SDCC: Del Rey announces Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos novel by Christie Golden

delrey-asajj

Killing two birds with one stone, Del Rey has annouced a new novel starring Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos for next summer. Christie Golden is writing, but it’s based on unaired scripts from The Clone Wars S7, a storyline scripted with George Lucas. It will deal with some very “adult themes,” though probably not the sexy kind.

Meanwhile, comic fans, Pablo said that we can expect to hear from Marvel about their Star Wars plans at their Cup O’ Joe panel on Saturday (2:45 PDT/5:45 EDT.)

Dan Brooks once again live-blogged at StarWars.com, and TFN has audio. Head below the cut to see the tweets – some interesting things were said about the state of canon and the Legends label.

Continue reading “SDCC: Del Rey announces Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos novel by Christie Golden”

EUbits: Get a glimpse of Razor’s Edge

razors-edge-crop2Razor’s Edge. Fangirl has some exclusive art of the book’s cast, plus an interview with artist Magali Villeneuve. (Follow the link to see the whole thing!) Author Martha Wells chats with This Blog is Full of Words, Geek with Curves and Jedi News. (I’ll have more Razor’s Edge links later in the new release post.)

The blogside. At the official blog, editor Jennifer Heddle talks about the process behind Kenobi, while Bryan Young discusses the cinematic influences behind some of the books. Meanwhile, on my personal blog, I wrote a guide to the Expanded Universe for casual fans.

Street date shuffle. Can we still call it ‘street’ date for an eBook? The enhanced eBooks for Making of Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars have been pushed back to October 22, Star Wars Books has announced. The hardcover Making of Return of the Jedi will still be out on October 1.

Interviews. Suvudu had the transcript of John Jackson Miller’s Facebook chat, plus Shelly Shapiro and Brian Wood. Eleven-ThirtyEight chats with Jason Fry, Star Wars Union with Alan Dean Foster, and Target Audience magazine has Timothy Zahn.

Reviews. James was impressed with Dark Times: A Spark Remains #3.

Jawajames’ recap in photos of Star Wars Celebration VI Friday

Dunc has covered all the news, and I’m just the guy who takes the pictures. and organizes the Bounty Hunt puzzle hunt event at Celebration. So anyway, here’s some of the best of the photos. If you want to see the full set, I have a photo album just of Friday at Celebration VI (170 shots of the Del Rey panel, cupcakes, Friday Bounty Hunt, random costumes) on flickr. Continue reading “Jawajames’ recap in photos of Star Wars Celebration VI Friday”

Celebration VI: Del Rey annouces Jaina Solo trilogy, new original trilogy series

We got news about two new projects this morning at Del Rey’s panel. The first is a new series, Rebels, featuring the classic characters, which launches with a Leia-centric tale by Martha Wells. The second, focusing on Luke, will be written by Kevin Hearns. These were just approved, so no art. It’s set between ANH and ESB, I believe.

The second is something we’ve all been waiting for and half-expecting: A Jaina trilogy, Sword of the Jedi, written by Christie Golden. Lots of cheers from the audience! It’s set not too long after Fate of the Jedi and does have some (temporary?) art. The Jaina fans are super-excited, and who can blame them?

But most of the panel was, as promised, given to Q&A. Some highlights and updates on other upcoming books, including Crucible, Scoundrels and more beneath the cut. In attendance were Pablo Hidalgo, Aaron Allston, James Luceno, Drew Karpyshyn, Jennifer Heddle, Shelly Shapiro and Timothy Zahn.

Continue reading “Celebration VI: Del Rey annouces Jaina Solo trilogy, new original trilogy series”

EUbits: Last-minute Celebration updates and more

Celebration VI Lots of schedule-posting has been going around. Leland Chee has his at the StarWars.com blog, while the official CVI site has the Barnes & Noble booth signing schedule. Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, Jason Fry, and John Jackson Miller have their schedules up as well.

The blogside. Miller wrote a nice post on Star Wars things you probably don’t remember for the TOS blog, including a version of Heir to the Empire that came with an overwrap. Meanwhile, Pete Morrison goes into Encyclopedia Brown mode to deduct what Jason Fry is working on now.

Interview. Linda Hansen-Raj talks to Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro at the Fangirl blog.

Reviews. A couple more looks at Mercy Kill from Brian at Tosche Station and Kirkus. And James reviews the Bruce Lee vs Darth Maul smackdown of The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters digest.

Comic-Con: Del Rey, Dark Horse & LEGO

Friday is traditionally Star Wars day at Comic-Con, and we had a full slate of Star Wars-related panels, and Seth Green returned to crash another one of them. While there was no Star Wars Spectacular, attendees in San Diego got their fill from different Star Wars licensees.

Del Rey’s Star Wars book panel was minimally staffed this year – only editor Shelly Shapiro and Choices of One author Timothy Zahn were up on stage. Shapiro gave a quick overview of upcoming titles (both novels and reference guides) and release dates from Del Rey, with no new title announcements. She did mention that in X-Wing: Mercy Kill there will be two Wraith Squadrons, and neither knows about the other. The original novella being written for Lost Tribe of the Sith print edition was described as a “big chunk” by John Jackson Miller, lurking in the audience.

Tim answered questions about Thrawn’s characteristics. Shelly responded that the canceled Blood Oath is essentially erased and overwritten in the timeline, while Imperial Commando 2 isn’t being pursued for the near future, though they do want to finish the series. Tim talked about having his bits of his EU works overwritten by George Lucas by using Bill Slavicsek’s analogy of working in Star Wars: playing on George Lucas’ driveway when he could back up the truck at any moment. He also gave his views of how the Force works: for power or guidance, with Yoda focusing more on listening to the Force for guidance over using it for power. More questions focused on Tim’s response to Mara Jade’s death (and how Tim would have written Serenity), Shelley’s views on character death and the anecdotal revelation that George Lucas gave the approval to kill off Han Solo when they were developing Vector Prime for NJO (only Luke and Leia were declared no-kill). And, of course, some of the usual questions about continuity and such.

You can check out the Del Rey panel for yourself: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Randy Stradley, in his Imperial officer uniform, started off Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel with some minor announcements (apparently New York Comic Con will get the official announcements): Star Wars comics being finally available digitally (some even for free), a new John Ostrander and Jan Duursema project, a new John Jackson Miller project, and a new Tom Taylor project. He then got all the panelists to reveal their favorite Star Wars comics moments, which led to hoojibs. Some further announcements include the opportunity for The Clone Wars comic story between seasons 4 and 5, and that one The Clone Wars comic story will be adapted an story arc for the show, and a new Vader project by Haden Blackman. Most of the Q&A was directed at Holocron keeper, Leland Chee, but then later went to hoojib zombies, constantly making the galaxy bigger, and another new series – Agent of the Empire, with a focus away from the Jedi or Sith. And Seth Green took the podium in this panel to relate his favorite Star Wars comics: Tag and Bink, and mentioned that his upcoming animated Star Wars comedy series may “smell like Robot Chicken”.

Watch the Dark Horse panel: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

The LEGO Star Wars panel started off Friday morning as a one-stop shop for all things LEGO Star Wars: a little look at the most recent LEGO Star Wars video games, some of the upcoming LEGO Star Wars building sets, including a new TIE Fighter set, and the new Queen Amidala figure, and ending with a few clips of the LEGO Star Wars animated special, The Padawan Menace, which aired last night on Cartoon Network (and will be running a few more times over the weekend). My recommendation: watch this hilarious animated special. While it takes place in the Clone Wars and focuses on C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels) as he manages a group of unruly padawans, while Yoda and a youngling named Ian (or is it really someone else we know that’s just one letter off?) try to keep Asajj Ventress from stealing some plans. Written by Michael Price (from The Simpsons), there is a lot of fun and comedy here for all Star Wars fans. It was revealed after the panel that The Padawan Menace will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 16, to coincide with Blu-ray release of the Star Wars saga.

Win lunch with Tim Zahn at Comic-Con! More con author signings posted…

Del Rey, via suvudu.com, is hosting a contest for a chance to win lunch with Timothy Zahn and editor Shelly Shapiro on July 23 in San Diego. What’s better than some ysalamiri tacos? Contest deadline is this Thursday, and is open to anyone who is going to be in San Diego during Comic-Con.

Also, Del Rey released their schedule of author signings (and related panels) via Star Wars Books on facebook – RSVP for each event:

Signings (and free book giveaways) at the Del Rey booth 2913-D in Star Wars Pavilion:

  • John Jackson Miller (Knight Errant): Thursday, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Timothy Zahn (Choices of One, Heir to the Empire – 20th Anniversary Edition): Friday, 2:30pm – 4:00pm and Saturday, 3:00pm – 4:30pm
  • Joe Schreiber (Death Troopers, Red Harvest): Saturday, 11:00 am to noon
  • Drew Karpyshyn (Darth Bane trilogy, The Old Republic: Revan) Saturday, 12:00pm to 1:00pm (with artist Chris Trevas) – Revan mask giveaway.
  • Bonnie Burton (Star Wars Craft Book): Saturday, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Del Rey has also posted events for their related Comic-Con panels:
Continue reading “Win lunch with Tim Zahn at Comic-Con! More con author signings posted…”

EUbits: Interviews with Rostoni, Shapiro and Allie

Interviews, everywhere! There’s been an absolute plague of interviews lately. EUC talks to Lucasfilm Licensing’s Sue Rostoni, Podcaster Sohaib had Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro on his show last week, and Roqoo Depot has Jedi: The Dark Side writer Scott Allie.

Blurbs. Drew Karpyshyn’s Revan novel gets a summary.

Fandom. Michael Falkner is breaking up with the ForceCast over their recent treatment of Expanded Universe fans.

Namesake corner. I’ve got two fairly minor Mara Jade bits today: io9 named her one of their 10 sexiest assassins. Naturally, it features fan art of both the badly photoshopped and naked body paint persuasions. (Sigh.) On the other hand, there’s a new namesake: A foal. She has a twin sister named after Princess Leia.