Club Jade

Hey gamers, here’s one for your holiday lists: Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, coming from Chronicle Books in November. The book is written by Rob Smith and will have a forward from George Lucas. I know you’d probably rather have an update of the X-Wing games, but such is life.

Nab the widget for your own site. If only it was scalable…

Lucasfilm pushes the ‘girl power’ angle with Ashoka, though I’m not sure that headline is the inference they’re looking for. Speaking of our latest leading lady, there was a TCW segment with Ashley Eckstein on Entertainment Tonight the other day, but I’m not finding it on their site. Why you gotta be like that, ET? It’s 2008, and you are syndicated: Embrace the web already!

Less frustrating: TFN has some sample pages from the new Visual Guide, while MTV previews the movie/tv series’ upcoming game tie-ins.

• The massive dump of tie-ins for The Clone Wars is nearly upon us, and the official site has a quick peek at The Clone Wars: The Visual Guide.

• So much is coming out Saturday that we may actually be overdosed by August 5, but if you still crave more there’s always Star Wars Insider #103.
• And finally, take a short Clone Wars-free break with an interview with director Katsutoshi Sasaki about Soulcalibur IV and how Vader, Yoda, and the secret apprentice came to join the madness.

• Preview: Library Journal has a first look at The Art and Making of The Force Unleashed. (via) Meanwhile, you can take a peek at the contents of DK’s Ultimate Blueprints Collection on Amazon. (via)

• Random: Dan Wallace wordles The New Essential Chronology.
• The Clone Wars: TFN catalogs the exhaustive amount of tie-in books for The Clone Wars.

Lightsabre conducts an interview with J. W. Rinzler, who wrote The Making of Indiana Jones, which covers all four films, and also talks about the joys of having to manage media books for not one but two movies coming out in a year (Crystal Skull and The Clone Wars).

Wow. Are they going to do yearly updates, like the World Book? I’m actually expecting some sort of online (Hyperspace?) component/Databank revamp. Watch your back, Wookieepedia!

Whatever the case, Random House currently lists them as hardcover, with a release date as November 4, and the price at $75.

UPDATE: TFN has someone who got a few more details from Del Rey, namely that there will be ” full-color artwork.”

Steve Sansweet cautioned TFN about believing the Amazon listing, but now the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia is showing up on the Random House site with a November release date, too!

Via TFN, who also have some possible authors for the Clone Wars young reader books.

As noted on TFN, listing have begun to appear for the Ultimate Blueprints Collection on DK.com and Amazon. The Amazon UK listing lists Ryder Windham as author with Chris Trevas (who’s mentioned in the starwars.com item) and Chris Reiff as illustrator. Both Amazons list August release dates.

Shocking! TFN has word from Steve Sansweet about the appearance of The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia on Amazon:

“The last time Amazon did this it was for a book that had been killed six months before. Pablo Hidalgo and I are working on a project together. Everything else–including the sole author credit–is either wrong or speculation. And it’s too early to talk about right now.”

Discovered today on Amazon: A listing for The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia by Steve Sansweet and due out in November. Amazon has never been the most reliable source on the block, but we do know that an updated Encyclopedia is in the works, and a pre-Christmas date is certainly likely. Hopefully this is a sign we’ll be getting an official update on the book soon. (via)