Club Jade

As James pointed out in our earlier Scoundrels post, it seems like every year lately there’s been a Star Wars book that comes out almost directly after the holiday. Many of us has been wondering about that in light of Scoundrels, but there is a solid reason, according to LFL’s Jennifer Heddle:

Pubtip: Sometimes certain books come out right after the holidays on purpose, so they don’t get lost in the holiday avalanche of gift books.

— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) December 12, 2012

Just think for a moment how bookstores are inundated with stock for the holiday rush. Sometimes you want to make sure your box is unpacked.

— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) December 12, 2012

Makes sense! And hey, it’s good for those of us who only want gift cards anyway…

I guess someone threw the Scoundrels switch yesterday, because there’s been a minor flood of coverage for Timothy Zahn’s book.

MTV Geek has a book trailer which I can’t bring myself to watch. (Sorry, I Have Issues with the entire concept. Blame Vector Prime.)

Perhaps paying homage to one of our fandom’s oldest traditions, Suvudu has a “holiday card insert” so you can gift the book ahead of the official release date. And it looks like they’re ‘introducing’ the individual scoundrels one-by-one, starting with Lando.

Tricia at Fangirl has an interview with Zahn – with more coming in the Insider.

And finally, I believe this may be our first official review: Tor’s Emily Asher-Perrin says it’s “just like a normal heist only much, much better.”

The book is, once again, not out until January 1st.

Out now is ‘Winner Lose All,’ Timothy Zahn’s short tie-in to next month’s Scoundrels.

On Wednesday comic fans will find Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #5 and the trade collection of Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm

As someone who’s generally pretty well informed on what’s going on with the franchise, I go back and forth on the Star Wars Insider.

I let my subscription lapse more than a year ago and pick up the issues at Barnes & Noble… And often forget to read them anyway. (Yes, it’s available digitally, and I’m not really much of a collector, but I think I have them all since issue #24.)

The magazine is hobbled by the same general issues as most of print media – it’s always, always going to be a day (actually a month, or several months) late when it comes to breaking news. That’s just the nature of the beast, but I figure the Insider isn’t really meant for folks like me, the fans who read dozens of news sites daily. It’s for the casual fans. There’s a fine line to walk to attract the hardcores without alienating the core audience – the short stories being perhaps the latest (successful?) attempt.

But with new movies coming up (and hopefully, an end to the parade of generic Clone Wars covers) it’s perhaps time to renew. The new issue features an interview with George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy about the new movies. Will it contain anything we haven’t heard yet? (Also, a Tim Zahn interview and short story.) Well, we’ll find out on the 11th.

What are your thoughts on the Insider? If they lost you, what would it take to bring you back?

Jedi News has a brief excerpt from the Timothy Zahn eBook ‘Winner Lose All,’ which will be released next Monday. The excerpt features Scoundrels characters Tavia and Bink Kitik, and the eBook focuses on Lando Calrissian.

Scoundrels is due out in hardcover January 1.

Kids. Chronicle Books has revealed the cover for Vader’s Little Princess, Jeffrey Brown’s followup to Darth Vader and Son. In the spirit of the season, Chronicle is also offering printable holiday gift tags.

Vader’s Little Princess is due out in April.

Audio. The live performance of Kyle Newman’s Smuggler’s Gambit from Celebration VI is now available to download. The cast includes David Collins as Han Solo, plus Sam Witwer, Tom Kane, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter, Dee Bradley Baker, Matthew Wood, Clare Grant, and Daniel Logan.

Short stories. Next Tuesday, Jedi News will have an exclusive excerpt of the Timothy Zahn eBook ‘Winner Lose All,’ which releases on the 10th.

Mappage. Jason Fry talks about keeping The Essential Atlas as a living book.

Interviews. EUCantina talks to Drew Karpyshyn.

‘Winner Lose All,’ Timothy Zahn’s short story tie-in to Scoundrels, has appeared in the Random House online catalog. The blurb:

Lando Calrissian’s no stranger to card tournaments, but this one has a truly electrifying atmosphere. That’s because the prize is a rare sculpture worth a whopping fifty million credits. If Lando’s not careful, he’s going to go bust, especially after meeting identical twins Bink and Tavia Kitik, master thieves who have reason to believe that the sculpture is a fake. The Kitiks are beautiful, dangerous, and determined to set things right—and they’ve convinced Lando to help them expose the scam. But what they’re up against is no simple double cross, nor even a twisted triple cross. It is a full-blown power play of colossal proportions. For an unseen mastermind holds all the cards and has a fail-proof solution for every problem: murder.

‘Winner Lose All’ will be available in digital formats on December 10. Scoundrels, a hardcover, will be out on January 1. (via)

Entertainment Weekly caught up with Timothy Zahn to talk about the week’s big announcement and the amount of mainstream attention that the Thrawn trilogy has been getting due to all the speculation – and what he knew of possible plans for a trilogy after Return of the Jedi.

That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”

But years ago, he was briefed on Lucas’ plans for sequels, and how the Thrawn books would fit in. “The original idea as I understood it— and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now – but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him [in the prequels], and if there was another 7th, 8th, or 9th film, it would be Luke’s children. The Thrawn Trilogy really would have fit into the gap,” the author said.

Tim talks – vaguely! – about what kind of things he’d like to see in the new films.

#StarWars Scoundrels will feature excerpts from Crucible and the Dawn of the Jedi novel, Into the Void by @timlebbon #SWEU #Zahnsolo

— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) October 17, 2012

Scoundrels will be out January 1st, while Into the Void and Crucible are currently scheduled for May 7 and July 2. All three books are hardcovers.

Several of Timothy Zahn’s science fiction novels from the 80′s and 90′s – now out of print – have been reissued as eBooks by Open Road Media. They even produced a short video you can see under the cut. (more…)