Club Jade

The makers of The Jedi Path and Book of Sith have a new book coming out later this year: The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett, and Paul Nicholasi of Idle Hands got a sneak peek of it at BookExpo America this past weekend. Like the previous two books, it is set as an ‘in-universe’ document, comes in an ultracool electronic case, and has a handful of inserts. In-universe commentary is provided by such galactic denizens as Boba Fett, Bossk, Aurra Sing, Greedo, Jango Fett and Hondo Ohnaka!

As items collected by Boba Fett prior to his dip in the Sarlacc, The Bounty Hunter Code includes a copy of the Bounty Hunters Guild Handbook and a volume from Death Watch, and Cradossk’s memoirs, and is scheduled for release in October 15, 2013. Amazon lists the authors as Dan Wallace (author of The Jedi Path and Book of Sith), Ryder Windham, and Jason Fry. Hop on over to the link above to see some pages and art from the book, including instructions on how to hotwire a landspeeder.

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A special person to the Star Wars fan community has passed away.

Leah Esquanazi, better known as Princess Leah, suffered from a mitochondrial disease that caused her to have breathing difficulties and a related disorder that caused blindness. Her parents are big Star Wars fans and are very involved in fandom. When word went out that Leah was ill, the fans rallied to get funds together several times through collections and auctions so that her parents could cover their extensive time away from work and, eventually, the high costs associated with her care.

Even though she struggled with many health problems, her parents tried to give her an active life full of adventures that they chronicled on their blog and Facebook page.

Keep an eye out on their Facebook page for any planned tributes.

Profiled. USA Today interviews Kathleen Kennedy about her career, Lucasfilm, and women in film.

Imagine this? Al Pacino told a London audience that he turned down the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, the BBC reports. “That role was mine for the taking but I couldn’t understand the script,” he said. He also turned down Die Hard and Pretty Woman.

Dak! Our pal John Morton has been blogging for StarWars.com! He even profiled a few CJers!

Neat stuff. The next Star Wars mega-LEGO is an almost 2,000-piece Ewok Village. It’ll set you back $249.

With today being the release date of the fifth and final issue of the Fire Carrier story arc for the Star Wars: Dark Times comic, I wanted to highlight this fantastic comics storyline, so I got the chance to discuss the story with Randy Stradley, the writer of Dark Times as well as senior Star Wars editor and VP of Publishing at Dark Horse Comics.

Let’s hear what Randy has to say about writing the latest adventures of the Whiphid Jedi, Master K’Kruhk and a group of younglings under his care, posing as refugees on an Imperial backwater world. We won’t spoil the final issue, but if you want to learn more about the story so far, you can check out my reviews of all individual issues at Big Shiny Robot: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5.
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Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss announced today that the James S. A. Corey Han Solo novel – second in the Empire and Rebellion series – will be titled Honor Among Thieves and will be out next spring.

The first novel in the series will be October’s Leia-centric Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells. The third will be by Kevin Hearns and focus on Luke Skywalker.

Meanwhile, the third novel in Corey’s space opera series The Expanse, Abaddon’s Gate was released yesterday. I don’t have it yet, but I do recommend the series.

Last week.. Okay, not a ton happened last week. (Or this week, apparently) It was going to be a very dull tweet roundup indeed… Until Spike busted out the original trilogy. Bless you, Spike TV.

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Out today from DK is The Clone Wars Episode Guide by Jason Fry, detailing all 108 episodes of the show. Fry gave us a few details on his Tumblr, as well as in a Twitter chat earlier this afternoon.

Meanwhile, in the comic shop on Wednesday Dark Times wraps up the latest arc with Fire Carrier #5.

Later this month we’ll see the paperback of Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill, while July brings William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher and Troy Denning’s Crucible.

The 2013 Christmas Special will be Matt Smith’s last on Doctor Who, the BBC announced today. Smith, the eleventh and youngest actor to play the role, took over from David Tennant in 2010 and has done 3 seasons of the show – plus the upcoming 50th Anniversary and Christmas specials.

There’s been nothing about who will be cast as the next Doctor, but reports do have both showrunner Steven Moffat and the current companion, Jenna Coleman, staying on.

Team Hondo gets a mention in Matt Martin’s writeup of March’s ‘This is Madness’ vote in Star Wars Insider #142, arriving in subscriber mailboxes now. (But for the meantime, here’s a scan.)

The issue also features a short story by Christie Golden that ties into Crucible, a Padme piece by blogger Tricia Barr and a look back at The Clone Wars S5 from Eric Geller. The issue should be on newsstands on or around June 12.

The second annual Star Wars Reads Day has been announced for Saturday, October 5th, 2013. As it was with last year, I’m sure there will be plenty of Star Wars Reads events happening in libraries and bookstores across the US (and perhaps beyond).

The announcement came at this weekend’s Book Expo America, where the Star Wars Reads panel also included a lightsaber duel for William Shakespeare’s Star Wars.