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Random House catalog offers preliminary cover for Heir to the Empire anniversary reissue

NJOE (via) was first to spot that Random House’s summer catalog has gone up for public consumption – and in it is an early cover for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition on page 75.

Cover art that appears in the catalogs tends be very preliminary, so it’s hard to say if the final will look anything like this. But you know what? I don’t mind it. And if they do it in foil, it’ll stand out nicely from the crowd. Granted, I loath the original, so your mileage may vary.

The catalog also contains a listing for Choices of One (page 79,) but I’m not seeing anything new there. But also appearing with a preliminary cover is Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare (page 89.)

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Rest in Peace, Stargate

It’s official.  Syfy announced on Twitter that it has cancelled Stargate: Universe.  (PopCultureZoo has the full statement.)  With MGM unable to pull together the financing for the SG1 and Atlantis movies, this effectively brings the Stargate franchise to an end.

The Stargate franchise has had a show on-air since 1997.  SG1 had a 10-year run that still does very well in reruns.  Stargate Atlantis had a solid 5-year run, as well.  However, Syfy’s lovely habit of running awesome events for each series and then announcing that series’ cancellation steadily eroded the fan base.

With the darker tone of SGU, the show struggled even more to win over fans of the earlier shows.  However, the second season has shown dramatic improvements and was starting to gain some people back.  Still, it never was able to gain the critical Neilsen live numbers that the advertisers like to see. 

Statements coming in from Twitter-land:

DavidBlue Crap. Just heard the news as well. Apparently, nobody decided to tell us ahead of time. My rep heard it online. Seems they cancelled #SGU…Look out for the back half. Really proud of it. Shame, b/c where they leave Eli is frakkin’ cool. REALLY wanted to see where it went…

JewelStaite The end of an era! So sorry to hear about the canceling of Stargate Universe. And to the cast: You are all FABULOUS. I wish you many jobs!

martingero What a bummer. I thought the second season of SG:U was some of the best Stargate ever. Sad for that amazing team. #Stargate

PeterKelamis What can I say other than Thank You from the bottom of my Heart to all those who supported #SGU Much Love Klam

scalzi To the folks who were concerned: I’ll be fine — I do have that other job writing books, you know. And that’s going well.

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The Clone Wars review: ‘Pursuit of Peace’

‘Pursuit of Peace’ was the year’s final broadcast episode of The Clone Wars, and if this season started off with a bang, it ended more with a yawn. Padmé Amidala races to prevent a war appropriations bill from being passed else it destroy the Republic through bankruptcy, with her and Senators Bail Organa and Onaconda Farr getting roughed up in the process. If only senators like Amidala, target of countless assassination plots, ever learned to travel with a security team, half of the plot and all of the action could have been avoided. Continue reading “The Clone Wars review: ‘Pursuit of Peace’”

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Video: Seth Green on Conan

Green makes the Robot Chicken Star Wars III rounds out to TBS to talk about his wife, his childhood acting career and his trip with ‘Conan’ to New York and Robot Chicken toys. (There are Robot Chicken toys?) There’s an actual clip in there somewhere!

He’s also getting ink over at Hero Complex, where he reveals that a Mara Jade joke was cut out of the show. Now what will I laugh wildly at? NOW WHAT?!?

UPDATE: And again (with Matthew Senreich) at Big Shiny Robot.

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Star Wars in the news: Seth Green, Ben Burtt, Lucasfilm Singapore, and TOR’s ten-year plan

Anamayhem. Seth Green talks Robot Chicken: Star Wars III and the comedy show that he and Matthew Senreich are doing with Lucasfilm. Which we’ll hear about in two years. Yay?

The audience is listening. A ten-minute segment on NPR this weekend featured J.W. Rinzler and Ben Burtt on – what else – The Sounds of Star Wars. You can listen or read about it! Oh, glorious text!

Upsizing! Lucasfilm’s facility in Singapore gets some love – and do I spy a hint at that World War II fairy musical we’ve been so wildly anticipating?

And in your gaming corner… EA CFO Eric Brown said at a gaming industry event that they hope Bioware’s upcoming The Old Republic MMO will last ten years. With even the less-than-wildly-successful Galaxies still (technically) up and running 7 years on, TOR making it a decade can’t be that far-fetched.

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Indulge your darker side this Sithmas with gifts of Vader

Santa Maul finds that there is nothing quite like the holiday season for bringing people together – and then rending them limb-from-limb. As a veteran of many blood-soaked Maul family Sithmas celebrations, Santa Maul encourages you to deck yourself in gear that shows you are not novice to the festivities.

Santa Maul's Holiday Gift GuideAlthough he finds the Darth known as Vader to be little more than an unwisely pan-fried brute, the fact is that the plebeian hoards respect and fear his plastic visage. Show you are not to be trifled with by wearing or gifting his shrunken head!

If one desires a more subtle revenge, dried and roasted remains are often greeted with glee and horror.

Or Santa Maul supposes one may always just abandon subtly entirely.

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EUbits: Would you be brave enough to revisit KJA?

Revisiting the Jedi Academy trilogy. Bryan Young is a glutton for punishment: He reread Kevin J. Anderson’s first Star Wars novel, Jedi Search, even though he knows better. Joining him is Kelly, aka Scarlett Robotica, who actually likes the series. (I suppose someone has to.) They’re debating it. I’m sure you can guess whose side I’m on. (And no: I wouldn’t. Last time I tried I couldn’t get past Luke’s speechifying.)

Details, details… Sue Rostoni updated us on a couple of minor details this weekend: There’s a hint that the Heir to the Empire anniversery edition will indeed have a new cover, and confirmation that short stories are coming back, at least in the Insider.

More on The Jedi Path. Daniel Wallace has posted a four–part series of endnotes for the in-universe instruction manual.

Veitch talks Dark Empire on Tuesday. The comic’s writer is holding a discussion on the comic this Tuesday evening at the bookstore he co-owns in Bennington, Vermont.