Club Jade

I try to only listen to about one podcast a year – life, or rather, the amount of it I allot to blogging, is far too short – but I couldn’t avoid the latest Force-Cast since it’s basically an extended interview with Lucasfilm’s Head of Fan Relations, Steve Sansweet. (Yes, it was worth it, though the intro… I need to paraphrase Lorelei Gilmore: Shorten it, decute it.) Anyway, here’s what I learned:

• A bit about about Celebration Japan – and C5. (Listen for yourself, or see previous entry.)

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia is a project of not just Steve and Pablo, but an entire team – containing such luminaries as Dan Wallace, Bob Vitas, Mary Franklin and… Chris Cassidy!
• The Encyclopedia will contain “close to a million words” and their intention is not to create new canon (at least not on purpose) but to “take advantage of what’s out there.”
• Steve has another collecting book in the pipeline… Not a price guide, there’s one of those coming from Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins.
• There’s no Grievous in The Clone Wars movie – his presence in the trailer is due to tv show footage.
• Host Jimmy Mac sings Steve a song. It’s mildly amusing.

The podcast on the whole is a manageable 23 minutes, so I would recommend you listen to it yourself – at least if you want to hear more about Celebration Japan or the Encyclopedia.

• Podcast: The Force-Cast catches up with Steve Sansweet in Chicago: Most of the discussion revolves around Celebration Japan and The Clone Wars. (And the Complete Encyclopedia – look for that in the next entry.) Also, he claims they’re not even thinking about C5 until after Japan… Damn.

• Guests: CelebrationJapan.com reports that Carrie Fisher won’t be able to attend.
• New press release details The Clone Wars plans.

Wow. Are they going to do yearly updates, like the World Book? I’m actually expecting some sort of online (Hyperspace?) component/Databank revamp. Watch your back, Wookieepedia!

Whatever the case, Random House currently lists them as hardcover, with a release date as November 4, and the price at $75.

UPDATE: TFN has someone who got a few more details from Del Rey, namely that there will be ” full-color artwork.”

Steve Sansweet cautioned TFN about believing the Amazon listing, but now the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia is showing up on the Random House site with a November release date, too!

Via TFN, who also have some possible authors for the Clone Wars young reader books.

Looks like the big announcements from the Star Wars publishing panel was not only the anticipated Star Wars Atlas by Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace, but also new edition of the Star Wars Encyclopedia from Steve Sansweet and Pablo Hidalgo. There have been rumblings about the latter, but I believe this is the first official word on the matter. Both books are due out in 2008.

Word comes from the starwars.com boards that there’s a new Star Wars Encyclopedia in the works. The last one came out in 1998 – before even TPM! Sue Rostoni says:

It’s true, there is a new Encyclopedia in the works. A volume that will update ongoing entries. Stuff that hasn’t changed (i.e., “hydrospanner”) won’t be duplicated in this second volume. A pub date hasn’t been set in duracrete yet, but we’re looking at Fall 2008 as a possible release time. The format will be the same as the first volume, to keep it as a “set.” That’s about all that’s been discussed at this point.

Also, the Coruscant Nights trilogy is being pushed back to 2008. Better than a year between each volume for a paperback trilogy, I guess.