You take the good, you take the bad: Not-so-proud moments of the Expanded Universe

The other day io9 published a list of weirdest stories from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Several of us – who’ve actually read the books and comics, not just looked them up on Wookieepedia – found their choices to be a tad uninspired.

As it so happened, I did a few posts on the topic myself a few years back. Now yes, we do love the EU here, but let’s face it: There’s a lot of awfulness in them thar hills, and we here at Club Jade have always been fans of facing them head-on. With sarcasm!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Continue reading “You take the good, you take the bad: Not-so-proud moments of the Expanded Universe”

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 fourpart 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.

The catchup: Links from Twitter

Here are some of the things I’ve micro-blogged over @clubjade in the last week or so.

Hollywood hyperbole. Sony’s Amy Pascal thinks that James Cameron’s Avatar could be the next Star Wars. I’m just trying to think of an upcoming genre movie I care less about than Avatar and failing miserably.

Duck and cover, Dallas. Will Texas be able to handle the squee produced by an official Twilight convention? We can only hope the lack of Robert Pattinson gives them a fighting chance.

Space blob approaches! Guys. GUYS. Waru is coming! I repent of all my Twilight mocking. Okay, not really.

But the real question is, who did they ship? Wired’s Scott Brown takes a brief look back at Sherlock Holmes fanfic.

Presented without comment. Guess who wants to write a Wonder Woman novel?

Star Wars fans and personalities unite to help victims of Australian bushfires

The bushfires that raged in the Australian state of Victoria earlier this year killed more than 200 and left over 7000 homeless. The fires may be snuffed, but the victims are still hurting, and Star Wars fans have banded together to help them.

Though there are plenty of items up on Ebay now, including signed photographs from David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Jeremy Bulloch and Bonnie Piesse. But of particularly of interest to EU fans is a chance to get a namesake (tuckerized) character in the fifth Clone Wars novel by Karen Miller or a yet-unannounced Star Wars book (!) from Sean Williams. And Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta are offering an original manuscript from one of the Young Jedi Knights novels.

EUbits: Jedi Quest audio, interviews, comics

Surprise audiobooks! A couple days ago, Zee Zee spotted audiobook listings on the Random House catalog for the first four Jedi Quest books: Way of the Apprentice, The Trail of the Jedi, The Dangerous Games and The Master of Disguise. All four are listed as $9.99 unabridged digital downloads with spring release dates.

Audiobooks years after the fact? Plus, the original books were published by Scholastic, which isn’t a Random House imprint, though the audio versions are listed under Random House’s Imagination Studios. (Del Rey’s Star Wars audiobooks are Random House Audio.) Lucasbooks is clearly trying something new here, but we’re still awaiting some kind of confirmation…

More April Fool’s

Our own ‘Club Obi-Wan’ has finally been put down…

As far as SW fandom goes, I think Wookieepedia won this round handily. TheForce.Net phoned it in this year with a less-than-special interview podcast; their boards got a Barbie theme.

I enjoyed LocusMag.com: Sainting Neil Gaiman, Kevin J. Anderson’s hostile takeover of Larry Niven’s legendary “Known Space”; Anita Blake vs. Anna Nicole and Sci-Fi Channel’s real stargate.

Oh, and SyFy Portal think we’re all being terribly unprofessional. I can only dream of having such delusions of grandeur, but then we here are only mere fan bloggers and cannot possibly understand the responsibilities of posting real news.