Club Jade

Today brings our first novel of the new year: Paul S. Kemp’s Crosscurrent. Kemp’s been much in demand lately: There are interviews at TheForce.Net, swbooks.co.uk and in French at Star Wars Universe. Early reviews of the book have popped up at Flames Rising, DaveBrendon’s and Team Preston.

Don’t worry, comic fans, there’s something for you, too: Legacy #44 will be in comic shops on Wednesday.

Namesake corner. Topps is saluting the ‘Women of Star Wars‘ in their Galaxy 5 line. And since you can only have so many slave Leias before the theme gets tired, there’s an Adam Hughes Mara Jade card. Granted, it’s Adam Hughes and thus total cheesecake, but we’re used to that.

Visions peek. I can’t believe there’s, like, war and battle and stuff in the Star Wars art book. Ugh. (P.S. If we’re going there, I would love something ROTJish in the style of The Death of General Wolfe. And prints, because I would so totally buy prints of that if it was done with a stylistically straight face.)

Would you like some false hope with that? IGN has ‘thoughtfully’ compiled all the leading candidates for the totally nonexistent, never-going-to-happen (except for probably that bounty hunter thing in the live action series) additional Star Wars movies. Basically, what I am saying is, no matter how good the effects on Avatar are, don’t hold your breath. (Yeah, I am a little sick of this topic and Dark Empire? Are you kidding me? …Sorry.)

Crosscurrent. Check out chapter two of Paul S. Kemp’s upcoming paperback. Meanwhile, the first review has surfaced over at Stomping on Yeti.

The Old Republic. NJOE’s Rogue77 found a brief summary for Sean William’s The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance.

Random housekeeping. With two months to release date, Random House has put out an excerpt from Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth. In other news, Fate of the Jedi: Backlash has been moved back to the original release date of March 9.

Interviews. Paul S. Kemp talks Star Wars and Forgotten Realms with Stomping on Yeti, while Knights of the Old Republic’s John Jackson Miller is over at CBR.

Comics. StarWars.com has an excerpt from Dan Wallace’s Insider article about Dark Horse bringing back Star Wars comics. (The very same article from which the ‘prequel infinities’ confusion arose from. Turned out that the article is a multi-parter and the next installment will include the original Infinities and the prequel era.)

Free book, sort of. Paul S. Kemp is giving away three signed, unbound galleys of his January Star WarsCrosscurrent. Enter through Dec. 18.

The blogside Karen Miller finished the rewrite of Clone Wars Gambit: Siege this week – twice. And Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff takes a look at forceful women and… Pets. When’s the last time we saw pets in the EU? I’m not sure I want to know. (Pittens in Children of the Jedi? Oye vey.)

Hyperspace. Discounting the Wookieepedians (with their love of War and Peace-sized character entries,) only Jason Fry could dedicate a week to Xim and the Tion Cluster.

Your moment of zen. The TFN boards have been quite the font of hilarity lately. First there’s the otter thing, and then the LULZ of reading KJA. Of course, then along comes something like this. Oh, TFN.

It’s fairly length, so head on over to his Livejournal to read it. Crosscurrent is due out in January.

There are several bits of EU news toady, but first up tonight, Paul S. Kemp reveals the dramatis personae for Crosscurrent. Sith, Jedi, assassins… But no women. Sigh. (Though let’s point out right here any now that the presence of a major female character does not necessarily have to mean romantic subplot… At least not in the EU. Though, considering our history here at CJ, uh…)

Anyway, you tell me:

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The book will “build off of the events of Crosscurrent,” he annouced on his Livejournal this morning. It’s too soon for details, but we don’t know all that much about Crosscurrent yet anyway: It won’t be out until January. I’d hazard to guess that we won’t see this second book until 2011 or so.

UPDATE 9/29: Sue Rostoni has confirmed that the book is on the schedule for June 2011, pushing the Reaves/Bohnhoff holostar novel up to March.

StarWars.com has the first look at Paul Kemp’s Crosscurrent. Head over to check out Dave Seeley’s full cover.

An ancient Sith ship hurtles into the future carrying a lethal cargo that could forever destroy Luke Skywalker’s hopes for peace.

The Civil War is almost over when Jedi Knight Jaden Korr experiences a Force vision so intense he must act. Enlisting two salvage jocks and their ship, Jaden sets out into space. Someone — or something — appears to be in distress.

But what Jaden and his crew find confounds them. A five-thousand-year-old dreadnaught — bringing with it a full force of Sith and one lone Jedi — has inadvertently catapulted eons from the past into the present. The ship’s weapons may not be cutting-edge, but its cargo, a special ore that makes those who use the dark side nearly invincible, is unsurpassed. The ancient Jedi on board is determined to destroy the Sith. But for Jaden, even more is at stake: for his vision has led him to uncover a potentially indestructible threat to everything the Jedi Order stands for.

The book is scheduled for January 26.

Street date shuffle: NJOE notes that The Making of The Empire Strikes Back release date has been moved up to March 23. That’s what Amazon says, anyway.

Interviews: EUC talks a bit of Darth Bane with Drew Karpyshyn.

The blogside: Paul S. Kemp has a brief Crosscurrent update, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff explores sci-fi story weaving and hardware.

What Fixer comic? Since I know you’re all dying to hear about that Fixer comic, the artist, Kevin Liell, has posted at TFN clarifying some things from NYCC. I’d still file this one under ‘long shot.’

There’s a fairly hefty interview with upcoming author Paul S. Kemp by Jay Tomio on Tor.com today. Here’s what he had to say on Crosscurrent’s main character, Jaden Kor:

Jaden is a complex character. His relationship to the Force is strong, but the nature of the relationship troubles him. His Master, Kyle Katarn, had a view of the Force more in line with the Potentium school (the Force as tool, rather than the morally loaded terms of Dark and Light), but Jaden isn’t so sure. Recent events in the Civil War, and in particular Jaden’s actions in the assault on Centerpoint Station, have made his internal conflict more acute. He’ll be working out that conflict in Crosscurrent.

Read the whole thing here.