Category: books and comics

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EUbits: Allie talks Qui-Gon comic, Del Rey to reissue novelization, Shadow Hunter for TPM 3-D

Comics. Writer Scott Allie talks about the Qui-Gon Jinn comic Jedi: The Dark Side with CBR. He reveals that the series will take place 20 years prior to The Phantom Menace, that the focus of Dark Side will be a personal story, and talks a bit about Xanatos. Yoda, Mace Windu and even Dooku will make appearances in the mini-series.

Releases. Del Rey will be reissuing The Phantom Menace novelization and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter next year to tie-into the first 3-D release. Both books will feature new original short stories for the occasion.

Events. Authors John Jackson Miller and Paul S. Kemp and Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss will talk about Star Wars books at a panel at Chicago’s C2E2. The schedule isn’t up yet, but the panel will be Friday, March 18. (Question: Is C2E2 worth a vacation day and a 4-hour drive in the days of social media? I’ll have to think about it.)

History lesson. Tor.com’s Emily Asher-Perrin takes a slightly snarky (yay!) look back at the evolution of Star Wars galaxy maps. In retrospect, that first one was probably the only reason at all to be excited about Vector Prime. I must admit I do still like the old-timey calligraphy look it has.

The blogside. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff reveals that one of the locations for Shadow Games (née Holostar) is Bannistar Station.

Kids. The folks behind The Strange Case of Origami Yoda will be back with Darth Paper Strikes Back in the fall.

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Book review: Troy Denning’s Fate of the Jedi: Vortex

After teaming up in Allies, relations between the Lost Tribe and the Skywalkers have turned a bit sour. Abeloth has been defeated, but the two sides are determined to keep secrets and double cross one another (both are good stalling tactics, after all). Luke and Ben tread dangerous ground, but it isn’t long before the pair is forced to flee the planet when they discover Abeloth did not die after all. Taking Vestara with them again, the trio travels to the moon of Pydyr to track down and destroy her, hopefully for the last time.

On Coruscant, the secret mission intended to aid Luke and Ben, has been stalled. The Jedi Council is increasingly growing tired of Master Kenth Hamner’s stubbornness. It becomes apparent that there’s something he’s hiding and the other Jedi Masters are fed up. When young Jedi begin recovering from their strange psychosis and Daala refuses to acknowledge this progress, the Jedi Council is especially convinced that rescuing Valin and Jysella Horn will accomplish one of three things: reassert the Council’s autonomy, discredit Daala, and serve as a distraction while the Stealth X-Wings deploy for Pyrdyr. As it turns out, Daala is the least of their problems. An unexpected friction arises that threatens to unravel the Council Luke has worked so hard to achieve. Continue reading “Book review: Troy Denning’s Fate of the Jedi: Vortex”

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EUbits: Dig into Vader, Burton’s craft book

Trauma ward. Dying for all the damage details on everyone’s favorite pan-fried villain? You’re in luck, ’cause Becker & Mayer has announced Darth Vader: A 3-D Surgical Log. Written by Dan Wallace with art by Chris Trevas (who has designed Vader’s underwear) and Chris Reiff, it sounds like it’ll be in the same vein as Millennium Falcon: A 3-D Owner’s Guide.

Actual nonfiction. StarWars.com has a look inside Bonnie Burton’s The Star Wars Craft Book, which is coming out in March.

The blogside. Authors Troy Denning, John Jackson Miller and Joe Schreiber just wrapped up their joint stint on Borders’ Babel Clash blog.

Your moment of zen. A reader over at the romance novel blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reviews The Courtship of Princess Leia. She is amazingly kind to it.

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Updates on Knight Errant, Lost Tribe of the Sith and more from John Jackson Miller

While it has been previously announced that John Jackson Miller’s ebook novella series, Lost Tribe of the Sith will be collected in a print anthology, more details emerged about the series in an author chat hosted by Del Rey’s Star Wars Books Facebook account. Both Miller and Del Rey reps confirmed the following schedule for the (free) digital releases:

  • Part Six: “Sentinel” – Februray 21, 2011
  • Part Seven: “Pantheon” – July 19, 2011
  • Part Eight: “Secrets” – March 8, 2012
  • Print collection – August 2012, and it will contain an additional “long” story.

The concept of the overall series is that the first four form the Founders tetralogy (how the lost tribe started from some stranded “middle-managers in the cause of evil”), and the second four fit into the Darker Times, while the new material will help show how the tribe evolved from to closer to what is encountered in the Fate of the Jedi series.

And in very early phases of Knight Errant, there might have been some sort of Twilighty romance between Kerra Holt and Lord Daiman, but scrapped as the characters developed – since Daiman’s really only in love with himself, and Kerra is just way too busy trying to stay alive and help those around her. Pitched from Dark Horse to Miller as a “lone female Jedi”, Miller envisioned Kerra traveling solo like the Lone Ranger, even without a sidekick or droid Tonto.

Going back to Miller’s work on the Knights of the Old Republic, he mentioned that the charming con artist Gryph was originally supposed to be an Ortolan, like Max Rebo, before being changed to a Snivvian. Zayne Carrick’s last name connects back to Miller’s college dorm room.

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Heir to the Empire anniversary edition cover, details confirmed: Metallic cover, introduction from Zahn

The new information pretty much lines up with what Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss told the EUCast earlier in the month, but we do get a title for the new Thrawn novella – and word of an introduction from Timohy Zahn:

Del Rey Books is publishing a commemorative edition hardcover of Heir to the Empire, with commentary-style annotations by Zahn and other behind-the-scenes people responsible for making the book a reality. Zahn will also pen an introduction to the book.

The book features a reflective jacket (fitting for the book’s platinum anniversary) and also has a specially printed version of the original cover underneath. It will include a new Zahn novella, Crisis of Faith, featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn. Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition is due out from Del Rey on June 21, 2011.

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Street date shuffle: Realigning the novels for 2011/2012

We got a number of schedule updates from Sue Rostoni today. There were a few notable delays – Riptide, Shadow Games and (sigh) Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse have all been pushed back a few months. There were also a number of additions: Drew Karpyshyn’s contribution to The Old Republic tie-ins set for October. Looking forward into 2012, Luceno’s Plagueis novel is up for January, and Allston’s new Wraith book for July.

We also got what is perhaps our first conformation that John Jackson Miller’s Lost Tribe of the Sith is set for print. Head on over to our book schedule for all the details.

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New Star Wars comic revealed: It’s Qui-Gon in Jedi – The Dark Side

MTV gets the exclusive scoop that the new Star Wars comic coming out from Dark Horse in May is called Star Wars: Jedi – The Dark Side and features Qui-Gon Jinn.

Written by Scott Allie with artwork by Mahmud Asrar, it features Qui-Gon going to prevent a civil war on the planet of one of his former padawans, Xanatos. Yep, they’re bringing in stuff from the Jedi Apprentice series. The article has a full interview with Allie on the series, which will start off with a five-issue arc, and may become ongoing.