Thursday, December 30, 2010

Editorial: One Word Novel Titles a.k.a. Thesaurus Roullette



While it is not an altogether new phenominon we have seen an explosion in the trend of one word novel titles in recent years.  The two most recent main Novel Series', Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, as well as the E-book novella series Lost Tribe of the Sith have all gone with one word titles. 

For example;

Legacy has given us: Betrayal, Bloodlines, Tempest, Exile, Sacrifice, Inferno, Fury, Revelation, & Invincible.
Fate of the Jedi has given us:  Outcast, Omen, Abyss, Backlash, Allies, Vortex, Conviction, Ascension, & Apocalypse.
Lost Tribe has given us:  Precipice, Skyborn, Paragon, Savior, Purgatory, Sentinel, Pantheon, & Secrets. 
During the Bantam era the more common trend was for trilogies and one-offs which tended to have two to four word titles, for example Heir to the Empire, Dark Apprentice, Ambush at Corellia.  This is in keeping with the earliest Star Was novels, Splinters of the Mind's Eye, The Han Solo Adventures, and The Adventures of Lando Calrissian. 

It begs the question, is this a publishing industry wide trend or is this unique to Star Wars? 

Call me old fashioned but I kinda of prefer the old title style, even though they tend to sound like B-Movie titles sometimes.

What do you think? 

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