Tatooine Ghost, and the connected e-book A Forest Apart, were written by Troy Denning in 2003 and were reprinted together in a single paperback at the end of that year. They are set only a matter of months after The Courtship of Princess Leia.

There is also a connected short story The trouble with Squibs which was published in Insider #67 and has been republished in hyperspace fiction here.

A Forest Apart is being discussed in the BC&T forum here and more information about it including its internet blurb can be found here.

I didn't post my thoughts on A Forest Apart, but I recall thinking that it was nice to read a story which centred on the Wookiees, and particularly nice to learn more about Chewbacca's relationship with his wife and son. It was quite entertaining following Chewie's son, Lumpy, on an adventure in unusual locations on Coruscant.

My thoughts on Tatooine Ghost were posted here:

I have just re-read this book also (holidays are wonderful, aren't they) and I think I enjoyed it more this third time around.

Also, knowing that Troy Denning will be writing the post NJO trilogy made it a little more interesting, wondering where he would be taking things from there.

Also, perhaps the finding of the datapad at Obi Wan Kenobi's will feature in the Zahn book due next February.

It was disappointing, but not unexpected, that there was still no reference to Padme. Again, hopefully the timing of the Denning trilogy will mean that he will be able to include discovery of her identity towards the end of series given that Ep III comes out right in the middle (I suppose that depends on whether or not GL gives him access to the material in advance).

This book is one of my favourite EU items and is a significant improvement on TCoPL. The relationship between Han and Leia is well presented and the cross referencing with TPM and AOTC is fabulous.

I also loved the inclusion of the squibs. The contradictions in their culture were really interestingly written and of course they were great light relief.

The hints of Thrawn were also good.

It was definitley worth buying this book overseas (it took nearly 3 months for it to be distributed in Melbourne bookshops for some reason ).

And then in response to a specific comment about Padme I posted:

The only other thing that bugged me was the fact that Padme wasn't mentioned at all, at least not really. I was surprised, given how much Anakin liked her even way back in Ep. I... you'd think Shmi would have said something about her in the journal.


I think many of us were also disappointed - but there was actually the practical/legal reason that there is an embargo on Padme in the post OT era until after Ep 3 comes out.

That's why so many of us are looking forward to the Denning trilogy in 2005 ... now if she's not mentioned in that we WILL be disappointed!

The "Denning trilogy" is The Dark Nest trilogy which I plan to review if I ever receive the third book in the mail...


Links to all of my reviews/overview blogs can be found in this blog.