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Vector Prime is the first installment of the New Jedi Order series. It is a science fiction novel written by R. A. Salvatore and published by Del Rey in October 1999. The galactic maps printed inside were designed by Daniel Wallace and Chris Barbieri.

Conception
From 1990 to 1999, Bantam Spectra held the contract for Star Wars novels. In this time, all of the titles published by the company were either one-shots or trilogies. While continuity was kept track of between the novels and works published by other Star Wars licensees, it grew more unwieldy to do so as the number of works increased. Furthermore, the Bantam novels were published in random positions around the timeline rather than in chronological order, and it became apparent to Lucasfilm Ltd. that readers wanted to see a new, more sequential approach. The Director of Publishing for Lucasfilm, Lucy Wilson, first considered creating a sequential interconnected series of novels towards the end of Bantam's publishing run. With the approaching release of the prequel trilogy, the license for Star Wars novels was renegotiated with Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books, in 1997. As part of the agreement, the rights for a spin-off program consisting of a sequential series&mdash;initially thirty books, and later revised down to nineteen&mdash;were secured.

At this point, Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey, was brought in on the project. In March 1998, a meeting was scheduled at Skywalker Ranch between Lucasfilm licensing employees, Del Rey employees, a number of authors including Michael Stackpole and James Luceno, and representatives of Dark Horse Comics. The New Jedi Order series was born out of this meeting. Running from 1999 to 2003, the series would include five hardcovers that told the major events and a number of paperbacks, the details of which would be filled in later. Also, for the first time, the idea of killing off a beloved character was discussed; the intent was to raise the tension of the series and make the audience feel that war had consequences. A follow-up meeting in May of that year fine-tuned the ideas raised in the first, and Luceno worked with Shapiro and Del Rey editor Kathleen O'Shea to map out a five-year plan for the series, working from Shapiro's rudimentary outline, that included major plot points, character arcs, and details on the society of the Yuuzhan Vong, the series' villains. Del Rey was in communication with George Lucas in this time; they sent him the five-year plan and a memo on thoughts of who might die. Del Rey's initial pick for the major death was Luke Skywalker, but Lucas vetoed this, as well as the idea of the villains being dark side Force users and Anakin Solo being the hero.

Starting the series
By August of 1998, Ballantine was looking for an author to start the series. They submitted a list of potential authors to Lucasfilm to approve or veto&mdash;amongst the names was R. A. Salvatore, a fantasy author working for Del Rey. Ballantine wanted to show off their own authors to the Star Wars audience, and as one of the larger names at Del Rey, Salvatore was their pick. The editors additionally felt his style of action writing would be suitable for the Star Wars franchise. Salvatore, however, was hesitant, having not read any Star Wars books, though he had been a fan of the films since the original was released in 1977. Editors at Lucasfilm assured him that they would help him with continuity, giving him characters and elements from previous Expanded Universe works to include. Salvatore was initially given, as guidance, instructions to use the main characters from the movies and basic information on the Yuuzhan Vong.

Though Luke Skywalker had been vetoed as a possibility, the issue of a major character death had not been dropped. The New Jedi Order team knew that if the war they were plotting was to be taken seriously, a major movie character would have to die, something never done before in the Expanded Universe (Crix Madine was the only speaking character from the movies killed in the Expanded Universe at this point). Randy Stradley of Dark Horse Comics was the first to propose killing Chewbacca, who he called the "family dog." Lucas had made a list of characters they could not kill, and Chewbacca was not on it&mdash;between that and the emotional reaction the planning team had had even considering the possibility, Chewbacca became the slated death. Salvatore did not react well. Not wanting to be known as "the author who killed Chewbacca," he almost canceled the book deal. However, he was contracted to do the book, and after multiple phone calls Salvatore became convinced of the value of the decision.