Club Jade

It’s funny because it’s true. Dear George, it’s all true, except I think that whole theory about Boba Fett improving anything got thrown out circa Attack of the Clones.

Surprise audiobooks! A couple days ago, Zee Zee spotted audiobook listings on the Random House catalog for the first four Jedi Quest books: Way of the Apprentice, The Trail of the Jedi, The Dangerous Games and The Master of Disguise. All four are listed as $9.99 unabridged digital downloads with spring release dates.

Audiobooks years after the fact? Plus, the original books were published by Scholastic, which isn’t a Random House imprint, though the audio versions are listed under Random House’s Imagination Studios. (Del Rey’s Star Wars audiobooks are Random House Audio.) Lucasbooks is clearly trying something new here, but we’re still awaiting some kind of confirmation…

• Interviews, upcoming: NJOE wants your questions for Abel G. Peña, while Immortal Darkness is taking questions for Matt Stover and Kevin J. Anderson.

• Comics: Preview Legacy #31, aka the Vector conclusion.

I had no idea when SF Signal asked me to participate in their latest Mind Meld on tie-ins that they’d get so many actual writers who had written Star Wars (Sean Williams, William C. Dietz, Kevin J. Anderson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Walter Jon Williams.) Plus many other names familiar to genre readers and the blogosphere. And me. It’s a little unsettling. Really cool, but unsettling.

You folks love these, right? Well today, Topless Robot has the 8 worst things in the Star Wars expanded universe. I don’t necessarily agree with everything (you can see my own picks here and here) but props for including Darksaber, if not for calling Anderson a ‘great author.’

Greyman of Wookieepedia’s Tales of the Jedi project had email conversations with with both writers regarding their work on the comics that gave fans their first look into the ancient past of the GFFA.

Our own ‘Club Obi-Wan’ has finally been put down, but remains preserved for the ages.

Other than those we linked in the spirit of the day… There weren’t as many as in previous years, no doubt due to it being a Sunday. (What is it with these strange people and their 5-day work weeks? Where do I get one of those?)

As far as SW fandom goes, I think Wookieepedia won this round handily. TheForce.Net phoned it in this year with a less-than-special interview podcast; their boards got a Barbie theme.

I enjoyed LocusMag.com: Sainting Neil Gaiman, Kevin J. Anderson’s hostile takeover of Larry Niven’s legendary “Known Space”; Anita Blake vs. Anna Nicole and Sci-Fi Channel’s real stargate.

Oh, and SyFy Portal think we’re all being terribly unprofessional. I can only dream of having such delusions of grandeur, but then we here are only mere fan bloggers and cannot possibly understand the responsibilities of posting real news.

You-Know-Who’s latest project is Last Days of Krypton, “an epic novel about the demise of Superman’s home planet.” Our condolences to the many Super-fans who will feel obligated to read the book when it comes out next fall.

In (sorta) related news, David Farland, aka Dave Wolverton (Courtship of Princess Leia) is out and about on a book tour.

Sci-fi.com has video from this year’s 2006 Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductions. Watch Rob Coleman’s acceptance speech for George Lucas and speeches from the other inductees, including Anne McCaffrey. Plus Neil Gaiman! Greg Bear! Kevin J. Anderson! (Erm…)

Several transcripts from IRC chats with Star Wars luminaries – mostly authors – from the late 90′s: Bulloch, Zahn, Allston, Stackpole, Anderson, Crispin, Salvatore and more.

Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa, AOTC & ROTS) has signed a development deal with ABC.

Author Kathy Tyers (Truce at Bakura, Balance Point) has rewritten and rereleased one of her early novels – Shivering World. Rambles has a review. Similar to her rewrite of the Firebird novels a few years back, it now features stronger faith themes and has been rereleased under a Christian fiction publisher.

There are several SW authors (Kevin J. Anderson, Terry Brooks, and Greg Keyes) doing signing and appearances within the next few months, according to Locus Online’s Author Event calendar. None of them are promoting Star Wars books, however. We don’t recommend going to KJA signings to heckle him, because from all accounts he’s actually a nice guy and will probably have enough trouble with the Dune fans.

But of course, the big even this month is DragonCon in Atlanta, with more guests that you can possibly meet. Notable SW personalities include Aaron Allston,