Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, authors of The Expanse and Captive’s War series, aren’t exactly anti-Star Wars. In 2014, the duo known in print as James S.A. Corey even released Honor Among Thieves: Star Wars Legends, a novel set after the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope. But they do take issue with an aspect of the storytelling from the galaxy far, far away: it’s repetitive, a quality seemingly engineered to make sure it will never end.
Speaking with Polygon, the duo explained they had always envisioned The Expanse to run nine books—expanded with short stories and novellas on the side—and then come to a conclusive ending. Captive’s War, which just released its second entry, The Faith of Beasts, will be a trilogy, with an additional novella planned and (hopefully) that Prime Video series adaptation, announced late last year, to keep them busy. But they don’t want to stretch the story out any further… which is a very non-Star Wars thing to declare.
“We live in a world where every large universe is supposed to be endlessly flogged,” Franck told Polygon. “Star Wars is never going to stop. It’s told the same story a thousand times at this point. The evil Empire has been defeated over and over and over again. It always comes back. Plucky Rebels have to defeat the new iteration of it over and over and over again. It just endlessly repeats.”
This doesn’t just apply to Star Wars, he added. “And Star Trek is the same way. If you have a big universe, it is expected you will just keep dipping in that well over and over until you die, and then somebody else will take over and do it for you. Daniel and I don’t enjoy that. We like endings. We like getting to an end: ‘Here’s the end, and it’s over.’”
The authors said they understand there are financial reasons behind why Star Wars and Star Trek can’t stop repeating themselves, but they have been careful not to fall into that temptation.
“Pretty early on, Daniel and I divorced the creative side from the monetary side,” Franck said. “We don’t make creative decisions for strictly monetary reasons. And I think both of us are more satisfied with our careers because of it.”
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