Upcoming works teased by Stradley, Miller

No, I can't spell it. That's why we have copy and paste.I don’t know if everyone out there in the fannish newsosphere missed this or if it’s just me, but Randy Stradley posted a From the Editor on how the Legacy creative team broke a rule with the upcoming ‘Tatooine’ storyline, and why he let them. Heartwarming stuff. (Or, since it’s Randy, maybe not.)

On the other end of the EU timeline, Karen Miller has finished up the fourth Clone Wars book and is taunting dropping hints to eager fans.

So how did Star Wars books sell in ’08?

Andrew Wheeler has made a habit of rounding up genre bestsellers from Publishers Weekly’s list, and if you separate out the Star Wars stuff, an interesting trend emerges:

In Adult Hardcovers:

  • Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams, 103,232
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss, 101,146
  • Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible, Troy Denning, 101,034

And in New Children’s paperback:

  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Tracey West, 190,700
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Battle at Teth, Kirsten Mayer, 186,282
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The New Padawan, Eric Stevens, 152,661
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Intergalactic Adventure: Activity Book, no author listed, 119,621
  • Star Wars Fandex, Christopher Cerasi, 103,191

In short, The Clone Wars kids books sold significantly more copies than the adult books. Behold, the power of a theatrical release…

Interesting, if rather sad factoid: Stephenie Meyer outsells everyone. No, seriously. But then, in a year where Dean Koontz outsells Stephen King, can we really be surprised?

EUbits: Adventures, Kemp, Bohnhoff, TCW, Invasion, Threat of Peace

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  • Preview: Take a peek at the first issue of the new Star Wars Adventures digest. Apparently some have found it in the UK, but there’s been no sign of it on Diamond so I wouldn’t go looking just yet.
  • The Blogside: Paul S. Kemp has thoughts on writing Crosscurrent, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff has two updates in her Padawan’s Journal series: Protocol Droids and Velveteen Bunnies and Mistakes Were Made.
  • The Clone Wars: Don’t expect to see a paperback of Karen Traviss’ Clone Wars novel anytime soon – There are no plans to release one, says Sue Rostoni. If you absolutely must have a paperback, look to the UK version.
  • Comics: DarkHorse.com has a new From the Editor, about Invasion. (Nothing we don’t already know, but we can expect an announcement in a week or so.)
  • Webcomics: Third and fourth updates in The Old Republic‘s Threat of Peace.

Miller’s Wild Space and Rollin’s Crystal Skull novelization up for tie-in awards

The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen MillerThe International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced their nominees for the 2009 Scribe Awards, and two Lucasfilm works are on it. Karen Miller’s The Clone Wars: Wild Space got a nod for Best Speculative Fiction Adapted, while James Rollins’ adaption of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is up for Best General Fiction Adapted. Miller is “massively chuffed!”

This is the first Scribe nomination for any Star Wars (or Indy, though that pool is considerably smaller) work, though Alan Dean Foster was named last year’s Grandmaster.

Book review roundup: Karen Miller’s Wild Space makes the Livejournalers squee

The Clone Wars: Wild SpaceAbout a month ago, Karen Miller’s first Star Wars novel was released. It’s been getting a surprising amount of of lip service in fandom lately, and I wasn’t sure why until I read a couple of reviews on LiveJournal – not exactly the hot spot for EU meta these days.

But no, right there in Jedi News, four reviews in little over a week, and two of them (Calmer-Sky and Senatorsfan-Ink) are so enthusiastic you’ll need a squeegee afterwards. Meanwhile, LazyPadawan enjoyed it but has a much different perspective on the book’s (dare I say?) fan service, while JawaStew takes a balanced tone.

Another surprise came off-LJ – a review of the book at io9 by Charlie Jane Anders, their first for Star Wars fiction. With the catchy title of ‘At Last, A Book That Explains Why Obi-Wan Is Such A Dick,‘ it’s easy to see why this post has a whopping 14,407 views as I type this.

And lest you doubt, the numbers at the highly-critical Jedi Council review thread look pretty good as well: An average of 8.08 out of 10.

With my chronic case of Clone Wars apathy, I’m still not too tempted to pick this up myself, but maybe… At the library. If I see it. Those who have read it, what do you think?

The Clone Wars: It’s Friday and I have no clever

Tonight’s episode is ‘Lair of Grievous,’ which sounds kinda like a Scooby Doo episode. I’m not sure what that makes Kit Fisto, but considering who was present at Grievous’ debut it’s probably at least a little appropriate.