Next update May 4
This is it. No more delays. No more mystery. The novel I’ve been working on has been officially announced. The title pretty much says it all: Revan.
That’s right – I’m writing a novel about the main character of what may arguably be BioWare’s most popular game of all time. Click HERE for the official announcement, along with a short interview I gave discussing the book in more detail.
Based on the e-mails I’ve received, I know that many fans have been dying to see a novel about Revan. So many people asked me about it that I added it to my FAQ page… and I still get e-mails asking about it. (Seriously, people – read the FAQ. That’s what it’s for.)
So, obviously everyone is going to love this, right? Wrong. I realize in taking on this task that I’m opening myself up for a lot of potential criticism from the KOTOR and Revan fans. So I’m going to try and address some of those concerns with this post in a short Q and A.
Q: Hey – you said in your FAQ that you didn’t want to write a novel about Revan because books on video games don’t work. Remember all that stuff you wrote about Throne of Bhaal on your novels page?
A: I remember. But this is different. (And not just because I got a nice, fat check for this book. Though that didn’t hurt.) I still think a book that tries to tell the story of a BioWare video game will fail. But even though this novel is about Revan, it’s not just a rehash of the KOTOR story. The book focuses on what happened after KOTOR: Revan’s adventures that are hinted at in KOTOR 2, as well as what happened to him and the Exile after KOTOR 2. This is a new story with a familiar character.
Q: Wait – how can the character be familiar? In the game, players picked Revan’s gender and they got to choose between a light and dark side ending!
A: Okay, you got me. To write this novel, we had to make some choices. But Revan has already been enshrined in the Star Wars canon as a male who redeemed himself at the end of KOTOR. I just took that and ran with it.
Q: But you’re invalidating my whole KOTOR experience. You’re destroying my memories of my beloved female Revan who was a dark side bad-ass!
A: That’s not really a question.
Q: Okay, I’ll rephrase: why are you destroying my KOTOR memories?
A: I don’t see it that way. First, you still got to enjoy KOTOR – I don’t have a time machine to go back in the past and change that. And even while you were playing it, you had to know your version might not be the “official” version. So nothing’s really changed. And in order to tell Revan’s story properly, we had to have one canonical version of the character and events.
Q: Couldn’t you have told the story while leaving the gender unclear through carefully written dialog and scenes?
A: No. Not realistically. Not without it being the worst novel in the history of novels.
Q: I still say you’re ruining my KOTOR memories. You should have left Revan’s story untold.
A: Again, not a question. But I’ll answer anyway. Some fans feel this way. But many more fans want to know what happened to Revan. They feel his story is unfinished. They’ve been waiting years to find out what happened to him (and the Exile).
This has been building for a long time. It was inevitable. Revan was too popular not to get his own novel. And – to be brutally honest – I don’t think anyone else should write it but me. As the lead writer on KOTOR I know the canonical version of Revan better than anyone, so I wouldn’t trust anyone else with this novel.
Q: Wow – when did you get so full of yourself?
A: Like the demand for a Revan novel, this has been building for a long, long time.
Q: So are you going to mess up the canon with Revan and the Exile like you did with Bane and those Dark Horse comics?
A: Probably. I do my best to stay faithful to the original material, whether it was written by me or by someone else. But there’s a LOT of details encompassed in the KOTOR games, and I might get one or two small facts slightly wrong. Seriously – it’s almost impossible to write something in the Star Wars universe without accidentally contradicting some small piece of established lore from somewhere else. There’s just so much stuff out there that nobody can keep every single detail perfectly consistent.
But I’ve tried my damnedest not to violate canon. And – more importantly – I feel like I’ve captured the spirit, flavor and magic of the KOTOR games in the novel. I’ve got a special place in my heart for Revan, and I didn’t want to *$!@ this up.
Q: I didn’t play KOTOR. Will I be able to follow the story?
A: Yes. I wrote it so that someone who doesn’t know the tale of Revan or the Exile will still be able to follow and enjoy the story. I do think it will have more impact and resonate more if you at least know the basics, however. If you haven’t played the games and you want an overview of the story, check out the entry for KOTOR and KOTOR2 on wookieepediea. (By the way – SPOILERS!)
Q: Okay, I’m convinced. This novel is going to kick-ass!
A: Not a question, but I’ll let it slide.
Q: When does the book go on sale?
A: We don’t have an exact date yet, but as details emerge I will announce them here on the website and on my Twitter feed.
Okay, that’s it for this update. Next update in a couple weeks, where I’ll talk a bit more about the new novel. Hopefully I’ll have some info on previews, the cover, and other cool stuff like that.
Drew