Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log should be in stores now. For the occasion, author Dan Wallace shares five things you didn’t know about the book.
…And that’s it for this week. I assume we’ll see comics at some point, but our next books will be the (long-delayed) Complete Vader on the 18th and Paul S. Kemp’s Riptide on the 25th.
Street date shuffle. The release of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has been pushed back from December 27 (read: still after Christmas) to January 10. No big; our ever-present Star Wars book release schedule has been updated.
Hintage. Lucasfilm editor J. W. Rinzler hints at future projects with DK on Twitter.
Excerpts. Fans longing for the return of Diet Han (just one calorie!) will love the latest Shadow Games mini-excerpt.
New York ComicCon. Del Rey will have Drew Karpyshyn and Bonnie Burton at their Star Wars booth. NYCC runs Oct. 13 – 16.
Interviews. Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog interviews Paul S. Kemp, while the official blog talks to Carlos Garzón about Star Wars Art: Comics.
Today’s Star Wars Books Facebook chat with Tim Zahn was… Well, a Star Wars Books Facebook chat, which means a lot of the same questions that Tim has been patiently answering over and over again on his own page. (Mara’s death, DFR/TLC reissues. ) A lot of them. But thankfully, a few other topics also got some play. Continue reading “Tim Zahn chats Star Wars and Heir to the Empire“
First look. Suvudu revealed the cover for Jeff Grubb’s Scourge today. Yet another generic musclebound dude with a lightsaber, ho-hum. But given it’s a book featuring an all-new character and Hutts, I’m clearly not the target market here. Still, let’s hope it looks better on the actual book.
Staffing. Editor Betsy Mitchell, who’s been with the Star Wars novels since their rebirth in the early 90’s at Bantam, is leaving Del Rey. New hire Frank Parisi is taking over Star Wars and other tie-ins.
Hey! We know that guy! Dan Wallace in the St. Petersburg Times.
Casting games. Suvudu has the ‘winners’ of their attempts to cast Heir to the Empire. The less I say the better.
Excerpts. A new one for Riptide.
Reviews. James reviews Jedi: The Dark Side #5 and Knight Errant: Deluge #2 at Big Shiny Robot.
Namesake corner. Still no Mara Jade tee from Her Universe, but at least you can grab a fan-made one.
More Heir. The Star Wars Books Facebook chat will be hosting a live chat with Timothy Zahn next Wednesday, September 28th. And on that note, Suvudu has a brief interview with editor Betsy Mitchell.
Events. Author Jason Fry dresses as a stormtrooper for a baseball game and tells the tale in his Mets blog.
Trailers. There’s one for Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log. Of course.
Theories. Anarchist William Gillis’s vision of what happens to the Star Wars galaxy after Return of the Jedi.
Photo finish. Del Rey’s collection of Star Wars books.
Nothing coming this week but a small pile of comics for Wednesday. Jedi: The Dark Side #5 wraps up the take of Qui-Gon and his apprentice Xanatos on Telos. John Jackson Miller continues Kerra Holt’s latest storyline with Knight Errant: Deluge #2. And the latest Omnibus — The Complete Saga — collects all six movie adaptions.
Author Aaron Allston announced today that he’s returning to blogging with a brand-new venue on his site. His first entry has updates on his health, convention appearances, and details some of his recent projects, including the upcoming X-Wing: Mercy Kill. Join us in welcoming him back to the blogging world!
Namesake corner. The Mara fan site Jade Crusades folded a few years back, but creator Mazzic has resurrected the site’s interviews with several authors and artists who shaped Mara, including Tim Zahn, Mike Stackpole and Drew Struzan.
The Jedi Path. With the standalone edition out now, Daniel Wallace reveals five steps to becoming a Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, here’s a review.
Knight Errant. Dave Marshall gives fans a glimpse of the series’ ships. I like how the giant hyperspace rings are an obvious precursor to to the smaller versions we saw in the prequels.
History. This is old news for many of us, but io9 has a nice post on how Star Wars saved comics.
Reviews. James is at it again over at Big Shiny Robot, giving his take on Invasion: Revelations #3, and The Old Republic: The Lost Suns #4.
The official site has a new look – “the biggest re-haul since Star Wars’ official online presence began.” It appears the news portion of the site is now driven by the official blog.
Among the changes is a scaled back version of the Databank – now called the Encyclopedia – which now only seem to features characters from the movies and The Clone Wars. (Sigh.) Entries are very brief, and link directly to the Wookieepedia, however. That’s pretty inclusive for an official site.
On that note, there’s also a page for fan sites and organizations – we seem to have made the cut, which is nice.
And no doubt we’ve only scratched the surface tonight… I’ll be interested to see where this goes.
One thing I will say – this site design is very simple, and very basic. Since there is a tendency in Star Wars design to go completely over the top and throw everything that applies, I’m glad to see at least one aspect is keeping it simple. (Even if I still do wince at that Blu-ray cover art.)
Fate of the Jedi. For those still on board with the most tedious series since the nigh-endless New Jedi Order, there’s finally a blurb for the final volume, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse. I haven’t the slightest idea how spoilery it is since I have yet to make it past the first chapter of Ascension, so head on over to the link to check it out.
X-Wing. In happier news, Erich Schoeneweiss confirms EUCantina’s report that Face Loran will be back – and Myri Antilles will be flying with the Wraiths – in Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill.
Interviews. Roqoo Depot has an interview with Jeff Grubb, who’s writing next year’s Scourge.
Staffing. Editor Frank Parisi has moved from Lucasfilm to Del Rey.
Review. Our own JawaJames reviews Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #2 at Big Shiny Robot.