Category Archives: Star Wars books

JEFFREY BROWN ON HIS ALL-AGES STAR WARS BOOKS

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Via Starwars.com:

With the release of Darth Vader and Son in 2012, Jeffrey Brown’s adorable depictions of the cuter side of the galaxy were introduced to moms and dads with a passion for Star Wars. For some parents, this passion included a desire to rope their children into the saga along with them, and Brown’s books were the key. Now with several more books under his belt, including Vader’s take on parenting daughters, friendship, and even bedtime stories, Brown has made us love these characters all over again through a different lens. StarWars.com got to chat with the illustrator about his influence on young fandom, his most difficult drawings, and his own father/son relationships. We also snagged an exclusive sneak peek at the two prints included with his upcoming box set, which collects Goodnight Darth Vader and Darth Vader and Friends, due out this September!

StarWars.com: First, I want to ask you about how your books have been praised as a great way for “Geek Dads” to get their kids into Star Wars. When you started writing the books, did you have that intention or was it more something that just came about?

Jeffrey Brown: You know, it was really something more that came about. My original intent was I was just gonna write something to entertain people who were kinda in my shoes, which is having grown up with Star Wars and then, now having kids of my own, just mixing the parenting and the Star Wars with kind of some funny observations of life. But kids love Star Wars already, and kids would see the books, and one of the stories that I hear again and again is the parents get the books, and then the kids just take ownership of them. So really the fact that kids and their parents have been able to kind of reconnect or connect in a different way through the books was just kind of this extra happy accident.

StarWars.com: One thing I really love about the stories is they bring a silly, childlike side to Star Wars. Were you nervous or did you have any apprehensions when you first decided to take the saga in that direction? Maybe about how people would react to it?

Jeffrey Brown: I mean, not really. I think just because I’m coming from a place that I think is the same place that the people who are seeing the books are coming from, which is, you know, I’m a fan! … I think the fact that, really, where the books were coming from was a very personal place and just kind of [have] a lot of heart in it. I think I was never really too worried. I didn’t necessarily think that they would strike a chord with as wide an audience as they did. But I didn’t think there would be necessarily any backlash because it didn’t fit [continuity] so well.

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‘Star Wars’ Author Timothy Zahn Message To Angry Fans

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Via Inverse.com:

Timothy Zahn is basically the guy who made The Force Awakens before The Force Awakens. In 1991, Zahn’s first chapter in the so-called “Thrawn Trilogy” of Star Wars Expanded Universe books, called Heir to the Empire, introduced an official continuation of the saga after the events of Return of the Jedi. Beloved by many Star Wars fans, it quickly became a New York Times bestseller, and it’s perhaps the pinnacle of the Expanded Universe. But ever since Disney’s Star Wars takeover in 2012 rendered all Expanded Universe stories unofficial and labeled under the Star Wars “Legends” banner, fans have been up in arms over their favorite stories suddenly being disqualified. In a new interview with Zahn on The Daily Dot from Awesome Con in Washington, D.C., the author tells EU fans to basically accept it.

To many, Zahn’s writing is exhibit A in why the Expanded Universe is so vital. The titular blue-skinned Imperial grand admiral named Thrawn who lead a First Order-esque splintered Empire five years after Return of the Jedi and his Imperial agent Mara Jade (who would eventually marry Luke Skywalker in the EU mythos), continue to be fan favorites. But they’re no longer canon, which caused EU-die hards to engage in increasingly desperate movies like erect billboards calling for the EU to be made official again or take to social media with hashtags like “#GiveUsLegends”. How dare Lucasfilm take away the precious, sometimes way overly complicated and hopelessly geeky Expanded Universe.

Zahn told The Daily Dot that angry fans should just slow their roll. He said:

“I can understand the feeling of camaraderie, the feeling of, ‘This is our people, this is our organization, these are our books.’ But at some point, you just have to take a deep breath and [say], ‘OK, that is over. We accept it. We go on. We’ve got the books.’

Later, Zahn explained that fans should stay pragmatic about the EU: “Think of the Expanded Universe [as if] it’s been frozen in carbonite for the moment, he said, and later, “I appreciate the fan loyalty, but, as you say, they’re not going to influence what Disney does or [what] Lucasfilm does.”

Quite rightly, Zahn explains that while the EU is over as fans know it, it’s not like these stories so many fans love are going anywhere. It’s not like Kathleen Kennedy is pulling a Darth Vader and sending out probe droids across the galaxy to snatch up everybody’s Thrawn Trilogy. They’re there to be enjoyed as unofficial Legends. But, as Zahn also points out, the Expanded Universe wasn’t really ever official regardless of what the fans thought.

2016-06-07 14_26_28-‘Star Wars’ Author Timothy Zahn Tells Expanded Universe Fans to Give Up _ Invers

Interview About Leia And Bloodline With Claudia Gray

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Via Starwars.com:

LUCASFILM BOOK EDITOR JENNIFER HEDDLE AND BLOODLINE AUTHOR CLAUDIA GRAY CHAT ABOUT WRITING THE HIT BOOK AND THEIR MUTUAL FANDOM FOR A STAR WARS ICON.
Bloodline author Claudia Gray and I have been friends for almost 20 years, and our mutual love of Star Wars has always been a part of that friendship. Which means getting to work with her on Bloodline (I was not involved with the editing on her first Star Wars book, Lost Stars), was literally a dream come true. I volunteered to interview her for StarWars.com and what follows is an in-depth discussion of her work on Bloodline, what a short, sassy princess meant to us growing up, and the pleasures and frustrations of owning the 1978 Princess Leia doll.

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What Episode VIII’s Director Contributed to the Latest Star Wars Novel

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Via io9.com:

Star Wars: Bloodline contains several huge revelations about the state of the galaxy far, far away just a handful of years before the events of The Force Awakens—a period still barely touched in Disney’s new canon. Some of those elements were provided by Episode VIII director Rian Johnson for the novel, and now we know which ones.

Just a warning going in: there will be major spoilers for the events of Bloodline below. Turn back if you’ve not read it yet!

We knew going in that Rian Johnson would provide some story elements for Claudia Gray’s latest Leia-centric novel, but over the weekend Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo confirmed just what Johnson added—and it gives us a hint to some of the story elements we’ll likely see picked up in Episode VIII:

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A New Novel Will Solve A Force Awakens Mystery

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Via Radiotimes.com:

Ever since Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens hit cinema screens last December we’ve been asking questions. Lots and lots and lots of questions.
And now it seems as though we’re about to get a definitive answer to at least one of our queries when a new novel is released next month.
Bloodlines – a new Leia-focused novel written by Claudia Grey and due for release on May 3rd – is going to give quite a bit of insight into the franchise’s new big baddies, The First Order.
Plus, it’s going to reveal how and when the Resistance was formed – according to StarWars.com at least.
“One thing we know about Leia is that she’s always willing to do the work. She just wants to Get Stuff Done. So how does the Resistance figure into that?” an official teaser on the website reads.
“What events would push Leia to break away from the Republic she has dedicated herself to serving? And who was there with her from the beginning? There’s one way to find out…”
And that’s not all. Bloodlines is apparently going to feature a MASSIVE revelation about one of the galaxy’s best kept secrets. And there’ll be more Han/Leia relationship drama to devour.
We’re ready and waiting to be taken far, far away.

An Excerpt From The Novel Aftermath – Life Debt

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Via Ew.com:

Last year, Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath novel used a new group of Rebel fighters to explore the upheaval in the galaxy after the events of Return of the Jedi.

In an exclusive excerpt from Wendig’s sequel, Aftermath: Life Debt, we get to see them cross paths with a familiar Wookiee and his Corellian smuggler sidekick.

The central narrative of Aftermath took place on the planet Akiva, with Rebel pilot Norra Wexley reuniting with her son, Temmin (a.k.a. “Snap” Wexley, who was played as an adult in The Force Awakens by Greg Grunberg). They join forces with some other anti-Empire sympathizers to save X-Wing pilot and Rebel scout Wedge Antilles from a remnant of the Imperial navy that’s regrouping after the fall of the second Death Star.

Interspersed throughout this narrative, like stand-alone short stories, were chapters focusing on well-known figures in other parts of the galaxy — including a bearded Han Solo veering off for a rogue mission with Chewbacca to liberate the Wookiee world of Kashyyyk.

In Wendig’s Life Debt, Princess Leia sends Norra and her son on a mission with Jas Amari, a Zabrak bounty hunter, and Sinjir Rath Velus, a former Imperial loyalty officer who now pledges his loyalty to the Rebellion. That sets them on a collision course with Han Solo and Chewbacca as they fight for Chewie’s homeland.

The book goes on sale July 19, 2016.

Click below to read the sample.

THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT REY, FINN, AND POE FROM BEFORE THE AWAKENING

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Via Starwars.com:

GREG RUCKA’S NOVEL FEATURES MAJOR REVELATIONS ABOUT THREE NEW STAR WARS ICONS.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a few months since we experienced Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the first time. We didn’t know much about Rey, Poe Dameron, and Finn before December 18, but now they’re like old friends. Don’t get me wrong, we still have plenty to learn about who they are and how they fit into the galaxy, but we’re at least acquainted with them. If you read Star Wars: Before the Awakening, you got to know the trio better. The anthology book by Greg Rucka with illustrations by Phil Noto went back in time to explore what life was like for Finn, Rey, and Poe before the events of the film.

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