Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Wednesday brings the return of Dark Times with Fire Carrier #1 featuring Jedi Master K’Kruhk and a gaggle of padawans on the run.
As for novels, next up is The Last Jedi, a follow-up by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff to their Coruscant Nights trilogy, coming up on February 26.
Dan Wallace’s Book of Sith, which was released in a deluxe edition last February, is coming out as a standalone May 4th, The Daily Blam reports.
Meanwhile, Roqoo Depot found the book listed as a hardcover on Chronicle Books’ website that gives a release date of April.
Wallace talked to James about the book, as well as predecessor The Jedi Path, after Sith was first announced. Jedi was also released as a standalone.
Rebels. Austin at Fandom Apocalypse takes a look at what we know about the forthcoming Rebels series that was announced last summer. He reached out the authors Martha Wells and Kevin Hearne, who are handling books on Leia and Luke.
The blogside. Tor’s Ryan Britt explores the differences between A New Hope and its novelization. What’s a duck? And Tosche Station’s Bria continues her EU retrospective after Endor with True at Bakura and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. And over at Big Shiny Robot, Bryan lets the darkness take hold wondering if The Clone Wars won’t be coming back at all.
Podcasting. After something of a hiatus, EUCantina’s EUCast is poised to make their return soon. In the meantime, here’s Episode 0. And if you’re interested in podcasting, Tosche Station host Brian wrote at length about the gear you’ll need and what he uses.
Frames gets cheap(er.) TheForce.net spotted an Amazon listing for a paperback edition of the fancy screenshot book Frames. At $150 retail it’s still not pocket change, but seeing as the original would set you back $3000… Amazon being Amazon, we’d wait for official details before pre-ordering, though.
Interviews. Paul S. Kemp talks about Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons and his non-franchise work with SF Signal. And Timothy Zahn chats Scoundrels on Fictional Frontiers.
The official site has new look today. The new design allows the staff to get more stuff (including blog posts) out front, and it looks pretty spiffy on mobile, too. It’s not a full scale redesign, but a new front is still a pretty dramatic change. Congrats to Matt and the team!
Last week, it was J.J. Abrams, J.J. Abrams and.. okay, mostly J.J. Abrams. And I promise you only one of them mentions lens flare, which is far better than the average.
Let’s put a lid on it: The final Fate of the Jedi book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse, is out today in paperback. Goodbye to the (hopefully) last of the mega-series…
Also, I don’t generally cover merchandise in these posts, but apparently the Kotobukiya Jaina Solo figure also goes on sale today.
For comic fans, Wednesday will bring Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #4 and an Infinities omnibus. It’s just the three ‘what-if’ comics, alas – I’m still waiting for Dark Horse to collect all the funny Tales/Tag and Bink stuff that also falls under the Infinities umbrella.
Our next upcoming novel is something brand new – The Last Jedi, also a paperback, is due February 26.
Of course it’s a Darth Maul novel.
Just announced over at io9: Joe Schreiber (Death Troopers) returns with Maul: Lockdown, a new novel featuring Darth Maul. They’re pegging it as a “follow-up to last year’s Darth Plagueis.” Here’s the blurb:
In a tale of retribution and survival set before the events of The Phantom Menace, Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious dispatch Sith apprentice Darth Maul on a secret mission to infiltrate a criminal empire operating from inside Cog Hive Seven-a hidden prison teeming with the galaxy’s most savage criminals. There, he must contend against the scummiest and most villainous in gladiatorial death matches while carrying out his masters’ clandestine commands. Failure is not an option; success will ignite the revenge of the Sith against the Jedi Order.
io9 says it’ll be out “at the end of 2013,” which I suspect means a post-holiday spot similar to Plagueis and Scoundrels.
James interviewed Schreiber back in 2011, after the release of his second Star Wars book, Red Harvest.
This must be our mystery novel, and while I can’t say it’s something that appeals to me, it takes all kinds. While he’s been all over The Clone Wars lately, Maul hasn’t headlined a novel for adults since Michael Reaves’ Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter back in 2001.
Del Rey had a Facebook chat with Timothy Zahn for Scoundrels today, and it was… Very busy. I admit I skimmed most of the actual questions, but I can verify that all of Zahn’s answers are free of spoilers for Scoundrels.
There was a lot of old ground covered, but we did get a surprisingly detailed look at what Zahn has pitched to Del Rey. He begins:
If there are to be more books, and if LFL/Del Rey/Disney decide to let me write some of them, I have a trilogy project to pitch where the third book would also be the third book of the Hand of Judgment series (Allegiance and Choices of One). Again, I don’t know if that will happen.
And later….
A Fel or Chiss novel would be fun. As a matter of fact, the trilogy I mentioned above (which I’ll pitch if I’m invited to do another book) would have one book heavily involving Thrawn and the Chiss. (The middle book, btw, would feature Mara being sent to stop an assassination…against Vader. Imagine the fun they would *both* have with *that* assignment.) The proposed series title is The Maestro Trilogy, if anyone wants to star nagging Del Rey. (No, seriously, *don’t* nag. Just ask politely…)
When asked about his favorite era:
At the moment I like writing in the Ep 4/5 gap, partly because the characters are so much fun in that era and partly because the territory hasn’t been as well explored. However, I understand there are several books now scheduled in that time, so it may start getting crowded.
As to other eras, the Old Republic era has a lot of good writers who are working there, and I’m not sure whether Del Rey is planning to go beyond Legacy of the Force right now. If the Ep 3/4 gap is ever opened up (LFL so far has kept that off-limits) there are a bunch of stories I could tell there.
And naturally he was asked quite a bit about the sequel trilogy and how it relates to his books:
Actually, I think Disney will do right by LFL. Their record with Pixar and Marvel indicates they know how to step back and let the people who know what they’re doing just do it. With Kathleen Kennedy now helming LFL, and with all the wonderfully talented people already in place there, I’m expecting good things to come. Of course, if Disney decided they wanted a couple of TV shows, and just *happened* to think of Mara Jade or the Hand of Judgment, I would certanly not stand in their way.
As to whether any of my characters might show up in the sequels: Again, no idea what’s being planned, but I would naturally love to see something I’ve done up there on the Big Screen.
Overall, I find myself hoping (yet again) that Del Rey finds a different way to do these chats. Sure, a couple good things came out of this one, but it was a bit of a mess…
Timothy Zahn will be taking fan questions on Scoundrels tomorrow afternoon on the Star Wars Books Facebook page. Have your questions ready by 3:00p.m. Eastern!
We may never see Aziz Ansari again… Also, a stunning performance of Dudes Act Out Star Wars From Memory, shop vacs, Snow2-D2 and Continue reading “Who holds back the electric car? Best #StarWars, #EpisodeVII and #SWEU tweets for Jan. 14-20”