Neth Space interviews Sean Williams, co-author of the Force Heretic books and author of the upcoming The Force Unleashed novel.
Who’s Who on the Jedi High Council
Lucasfilm continuity guru Leland Chee has the roundup of the Council from the NJO and beyond.
Video Monday
Holy copyright infringement, Batman! It’s Turkish Star Wars (Complete with ripped-off ANH footage, and keeping with that theme, I think I saw an old-school Cylon as well.) Also on Youtube, a very painful training scene And there’s a sequel! More information on the films at Cinematical, with more video at iFilm. (Video via Bonnie)
Songvid alert! Captain Jack is bringing the sexy back. Aspect ratio is off, but I don’t care.
Futurama returns! It’s in ur house, drinking ur beers.
Remember the Vector Prime commercial? Ha ha.
G4’s X-Play hits Star Wars again with an Imperial Press conference and the Rebel shopping network.
Bits and Pieces
Several recent reviews…
David Maddox reviews Betrayal at SF Site, while Bookgasm takes on the NJO with Rebirth and Conquest.
From the Blogside
This week’s highlight: Pablo Hidalgo’s On the Internet, Everything is a Big Deal. You’re on the internet, right? Read it.
Abel G. Peña looks back at “The Emperor’s Pawns,” a piece he did several years ago that defined and (in some cases) retconned the position of the Emperor’s Hands as we know it today.
Matril on why she loves Star Wars.
Anakinside1 looks inside the belly of the beast.
Oboe-Wan finds a telling moment in Empire Strikes Back.
Mike Beidler continues his NJO retrospective with a look at Mike Stackpole’s Dark Tide dulogy, Onslaught and Ruin.
This is (not) the war that never ends…
Andrew Wheeler has some thoughts on Tempest and the Things Get Worse-ness of the Expanded Universe, to which I can only say… Yeah. I know far too many people, avid EU readers before the NJO, who now are… not. Wheeler hits on the head one reason some folks (including me) view the Bantam line as more successful, depite the mixed quality of the books themselves – storylines very rarely lasted longer than a trilogy or so. You didn’t have book after book of endless catastrophe. If one book or trilogy bored, the next could be a complete 180 in any number of ways. There was, quite simply, variety.
I have hopes for the Legacy series – I’m generally hopeful, at least in the early stages. At the very least, it doesn’t look to be shaping up to anything on the level of the NJO, where I might have welcomed a book by Kevin J. Anderson if he just made the big bad and incredibly boring Yuuzhan Vong simply go away. (Finally, an acceptable use for those excess superweapons!) LOTF, with the linchpin of a civil war where both sides are populated by ‘good’ guys, and the possibility for main baddies who are, if not totally sympathetic, actually interesting, could avoid the NJO syndrome.
Maybe.
From the Blogside
The Infinite Force explores the idea of being a Jedi or a Sith in real life. Just stay away from the census polls, okay?
Pablo talks about the origin of the Rookies webstrips.
Ravenclaw Devi considers Mary Sues and related issues.
Jedimaster13109 provides us with a nice overview of the Force.
In EU corner, Mike Beidler has some thoughts on Vector Prime. Meanwhile, Padawan Katis is reading The Phantom Menace novelization and Sunnyskywalker continues her spot-on Courtship of Princess Leia analysis with Chapter 5.
From the Blogside
Chaodai shatters the myth that saying something is ‘for kids’ means you don’t have to try. Not surprisingly, The Phantom Menace comes up…
Speaking of TPM, Ryan Kaufman asks what’s up with The “Phantom” Menace?
Anakinside1 explores Anakin’s feminine side.
Master Ki-Aaron-Mundi has a theory on how Ferus Olin kicks the bucket.
Marvolo7 shares her list of the EU’s most memorable moments.
Eleventh Guard asks why is there so little NJO slash?
Traviss’ Fett novella to debut online
In August, Del Rey will publish A Practical Man, an e-novella by Karen Traviss filling in the details leading up to Boba Fett’s brief cameo in The Unifying Force.
Although there’s no price noted in the official release, it appears that Barnes & Noble has it retailing for $3.50.
The starwars.com item also gives fans a look at the Fettastic finished cover for Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines, which is due out in September.