Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
John Ostrander and Jan Duursema are back Wednesday with a new arc of their Dawn of the Jedi series in Force War #1. Meanwhile, collections of Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin and Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World will also debut in comic shops.
Novel fans sit tight – next week brings the paperback edition of Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels.
Releasing Tuesday are the eBook versions of J. W. Rinzler’s Making of books for the original trilogy, featuring video, audio and other extra content. Random House has them priced at $17.99, but check your device’s marketplaces.
Comic fans can head to the shops on Wednesday for Legacy #8.
It’s also time to keep an eye out for the new Star Wars Insider, which features a Leia short story bu editor Jen Heddle.
Next week brings The Bounty Hunter Code: From the Files of Boba Fett (now dated to the 29th) and the still-pricey-but-not-ridiculously-so version of Frames.
And there’s a fairly recent update to our book release schedule – the Crucible paperback is scheduled for May 27.
Head to the comic book store on Wednesday for Star Wars #9, in which Leia apparently visits the remains of Alderaan. September is all about Alderaan, I guess.
Or, if you want the original Legacy series collected in hardcover, Book 2 will be out as well. Not sure which issues are in this one, but with both it and Book 1 clocking in at over 400 pages each, it’s gotta be a good chunk of the series.
Our next novel release is Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells (reviewed!) on September 24, with J. W. Rinzler’s massive The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi looming on October 1.
You’ll finally be able to pick up John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi on Tuesday, but in the meantime, there are Miller interviews at Eleven-ThirtyEight and Fangirl. There’s an excerpt read by James Arnold Taylor and a look at the book’s geography as well… And my review will be up tomorrow.
Also out on Tuesday is Jeffrey Brown’s Jedi Academy. The author of Darth Vader and Son and Vader’s Little Princess now has a bigger book that is a Diary of a Wimpy Kid take on being in a Jedi middle school, under Yoda. Check out Bleeding Cool’s preview of the book, or watch the book’s trailer.
Meanwhile, in comics, Legacy #6 is out on Wednesday.
Our next novel, Martha Wells’ Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge, will be out on September 24th, while the highly anticipated The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi by J. W. Rinzler is out October 1.
It’s a good week for comics: Legacy #5 ends the revived title’s first arc with, apparently, some sort of bang. And for those who prefer collections, there are trade paperback editions of Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan and Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets.
It’s also time for non-subscribers to start keeping an eye out for Star Wars Insider #143, guest-edited by Warwick Davis and featuring a short story by John Jackson Miller that ties into our next novel release, August’s Kenobi.
Street date shuffle The release of Martha Wells’ Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge has moved up a week again, this time to September 24, Del Rey tweeted yesterday. Meanwhile, the paperback for Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels is set for November 26. As always, the dates hang out on our schedule page.
Elsewheres… Time Traveled Tales, a book of short stories that features Aaron Allston, Mike Stackpole and Timothy Zahn among others (like CJers Janine K. Spendlove and Bryan Young) may have passed its original Kickstarter goal of $7,500, but with 17 days to go you can back it now to help add second stories from Stackpole, Allston and Zahn. Meanwhile, a $5 donation guarantees you an eBook version of the anthology.
Toys. We already knew that a Mara Jade Skywalker figure was in the queue, but these inventory lists found by Jedi Temple Archives list a Darth Plagueis as well!
Reviews. Great dialogue and fun characters highlight James’ enjoyment of Legacy #3, he’s impressed with Jan Duursema’s action art in Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #5, was caught off guard by Dark Times: Fire Carrier #5 and wonders if a boom is too big for Star Wars #6.
Out right now – I missed it last week – is Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy by J.W. Rinzler.
Meanwhile, Wednesday brings the conclusion of Dawn of the Jedi‘s second arc in Prisoner of Bogan #5 as well as Legacy #3.
Our forthcoming slate includes Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill in paperback (June 25,) William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher (July 2) and Troy Denning’s Crucible (July 9.)
Chat. Pablo Hidalgo will be chatting on the Star Wars Books Facebook page this Friday, where we’ll be sure to ask him all sorts of weird stuff about Episode VII. Or something.
Interviews. ScienceFiction.com talked to Timothy Zahn at Starfest, while Roqoo Depot catches up with Patricia A. Jackson, who wrote for the Star Wars Adventure Journal back in the day.
The blogside. On the official blog, Jennifer Heddle talks Star Wars storytelling hallmarks, while J.W. Rinzler discuses The Star Wars comic
Excerpts. The third and fourth excerpt from Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void
Review. Ania and Sauk are on the run, and we get a new awesome droid character in Legacy #2
Out Tuesday is Vader’s Little Princess, Jeffrey Brown’s followup to last year’s wildly popular Darth Vader and Son. Also out now from Chronicle is something I forgot to mention last week – the standalone hardcover edition of Daniel Wallace’s Book of Sith.
Both Brown and Wallace, along with Lucasfilm’s Johnathan Rinzler, will be chatting about Star Wars on May 1 at the Star Wars and Chronicle Books blogs. Submit your question(s) now!
Meanwhile, comic fans will have something waiting for them on Wednesday as well: Legacy #2.
On Friday afternoon, Dark Horse hosted a Twitter chat with the writers of two of their most recent Star Wars comics series, Brian Wood of the top-selling new Star Wars ongoing series, and the team of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman of the new Star Wars: Legacy (Volume 2) series.
With Brian Wood’s series that has been flying off the shelves since its premiere in January (the 4th printing of Issue #1 comes out on April 17, while Issue #4 comes out April 10), there were a lot of questions about the focus on Leia. Bechko and Hardman discussed Legacy’s new protagonist, Ania Solo, and gave a few hints for what’s in store for the series, which had its first issue on March 20. I’ve got the highlights of the conversation at #SWComicsChat below, and even have a handful of questions of my own.