The first in a possible series of in-depth chronological analysis of the New Jedi Order novels, on the timing of Vector Prime. This is very much a work-in-progress, and any constructive comments or corrections are VERY welcome!
DAY ONE
Vector Prime begins with the Jade Sabre's arrival at Rhommammool/Osarian, and continues to sunset at Nom Anor's headquarters in Redhaven (pp. 1-20).
Meanwhile, it is evening/night on Belkadan, where Yomin Carr cuts the comm, and ExGal-4 detects the arrival of the first worldship (pp. 33-37); it's also daytime on Coruscant, where Luke and Jacen meet the NR Council (pp. 38-47); the news fron R/O has already arrived on Cour., and it's later implied that Luke and Jacen had just arrived that day on the Millennium Falcon (p. 60; in the original outline, I suspect that "Belkadan" was Yavin 4, and they'd just left there, but that's a discussion for another post).
The events on R/O resume "that night", where Nom Anor is informed that the Jade Sabre has arrived; he meets Leia, and she departs, all in the same night (pp. 48-60).
Meanwhile, on Coruscant, it's still daytime (pp. 60-67); the boys make a mess, and try to fix it. The trip to R/O is said to be "three days' travel" (p. 66).
DAY TWO
Over on Belkadan, the ExGal-4 team are watching the worldship on their sensors (pp. 68-75). It seems that these scenes span two days, since Danni insists that the comm should be fixed "tomorrow" rather than in the promised "two days"...
DAY THREE
... and then she hassles about it again later.
DAY FOUR
Scenes on Coruscant, around the time the Jade Sabre returns from R/O (pp. 76-93); dating implied by the three-day journey time stated previously (p. 60). They leave immediately for Dubrillion.
Scenes on Belkadan, during the night and the next day, when Danni Quee flirts with Yomin Carr (it should disturb us that she crushed on him and then on Jacen Solo) and heads to Helska (pp. 94-104); Nom Anor machinates at R/O (pp. 104-106).
DAY FIVE
The Millennium Falcon and the Jade Sabre have arrived at Reecee (pp. 107-116). Luke talks to Jacen about his fight with Anakin. Han does some intelligence-gathering.
There's no explicit indication of how long the Coruscant-to-Reecee jump was, but the fact that Luke only discusses the fight on Coruscant AFTER the arrival on Reecee suggests it happened pretty quickly, as does the timing of the Belkadan scenes: there seem to be at most two Belkadan nights between the Jade Sabre's arrival on Coruscant and the scenes taking place after its departure from Reecee (although we don't know how ong a Belkadan night actually is, to be fair).
In fact, this all COULD still be on Day Four, but I'm suspecting that the Star Warriors may have taken a night to refuel and re-arm.
Scenes on Belkadan (pp. 117-138); the Ex-Gal4 team investigate Yomin Carr's bugs. I'm assuming that there's an extra night before this, putting this firmly on Day Five; this takes one night...
DAY SIX
... and another...
DAY SEVEN
... and a survivor runs back through another...
DAY EIGHT
... only to be caught by Yomin Carr.
Meanwhile, Danni Quee's been captured and enslaved by Da'Gara at Helska.
DAY NINE
Not much seems to happen on Day Nine.
DAY TEN
If we're using five-day weeks, the Millennium Falcon could arrive at Dubrillion now, or even on Day Nine. However, this part is quite vague, and I'm going to guess it's the next day...
DAY ELEVEN
The Millennium Falcon arrives at Dubrillion (pp. 139-154); everyone does their first belt-run.
Yomin Carr attacks on Belkadan (pp. 158-167). By this point, the bugs have reached the base; I can't find any direct statement about the number of days since the previous Belkadan scene, back on Day Eight, but it's not DIRECTLY stated it's still the same day. The next chronological fix is "just over a week" later (p. 252).
DAY TWELVE
DAY THIRTEEN
DAY FOURTEEN
I'm placing Nom Anor's departure from R/O and the destruction of Mediator here (pp. 158-167), on the basis that Threepio said that the obvious time for an attack would be two weeks after Day One. If we're using five-day weeks, of course, this shuttles back to Day Ten, along with the previous stuff as well.
DAY FIFTEEN
DAY SIXTEEN
DAY SEVENTEEN
DAY EIGHTEEN
Approximately here (see Day Nineteen for the logic of the dating), we get more scenes at Dubrillion, and Kyp's squadron picks up signs of trouble at Belkadan; they head to Helska and run into the YV (pp.168-191).
Meanwhile, Lando asks Han to run a cargo, and Luke decides to check out Belkadan (pp. 181-199)...
DAY NINETEEN
... and the next morning, the Millennium Falcon leaves for Sernpidal (pp. 200-201). Luke leaves for Belkadan, too.
On Helska, Da'Gara tortures Danni Quee a lot (pp. 202-227); meanwhile, Da'Gara tells Nom Anor that the third wordlship will arrive within the week.
The Millennium Falcon arrives on Sernpidal (pp. 228-241)..
Luke and Mara fight Yomin Carr on Belkadan (pp. 242-265). Mara discovers the journal, giving a relative dating of "just over a week" from Day Eleven. This is what dates the later part of the novel, relative to the start. Of course, if we're using five-day weeks, that was Day Ten, and we're on Day Sixteen.
On Helska, Danni Quee is still a slave (pp. 265-6).
The Yuuzhan Vong moon at Chewie. (pp. 267-278)
DAY TWENTY
I'm flipping forward overnight for Luke's recon mission at Helska, and the retreat from Sernpidal. (pp. 279-296) The return journey is slowed by the need to go in convoy, and it's said they'll get to Dubrillion "not by much" ahead of the YV coralskipper, which actually takes two days longer, so I'm guessing it happens...
DAY TWENTY-ONE
... not here, but...
DAY TWENTY-TWO
... here. Everyone prepares for a defence of Dubrillion against the coralskippers (pp. 297-308).
DAY TWENTY-THREE
DAY TWENTY-FOUR
In spite of the time being flashed over in a straight switch to the next scene, the gap until the battle is "two days" (p. 303).
The same day, the third worldship docks at Helska (p. 326); this was expected "within the week" on Day Nineteen, which works on either a seven-day or five-day week.
The defence of Dubrillion happens (pp. 308-337), with Jade Sabre returning belatedly from Helska (p. 331); the next night, Leia recovers Anakin and his TIE Fighter (pp. 337-338)...
DAY TWENTY-FIVE
... returning to Dubrillion the next morning; Threepio discusses YV language, and the Rejuvenator arrives at Dubrillion (pp. 338-341).
We get scenes that day after dinnertime (p. 343), and at night (p. 346). The battle group leave immediately to attack Helska.
DAY TWENTY-SIX
The Battle of Helska occurs here. This is the last datable part of the story, although the epilogue is probably a day or two later, given the journey time from Helska to Dubrillion, and Dubrillion to Sernpidal - Day Twenty-Seven, maybe Day Twenty-Eight.
In summary: the novel Vector Prime covers a timespan of approximately twenty-six days, plus an epilogue that may be two days later; this is reduced to around twenty-three days (plus epilogue) if five-day "Star Wars" weeks are assumed.
Overall, it is fair to say that the chronology of the novel spans approximately ONE MONTH.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Well, hello there...
I guess it's time I had a blog again.
This is basically going to be a doodle pad for the Star Wars fanboy stuff I don't think is serious enough for tf.n, so it'll probably end up containing things like detailed notes on military organization, the implied internal chronology of the novels and comics (often rather different than the chronology of the timelines), and collated information on groups like the Hapans and the Sandpeople - territory, organization, shared ideas, things like that.
Yub yub!
This is basically going to be a doodle pad for the Star Wars fanboy stuff I don't think is serious enough for tf.n, so it'll probably end up containing things like detailed notes on military organization, the implied internal chronology of the novels and comics (often rather different than the chronology of the timelines), and collated information on groups like the Hapans and the Sandpeople - territory, organization, shared ideas, things like that.
Yub yub!
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