Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Out Tuesday is Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff’s The Last Jedi, which continues the story of Jax Pavan from the Coruscant Knights book.
Wednesday has plenty to offer comic fans, with Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #5 and Dawn of the Jedi: The Prisoner of Bogan #3. Plus there’s the third printing of Star Wars #1.
Our next novel release won’t be until May, with Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void.
Adjustments. The Han on the Crucible cover got a slight tweak. (Why yes, it is a slow week for EU news!) The important thing is, the release date remains the same: July 9.
Street dates. Speaking of upcoming releases, pencil in Joe Schreiber’s Maul: Lockdown for a January 21, 2014 release. Not because we don’t believe it’s coming, but because this far out, dates are subject to change. And on that note, 2014 is now an actual thing on our release schedule. Meanwhile, if you don’t want to wait most of a year to read about Maul, Aaron Goins has a list of 7 tales you can check out right now.
Comics. Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman chat about their forthcoming Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World at Geek of Oz.
Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James gets enthusiastic about the happenings in Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #4 and Dark Times: Fire Carrier #1.
Let’s put a lid on it: The final Fate of the Jedi book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse, is out today in paperback. Goodbye to the (hopefully) last of the mega-series…
Also, I don’t generally cover merchandise in these posts, but apparently the Kotobukiya Jaina Solo figure also goes on sale today.
For comic fans, Wednesday will bring Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #4 and an Infinities omnibus. It’s just the three ‘what-if’ comics, alas – I’m still waiting for Dark Horse to collect all the funny Tales/Tag and Bink stuff that also falls under the Infinities umbrella.
Our next upcoming novel is something brand new – The Last Jedi, also a paperback, is due February 26.
There’ll be a couple of thing waiting for Star Wars fans at the comic book store Wednesday: Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #3 and Dawn of the Jedi: The Prisoner of Bogan #2. If you’re not a subscriber, you might also want to keep an eye out for Star Wars Insider #138.
Meanwhile, on the book front, Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels is creeping nearer, with only two weeks left until the release date of January 1st.
It’s an expensive week – if you’re into cartoons or comics, anyway. As previously reported, the 4th season of The Clone Wars will be out on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday. You might also want to check for The Old Republic Encyclopedia, which actually came out last week.
As for comics, we’ve got three trade collections due in on Wednesday: Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse, Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness and Knights of the Old Republic: War.
You’ll also want to keep an eye out for Star Wars Insider #137.
As one comic leaves, another begins… Well, begins a new arc, anyway. In Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #1, out Wednesday, Jahan Cross heads to Alderaan to party with the Organas.
If you’re a military sci-fi fan, you might want to go check out Five by Five, a set of novelettes that includes stories by Aaron Allston, Michael Stackpole, and Kevin J. Anderson.
As for Star Wars books, we have the paperback reprint of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis due at the end of the month. Our next new book will be a hardcover, Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation, on November 13.
Excerpts. It’s easy to miss, but if you head over to the Random House page for X-Wing: Mercy Kill, there are 32 pages from the book available. (Click on the cover.) It includes the dramatis personae that caused such a furor when the ARCs went out as well as the first pages of 22 chapters. Weird, yes? (via)
The blogside. Joysweeper at Scans Daily takes a look at Luke Skywalker’s worst comic outfits. She’s not kidding; there’s a mesh shirt. Oh, Marvel. Also: An interview with costumer Victoria Schmidt; convention tall tales; and a review of Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight.
Upcoming. Rebelscum has covers and summaries for two upcoming comic collections – Dawn Of The Jedi: Force Storm and new Clone Wars omnibus, The Republic Falls – as well as the next arc of Agent Of The Empire.
Awards. Tom Taylor’s Blood Ties has won the The Stan Lee Excelsior Award, which encourages kids to read comics and graphic novels.
Behind the scenes. The Young to Publishing Group has four keys to success in licensed publishing, which features several familiar names.
Endnotes. I’ve run out of things to say about the things, so just let it be known that Jason Fry has posted part 14 and part 15 of his guide to everything Essential Guide to Warfare.
On Wednesday, Agent of the Empire closes out its first arc with Iron Eclipse #5, while Knights of the Old Republic: War #4 heads into its own conclusion. Apparently Captain Trips has struck the GFFA? Or maybe they just need more cowbell.
Our next book release, in two weeks, will be Jeff Grubb’s Scourge. Hutts! Whoo. Maybe they’ll have Captain Trips, too.
Fate of the Jedi. If you haven’t finished Apocalypse yet, don’t click any of the links in this section, because they are chock-full of spoilers! Over at Lightsaber Rattling, Pete Morrison takes a look at the state of the Expanded Universe post-Fate of the Jedi. (Always-relevant musical interlude: Where do we go from here?)
There are also some new reviews from The Galactic Drift, Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’, and The EU, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Also, if you’re in the mood for some snark, I live-tweeted my reading of the book, and then rambled at length about it on my Livejournal. My review, in brief: Meh.
Namesake corner A custom Clone Wars style Mara Jade action figure! I’ve made no secret of not being a fan of the style, but this is pretty nifty, I must admit. And she doesn’t look like Giada DeLaurentiis!
Author talk. Dan Wallace posts his endnotes for the Book of Sith.
Excerpts. A mini for Jeff Grubb’s Scourge. It’s our next new novel release, coming April in paperback.
Gaming. One of our readers, Annalee, has a good write-up at the Geek Feminism blog on issues in The Old Republic.
Comics. James gives a thumbs up to the twists in Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #4, and Zayne digging himself in deep in Knights of the Old Republic: War #3.
What more is there to say about Apocalypse at this point? Troy Denning’s finale of the Fate of the Jedi series drops tomorrow, and I think all of us – fans and cynics alike – are more than ready to put this series (and maybe even the format) to bed.
Fans: Don’t forget about Troy Denning’s book tour.
Cynics: Remember, this book contains our first look at Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill.
By the by, the spoilers for Apocalypse are insane. And that’s all I’m going to say. For now. (Assuming this book doesn’t start off with six straight chapters of Sith ala Ascension, in which case it may take me another 7 months to force myself to read it…)
As for the comic readers, Wednesday brings Agent of The Empire – Iron Eclipse #4 and Knights of The Old Republic: War #3