Club Jade

• Order 66: StarWars.com has an except; Karen Traviss writes about finishing up the series on her blog.

• Comics: Remember the Ultimate Star Wars Graphic Novel Library? Well, it appears to have been canceled.
• Publishing: Learn a little more about what’s going on behind-the-scenes at Random House with Sarah Weinman’s Publishing Imprint Report Card.

Stuff is sure to blow up real good in Tuesday’s releases. First off is the much-hyped game that has been impossible to avoid lately, The Force Unleashed. You can even pick it up tonight if the mood strikes. For those who prefer their ass-kicking without the baggage of required hardware, tomorrow also sees the release of the fourth and final Republic Commando novel, Order 66.

Meanwhile, comic fans can expect Knights of the Old Republic #33 on Wednesday.

StarWars.com confirms the titles of the second and third Clone Wars books as Wild Space and No Prisoners. They also bring us the news that Karen Traviss won’t be handling the fifth book due to deadline issues; Karen Miller will finish up the series instead.

Eddie spotted an Amazon.com listing for an audiobook of The Clone Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss. It also gives a release date of May 19… But it is Amazon, so nothing is certain! (via)

Another upcoming project from Traviss, as revealed on her own site: An Essential Guide to the GFFA military. Don’t start looking for it anytime soon, though – she told EUC that it’s “on my to-do list.”

Honors: The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers has named Star Wars vet Alan Dean Foster their second Grandmaster. Foster was the first novelist to tackle the franchise, ghost-writing the novelization of Star Wars as well as (under his own name) the first original novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. He returned to the GFFA in 2002 with The Approaching Storm. (via)

• Interviews: AM New York talks to author Karen Traviss, who’ll be in town this evening on her The Clone Wars book tour, while EUC nabbed artist Dustin Weaver.

• Gaming: Yoda and Darth Vader trash-talking in Penny Arcade.
• RPG: WOTC’s relaunch of the roleplaying game is up for four ENnies, including Best Game and Product of the Year.
• Comics: StarWars.com has the first look at Dark Horse’s Rise of the Sith omnibus.

With the odd-day The Clone Wars release out and up, Del Rey has an excerpt from the book and an interview with Traviss, where she talks about the new book, her writing process, and briefly touches on some of her upcoming Star Wars work…

I’m continuing the Republic Commando series in Imperial Commando books. There are a few other SW books in the pipeline too, including a Boba Fett one.

Comics are also mentioned, but not whether they’re Star Wars or something else.

On Tuesday, you can finally own (the Emmy-nominated) Robot Chicken: Star Wars on DVD! Wednesday is looking good for comic fans, with both Legacy #26 and Knights of the Old Republic #31 on Diamond’s shipping list.

And don’t forget that the first blast of The Clone Wars merchandise will be showing up on Saturday, including Karen Traviss’ ‘loosely based’ hardcover.

The author, whose first TCW book is due out in a matter of weeks, updated her website with a few words on the project:

CLONE WARS, the hardcover based on the movie – loosely based, so no griping that it’s different, because that’s the whole point – is out on July 26. Full of the gritty, off-message, character-testing, question-raising, grey-area, military-oriented stuff you’ve come to expect from me. And clones. Plenty of clones. And familiar characters from the movies that you won’t see quite the same way ever again.

In other news of interest for Traviss fans, Eos is offering her first Wess’har novel, City of Pearl, as a free download through August. (via)

I haven’t seen a movie novelization cover this bland since The Phantom Menace, but I suppose it gets the point across. See it under the cut. (more…)