Club Jade

As one comic leaves, another begins… Well, begins a new arc, anyway. In Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #1, out Wednesday, Jahan Cross heads to Alderaan to party with the Organas.

If you’re a military sci-fi fan, you might want to go check out Five by Five, a set of novelettes that includes stories by Aaron Allston, Michael Stackpole, and Kevin J. Anderson.

As for Star Wars books, we have the paperback reprint of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis due at the end of the month. Our next new book will be a hardcover, Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation, on November 13.

Another recap from the Tosche Station folks in Atlanta: Timothy Zahn, Aaron Allston, Michael Stackpole, Kevin J. Anderson and Doctor Carol White discuss Masculinity in Star Wars.

Hot on the heels and six hours north of Celebration, Dragon*Con is being held in Atlanta. Tosche Station is there now, and Brian has recapped the Star Wars author panel held there yesterday. Attending were Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn, Mike Stackpole and Kevin J. Anderson.

Also coming up Monday will be a Mercy Kill discussion with Allston.

No comics this week, but today is the day to pick up the X-Wing 9-book bundle. You get all of the classic X-Wing books from Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston, in ebook format, for $56.99. (It would cost about $70 to buy them individually, digitally or paperback, going by list price.)

The ebook deal is in conjunction with next week’s release of Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill, the first new book in the series since 1999.

Roqoo Depot has spotted some more details on the X-Wing series bundle, including the price: $56.99 for all 9 books. It’s eBook only and will be out on July 30.

The individual X-Wing paperbacks and eBooks are currently listed for $7.99 a pop; A full set would cost you $71.91 (plus sales tax, if applicable.) So if you’re looking to catch up on the series, this is probably your best bet outside of used copies and/or the library. (Unless you already own them all, of course!)

I still wish we were seeing the series reissued as trade paperback collections (maybe if Mercy Kill sells really well?) but this is a nice way to give some EU classics a little refreshing.

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!

Author Aaron Allston talks about attending this year’s Origins gaming convention, where he’ll be Author Guest of Honor. Of his scheduled events, this one on Thursday may be of particular interest:

Star Wars In Novels. “New York Times bestselling authors Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn, and Michael A. Stackpole talk about their Star Wars books and about their future fiction plans in the galaxy far, far away.” Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole

All Aaron’s panels are worth attending, but we can guarantee that we’ll will make an effort to be at that one! Origins takes place in Columbus, Ohio from May 30 to June 3 this year.

It’s been just over 11 years since the release of Dark Tide: Ruin, Michael Stackpole’s last Star Wars novel. With a new X-Wing novel by Aaron Allston on schedule for next spring, naturally thoughts have turned to thoughts of seeing Stackpole return. As many of us witnessed at Dragon*Con last weekend, he still has his share of fans – right up there with Allston and Timothy Zahn, both of who have been steadily producing Star Wars novels over the past few years.

‘Will you return to Star Wars‘ was one of the top questions he was asked at the con, and some dedicated fans have started a petition. Want to go on record? Now’s the time.

Mike Stackpole is back with another blog entry — and information from Random House. Good news: His X-Wing books aren’t out of print after all, and they continue to sell “between 30 and 40 books a week.” Bad news: The publishing industry has some seriously wacky practices. But chances are you already knew that.

I still think it would be nice to see them repackaged as compilations, though.

UPDATE 4/12: …And not so much.

Mike Stackpole learned today that Bantam has allowed his X-Wing novels to go out of print. This is a puzzling turn of events to be sure: Though the Star Wars backlist is lengthy, the X-Wing novels have generally been good bets for folks just starting in the EU and are special favorites of many fans.

This does raise questions about the status of Bantam’s other classic EU novels. Are the X-Wing novels alone? (I can think of a few that deserve the ‘honor’ a hell of a lot more.) Is this just a temporary burp? Will they be repackaged as eBooks or in new editions (trade compilations would be nice) to support Aaron Allston’s 2012 Wraith Squadron novel? Let’s hope so.