Del Rey's 90s Star Wars Novel Reprints

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. As promised I'm here to talk about Del Rey's 90s reprints of their classic late 70s and early 80s Star Wars novels. While these books had many reprints throughout the last few decades, I'm going to be focusing on the reprints that have the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the front covers. So let's get into it.

First up is The Star Wars Trilogy, which contains the novelizations of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. This compilation was originally published in 1987. This edition was published in 1989, which is weird to me given that nobody knew if there were any Star Wars fans out there anymore in 1989, which is why it was a gamble for Lucasfilm to decide to work with Bantam Spectra to publish Heir to the Empire in 1991. All three novelizations also got new editions with the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the front cover in 1994. I had the 1993 edition that didn't have "Classic" in the title. Mine was a later printing though as it had an ad in the back of the book for the novelization of The Phantom Menace, which wasn't coming out until 1999, and I didn't get it until 1999 or 2000.

Next is Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, which was originally published in 1978, less than a year after Star Wars had been out in theaters. This edition contains an introduction by George Lucas, which was written just before he began writing the first draft of the script for The Phantom Menace. Oddly enough this introduction was included in all future editions of this book, including the 2015 Legends banner edition. This was also the first edition of the book to have the "Star Wars" logo printed anywhere on the book, though it's not on the title page for the book.

Next is The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, which includes Han Solo at Stars' End, Han Solo's Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, which were originally published individually in 1979, and 1980. This compilation was originally published, without the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the cover in 1992, which is the edition that I have in my collection, but was reprinted with the logo in 1994. In 1997 all three books got their own individual editions with the logo on them. This would also be the last time the books would have their own individual editions published for whatever reason.

Finally there was The Lando Calrissian Adventures by L. Neil Smith, which includes Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka, which were all originally published individually in 1983 and were the last Star Wars novels to be published until Heir to the Empire in 1991. This was the first time this compilation would be published and it came out in a trade paperback edition as well as a mass market paperback edition. For some reason the individual books didn't get republished outside of the compilation after their initial 1983 publications. So the only way you can read these books is through this compilation, including its mid 2010s Legends banner mass market paperback edition and its 2024 Essential Legends Collection trade paperback edition.

The reason I wanted to do this post is because whenever people talk about Star Wars books from the 90s, they always talk about the ones published by Bantam Spectra, but I think a lot of people forget that, while Del Rey lost the license to publish new Star Wars novels, they could still reprint the books they'd published in the late 70s and early 80s, similar to how Bantam was still able to keep their Star Wars books in print throughout the 2000s and early 2010s despite the fact that Del Rey had the license for the franchise. Plus Del Rey was publishing the Essential Guide reference book series in the late 90s before getting the novel license back. Not to mention both publishing companies are owned by Random House, so the license has remained in house for the last fifty years.

These editions would've been the ones I might've been introduced to these earlier Star Wars books in the 90s had they been on the shelves at the bookstore. Instead I got the 1992 edition of The Han Solo Adventures, because I think my parents had it before me (they had Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command which is how I got those books), a 1979 paperback edition of Splinter of the Mind's Eye from a friend of mine in high school (before buying a copy of the 2006 edition in 2009 or 2010), and the 2005 edition of The Lando Calrissian Adventures, which I got in like 2012 or 2013. Still though, I'm glad I had the chance to read this original books as they're quite different from later Star Wars novels. 

Alright my friends that's it for me for today and it for me for this week. I'll be back next week for more posts. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be writing about next week, but I have some ideas. So until then have a great rest of your day and a great rest of your week and I will talk to you all later. Take care.