In the, err, cardboard. Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss treats us to a look at a just-printed copy of the Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary edition under the jacket. I still wish they’d gone with brand-new art, but making the original black and white does make it slightly less horrible. Slightly.
Naturally, there are mixed feeling among those who’ve already read the book. Peter Morrison at Lightsaber Rattling says that Golden did a “a great job” with several of the established characters, as well as making Abeloth a more effective villain. Bill Silvia at NJOE was far less impressed, turning out a rather brutal review that claims Ascension is “cheap and hateful… to the very concept of a fandom.” For what it’s worth, both reviews are spoiler-free.
And if you’re hounding for more, Suvudu has a new excerpt, featuring Ben, Vestara, Luke and Jaina.
Joe Schreiber, author of Death Troopers and Red Harvest, was kind enough to sit with me for an interview about his two Star Wars novels and more at Comic-Con.
Audrey M. Brown interviews Ashley Eckstein about Her Universe and female fans. Meanwhile, the new two shirts and kids sizes that debuted at Star Wars Weekends are now available through the Her Universe website. (Be sure to check out what’s on sale – several shirts are going for half off!)
Lucasfilm and Fox hosted a private media event in New York last week, which means a handful of new Blu-ray details have made their way to us, via Big Picture, Big Sound. Looks like the Precious Moments-esque complete saga set comes in the form of a booklet.
Some fans are so put out by Sony shutting down Star Wars Galaxies that they’re actually considering suing? There’s also a petition: Apparently at least 2,500 are still playing the thing, which I would have sworn was put out of its misery ages ago. Go figure.
Star Wars is #5 and Empire#2 on Total Film’s list of the 50 greatest sci-fi movies. Who beat them out? Well, I can tell you one thing: It ain’t The Godfather.
This is one of several parts of an excellent interview that Ford did with Favreau for Cowboys and Aliens. Above, he talks about the Star Wars casting process.
He talks about Irvin Kershner and ‘I know’ in this one:
Play.com has an ‘exclusive’ clip of Ewan MacGregor, from the upcoming Blu-rays, talking about his uncle Denis Lawson (Wedge) and his first time seeing Star Wars.
But there’s a lot of different aspects of it that have been quite amusing and fun to be a part of. Like amusement park rides, and it’s — I really enjoy it. Now, I’m working on television shows, “Clone Wars” and another show called “Star Wars Detours.”
I would lay even money on Detours being the comedy show that Lucasfilm is doing with Seth Green and Matt Senreich, which from what little we’ve heard does sound like it could be something of a detour. But I’m not expecting we’ll get much more anytime soon.OR WILL WE? Hell, it’s probably just a working title. Oh, George!
Lucas also said that after Red Tails he’ll “probably move away” from Star Wars and “do my own personal kinds of movies.” Never heard that one before….
Fate of the Jedi. in lieu of of a Heir to the Empire annotation yesterday, The Del Rey folks presented us with a mini-excerpt from Golden’s Ascension. It is indeed very mini. (Also, apparently we’ll be getting a look at the Apocalypse cover today.)
Short stories. Tim Zahn’s story ‘Buyer’s Market’ will appear in the next issue of the Insider. It’s about Lando “on the hunt for some rather exotic hardware” and is set between Return of the Jedi and Heir. The artwork is by Brian Rood. Also coming up in the Insider is a story by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.
Interviews. Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss appears on the latest Fictional Frontiers.
Most of the action takes place in the same approximate period as Fate of the Jedi, but there are critical chapters that revisit the Wraiths in earlier years, starting just after they made the jump to become an Intelligence unit. The current-era story reunites some of the longtime Wraiths, introduces new ones, and even has second-generation Wraiths.
Head on over to Suvudu for more on the Wraiths, FOTJ, and the Jedi in general.
Interviews, everywhere! There’s been an absolute plague of interviews lately. EUC talks to Lucasfilm Licensing’s Sue Rostoni, Podcaster Sohaib had Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro on his show last week, and Roqoo Depot has Jedi: The Dark Side writer Scott Allie.
Namesake corner. I’ve got two fairly minor Mara Jade bits today: io9 named her one of their 10 sexiest assassins. Naturally, it features fan art of both the badly photoshopped and naked body paint persuasions. (Sigh.) On the other hand, there’s a new namesake: A foal. She has a twin sister named after Princess Leia.
Club Jade is a group of (mostly) female fans who love Star Wars - particularly the Expanded Universe novels - and other things of that nature. You can also follow us on Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook!
In the, err, cardboard. Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss treats us to a look at a just-printed copy of the Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary edition under the jacket. I still wish they’d gone with brand-new art, but making the original black and white does make it slightly less horrible. Slightly.
With Fate of the Jedi: Ascension only days away, it hasn’t been too hard to find hype (both good and bad, of course) about the book on the fansites. 
Audrey M. Brown interviews Ashley Eckstein about 
Fate of the Jedi. in 
In an interview with Del Rey’s Suvudu blog, 
Blurbs. Drew Karpyshyn’s Revan novel 
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