Club Jade

Celebration VI Lots of schedule-posting has been going around. Leland Chee has his at the StarWars.com blog, while the official CVI site has the Barnes & Noble booth signing schedule. Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, Jason Fry, and John Jackson Miller have their schedules up as well.

The blogside. Miller wrote a nice post on Star Wars things you probably don’t remember for the TOS blog, including a version of Heir to the Empire that came with an overwrap. Meanwhile, Pete Morrison goes into Encyclopedia Brown mode to deduct what Jason Fry is working on now.

Interview. Linda Hansen-Raj talks to Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro at the Fangirl blog.

Reviews. A couple more looks at Mercy Kill from Brian at Tosche Station and Kirkus. And James reviews the Bruce Lee vs Darth Maul smackdown of The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters digest.

Mercy Kill. Everyone loves this book! The reviews continue to be overwhelmingly positive. Here’s the latest batch: EUCantina, Roqoo Depot Fangirl, Knights Archive and Tosche Station (twice!)

Celebration VI. Pablo Hidalgo counts down his Thursday slate on the Behind the Scenes Stage. And there’s another edition for EU fans on Friday: Holocron 101. One problem: It directly conflicts with the Del Rey panel.

Interviews. Mark at Jedi News chats with new author Tim Lebbon, who’s writing the Dawn of the Jedi novel Into the Void for next year. Meanwhile, John Jackson Miller chatted with fans on Facebook last week. There’s another chat this afternoon with Leland Chee.

Street date shuffle. The release of Reaves and Bohnoff’s The Last Jedi has moved up by a month on the Random House catalog. It’s now scheduled for February 26, making it likely to be the first release of 2013.

Comics. James reviews Knight Errant: Escape #3 and Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #1 at Big Shiny Robot.

Crucible The upcoming post-Fate of the Jedi is on everyone’s mind. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren takes a look at Scoundrel’s Luck, the 1990 WEG gaming adventure that author Troy Denning hinted holds a clue to the book’s villain. Meanwhile, Nanci at Tosche Station – not exactly Denning’s chief cheerleader – implores burned fans to give Crucible a chance.

I myself remain rather ambivalent on the book, but I can pretty much guarantee I’ll read it. Or try to, anyway, which is more than I can say for the other SDCC announcements.

The blogside, pro edition. Over at the Star Wars Blog, Leland Chee explains the Holocron, while Jonathan Rinzler introduces himself and writes about interviewing George Lucas. And this morning, Pablo Hidalgo gives us a tour of the new Insider

Nonfiction. The new book by super-collectors Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins, Gus and Duncan’s Guide to Star Wars Prototypes, will be available in August.

Interviews. John Jackson Miller chats with the Wisconsin State Journal about Star Wars and his new book.

Chat. There’ll be a Twitter chat with Tom Taylor on Thursday.

Charity. EUCantina is selling t-shirts for their A Force for Childhood Literacy program.

Of course this week brings a glut of Star Wars stuff. Of course. First up, on Tuesday, is Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories… All John Jackson Miller’s Fate of the Jedi tie-ins stories that you may have read for free over the course of the series, plus a new one and, I hear, some maps.

It’s also the time to start keeping an eye out for Star Wars Insider #135, which includes Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles story, a tie in to next month’s Mercy Kill.

On Wednesday, get your fill of mostly-silent fanboy-favorite grunters with Blood Ties: Boba Fett Is Dead #4 and Darth Maul: Death Sentence #1.

James, that scoundrel, sent in four videos from the panel yesterday, as well as new photos (starting here.) At this panel, they announced two new books and talked about several new comics, including Brian Woods’ Star Wars. Part 1, above, is the introductions and Dark Horse announcements

Then, Del Rey…

Their announcements…

And the longest bit, the question and answer session:

Come Wednesday, there will be one Star Wars comic waiting in the shops: Knight Errant: Escape #2.

John Jackson Miller fans have more coming as well. Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories, a trade paperback collection of his Fate of the Jedi tie-in shorts, will be out on the 24th, our sole book release of the month.

Spotlight. Essential Guide to Warfare co-author Paul Urquhart takes a look at ‘the best star-pilots in the galaxy’. But what we’re really talking about here is the art by Frank-Joseph “Mazzic” Frelier, which includes what I think is out first look at Syal Antilles.

In other Warfare-related matters, there have been three more installments of endnotes since we last checked in: 9, 10 and 11.

Awards. John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant is a Scribe Award nominee for Best Original Novel in the Speculative Fiction category. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers are also naming Expanded Universe alumni Kevin J. Anderson as the year’s Grandmaster. Other familiar names among the nominees include Mike Stackpole (for his Conan the Barbarian adaption) and A.C. Crispin for her Pirates of the Caribbean novel.

Interviews. Lots of them! In the world of podcasts, we have Aaron Allston over at Tosche Station Radio and Mike Stackpole at Star Wars Book Report. If you can stomach the ForceCast, they had Leland Chee on, plus there’s a new Jedi Journals. If it’s text you prefer, Tom Taylor talks Darth Maul at CBR.

Teases. A bounty hunter short story by a new-to-Star Wars author will be gracing the pages of Insider #136. Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles story will be in the next issue, #135.

Now hiring… NJOE, EUCantina and Knights Archive are looking for some dedicated fans to join their respective sites. (Rather limited) internet fame! Glamour! No money! But possibly drinks at CVI!

John Jackson Miller’s Lost Tribe is expanding it’s reach. In addition to the upcoming paperback collection of (mostly) previously-published stories, there’s a five-issue comic series on the horizon, USA Today has revealed.

Dark Horse will launch The Lost Tribe of the Sith comic on August 8. Written by Miller with art by Andrea Mutti, the series will focus on the Lost Tribe “in an age of discovery and optimism.”

Fate of the Jedi. Apocalypse is only days away, and so there is a book trailer. (Naturally.) And a mini-excerpt. And a 50-page excerpt. And Troy Denning on a podcast. And, of course, another spoiler-free review at Star Wars Report. Will it ever end? (Well, yes. Presumably, Tuesday. And then, the arguing. Yay!)

Comics. John Jackson Miller talks about Knight Errant’s next arc, ‘Escape,’ with io9′s Cyriaque Lamar.

Upcoming. DK will be releasing The Old Republic Encyclopedia this fall, Roqoo Depot discovered.

The blogside. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren speaks out against super-powered characters in video games and the EU. In my book, that’s a very big reason why certain streams should no be crossing… Meanwhile, io9 makes a valiant effort to connect the Star Wars timeline to Earth’s timeline – pity that the comic tale they’re using as a cornerstone is kind of, a little bit, well, actually entirely Infinities, aka a non-canon AU. Which they admit. But still.

Okay, fine. If it’s an actual EU timeline you’re looking for (sorry, no Earth,) here’s an official one from Del Rey.

Review. James gives the latest Clone Wars digest, The Enemy Within, a thumbs-up for its Dirty Dozen meets L.A. Confidential in space storyline.

The final free installment of John Jackson Miller’s Lost Tribe of the Sith, Secrets is avaliable now. It also contains an excerpt from Fate of the Jedi: Apocalpse, which will be out on March 13.

A ninth Lost Tribe of the Sith tale will be avaliable in June, when the whole series is published as a paperback. For now, Miller has posed his notes to several past installments.