Another Hope

Another Hope is a controversial Star Wars fan fiction novel by Lori Jareo.

Another Hope is an alternative history reimagining of the events presented in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Mixing familiar moments from the film with new story material, Jareo drew inspriration and mixed in elements from the prequel films. She adds in a new Mary Sue character, Ryoo Naberrie, described as "a gutsy underling on the Death Star."

The book deals in minute backstage details of the Death Star, the politics of Darth Vader's henchmen, and supposed insight into Vader and the Organas, Princess Leia's adoptive parents. Biggs Darklighter, a minor character from the film who was a childhood friend of Luke Skywalker, has been given an expanded role.

The novel was originally published as fan fiction in the form of a downloadable PDF file on Jareo's website, but later generation considerable controvery when Jareo self-published the book through her own poetry publishing firm and offered it for sale without authorization from Lucasfilm at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's.

The novel came under heavy scrutiny from other authors, as well as the fan fiction community, once word of the novel's commercial availability came to light. The fan fiction community has offered near unanimous condemnation of Jareo selling the book, fearing that her actions may prompt Lucasfilm, and perhaps other rightsholders as well, to take action against various fan fiction communities, which have generally kept a low profile and pushed the boundaries of legality, but never so blatantly crossed them.

Lucasfilm has yet to make a public statement regarding or take action against Jareo or the book, but many expect cease and desist letters, at a minimum, to be served in regards to Another Hope.

On April 21, the following disclaimer appeared on Jareo's website: ''Thank you for your interest in Another Hope. The book has been removed from the Books in Print database and will be removed from book distribution channels effective Tuesday, April 24, 2006.''

As of April 22, 2006, Jareo's website was offline, although the book was still listed for sale on various websites.