This is why I play mid-trilogy Luke. Minimal pretending that certain canon doesn't exist.

I mean, there's still some Rebellion-era canon that could use forgetting (coughSplinter of the Mind's Eyecough) but it's not nearly as rampant as it is in the later EU.

And then there's the prequels. I dodged a bullet by playing a character who wasn't even born then.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye is totally AU, IMO.

It is. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the book! It's fun! It just has no place in Star Wars canon because it doesn't fit anything that came after ANH.

It's just a silly what-if story.

Yup. And I have the original, albeit very battered, paperback.

Ooo neat! That's an old book. I know it was written before ESB was released, thus the weird canon and that doesn't fit anything.

And I know my mom has an old copy at home but no idea if it's a first edition or not.

I have two Han Solo adventures, too. And the original movie novel of Star Wars.

The inside cover says 'Mindy, Sixth Grade'.

I'd guess he wasn't given any appropriate guidelines - kinda like the Star Trek novel that Vonda N. McIntyre [!!?!] wrote that time. Or Spock, Messiah.

To a very real degree, a lot of those novels were nothing more or less than sanctioned fanfic.

^ Yeeeeeeeep!