Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
With Thrawn: Alliances out now for more than a month (and being the first non-adapted Star Wars novel to be an NYT #1 since Heir to the Empire), James talks Thrawn, Vader, Padme and Anakin and spoilers with Timothy Zahn.
For more Zahn, check out Tosche Station’s DragonCon recordings: A full Thrawn panel, plus the author panel, which also features Kevin J. Anderson, Michael A. Stackpole, Christie Golden, and E.K. Johnston.
Have you stayed strong? Tuesday, March 27 is the day: The Last Jedi arrives on Blu-ray. The actual copies you’ll get are more or less the same everywhere, but Best Buy has steelbooks and Target’s version comes with a book and an extra feature on porgs. No, I am neither an expert nor a collector of home releases. These are the standard versions:
There’s also the paperback of Christie Golden’s Battlefront II: Inferno Squad.
Meanwhile, headed for the comic shops on Wednesday, March 28 is Doctor Aphra #18, Star Wars Adventures #8 and a Forces of Destiny trade.
It’s Force Friday but our countdown giveaways are still going! Thanks to our friends at Del Rey, we’re giving away a hardcover copy of Christie Golden’s Battlefront II: Inferno Squad. Set right after Rogue One and A New Hope, the Empire wants justice for the Death Star, and they assemble Inferno Squad to get it for them. Learn more about the Empire’s best in my interview with Golden at the official site.
Want to win? Simply leave a message in the comments with your favorite ship of this post by the deadline of 11:59 pm EDT on September 3, 2017, and we’ll announce a random winner the following week. Only one entry per person, so choose wisely. We can ship the book to a winner in the US or I can deliver it to you in person at Salt Lake Comic Con (Sept. 21-23, 2017) or at the Rancho Obi-Wan gala in November.
Del Rey has revealed the final cover and complete author lineup for From a Certain Point of View, the 40th anniversary short story collection coming in October. The final additions are Kieron Gillen, Greg Rucka, Elizabeth Wein and Jeffrey Brown.
→ Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larocca will take over Marvel’s flagship Star Wars title with #38 – and most intrigingly, their first arc will take us to “the post-apocalyptic hell that remains of Jedha after the Death Star punched a hole through its mantle.” Gillen will continue to write Doctor Aphra.
→ Christie Golden talks Inferno Squad with the Verge.
This week brings two books on Tuesday, July 25, and one new comic on Wednesday, July 26. Christie Golden’s Battlefront II: Inferno Squadron is a tie-in to the upcoming game, while Tim Leong’s Star Wars Super Graphic looks like something fun to page through.
Meanwhile, comic fans have Doctor Aphra #10.
Our next book is On the Front Lines by Dan Wallace, on August 8. (Though it apparently has been sighted in stores, likely due to a fairly late change in release dates.) You can check out more on our release schedule.
First excerpt from Battlefront II: Inferno Squad. The Christie Golden novel, a tie-in to the upcoming game, will be out in hardcover and eBook on July 25, or in a special deluxe edition available only at San Diego Comic-Con July 20-23.
Del Rey has the details on how San Diego Comic-Con attendees can get a copy of the convention exclusive edition of Battlefront II: Inferno Squad. It’s a little more complicated than the Thrawn sales at Celebration, but will hopefully result in more folks being able to actually get the book.
→ J.W. Rinzler, formerly of Lucasfilm, is writing a blog series about his time with the company, as well as his own history with the Bay Area. Check it out on his blog.
→ And finally, some release notes: On the Front Lines got pushed back at some point. It’s now due out in August. The schedule has been updated.
Del Rey will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of A New Hope with From a Certain Point of View, a new anthology that will feature 40 stories from the viewpoints of the movie’s minor characters.
Coming in October in an oversized hardcover, the anthology will feature more than 40 authors, including both established Star Wars writers (Chuck Wendig, John Jackson Miller, Gary Whitta) and those new to the franchise (Meg Cabot, Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor.) All the authors are donating their proceeds to the charity First Book.
The book will be out in October and is available for preorder now.
Del Rey has announced their Celebration Orlando activities, and they’ll have three panels. The biggest, which will feature what’s “in the works for 2017 and beyond” is Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and will have authors Chuck Wendig, Christie Golden, Timothy Zahn, and Delilah S. Dawson, plus Del Rey’s Elizabeth Schaefer. There’s also five University talks with various authors and a whole boatload of signings.
Their exclusives are a Thrawn pin – which you get when you buy the Celebration edition of Zahn’s new book – and a tote bag which is free with #25 in purchases from any of the Penguin Random House booths. (AKA Del Rey, Random House Audio and DK.)
The Star Wars book schedule is rounding out with a new post-Rogue One/A New Hope novel from Christie Golden. Inferno Squad features an elite Imperial squad that’s tasked to take on what remains of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. Here’s the blurb:
The Rebellion may have heroes like Jyn Erso and Luke Skywalker. But the Empire has Inferno Squad. After the humiliating theft of the Death Star plans and the resulting destruction of the battle station, the Empire is on the defensive. In response to this stunning defeat, the Imperial Navy has authorized the formation of an elite team of soldiers, known as Inferno Squad. Their mission: infiltrate and eliminate the remnants of Saw Gerrera’s Partisans. Following the death of their leader, the Partisans have carried on his extremist legacy, determined to thwart the Empire — no matter what the cost. Now, Inferno Squad must prove their status as the best of the best and take down the Partisans from within. But as the danger intensifies and the threat of discovery grows, how far will Inferno Squad go to ensure the safety of the Empire?
The book will be out in hardcover and eBook on July 25. I can’t say this one appeals to me, and Golden seems like an odd choice for it – we last heard from her with 2015’s Dark Disciple – but seems like this is a continuation of the new EU’s tendency to focus on brand-new characters.