Club Jade

Dark Horse’s February/April solicitations, includes our first look at Star Wars: Adventures Volume 1: Han Solo and the Hollow Moon of Khorya (the April part of the equation,) as well as Legacy #33, Knights of the Old Republic #38, The Clone Wars #4 and an Emissaries and Assassins omnibus.

• Bonnie interviews Jonathan Bresman, Senior Editor of MAD Kids, about their upcoming Clone Wars cover. Alas, doesn’t address my burning question of how a kid’s version of Mad magazine is not epically redundant.

• Radio: Sean Williams will be on ABC Radio National’s The Book Show next Tuesday. That’s Australian ABC, but a podcast version will be posted for the rest of the world.
  

Lots of tidbits: Sue Rostoni has continued posting bits and pieces about the new contract on StarWars.com boards and blogs, including the timing of Fate of the Jedi and Blood Oath (apparently Seeley’s cover art has Zekk “in a very manly pose, looking ruggedly handsome.”) Meanwhile, the first FOTJ cover will feature Luke, although no artist names yet, and the manuscript for Shadows of Mindor is 419 pages. And she’s updated her book schedule entry with a few new dates (already reflected in our schedule) and the news that the Reaves/Bonhoff ‘holostar’ novel is set two years before the Battle of Yavin. And today we swing right back to Fate of the Jedi: It “will continue to be a mix of characters.”

• Comics: StarWars.com has Dark Horse’s January 2009 solicitations, but it looks pretty slim: Just Knights of the Old Republic and the beginning of Legacy’s first post-Vector arc.

• The Force Unleashed: Sean Williams shares his piece from the Adelaide Advertiser on writing Star Wars.
• LOTF: io9 features Jacen and Jaina as one of Science Fiction’s Fiercest Sibling Rivalries.

• Coruscant Nights: On the official boards, Sue Rostoni drops a short except from Patterns of Force and confirms the (much-confused) release date as January 27th.

• Interview: Sean Williams over at the Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing podcast (Thanks, Zee Zee!) while Lightsabre talks to webmaster-turned-Complete Encyclopedia contributer Bob Vitas.
• Preview: Legacy #29/Vector part 10.

• Rebel Force: Barnes & Noble is now listing the author for the upcoming Scholastic series as Robin Wasserman (and ‘Scholastic, Inc. Staff.’) At least this time it’s someone who actually exists! Of course, let’s add the usual disclaimer that this all may be a B&N/automated system burp and it’s clearly not official yet, etc. etc. Or not: B&N is now listing Alex Wheeler.

• Faint praise: The New York Times seems a little miffed at The Force Unleashed topping their bestseller list. Though to be honest I can get a little ‘damn you kids, get off my lawn! about game-based things, too, so I can’t entirely blame them. (For those without NYT passwords, Sean Williams has a scan of the actual printed page.)
• Review: And since we’re on the topic of The Force Unleashed, SF Signal has reviewed the graphic novel adaption.
• Comics: Newsarama talks to The Clone Wars comic writer Henry Gilroy (via,) while DarkHorse.com previews Knights of the Old Republic #33.

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.

Publisher’s Weekly has Sean William’s game novelization at #1 this week. It’s #15 on USA Today; The New York Times list hasn’t been updated yet.

UPDATE: #1 on the New York Times list!

Sean Williams shares. And it looks like we’ll be seeing his novelization of The Force Unleashed on a certain newspaper’s bestseller list soon…

And he comes across as so sincere that I’ll even refrain from snarking on the Darksaber comment. (More or less.)

Above, a video interview with author Sean Williams on his TFU novelization, while Penny Arcade riffs on the game.

Del Rey has also emailed out a list of book release events taking place on Saturday, August 23; You’ll find them beneath the cut. (more…)

With most of The Force Unleashed tie-ins out today, the official site has posted a bonanza of extras:

• A brief excerpt from Sean Williams’ novel adaption of the game.

• Q&A with the game’s project lead, Haden Blackman, on the book vs. the game.
• Several pages from the comic adaption. (The same one we saw on DarkHorse.com)
• A quick look at The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Also of interest may be io9′s gallery of TFU concept art.

So, um, apparently there’s this game coming out next month? Where you play as Vader’s secret apprentice? And stuff? Yeah, this is the novelization, and it comes out tomorrow. Oh, and a Making of book, too. Plus some comic. And all much, much cheaper than a game console.