Category: books and comics

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Star Wars makes an appearance at Yuletide

KarrdeputerYuletide, the annual rare-fandoms fanfic gift exchange, had a rule change this year that suddenly made it relevant to our interests – they allowed requests from lesser-ficed parts of large fandoms like Star Wars. So, for the first time, we’re seeing Star Wars fanfics among the offerings. 32 of them, in fact, including a whooping 13 X-Wing fics. Other requests included the Thrawn trilogy and The Old Republic.

EU-based fanfic has never been exactly rare, but it does tend to focus on the big ‘ships (ahem) so if you’ve been looking for something a little different, check out the listings. The authors are all currently anonymous, but will be revealed on January 1st, per Yuletide tradition.

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Out this week: Knights of the Old Republic omnibus

kotoromComics are out on Tuesday this week due to the holiday, so stop by your local comic shop if you just can’t wait for the second Knights of the Old Republic (John Jackson Miller version) omnibus.

Coming in the new year will (no doubt) be plenty more comics, but our first novel release is Joe Schreiber’s Darth Maul: Lockdown on January 28. For more OT-centric fans, there’s the Han-centric Honor Among Thieves by James S. A. Corey in March.

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New Essential Characters canceled?

UPDATE: Lucasbooks has confirmed the cancellation to Knights’ Archive.

Edelweiss listing

Knights’ Archive spotted that the new Essential Characters is now listed as canceled by Edelweiss. We last heard that the book was posponed to 2016; it’s possible this is actually just another posponement, pending decisons regarding Episode VII and other new film content. (Perhaps the 2035 date is just intended to keep it out of other systems.) I doubt we’ve seen the last of Star Wars character guides!

Edelweiss is a site that publishes electronic versions of publisher book catalogs: We have no reason to believe these changes don’t come from Random House.

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You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs: Remembering Luke Skywalker’s first Jedi students

This Jedi Academy art is at least way better than the book covers. Sort of.

Remember a simpler time in Star Wars, where there were no sequels, no TV shows, when Star Wars was still kind of rare. Before the Special Editions, before the prequels, before Disney. Remember the… Jedi Academy trilogy? It’s okay, we understand if you don’t want to. Look at all the fanfic it made us write.

It was an odd time. Just kidding, it was kind of a shit show, one of many. But hey, if not for that awfulness, would we have soldiered on? The mocking let us bond, and for that, we are grateful. Mockingly.

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EUbits: Upcoming books, the blogside and more

SWEARHAT!Upcoming. Del Rey has revealed the back cover of Honor Among Thieves and posted another mini-excerpt for Maul: Lockdown.

The blogside. For the detail oriented, StarWars.com has Imperial warlords from Abel G. Peña and Daniel Wallace and Xim the Despot by Jason Fry with Paul Urquhart. From the fan side, Eleven-ThirtyEight has Alexander Gaultier looking at the lost books of the EU and Ben Crofts defends implausible victories, or, welcome to the wonderful world of Space Opera.

Interview. Roqoo Depot talks to artist Chris Trevas about the Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual.

On the Tumblr. Mirax Terrik art from Tony Foti for the RPG.

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Review: Star Wars: Frames, the poor person’s edition

Star Wars Frames

It’s that most wonderful time of the year, when all the Star Wars gift books are out. So which ones are worth putting on your gift list?

Star Wars: Frames was originally released as a limited edition, glorious, really expensive monstrosity of awesomeness that few of us could justify putting into our collecting budget. (Yeah. I SO wanted that one. Wasn’t going to happen.) This version is in the way more reasonable price range and still contains all the frames that George Lucas personally selected from the Prequel and Original trilogies.

It comes in two volumes nestled in a plastic case. Original Trilogy in one volume. Prequel Trilogy in another. There are two frames per page, instead of the one frame per page of the original. The binding is sewn, which will hopefully help hold these hefty suckers together as you drool over the book. (Note: This sucker weighs in at 20.9 pounds! Please use proper lifting technique when maneuvering these books. An appointment with your chiropractor should probably also be on standby.)

Looking at the movies in frames is really interesting. The frames he chose are not always the choice you’d expect. Some are even blurry with action. (“Faster! More intense!”) So you aren’t just looking at images that have already been released as publicity stills; which makes this an interesting new perspective.

So yes. This is one to add to your wish list. Enjoy!

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Rumors: Spy hints at Episode VII actors, planets

SEQUEL TRILOGY RUMORS: Take seriously at your own risk.Jedi News’ Jedi Master SQL has emerged yet again for a lengthy Q&A about Episode VII. There’s a fair amount of speculation on his part, but here are the bullet points:

  • Lucasfilm is sitting on “a stack of news that could be released at any moment that they please.”
  • On returning actors, he’s “only seen evidence for one of [the Big 3] having signed,” and it “would not surprise me if they did not all come back for Episode VII but maybe came back at varying points in the new trilogy.” Last time we heard from him he said Harrison Ford’s deal was nearly in place.
  • He says “the Expanded Universe won’t be disappearing anytime soon,” Dark Horse is likely to keep the comic license and “you can expect to see their logo on a lot of very different Star Wars products than just comics.”
  • He hints “The Old Republic has added a planet that has long been mentioned but never seen on film,” and that has something to do with Episode VII. (UPDATE: Lightsaber Rattling thinks this may be Corellia, which will be familiar to EU fans but has never been seen on screen.)
  • As for new actors, he says an “exceptional level of work going into finding the right cast for the new films.” Names he’s recently heard attached to roles are Emmanuelle Chriqui, Alexis Dziena, and American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga.

He also chatted about the next Celebration, saying that it may be the launchpad for the real Episode VII blitz.

So that’s a few things to chew on… but as always, just rumors!