Category: books and comics

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Out this week: Zahn’s Scoundrels disembark

Oh my, look at the time.

As you may recall – or not, depending on how much partying was done last night, today is the release of Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels. You know, that book some of us wouldn’t shut up about for most of 2012?

Well, it’s finally here. If you’re not eBook-equipped and not ready to change out of your party clothes/pajamas quite yet, Timothy Zahn chatted with Knights Archive, This Blog Is Full of Words and Roqoo Depot. RD also posted their review, as did Big Shiny Robot, Tosche Station, Jedi News and EUCantina.

Comic fans won’t be left out in the cold this week, either. Look for Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #2 in the shops on Wednesday. There actually was a release last week at well: the third Clone Wars omnibus, The Republic Falls.

What else do we have coming up this month? Well, Brian Wood’s Star Wars #1 ought to debut next week, and the final Fate of the Jedi book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse, will be out in paperback on the 29th.

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EUbits: Read 50 pages of Scoundrels

ScoundrelsScoundrels. With only a few days until the book’s release in January 1, we’re seeing plenty of Scoundrels action. There’s 50 pages on Suvudu and a brief excerpt on io9 (which is also part of the larger chunk.) And Aaron Goins’ review is up over at Star Wars Report.

Interviews. For it being the holiday season, there sure are a lot of them popping up lately. Fangirl has Troy Denning, there’s Brian Wood at Newsarama, Randy Stradley at CBR and Steve Sansweet at GalacticHunter.

Rebels. Martha Wells is nearly done with the first draft of her Star Wars novel.

Another excerpt. Knights Archive was first to spot that there’s a chapter of Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s The Last Jedi up at the Random House catalog.

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The Airing of Grievances: Best #StarWars, #EpisodeVII and #SWEU tweets for Dec 17-23

As the tyranny of the holiday season comes to an end, Santa Maul has taken time from his busy schedule to present to you the best tweets of the week. They are full of anger and rage and the Star Wars Holiday Special, as is only fitting. May your holiday be victorious.

Continue reading “The Airing of Grievances: Best #StarWars, #EpisodeVII and #SWEU tweets for Dec 17-23”

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Discussion: Your favorite Star Wars reads of 2012?

No, the year isn’t over yet, but for the purposes of books, everything has been out for a while. More or less.

So what was the best Star Wars thing you read this year? Book, comic, or other, it doesn’t matter, as long as you read it.

If you need a refresher, Wookieepedia has a massive list of everything released this year, but your answer doesn’t have to go by that, just something you read this year… No matter when it was originally released.

Hell, if the best thing you read was a fanfic, go for it… Just be sure to include a link, and any warnings if they apply.

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EUbits: Timothy Zahn on tour for Scoundrels

Scoundrels. Timothy Zahn is going on tour! West coast only, alas. For the rest of us, there’s a lengthy new interview on Hollywood.com.

The blogside. Bria over at Tosche Station has been doing a massive re-read of the Expanded Universe – chronologically! She made it to the Revenge of the Sith novelization yesterday and had many feels, as the kids on Tumblr say.

Interviews. Fandom rockstar Pablo Hidalgo talked to EUCantina, while Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley is over at Fangirl.

Reviews. James is back with looks at Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #1, Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #5 and Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #3.

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Report: Marvel to replace Dark Horse as Star Wars comic publisher in 2014?

Blue Sky Disney reports that it’s all but certain that Disney won’t be renewing Dark Horse’s contract to publish Star Wars comics, and that the Star Wars comics will return to their original home: Fellow Disney brand Marvel. Honor Hunter writes:

The Suits in the know have determined that no new contracts will be given to Dark Horse after the current ones expire. So all new projects after 2013 will be handled internally by Marvel.

A blog report is anything but confirmation, but there’s absolutely nothing surprising about this – it was predicted by most of us the very first day of the Disney sale.

Comment from Dark Horse? Randy Stradley posted “don’t believe everything you read on the Internet” on their boards today.

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Bechko and Hardman talk up Ania Solo, new Legacy

In an interview with CBR, new Legacy writers Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman reveal the most information we’ve had about the comic’s revival yet.

It’s business as usual for how exactly she’s related to Han and Leia – it’ll be “a little bit of a mystery and we’re not going to be paying off anytime soon,” Hardman says. He does reveal that she’s not royalty, though:

A lot of the “Legacy” era has been about these larger-than-life Emperors and royalty — we’re taking this down to much more of a ground level. Ania Solo is somebody that is not a part of that world, and she doesn’t have a personal connection to it. She may have even turned her back on it.

“She’s living in a backwater, Outer Rim system. She runs a junkyard and she doesn’t have that many prospects, and that’s where we start things. Our story takes off there,” Bechko adds. And here’s one that may make some folks happy: “She’s not overly Force-sensitive.”

There’s more, of course, including who the two other characters on the cover are and what drew them to the comic.

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Rumor control: Episode VII returning to Yavin 4? Probably not

A recent Reuters story on Guatemala, their Mayan temples, and Star Wars contains this paragraph:

Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi Knight academy. However, fans said that Disney will likely film those scenes in a studio rather than return to Tikal.

First of all, as Big Shiny Robot’s Bryan Young points out, there’s absolutely no source for this. Yes, Yavin 4 does reappear as the site of the Jedi Academy in the Expanded Universe – but that certainly doesn’t mean it’ll show up in the movies.

But unlike Bryan, I don’t think I would call this anything as as sinister as “rumour-mongering.” Yes, I’m cynical about the EU and doubtful that it will play a large role in the new movies, but if I had to bet, I would say this is probably just the result of basic fan enthusiasm (“I know some EU!”) paired with ignorance. After all, we can’t expect everyone is going to be up on the half-dozen different levels of “canon” and all that jazz.

The EU’s first Jedi Academy is eventually destroyed in the New Jedi Order series, and at the end of the most recent series, Legacy of the Force, the Academy is moving to it’s third – third! – location. So even if they do follow the books, Yavin 4? Probably not.

Could they bring it back anyway? Of course. But I wouldn’t count on it. And I certainly wouldn’t give this report much weight.

UPDATE: Eric at TFN reached out to the article’s writer, Michael McDonald, who confirmed that he did not receive any inside information from Lucasfilm.