Brightstar Universe
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Brightstar Universe was a Star Wars fan-created, alternate universe series by Christine Jeffords. At least one of the parts ("Honor's Price") was co-authored by eluki bes shahar.
Its focus was an original character named Mari Sevenstars:
The main character is Mari Sevenstars, a recurring character in Jeffords' 'Brightstar" series. She is an "Azaeli" with—we are repeatedly told--a fierce and sometimes dangerous temperament. Han is her "swordbrother" and she sets about to organize a galaxy-wide search for Han, who is still in Jabba's clutches. [1]
Set in Another Fan's Universe
"Brightstar" takes place in the same universe as as described by Helen Montgomery in her article, "A Visit to Corell, which was published in Galactic Flight #2 and reprinted in Outlands Chronicles #1 Jeffords writes about this cross-pollination, as well as others, in the editorial of for "Outlands Chronicles" #2:
It might be worthwhile at this point to say something about how Eva's capstone-story, "Year the Dragon," came to be. All the other contributions came the usual route, as submissions, but "YotP," as we call it, was written specifically for OC. Eva and I have been transatlantic correspondents for some years now, and back, in '79 I sent her a copy of a poem I'd just written. I was a little shy of submitting it anywhere — I never claimed to be a very good poet — but Eva was so entranced by it that I agreed to offer it to FACETS, which published it in their fourth issue ("The Smuggler and the Jedi"). About three-quarters of the way along the poem there was a sequence that mentioned "...Zera/who first taught me the wonders/of a girl's body and a boy's/joining, on the cliffs above/the Tea of Dragons..." Eva asked me if I'd ever expanded on that, and I said, "no, I hadn't, except for a passing mention in a story called "The Doppelganger." So she wanted to know if I would mind her trying it. "Go ahead," said I, and even supplied her with background on 'my' version of Corell and of Han's family. My good friend Helen Montgomery, whose "Visit to Corell" I had been using (with her permission) as my own planetary environment, graciously allowed Eva to do the same, and consented to have the article republished here as a sort of preface to the story, so that readers who hadn’t seen it before would know what sort of world they were about to enter. So "Dragon" is actually, like "Search," a 'Brightstar Universe' story — but it's also very uniquely Eva's.
Original Title?
In Shadowstar #17 (Winter 1985), the author refers to "Honor's Price" as "part one, from The Pirate and the Lady series by Christine Jeffords." It is unknown if this title was an early or alternative one for the entire series, or for a cycle within the series.
About
The stories were written due to "the severe disappointment over the plot of the Return of the Jedi" [2]; the plot is disregarded in this series.
From the preface of "Legacy" in 1984:
By the time "Legacy" sees print, most of its readers will have seen THE RETURN OE THE JEDI (as the author anticipates having done also). But, like various other fannish Universes (the Thousand Worlds of Maggie Nowakowska comes immediately to mind), the Brightstar Cycle, of which "Legacy" is a pivolai part, remains valid and "true" despite any revelations made in The Movie.
Like the preceding Brightstar chronicles, "Legacy" takes place in an alternate and independent SW Reality, preceded by the events of ANH and TESB as we saw them on the screen. The reasons for its "parallelism" should become quickly apparent to its readers, and will not be enumerated here. It is the take-off point for all future Brightstar chronicles, of which several are planned.
A description from Far Realms #7:
The Brightstar Universe (based upon The History of the Rebellion: An Human Overview compiled by Artan Brightstars, Singer to Clan Phonthon-Azael, at the command of his path'andim, Mari Sevenstars) diverges from the George Lucas timeline immediately after TESB, and continues to a point about 45 years after Brightstar in Glory, its analog of ROTJ. It also includes a number of stories set before ANH and between ANH and TESB. A total of fifty-odd tales of varying lengths, plus a few poems, are included; of these about thirty have been published or accepted as of this writing. (October, 1984).
The major created characters of the Brightstar Universe— Mari Sevenstars, space pirate and Alliance privateer; Skye Amberson, fugitive Jedi; Jerim Lornay, Alderaani nobleman and undercover courier; and assorted Free Spacers, New Jedi, and Imperials—interact constantly with the Lucas group in a story-series in which the chief differences from the Gospel include: (1) that Luke and Leia are not related and never haVe been (2) that Han is not in love with Leia and does not marry her (3) that Darth Vader and Skywalker Sr. were two different people (4) that Han was never in service.
Plans are afoot to publish the entire Brightstar Cycle as a special multivolume item from the author's Phantom Press. Watch your local adzine for news.
Other Prominent Early Star Wars Fan-Created Universes
- Brightstar Universe by Christine Jeffords
- Catalyst! Universe by Jeanine Hennig
- Collected Circle of Fire by Anne Elizabeth Zeek
- The Cori Beckett Series by Judi L. Hendricks and Paula Block
- The Executor Cycle by Barbara T and Sylvia Stevens
- Maeve Solo Universe by Chris Callahan and L.C. Wells
- New Order Series by Pat Stanley
- ThousandWorlds by Maggie Nowakowska and Dyane Kirkland
- First Steps Universe by Samia Martz
The Brightstar Stories
- Search (Outlands Chronicles #1) (June 1983)
- Search Suite (Outlands Chronicles #1) (June 1983)
- Brightstar Universe Scorecard (Outlands Chronicles #3) (1984)
- The Initiation (Outlands Chronicles #2)
- Jubilee's Daughter (Outlands Chronicles #3)
- Old Comrade's Children (Outlands Chronicles #4)
- Imperial Charter (Outlands Chronicles #4)
- The Second Time Around (Facets #6)
- Life Day Peril (Kessel Run #2)
- Departures (Kessel Run #1)
- Confidences (Facets #4)
- Brightstar Rising (Conflicting Impulses #2)
- Honor's Price part 1 (co-written with eluki bes shahar) (Shadowstar #17)
- Honors' Price part 2 (co-written with eluki bes shahar) (Shadowstar #18)
- Fire in the Steel: Warrior's Blood: Quite an Item Together (Far Realms #7)
- Trust (Far Realms 6)
- Hostage (Circle of Light #2 (1985)
- The Doppelgänger part 1 (Flip of a Coin #4/5)
- The Doppleganger part 2 (Flip of a Coin #6)
- While We're Apart (Eva Albertsson is a co-writer) (Outlands Chronicles #2)
- Quite an Item Together (Far Realms #7)
- A Small Circle of Friends (Circle of Light #1)
- The Insurgents (Echo Seven)
- Echoes (Hoth or Bust)
- Legacy (Legends of Light #2)
- Search (Outlands Chronicles #1)
- Questions in the Dark (Kessel Run #3)
- Honorbound (Circle of Light #3)
- Obligation (Circle of Light #4)
- The Privilege of Her Burning part 1 (Shadowstar #21/23)
- The Privilege of Her Burning part 2 (Shadowstar #23)
- Tomorrow's Yesterday (Far Realms #8)
- Pirate's Return (Far Realms #9)
Brightstar Poems and Small Items
- What Are They Doing To Me? (Facets #3)
- The Smuggler and the Jedi (Facets #3)
- You Ain't Gonna Go (Facets #3)
- After the Battle (Falcon's Flight #5)
- Impossible (Far Realms #3)
- Little Cub Lost (Circle of Light #3)
Some Illos
inside pages from "Conflicting Impulses" #2, from "Brightstar Rising"
inside pages from "Conflicting Impulses" #2, from "Brightstar Rising" - art by Elizabeth Hoolihan
inside pages from "Conflicting Impulses" #2, from "Brightstar Rising" - art by Elizabeth Hoolihan
inside pages from "Conflicting Impulses" #2, from "Brightstar Rising" - art by Elizabeth Hoolihan
References
- ^ from Southern Enclave #4
- ^ from Bright Center of the Universe #8