Genre: Sci-Fi. Out the assssssss
Notes: 8/50 books for the year. Slightly ashamed I read fan fiction, but it wasn’t bad. And makes for a good blog topic.
Review: Fan fiction. Let’s talk about it. On the whole, Karpyshyn’s book wasn’t bad. I’m not about to go and get more Star Wars books, but he penned an interesting story of the Old Republic and the battle between the Sith and Jedi. If my research is correct, Karpyshyn is the creator of the Star Wars Old Republic video game. His strength lies in the visual realm and not particularly the written realm. He has the amazing ability to create a solid story, but doesn’t have the writer tools to take it to that next level.
For example, one of my biggest pet peeves is when authors repeat themselves. Not in literary tools like alliteration or metaphors, but in like literally repeating a rarely used word within the same page or two. In this book, Bane “sauntered” back to his house from the mines. And then, in the next paragraph, “sauntered” to the bar. Really? I rarely saunter, and when I do, I only do it once.
Reading this book brings up an interesting discussion about fan fiction. Legit? or not? I have absolutely no facts to back this up, but I feel like the Star Wars franchise has spawned the most fan fiction. I mean, from one trilogy to three more prequels to side stories about the sith. How do these authors get published? Are they self-published (like a lot of authors are doing nowadays) or is there one publishing house that runs all of these Star Wars spinoffs? I mean, can I just slap some Star Wars shit together and sell it under that brand?
Confession: when I was like 11 or 12, I literally could not wait for the next Harry Potter to come out. I had read the first three and couldn’t contain my excitement for the fourth. So I started writing it. I don’t remember what I wrote (and I don’t think I kept it) but I wrote like a solid 30-40 pages before I lost interest in the project and became content to wait. I’m sure it was awful. Even to my nerdy 12-year-old self, something about using J.K Rowling’s characters as my own felt wrong. I was, like..stealing.
Aren’t characters created by the author intellectual property? I mean, if I went through all of the trouble to create this alternate universe and come up with all of the laws of the land, you better not profit off of my creative genius. I’m flattered you chose to imitate me, but a significant chunk of those earnings better end up in my pocket.
According to wikipedia (Legit source, I know. Shut up. The page is surprisingly well researched):
Fanfiction is not infringing if it constitutes fair use of the underlying copyrighted work. In determining whether a particular use constitutes fair use, courts consider the following four factors:
- “the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
However,
Fan writers who argue that their work is legal through the fair use doctrine use specific fair use arguments in the context of fan works, such as:
- Fan works do not deprive the owner of the source material of income
- Fan works may work as free advertisement and promotion of the original source material
- Fan works are usually non-profit.
- Fan works do not copy, or attempt to substitute for, the original work
To which I say, fuck you, sir. Your book would not exist without my idea. Therefore, any profits you make off of my idea are mine. I may be coming down too harshly against fan fiction, but I firmly believe an author’s creation (especially something like Star Wars) represents a life’s work. It is not easy to create something out of nothing. The fan fic author is not creating, he is piggy backing on the shoulders of a giant. What do you think?
Bottom Line: I felt my nerd-ometer go up exponentially reading this book. And even more when I talk about it. However, Darth Bane’s story is almost as interesting as the history of Darth Vader – the anti-hero rises again!
The Biblio Files 
Reblogged this on finnegan2749.
I recently did a short piece about fan fiction myself – occasionally I indulge in writing fan fiction (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) on a Buffy related site, but it’s just for fun and meant as a writing exercise that hones my writer’s skills, not for profit. When writing fan fiction, we can concentrate on the story itself as well as on character development, since the original characters have already been created for us and actors have provided us with a “blue print”. As long as it’s used as a fun writing activity, I have no problem with fan fiction, but as you say, the fun stops when somebody’s trying to rip off the original creator. I’m surprised this person got away with it and hasn’t been sued by the Star Wars empire, yet.
Well, I think you’d be surprised at how many Star Wars books there are. And none of them are written by Lucas! I imagine he must have some sort of deal with the rights where he gets X% of sales or something because the authors are using the Star Wars brand. However, I think there are restrictions on who and what they can write about. For example, since Lucas chronicled the entire life of Darth Vader, I don’t think authors can re-write Darth’s story. But it’s definitely an interesting scenario!