for the Clone Wars pacifist Mandos. Whatever planet “real” Mandalorian culture (and the Mandalore) is stationed on, that’s Mandalore. The original home planet Mandalore becomes Old Mandalore. Voila, conflict fixed. And since that’s become my inner canon, I can’t find any conflict between TOR Mandalorians and Clone Wars (or Republic Commando) Mandalorians.
I enjoyed (and still enjoy) every bit of Mandalorian stuff right up until every KT book of LotF. It turned into way too much soapboxing then.
Hmm – not sure the cancellation would be Mando related. “Changes in direction and concepts in the overall publishing plans” – could be to do with the *huge* difference between Tales-era Jedi and KoTOR-era.
There’s a massive continuity question mark hovering over the difference between Tom Veitch’s outlook on the Jedi (i.e. marriage, multiple apprentices, no real structure) and Bioware’s, which matches Prequel era.
There’s a lot in TOR that kind of runs against Tales-era stuff, and implies that the Jedi have always been like they are in the prequels. I hoped the Nomi novel would address these issues, but if continuity have taken the position that Jedi have always frowned on marriage and had a centralized council on Coruscant and had a rigid structure, I can why they would want to avoid developing Nomi further.
They’re showing marriage in the Dawn of the Jedi comic series which just started.
I’m not saying I endorse a Mando related cancellation. Like I said, there’s so much time between the two periods that there really shouldn’t be continuity issues. I feel the same about Tales era stuff vs TOR era stuff. There’s enough time between for there to have been changes in ideology.
Basically, I’m just disappointed that it’s cancelled, and feel slightly bitter IF it is Mando related since I think that’s kind of a BS reason to do it. This was one that I’ve been looking forward to.