If you've been following Star Wars novels at all, you know that Del Rey's primary focus at the moment is the stories of the characters from the Classic Trilogy. With the exception of the excellent Jedi Apprentice Series featuring Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan and the upcoming Greg Bear novel that takes place between Ep. 1 and 2, this is about all you'll see in books of your favorite Episode I characters. Dark Horse comics has a bit more freedom with those characters, though. They've been featuring the continuing adventures of Ki-Adi-Mundi and Aurra Sing.

We'd still love to see some new tales spun off of Episode I, so here's our wish list. Maybe you'll agree with us on some of these.

Darth Maul - We'd love to see a novel telling the origin of Darth Maul. We'd like to know where he came from, who his parents were, what turned him to the Dark Side, and how he met Darth Sidious. We'd love to see what his training was like and some of his early adventures. Of course, George Lucas may not be entirely done with this baddie yet, so who knows what any author might be allowed to do. We'd love to see a book like this turned into a trilogy or one big beefy 800 page hardback.

Tales from Naboo - This would be a perfect series of short stories like Tales of the Bounty Hunters. We'd love to see a story telling about Jar Jar's background and how he was thrown out of Otoh Gunga. (Yes, the Visual Dictionary hints at this, but a full story is worthwhile.) This would have to be a short story because the Gungan language would be annoying to read if it was any longer. We'd love to see a story telling the background of Queen Amidala. Where was she raised? Who were her parents? Did she have brothers or sisters? How did she become Queen? A short story of the Handmaidens would be great, too, detailing their training and background. Going back to the Gungans, the origin of Boss Nass would be great. The Gungans are obviously a warrior people. If they didn't fight the Naboo, who did they fight? What makes Boss Nass a worthy ruler of these people? Stories about Captain Panaka, Bravo Squadron, and Palpatine becoming Senator would be cool.

Darth Bane - OK, how did the Sith get started? The novelization of Episode I discusses a huge Sith War where all were eliminated except Darth Bane. As it describes, he was the one who set the rules for the Sith cult that Maul and Sidious follow. We'd love to see this story and all the Sith killing each other off. We'd like to see what made Darth Bane so bad that he was the last man standing. Who was his apprentice? We'd also like to see some Sith Witches, as shown in the Art of Episode I.

Pod Racers - We'd like to see a novel detailing the pod racers going from planet to planet on a racing circuit. It would be fun to see all the things that go on behind the scenes of these races. It wouldn't even have to be all the characters seen in Episode I to make it interesting. An upcoming comic will feature the pod racers in a race on Malastare, but there's definitely room for more stories with them.

Tales of the Jedi Council - An obvious choice would be a story detailing early adventures of Mace Windu, Yaddle, Even Piell, Yoda, and the rest of the gang. The short story format would go great with this.

Qui-Gon Jinn - A novel detailing the origin of Qui-Gon and his early training would be great. We'd love to see why the council is so wary of him. We also know that Qui-Gon had two apprentices before Obi-Wan. We've seen one in the Jedi Apprentice novels. Who was the first one?

Anakin and Shmi - We definitely need to find out more about how Shmi was taken as a slave, how Anakin was born, how they became slaves of Gardulla, how they ended up with Watto, etc etc etc. This would definitely be a powerful novel, though it is questionable whether Lucas would allow anyone to go there just yet. Episode 2 may come into play and reveal more information about this time.

"Shadows of the Federation" - A 'Shadows of the Empire'-style story revealing the layer upon layer of planning in the removal of Naboo's King Verona, the manipulation of Amidala's election and the connection with Jabba the Hutt's assassins recently returned from Naboo.

Well, that's our wish list....for now. Hopefully we'll see some great new stories in the books and comics!

Scott Chitwood & Paul Ens
September 7, 1999