A Long Time Ago... #10
Hello there.
Welcome to the tenth of these posts exploring art, fiction and history. We’ve hit double digits! Every other Sunday I share some insights into my two major passions - Star Wars and history, or specifically, ancient art.
Art as a means of representation, observation and meaning, has survived tens of thousands of years, expressed now in a mesmerising multitude of ways. I'm fascinated by its origins, and a particular subgenre of art known as the Star Wars franchise - these two interests combined for my first Star Wars Insider article ART WARS, found in issue #226.
At the moment, I’m expressing and sharing this fascination by taking you through my timeline-ordered shelves of Star Wars books (that particular segment ends today!) as well as the ancient art sites that inspire(d) my writing.
In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
Well, we’ve done it. We’ve reached the end. The current canon timeline doesn’t extend beyond Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the novelisation of which sits there as a bookend. (The one exception is the in-universe history book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which offers some insights post-IX and I do have it but have yet to put it on the shelf!) All these stories take place over a year, between episodes VII and IX.
There are some stories that I have to add to the collection. Some of the Join the Resistance series by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker would’ve gone on the last section of the shelf, or maybe the one before that. There’s also Pirate’s Price by Lou Anders, part of the Flight of the Falcon event. And there’s also A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova, which, like a book further down the list, takes place in the Star Wars location at the Disney parks.
Canto Bight is a novella collection featuring stories from four incredible writers. A little like the aliens collection from last time, these stories highlight some of the more extravagant background characters Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, pitting them with some new characters too on longer tales all set at the titular gambling-hub city. Again I wish they did more of these novella collections - each story is so unique and in-depth. Due to a mention of the end of Episode VII, and the fact that the planet and these characters are seen after their stories in Episode VIII, these tales must take place in the days between films.
Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein is more of a young readers story, also in the days before Episode VIII, in fact leading right up to the protagonists on-screen introduction in the film. Well, the book has joint protagonists, sisters Rose and Page Tyco. The book explains where the titular squadron of the Resistance was during Episode VII but really focusses on the heart of the sister relationship, which is a real tragedy knowing what happens near the start of Episode VIII.
That brings us nicely to the novelisation of the film, The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition, by Jason Fry, a writer with many Star Wars books to his name. This could arguably be his best work, though, as ‘expanded’ doesn’t cover what he does to the film. I think this is the novelisation most dissimilar to a film I’ve read. Yes there’s extra scenes that didn’t make the cut, but there’s also a major restructuring, and a prologue that confused and then blew me away, as did the moments filled in between films. Plus, Fry included and showed us what off-screen characters were doing, and features others that’d only appeared in other books like Cobalt Squadron. I think this is my favourite novelisation. Surpassing not’s the right word but it’s not an adaptation, it’s a book that excels at its form.
Resistance Reborn picks up straight after the film, almost in the same scene. Rebecca Roanhorse did an incredible job in filling this gap in the journey to The Rise of Skywalker, by explicitly showing what the Resistance and all its main characters did next to assemble allies and resources ready for the next film. That’s the simple version of the story, but remember really liking its exploration into a First Order officer’s point of view, and the fact that it deftly tied to all the related storytelling before it.
The novel includes characters from the Poe Dameron comics. It seems obvious to continue the threads of those characters and their concurrent story, but some novels don’t do that. But Roanhorse also wove in and continued the stories of characters from the Aftermath novels, and a major link to and characters from Bloodline, as well as continuing the story of characters from the DLC of the game Battlefront II, set in the time of the sequels. Taking into account, intertwining and furthering the stories not only of main characters but comics, book and game characters into narrative, is how I’d approach a Star Wars book - if I’ll ever be so lucky!
Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson could appear to be a direct tie-in to the location at Disney parks. It is, but it’s also a second book in a Vi Moradi duology. The character was chosen to feature in the acted out stories at Disney parks, and so Dawson could continue her story. We learn how soon before Episode VII the first book, Phasma, was set, and then we jump ahead to between VIII and IX. This story focussed much more on Vi looking for Resistance sanctuary and allies, assembling a team of characters from Dawson’s previous book and some new ones. It’s a fun read with all the characters like some sitcom, but also of course set during a war, leading to the experience visitors to Disney parks walk into.
The novel also has a short story at the end that in a way wraps up Dawson’s ‘trilogy’ that started with Phasma.
Stories of Jedi and Sith is what it sounds like, a collection of ten original short stories in an anthology focussed on Force-users. Unlike the Clone Wars-era anthology of a similar nature, this one’s stories stretch over about 250 years, from the High Republic golden age of the Jedi to the time of the sequel trilogy.
Highlights for me included the Yoda story about a young boy learning What a Jedi Makes. There’s stories with all your favourite Jedi, one with Obi-Wan and Anakin seen as real heroes to protagonists, but also as per the title, Sith too, a Ventress story by Deliah S. Dawson and a really interesting light vs dark story with the black-cad Darth Vader against a white-furred wookiee. The anthology finishes with a Rey story, also featuring Poe, properly setting up their banter as it appears in Episode IX.
Choose Your Destiny: A Poe and Finn Adventure is the fourth and final of these choose your own adventure books by Cavan Scott. Like the other’s I’ve yet to read it, but I’m sure it’ll be a delight.
Spark of Resistance, a junior novel by Justina Ireland, is another fun adventure with the heroes of the sequel trilogy between films - this time Rey, Poe, Rose and BB-8. They help out a rabbit-like species against the First Order, as the Resistance builds its forces after the events of the previous novels on this list, and the comic miniseries Allegiance which moves us closer towards the final film of the nine-episode Skywalker Saga.
The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition, is the novelisation of Episode IX by Rae Carson, again with some great restructuring and cut elements that tie the film much more to the wider canon of books and comics. Due to the loss of Carrie Fisher, the film version of the story relied on reworking cut dialogue from The Force Awakens, cleverly and emotionally concluding Leia’s story. But this novel enabled Leia to give so much more to the story, and adds so many more little moments to explain and give more character moments than the film’s runtime could allow. I loved how the novel formatted the voices of Jedi past speaking to Rey. That kind of free-floating italicised text inspired a section of my second full-length novel. And Carson included characters from across canon, like previously mentioned books and games, including the animated series Resistance, in the final battle, making this book a fitting end to the whole wider universe… for now.
In São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, Brazil
So the location above is the closest city to the site I’m talking about today, which is the Serra da Capivara (Capybara Hills) National Park in northeast Brazil.
The area of almost 130,000 hectares with a 214km circumference is a place of amazing scenery, a sort of massif with ravines and valleys, forests and shrubland and natural rock formations.
The park also happens to host the largest and oldest concentration of prehistoric sites in the Americas . Ancient hearths and art dates from more than 25,000 years ago, something that rewrote the history books. In fact the range could be 50,000-30,000 years ago.
For a great overview of the park, check out this Google Arts and Culture presentation, with some great photos and more key facts. It’s also fun to explore the park with street view on Google Maps - the photo spheres are either at great views or rock art sites.
That’s the park’s most famous formation, which I did include in my story based around here. Speaking of my story, I felt I could share one quote. Following that there’s a selection of photos, all from Wikimedia Commons.
Life… Ancient animals and people living in a harmony. The slowly setting sun bathes every creature and pore of stone, dirt and plant in a gorgeous golden-hour glow, like a wave of life-giving ambrosia… so many vistas. It is like some grand children’s book of illustrations… like an El Dorado-Eden of life… animated by a god’s hand.
There’s maybe a jaguar and some other animals too, including bees, or rather, possibly their hive. In the scene, a potential stick-figure family can be seen around a hive, dipping their hands and tasting some honey. There’s another very interesting scene of people surrounding a leafless tree, posed as if they’re worshipping it.
And there are many more wonderful and lively scenes of people from this site, interacting amongst themselves and with animals, so different to European art in content and style from this time. But I suppose it’s the same impetus that these people all carried with them out of Africa (and through Eurasia).
I couldn’t find photos I could use of some of those scenes, but there is this whole gallery here of plenty more scenes of people and animals, for those so inclined.
That brings us to an end of this exploration of a long time ago. I hope you enjoyed! I really appreciate the opportunity to share these two facets of my reading/writing life. Thank you for supporting me on this endeavour!
Harvey