Category: books and comics

Oh TFN, your ability to bring the laughs to fandom is yet unmatched. Check out this winner: Is the EU really starting to suck?

First of all: Starting? Like any product of this magnitude, the Expanded Universe has its ups and downs, and always has. There is no EU golden age: even back in the days of Bantam, fans were bitching up a storm. There are great books, good books, bad books, horrific books and the work of Kevin J. Anderson. (A man who dared to write that Mara’s hair was ‘auburn.’ Oh noes!)

And, let’s not forget, these classifications are completely subjective. One fan’s Crystal Star is another fan’s Heir to the Empire. I can’t even begin to comprehend why anyone would see YJK as the pinnacle of the Expanded Universe, but if nothing else it shows the sheer variety of fandom opinion.

In any case, the potential for ‘suck’ has existed in the EU since the day the first bit of it rolled off the printing press. The main variable here is the reader, and their taste. Yes, it’s more or less inevitable that every fan will be disappointed at some point. The only real difference is how one deals with it.

It’s okay to be unhappy with the direction of a series. It’s okay to not like a book, or an author. But try to see beyond your own prejudice, or at least do something with your angst other than throwing around words like ‘suck’ and ‘trash’ on a message board all day. It doesn’t make you look any good, and it certainly doesn’t do the fandom as a whole any favors.

Embrace the pain. Mock it, snark it, twist it to your own purposes. But don’t let it rule you.

And, for the record, at least some at TFN are trying to detract from the negativity.