Category: books and comics

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Out this week: Boba Fett is dead, collected

Blood Ties Volume 2—Boba Fett is Dead TPBNot a big week for releases, unless you happen to be a Boba Fett fan. Wednesday brings the Fettheads a trade: the collected Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead.

Next week we have a novel, with the paperback of Apocalypse finally putting an official stamp on the end of the Fate of the Jedi era.

Edit by James: I just want to plug Boba Fett is Dead – Tom Taylor and Chris Scalf have crafted a great story around Boba Fett working to stop someone trying to erase his connections, or as Tom put it to me in an interview: “Honestly, if you like explosions, and revenge, and people being kicked off really high places and falling to their doom, you’ll love this.” Scalf’s paintings are just beautiful and Taylor infuses his own style with developing the relationships and humor.

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EUbits: Miller’s Kenobi now has a release date

Kenobi preview artwork by Chris ScalfRelease dates. Time to pencil in John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi for September 24th. Our book release schedule has been updated. (via)

Scoundrels. EUC interviews Timothy Zahn about the book. And Zahn writes about creating a puzzle at the official site. (Don’t forget our own interview and coverage of his talk at San Diego’s Mysterious Galaxy.)

Digitally… Dan Wallace writes about the new eBook version of The Jedi Path, which came out last week.

Oh dear. Tor’s Emily Asher-Perrin has a guide on where to start in the Expanded Universe. They’re about 50% fairly sound choices… but I wouldn’t recommend Courtship as a starting place for anyone, let alone someone looking for ‘romance.’ Nor would I inflict the Jedi Academy Trilogy, The Crystal Star or Shadows of the Empire on innocent newbies. (Naturally, there’s plenty of debate in the comments.)

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Forsooth, a gimmick! William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is coming

Last night, Knights Archive spotted a new listing on Random House’s online catalog: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by by Ian Doescher. It even has a summary:

May the verse be with you! Inspired by one of the greatest creative minds in the English language—and William Shakespeare—here is an officially licensed retelling of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Reimagined in glorious iambic pentameter, William Shakespeare’s Star Wars will astound and edify learners and masters alike. Zounds! This is the book you’re looking for.

I find myself hoping the ‘mystery novel’ is something less gimmicky (does this even count as a novel?) but this does fit one basic parameter – we didn’t have a clue it was coming.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars will be released as a trade paperback in August.

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Review roundup: Brian Wood’s Star Wars #1

SW-1-excerptIt’s been only a little more than a week since the first issue of Brian Wood’s Star Wars series came and flew off the shelves. With the second printing of issue #1 expected in stores on February 6, and issue #2 (introducing Boba Fett) coming out on February 13, let’s see what people are thinking about the start of the series promoted as “This is Star Wars as you remember it . . . and as you have never seen it before” – are they fussing or are they loving it?

Really, it seems to boil down to whether you like Wood’s style or not. Continue reading “Review roundup: Brian Wood’s Star Wars #1″

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First look: Tim Lebbon’s Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void

Dawn of the Jedi: Into the VoidHollywood.com has the exclusive first look at the cover to Tim Lebbon’s upcoming Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void, a hardcover due out May 7. Here’s the blurb:

On the planet Tython, the ancient Je’daii order was founded. And at the feet of its wise Masters, Lanoree Brock learned the mysteries and methods of the Force—and found her calling as one of its most powerful disciples. But as strongly as the Force flowed within Lanoree and her parents, it remained absent in her brother, who grew to despise and shun the Je’daii, and whose training in its ancient ways ended in tragedy.

Now, from her solitary life as a Ranger keeping order across the galaxy, Lanoree has been summoned by the Je’daii Council on a matter of utmost urgency. The leader of a fanatical cult, obsessed with traveling beyond the reaches of known space, is bent on opening a cosmic gateway using dreaded dark matter as the key—risking a cataclysmic reaction that will consume the entire star system. But more shocking to Lanoree than even the prospect of total galactic annihilation, is the decision of her Je’daii Masters to task her with the mission of preventing it. Until a staggering revelation makes clear why she was chosen: The brilliant, dangerous madman she must track down and stop at any cost is the brother whose death she has long grieved—and whose life she must now fear.

Note that since Into the Void was announced at SDCC last year, we’re likely still waiting for the mystery novel to be revealed.

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Mashable’s Chris Taylor exploring the business and culture of Star Wars in upcoming book

Hyperspace falcon Chris Taylor, deputy editor at Mashable, is working on How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, a book on the business and culture of the franchise.

I’m thrilled to be writing How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, the first book to examine the entire Star Wars brand from a business/culture perspective. As Disney takes control of the franchise and prepares to release Episode VII in 2015, there’s never been a more important time to consider exactly what made this epic great in the first place. Its past offers a lot of clues to why it has a robust future in the post-Lucas era, given how much of it was a team effort from the very beginning. I want to give proper credit to all the other talented writers, technicians, artists and game-makers who built the Expanded Universe and helped it thrive.

It’s a daunting prospect, trying to do justice to a modern legend that has mesmerized every generation since 1977, but I can’t imagine a more engrossing research project. This book will be more fun than a barrel full of Banthas.

It sounds like even the Expanded Universe will get a place in the spotlight – Taylor told CNET he’s trying to read/reread all the novels and comics, which seems pretty ambitious.

Taylor has covered Star Wars since 1997; this will be his first book. It’ll be released early next year by Basic Books.

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Timothy Zahn discusses the history of Scoundrels and more

At his Star Wars: Scoundrels signing in San Diego on January 12, Timothy Zahn gave a talk on how the novel came to be and then held a Q&A session. He discussed the real world publication timeline he worked with, his initial idea to make it a heist using a who’s who of the main characters and top smugglers in the GFFA (Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, Lando, Corran, Mirax, Talon and more) just before the New Jedi Order, and how even the cover art influenced the final story.

Continue reading “Timothy Zahn discusses the history of Scoundrels and more”

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“If someone has a good idea, it’s Leia.” Work on the Corey Han Solo novel has begun!

ANH: Han and LeiaTy Franck – one half of James S.A. Corey, who’s working on a Han Solo book for the Rebels series, gave fans the first progress update yesterday:

Ground has been broken on the Star Wars novel. An outline has been approved, and chapters are being typed. Things I’ve learned so far: It is important to know ahead of time how you will handle Chewie talking, the Star Wars universe has instantaneous communication and nearly instantaneous travel but space is STILL big enough to hide things, hyperspace is how you get away from badguys but jumping through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops kid, and Leia is the brains of the operation. If someone has a good idea, it’s Leia. Han is always always always wrong when he makes a plan or predicts the future, but man does he improvise gracefully. More robots. Always more robots.

The post got passed around quite a bit today, and well:

Ha. Welcome to the, ah, family. Keep your seatbacks and tray table in the locked and upright position…

You can learn a little more about Franck and writing partner Daniel Abraham in an excerpt from a recent interview in Locus. I also recommend checking out their first two novels – Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War. I have horrible luck with Star Wars writers outside of Star Wars (sorry, it’s true, no recs please) but these books are pretty fantastic. Hopefully that means good things for this Han book.