Even though Star Wars: Visions has been on Disney+ for almost a month, it’s still a hot and beloved topic among fans of a galaxy far, far away. This is largely due to Ronin: A Visions Novel, the book that expands the story told in “The Duel” that released earlier this week.
Ronin is author Emma Mieko Candon’s first endeavor in the Star Wars universe — and it’s also their debut novel overall. An anime editor by day, Candon has impressive experience in Japanese-inspired storytelling, having both studied elements of it and being of Japanese descent.
Writing a book is hard enough; imagine your first book being a Star War! The author didn’t have to do it alone, though. The best advice Candon received before starting Ronin actually came from Del Rey editor Tom Hoeler, who oversees the development of many of the Star Wars books handled under that publisher.
“Because Tom said, one of the first things he says to me, I think this was how he closed our opening discussion: don’t write someone else’s Star Wars book, write your Star Wars book,” the author recalled in an interview with SYFY WIRE. “And I got the feeling he says that a lot. That’s very smart because it’s so much ensuring that each author is bringing in their very specific relationship with the work and also their own idea of it. And it’s successful because Star Wars is so strong as a narrative.”
The Lucasfilm Story Group, largely responsible for monitoring all the threads that tie each piece of Star Wars storytelling together to ensure as much continuity throughout as possible, also played a major role in helping Candon’s vision come to life.
“What I ended up doing for Ronin was taking the Star Wars canon and pulling it a little bit closer to Jidaigeki, to its source material,” Candon said. “And what was happening a lot of the time was they’re like, okay, let’s pull this part a little bit closer to Star Wars canon.”
Both Visions and Ronin are technically classified as non-canon stories set in the Star Wars universe. This just means that none of the stories told are connected to actual in-galaxy events; nothing that happens in the book or series of shorts impacts the larger story many audiences might be more familiar with.
But that has allowed Candon and the Story Group the chance to tell a unique yet familiar story of hope. A galaxy far, far away is a very big fictional universe. There’s room for all kinds of stories told by writers of many backgrounds and interests — even those who have studied Japanese monsters. Because why not?
Ronin: A Visions Novel is available now wherever Star Wars books are sold.