Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
If you’ve been waiting for Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels to hit in paperback, head to the bookstore today. For the comic fans, there’s Legacy #9 on Wednesday.
Novel-wise, that’s a wrap for 2013. Our next one, Darth Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber, was recently pushed back a week to January 28. And there’s more Han coming in March with James S. A. Corey’s Empire and Rebellion: Honor Among Thieves, which Jason Fry says is “one of the best EU books I’ve read in a very long time.” (via)
Street date shuffle The release of Martha Wells’ Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge has moved up a week again, this time to September 24, Del Rey tweeted yesterday. Meanwhile, the paperback for Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels is set for November 26. As always, the dates hang out on our schedule page.
Elsewheres… Time Traveled Tales, a book of short stories that features Aaron Allston, Mike Stackpole and Timothy Zahn among others (like CJers Janine K. Spendlove and Bryan Young) may have passed its original Kickstarter goal of $7,500, but with 17 days to go you can back it now to help add second stories from Stackpole, Allston and Zahn. Meanwhile, a $5 donation guarantees you an eBook version of the anthology.
Toys. We already knew that a Mara Jade Skywalker figure was in the queue, but these inventory lists found by Jedi Temple Archives list a Darth Plagueis as well!
Reviews. Great dialogue and fun characters highlight James’ enjoyment of Legacy #3, he’s impressed with Jan Duursema’s action art in Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #5, was caught off guard by Dark Times: Fire Carrier #5 and wonders if a boom is too big for Star Wars #6.
Del Rey had a Facebook chat with Timothy Zahn for Scoundrels today, and it was… Very busy. I admit I skimmed most of the actual questions, but I can verify that all of Zahn’s answers are free of spoilers for Scoundrels.
There was a lot of old ground covered, but we did get a surprisingly detailed look at what Zahn has pitched to Del Rey. He begins:
If there are to be more books, and if LFL/Del Rey/Disney decide to let me write some of them, I have a trilogy project to pitch where the third book would also be the third book of the Hand of Judgment series (Allegiance and Choices of One). Again, I don’t know if that will happen.
And later….
A Fel or Chiss novel would be fun. As a matter of fact, the trilogy I mentioned above (which I’ll pitch if I’m invited to do another book) would have one book heavily involving Thrawn and the Chiss. (The middle book, btw, would feature Mara being sent to stop an assassination…against Vader. Imagine the fun they would *both* have with *that* assignment.) The proposed series title is The Maestro Trilogy, if anyone wants to star nagging Del Rey. (No, seriously, *don’t* nag. Just ask politely…)
When asked about his favorite era:
At the moment I like writing in the Ep 4/5 gap, partly because the characters are so much fun in that era and partly because the territory hasn’t been as well explored. However, I understand there are several books now scheduled in that time, so it may start getting crowded.
As to other eras, the Old Republic era has a lot of good writers who are working there, and I’m not sure whether Del Rey is planning to go beyond Legacy of the Force right now. If the Ep 3/4 gap is ever opened up (LFL so far has kept that off-limits) there are a bunch of stories I could tell there.
And naturally he was asked quite a bit about the sequel trilogy and how it relates to his books:
Actually, I think Disney will do right by LFL. Their record with Pixar and Marvel indicates they know how to step back and let the people who know what they’re doing just do it. With Kathleen Kennedy now helming LFL, and with all the wonderfully talented people already in place there, I’m expecting good things to come. Of course, if Disney decided they wanted a couple of TV shows, and just *happened* to think of Mara Jade or the Hand of Judgment, I would certanly not stand in their way.
As to whether any of my characters might show up in the sequels: Again, no idea what’s being planned, but I would naturally love to see something I’ve done up there on the Big Screen.
Overall, I find myself hoping (yet again) that Del Rey finds a different way to do these chats. Sure, a couple good things came out of this one, but it was a bit of a mess…
Timothy Zahn will be taking fan questions on Scoundrels tomorrow afternoon on the Star Wars Books Facebook page. Have your questions ready by 3:00p.m. Eastern!
At his Star Wars: Scoundrels signing in San Diego on January 12, Timothy Zahn gave a talk on how the novel came to be and then held a Q&A session. He discussed the real world publication timeline he worked with, his initial idea to make it a heist using a who’s who of the main characters and top smugglers in the GFFA (Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, Lando, Corran, Mirax, Talon and more) just before the New Jedi Order, and how even the cover art influenced the final story.
Continue reading “Timothy Zahn discusses the history of Scoundrels and more”
With Scoundrels just released in hardcover, author Timothy Zahn has been on a book tour of the West Coast. I was able to spend a few minutes with him before his signing at San Diego’s Mysterious Galaxy bookstore on Saturday to chat about Scoundrels and what else he’s got in the pipeline. Stay tuned later this week for more video from the signing, including Tim discussing how Scoundrels came to be, and audience Q & A.
Oh my, look at the time.
As you may recall – or not, depending on how much partying was done last night, today is the release of Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels. You know, that book some of us wouldn’t shut up about for most of 2012?
Well, it’s finally here. If you’re not eBook-equipped and not ready to change out of your party clothes/pajamas quite yet, Timothy Zahn chatted with Knights Archive, This Blog Is Full of Words and Roqoo Depot. RD also posted their review, as did Big Shiny Robot, Tosche Station, Jedi News and EUCantina.
Comic fans won’t be left out in the cold this week, either. Look for Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #2 in the shops on Wednesday. There actually was a release last week at well: the third Clone Wars omnibus, The Republic Falls.
What else do we have coming up this month? Well, Brian Wood’s Star Wars #1 ought to debut next week, and the final Fate of the Jedi book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse, will be out in paperback on the 29th.
Scoundrels. With only a few days until the book’s release in January 1, we’re seeing plenty of Scoundrels action. There’s 50 pages on Suvudu and a brief excerpt on io9 (which is also part of the larger chunk.) And Aaron Goins’ review is up over at Star Wars Report.
Interviews. For it being the holiday season, there sure are a lot of them popping up lately. Fangirl has Troy Denning, there’s Brian Wood at Newsarama, Randy Stradley at CBR and Steve Sansweet at GalacticHunter.
Rebels. Martha Wells is nearly done with the first draft of her Star Wars novel.
Another excerpt. Knights Archive was first to spot that there’s a chapter of Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s The Last Jedi up at the Random House catalog.
Scoundrels. Timothy Zahn is going on tour! West coast only, alas. For the rest of us, there’s a lengthy new interview on Hollywood.com.
The blogside. Bria over at Tosche Station has been doing a massive re-read of the Expanded Universe – chronologically! She made it to the Revenge of the Sith novelization yesterday and had many feels, as the kids on Tumblr say.
Interviews. Fandom rockstar Pablo Hidalgo talked to EUCantina, while Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley is over at Fangirl.
Reviews. James is back with looks at Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #1, Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #5 and Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #3.
As James pointed out in our earlier Scoundrels post, it seems like every year lately there’s been a Star Wars book that comes out almost directly after the holiday. Many of us has been wondering about that in light of Scoundrels, but there is a solid reason, according to LFL’s Jennifer Heddle:
Pubtip: Sometimes certain books come out right after the holidays on purpose, so they don’t get lost in the holiday avalanche of gift books.
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) December 12, 2012
Just think for a moment how bookstores are inundated with stock for the holiday rush. Sometimes you want to make sure your box is unpacked.
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) December 12, 2012
Makes sense! And hey, it’s good for those of us who only want gift cards anyway…