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Vector Prime is the first installment of the New Jedi Order series. It is a science fiction novel written by R. A. Salvatore and published by Del Rey in October 1999. The galactic maps printed inside were designed by Daniel Wallace and Chris Barbieri.

Contents 1 Conception 2 Production 2.1 Starting the series 2.2 A new beginning 3 Promotion and release 3.1 Cover 3.2 Advertising 4 Characters 4.1 Luke Skywalker 4.2 Leia Organa Solo 4.3 Han Solo 4.4 Chewbacca 4.5 Mara Jade Skywalker 4.6 Lando Calrissian 4.7 The Solo children 4.8 Kyp Durron 4.9 Danni Quee 4.10 Nom Anor 4.11 Yomin Carr 5 Plot summary 6 Editions 7 Continuity 7.1 Major changes 8 Reception 8.1 Chewbacca's death 9 Appearances 10 Notes and references 11 External links 12 See also

[edit] Conception

From 1990 to 1999, Bantam Spectra held the contract for Star Wars novels. In this time, all of the titles published by the company were either one-shots or trilogies. While continuity was kept track of between the novels and works published by other Star Wars licensees, it grew more unwieldy to do so as the number of works increased. Furthermore, the Bantam novels were published in random positions around the timeline rather than in chronological order, and it became apparent to Lucasfilm Ltd. that readers wanted to see a new, more sequential approach. The Director of Publishing for Lucasfilm, Lucy Wilson, first considered creating a sequential interconnected series of novels towards the end of Bantam's publishing run. With the approaching release of the prequel trilogy, the license for Star Wars novels was renegotiated with Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books, in 1997. As part of the agreement, the rights for a spin-off program consisting of a sequential series—initially thirty books, and later revised down to nineteen—were secured.^[1]

At this point, Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey, was brought in on the project. In March 1998, a meeting was scheduled at Skywalker Ranch between Lucasfilm licensing employees, Del Rey employees, a number of authors including Michael Stackpole and James Luceno, and representatives of Dark Horse Comics. The New Jedi Order series was born out of this two-day meeting. Running from 1999 to 2003, the series would include five hardcovers that told the major events and a number of paperbacks, the details of which would be filled in later. Also, for the first time, the idea of killing off a beloved character was discussed; the intent was to raise the tension of the series and make the audience feel that war had consequences. A follow-up meeting in May of that year fine-tuned the ideas raised in the first, and Luceno worked with Shapiro and Del Rey editor Kathleen O'Shea to map out a five-year plan for the series, working from Shapiro's rudimentary outline, that included major plot points, character arcs, and details on the society of the Yuuzhan Vong, the series' villains. Del Rey was in communication with George Lucas in this time; they sent him the five-year plan and a memo on thoughts of who might die. Del Rey's initial pick for the major death was Luke Skywalker, but Lucas vetoed this, as well as the idea of the villains being dark side Force users and Anakin Solo being the hero.^[1]

[edit] Production

[edit] Starting the series

By August of 1998, Ballantine was looking for an author to start the series. They submitted a list of potential authors to Lucasfilm to approve or veto—amongst the names was R. A. Salvatore, a fantasy author working for Del Rey. Ballantine wanted to show off their own authors to the Star Wars audience, and as one of the larger names at Del Rey, Salvatore was their pick. The editors additionally felt his style of action writing would be suitable for the Star Wars franchise. Salvatore, however, was hesitant, having not read any Star Wars books, though he had been a fan of the films since the original was released in 1977. Editors at Lucasfilm assured him that they would help him with continuity, giving him characters and elements from previous Expanded Universe works to include. Salvatore was initially given, as guidance, instructions to use the main characters from the movies and basic information on the Yuuzhan Vong.^[2]

Though Luke Skywalker had been vetoed as a possibility, the issue of a major character death had not been dropped. The New Jedi Order team knew that if the war they were plotting was to be taken seriously, a major movie character would have to die, something never done before in the Expanded Universe (Crix Madine was the only speaking character from the movies killed in the Expanded Universe at this point). Randy Stradley of Dark Horse Comics was the first to propose killing Chewbacca, who he called the "family dog." Lucas had made a list of characters they could not kill, and Chewbacca was not on it—between that and the emotional reaction the planning team had had even considering the possibility, Chewbacca became the slated death.^[1] Salvatore did not react well. Not wanting to be known as "the author who killed Chewbacca," he almost canceled the book deal. However, he was contracted to do the book, and after multiple phone calls Salvatore became convinced of the value of the decision.^[2] Though the decision to kill Chewbacca was made by Del Rey, Salvatore was given free reign to write the death scene however he saw fit. Other changes included the switch from Anakin Solo to Jacen Solo as the hero of the series, which took place while Vector Prime was being outlined.^[1]

[edit] A new beginning

As The New Jedi Order was designed to bring in a new wave of Expanded Universe readers, Del Rey intentionally avoided including too much Bantam novel continuity, particularly in the earlier works of the series like Vector Prime.^[1] Part of Del Rey's original instructions to Salvatore were to "get back…to the feel of the movies" and provide simply the flavor of the older Expanded Universe.^[2] Del Rey wanted to remove the predictability that they felt had set in and return the characters to their movie characterizations, so they considered that the death of Chewbacca could provide those characters a reason to re-evaluate themselves and revert to the personalities that the movies has popularized.^[1] Salvatore took to this idea, shaping Han Solo, Mara Jade, and the Solo children amongst others through the drastic changes he wrote into their life.^[2]

Salvatore had not read Vision of the Future, the last adult novel to fall chronologically before Vector Prime, as it was not available at the time, but he followed on from the events in that book by having Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade be married. While he did not include many of the other supporting cast of the Expanded Universe, both because of Del Rey's edict and because he wanted to leave use of these characters open for later authors, Lucasfilm gave Salvatore preexisting characters to fit in certain roles that he had written. Kyp Durron and Nom Anor were two characters brought into the series this way.^[2]

He also took an integral hand in shaping the Yuuzhan Vong. While the initial concepts had them use both conventional technology and biological weapons such as plagues, Salvatore made the species entirely based around biotechnology, an idea that Lucasfilm approved. The suit-like ooglith cloakers and ooglith masquers, coralskipper starfighters, and gravity-manipulating dovin basals—an idea Salvatore got from a 1950s science fiction movie about a gravity-powered spaceship found in the Arctic—were all invented by Salvatore.^[2]

According to Salvatore, his goals were twofold: to write a fun story, and to provide a basis for the rest of The New Jedi Order.^[2]

[edit] Promotion and release

[edit] Cover

The cover for Vector Prime was created by graphic artist Cliff Nielsen. It features Luke Skywalker and the villain Nom Anor; the latter was based off a picture of a friend of Nielsen. 85% of it was painted over, using both traditional and digital paints, but enough of the original photograph was left behind to create human-like landmarks on the face. Nielsen used the rest of the cover to establish a glimpse of the Yuuzhan Vong culture; though he initially found it a challenge to provide images that looked organic and photographic, but also had elements of the foreign and other-worldly in it, he ultimately used electron microscope images as inspiration. Some of the starfighters on the cover were also based on images of trilobites. Nielsen made it a goal to establish familiar elements of the Star Wars universe as well, to make the cover recognizable as part of it.^[3]

Before the novel's release, the cover received a great deal of scrutiny from fans, who searched for meaning in the faces that appeared or the way images were laid out. Nielsen and Dave Stevenson, Art Director for the Vector Prime cover intentionally designed the cover to hide elements under layers and have an idea of the story laid out in the cover. Nielsen was told that Chewbacca would die, but was not allowed to reveal it; as a hidden way of communicating this, he placed Chewbacca in the background on the back cover,^[3] a location that became known by some fans as the "Death Spot" after Anakin Solo appeared there in Star by Star (the book in which he died).^[4]

For its Japanese release, Vector Prime was split into two parts due to its size. Each half was given its own cover, painted by Tsuyoshi Nagano, that together joined in the middle to form a single, large diptych. The backdrop of the image is the galaxy, over which is laid the logo of the New Republic in flames. Behind this is the face of Nom Anor, and to either side of him are Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, and Chewbacca.^[5]

[edit] Advertising

[edit] Characters

[edit] Luke Skywalker

[edit] Leia Organa Solo

[edit] Han Solo

[edit] Chewbacca

[edit] Mara Jade Skywalker

[edit] Lando Calrissian

[edit] The Solo children

[edit] Kyp Durron

[edit] Danni Quee

[edit] Nom Anor

[edit] Yomin Carr

[edit] Plot summary

In the Jade Sabre, Mara Jade Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, her daughter Jaina Solo, and the droid C-3PO are approaching the New Republic vessel Mediator, stationed near the worlds Rhommamool and Osarian while the Republic negotiates a peace settlement. The Osarians attempt to waylay them to visit Osarian first and attack the Sabre, but they are driven off by the Jedi Wurth Skidder. On Rhommamool, Nom Anor and his Red Knights of Life purge the planet of its droids. Revealed to be a Yuuzhan Vong agent provocateur, Anor muses on how he infected Mara Jade Skywalker with a fatal coomb spore disease. Anor meets with Leia, Mara, and Jaina, and stonewalls them in negotiations; they leave, but not before Anor has them watch the Red Knights destroying droids. On their way back to Coruscant, Leia and Mara discuss Mara's disease.

On Coruscant, Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo meet with the New Republic Advisory Council and Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya to discuss Luke's plans for a new Jedi Council, but many councilors are hostile to the New Jedi Order. After the meeting, Luke and Jacen meet with Han Solo and his son Anakin, who are working with R2-D2 and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon. They discuss Lando Calrissian, who is running a mining operation from Dubrillion. Later, as Anakin practices with his lightsaber, he and Jacen have an argument on a Jedi's proper use of the Force; they engage each other in a practice duel, each trying to prove his own point, and Jacen wins. Mara, Jaina, and Leia soon return, and after each group briefs the other on the events that occurred while they were away, Han proposes that they all take a trip to visit Lando on Dubrillion. They stop at Reecee on the way there, where Jacen and Luke have a conversation about what the Jedi should be. Han and Chewbacca visit a local bar to learn about Lando's operations; they find that in addition to mining, he's using the asteroid field to train smugglers to evade Kyp Durron and his Dozen-and-Two Avengers. Back on Rhommamool, Nom Anor continues his plan to distract the Republic from the ensuing invasion by having the Rhommamoolians launch their missiles at Ossarian.

Meanwhile, at the ExGal-4 station on the world of Belkadan, a group of scientists including Danni Quee watch the edge of the galaxy for signs of extragalactic life. Among them is the Yuuzhan Vong agent Yomin Carr, who detects the Yuuzhan Vong fleet entering along Vector Prime, their planned invasion corridor. After communicating with Nom Anor, Carr sabotages the transmitter so the scientists cannot communicate this when they find out. Danni later sees the fleet's signal herself, and Carr convinces the group to not reveal their discovery until they have studied it more. Believing it to be an asteroid or comet, they track it by sensor to the Helska system, where it appears to crash on Helska 4. In actuality, the leader Prefect Da'Gara has landed his worldship on the icy planet; he then deploys his war coordinator, the yammosk. The scientists discover that their communications are gone, but devise a plan: Danni, Bensin Tomri, and Cho Badeleg are to take their Spacecaster shuttle to Helska and contact the outside on their way there, while the others fix the communications at the base. Yomin Carr and Garth Breise head out to the transmitter, where Carr kills him. In space, the shuttle crew notice an unusual storm building over the planet—a result of Yomin Carr's terraforming, unknown to them. They try to contact the base, but communications are poor because of the storm, and they head onto Helska.

Four of the scientists head out into Belkadan's jungle to investigate the storm. On their first night out, they are awoken by a noxious gas and put on their enviro-suits. In the morning they find that the plants themselves are producing the gas, which is poisonous. They start to head back, but soon Bendodi Ballow-Reese gives away his oxygen and orders the others to go on without him, killing Luther De'Ono when he disobeys. Tee-ubo Doole gives the last of her oxygen to Jerem Cadmir, telling him to make it back to the base and warn the rest. He runs into Yomin Carr outside the compound, who reveals himself to be a Yuuzhan Vong and kills Cadmir. Carr then goes on to kill the rest of the scientists one by one. Meanwhile, the Spacecaster arrives at Helska and investigates the worldship; they are soon set upon by what first appear to be meteors, but are in fact Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers. The coralskippers fire a villip, a communications device, into the vessel; it inverts to show the face of Da'Gara, who greets them. The coralskippers then disable the Spacecaster and it crashes, killing Cho. Danni comes to, imprisoned in a cave in Helska's icy shell, and watches as the Yuuzhan Vong kill Bensin. Da'Gara tells her that Yomin Carr has said she is to be respected and given an honorable death; attaching a gnullith to her face to let her breathe, Da'Gara throws her into the waters under the ice and dives in after her.

[edit] Editions

[edit] Continuity

[edit] Major changes

[edit] Reception

[edit] Chewbacca's death

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

The New Jedi Order
Vector Prime · Dark Tide I: Onslaught · Dark Tide II: Ruin · Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial · Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse Balance Point · Edge of Victory I: Conquest · Edge of Victory II: Rebirth · Star by Star · Dark Journey Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream · Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand · Traitor · Destiny's Way · Ylesia Force Heretic I: Remnant · Force Heretic II: Refugee · Force Heretic III: Reunion · The Final Prophecy · The Unifying Force Short stories Recovery · Emissary of the Void · The Apprentice · Or Die Trying

Category:New Jedi Order novels