Though I wrote the Incepti Cataclysm trilogy over the last couple of years, the big idea behind it got stuck in my head in the mid ’90s.
I was in graduate school, which involved many a late night in the computer lab, playing video games and shooting the breeze with labmates rather than go back to our dingy, solitary apartments. During one of those late night bull sessions, an idea hit me:
The Star Wars movies are Rebel propaganda
Think about it. We know a giant Imperial space station was in the vicinity of Alderaan when the planet exploded. But only two eyewitnesses survived the destruction of that Imperial space station at the Battle of Yavin: Darth Vader and Princess Leia. And remember, Vader conveniently died outside the public eye during the Rebellion’s final victory. Only Leia was around during the post-Imperial, New Republic era to tell the tale of what really happened… and as the most prominent human political figure in the New Republic, she would have an obvious incentive to legitimize the New Republic by claiming the Imperials were planet-destroying monsters. Especially when no other eyewitness could rebut her.
What about Luke, Han, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan, and the droids? None of them saw the destruction of Alderaan. The Millennium Falcon came out of hyperdrive to find the Imperial space station and a new asteroid belt where the planet had been. Circumstantial evidence? Maybe. But correlation does not prove causation, remember?
Plus, what do we know about those six characters? One (Obi-Wan) died before the Battle of Yavin. Droids clearly must be disqualified as witnesses because their memories are susceptible to editing. Finally, Luke, Han, and Chewie got medals after the battle – from Leia.
Medals for their role in the Rebel victory at Yavin? Or as payment for their silent agreement with the narrative that the Empire destroyed Alderaan?
The biggest rebuttal would come down to questions of method, motive, and opportunity. The Empire appears to have all three. In contrast, if the Rebels had a planet buster, why wouldn’t they use it against the Imperial capital world Trantor, I mean, Coruscant? Especially because interstellar travel in the Star Wars universe seems to take a few hours to cross the galaxy, with no way to track ships in hyperspace. Just sneak to Coruscant and boom. Why didn’t they?
And regarding motive, what would the Rebels gain by destroying Alderaan? Especially if Alderaan was anti-Empire or pro-Rebel…
Twenty-five years later…
After grad school, while I focused on real life and building my writing career, these core questions receded from mind, but never went away. I read, I thought, I studied history and politics, I trusted my intuitions… Eventually, a story coalesced around the core, like a pearl forming around one irritating grain of sand.
Despite its origin, the Incepti Cataclysm trilogy doesn’t much resemble Star Wars. The science is harder—the FTL has rules beyond magically teleporting from point A to point B, for example, and there are no aliens. The galaxy is clearly our own a thousand-plus years from now.
Plus, the Incepti Cataclysm works with political and personal complexities that Star Wars would never touch.
For example, my biggest disappointment with the final movie trilogy, Episodes 7-9, is that the franchise didn’t deal the big question: how do the Rebels turn from victors in a revolution to builders of a peaceful, orderly government that would stand the test of time? (I’m 100% serious when I say the franchise should have handed the keys for Episodes 7-9 to Florian von Donnersmarck, the director of The Lives of Others). How do you de-Sithify the civil service? And how many former Imperial bureaucrats would try to get ahead under the New Republic any way they could? This question shows up most in book 2, Revelation in Vela.
As for what motives the Rebels might have had for destroying Alderaan? That was in the back of my mind when I built up to the final chapters of book 3, Victory for Carina.
First, though, start with Escape from Conatus, book 1 of the Incepti Cataclysm trilogy. Escape from Conatus hits bookstores in one week: Monday, September 30, 2024. Start your week off or end your month on a high note by picking it up. Remember, the ebook is only $2.99 (or equivalent outside the US), from the preorder window (now open) through October 13.