Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
No more new books until the end of the month, but Wednesday does bring the fourth Legacy trade collection, Alliance. And in the midst of all last week’s new books, I forgot about Insider #106, which should be in stores (and mailboxes) now.
Also, our book release schedule has been updated, though the only new thing of note is the release date for The Force Unleashed paperback: August 25.
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…
StarWars.com features The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, including several sample pages that the more keen-eyed among us might actually even be able to read. The book, written by Steve Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo and Dan Wallace, Bob Vitas, Chris Cassidy, Mary Franklin and Josh Kushins, will be in stores next week. (Santa Maul would no doubt encourage you to consider it for your holiday lists.)
Also on the official site tonight are the March 2009 comics, including upcoming issues of Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic, along with a new Clone Wars digest, The Wind Raiders of Taloraan.
The paperback of Death Star, by by Steve Perry & Michael Reaves, will be cruising into bookstores tomorrow. Roleplayers or the detail-oriented might also want to look for WOTC’s Scum and Villainy supplement, which came out last week.
As for comic fans, Wednesday will bring the Vector storyline even closer to an end with part 11 (of 12) in Legacy #30.
StarWars.com has the blurbs for the first two books in the new series, as well as the cover for Hostage.
In other EU news, the previews for Legacy #30/Vector part 11 and The Clone Wars #3 are up.
Look for Drew Karpyshyn’s Rule of Two in paperback today, Legacy #29/Vector part 10 on Wednesday.
Lots of tidbits: Sue Rostoni has continued posting bits and pieces about the new contract on StarWars.com boards and blogs, including the timing of Fate of the Jedi and Blood Oath (apparently Seeley’s cover art has Zekk “in a very manly pose, looking ruggedly handsome.”) Meanwhile, the first FOTJ cover will feature Luke, although no artist names yet, and the manuscript for Shadows of Mindor is 419 pages. And she’s updated her book schedule entry with a few new dates (already reflected in our schedule) and the news that the Reaves/Bonhoff ‘holostar’ novel is set two years before the Battle of Yavin. And today we swing right back to Fate of the Jedi: It “will continue to be a mix of characters.”
All is quiet on the book front until October, but there’s quite a comic pile coming on Wednesday. Okay, most of that heap is the giant 800-page Luke Skywalker: Last Hope for the Galaxy collection, but there’s also The Clone Wars: Shipyards of Doom. For regular comics, Vector begins its final lap through the comic GFFA in Legacy #28.
And let’s not forget the latest Star Wars Insider…