Really though, Jimmy Kimmel deserves all the credit in the universe for making notorious bad interview Harrison Ford an entertaining late night guest.
EU Retrospective: The New Jedi Order Part 3
The Yuuzhan Vong just keep on coming. Really, they must have an endless supply or something. The good news is that things are starting to get slightly better for the New Republic. The really good news is that I got to read more Allston and Stover books! (I have my priorities straight. Honestly.) The really really REALLY good news is that I have not only passed the halfway mark in the New Jedi Order but that I have now read more than 100 books on this crazy little venture of mine. Huzzah! With all of that said, onward!
Dark Journey
GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING BACK TO HAPES.
I really like this book. I honestly do and it’s not just because we get to go back to Hapes. For starters, this is clearly a Jaina Solo book and I love when we get to see her take a leading role. Even though she goes to some less than ideal mental states in the book, she emerges that much stronger.
The title gives away that Jaina has a brush with the dark side and I honestly don’t blame her. She thinks that both of her brothers are dead and the war’s taken its most drastic downward turn yet. I’d be pretty ready to dabble in the dark side too at this point. I like how Elaine Cunningham uses Kyp Durron in the book first as someone who’s willing to help her use whatever means necessary to strike back at the Vong and then as someone who helps pull her back from that edge.
Although it is Jaina’s book, Tenel Ka gets to go through some neat character development too. Taking up her mother’s crown is easily one of the two most significant events we’ve gotten to witness this far. Even though she is the heir, it’s not exactly the role that I ever thought she’d fill. I just wish that we’d gotten a chance to watch her learn how to deal with being the Queen Mother in those first few years.
I’m also a huge fan of Jag Fel finally returning to the picture (along with the Baron Fel cameo) but more on that in the next two books.
What I especially love is how Cunningham introduces the Trickster plan. It’s a clever idea from Jaina and there’s something rather delightful about her raising an eyebrow at the Vong and going “Yeah, I’m basically Yun-Harla. What are you going to do about it?”
On top of that, this book is incredibly quotable. From “Is every third human in this galaxy named Solo?” to “In his opinion, there were far too many dark haired, green eyed men in Jaina Solo’s orbit.”, I’m consistently amused.
The one problem I have with the book is the pacing. It’s not that it’s terribly done but she doesn’t even arrive at Hapes until over a third of the way through. Of course, that can partially be blamed on how Star by Star ended because this book basically had to pick up immediately afterwards. Actually, the other problem I have with the book is that poor Teneniel Djo gets used as a plot device and is a far cry from the strong willed woman we met back on Dathomir.
Aside from that though? I love the book and I’ll just link this classic gif to illustrate my response to those who give me a hard time about it.
Tosche Station Radio #54: International Class
On this episode of Tosche Station Radio, the hosts are joined by Mark Newbold of JediNewsUK to discuss all things Star Wars!
Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight what’s New on the Blog. The Waru Express continues on the journey through the New Jedi Order. We also did a bit of Mythbusting: Did George Lucas order Anakin Solo’s death?
In Fixer’s Flash this week, Nanci’s kept herself busy by writing another story and reading through Part 1 of Dragonpocalypse by Matthew Bowers. Brian’s been off watching baseball and soccer, but also has been reading through science fiction thriller Season of Passage by Christopher Pike.
Deak’s Dirt starts with some news out of The Hunger Games fandom: Catching Fire’s teaser trailer was released on MTV. Meanwhile, a new (and final?) Star Trek Into Darkness trailer also hit the web. In other Star franchise news, Michael Giacchino says John Williams should score Episode VII. Martha Wells’ Leia novel gets a title. On the rumor front, someone claiming to have worked at Lucasfilm said that the next Star Wars animated project would be Star Wars: Reclamation. Don’t hold your breath, it was a fake. Tor.com looked at the Star Wars fandom with a piece they called You Take Your Star Wars, I’ll Take Mine. In Episode VII rumors, Harrison Ford chats with Letterman, Anthony Daniels says he’s not sitting by phone waiting for call. In actual news, Disney announced alternating episodes and standalones would be the plan to have a Star Wars film in theaters every year. Finally in sad news, Richard LeParmentier has passed away.
This week’s installment of Camie’s Concerns features a general Star Wars chat with friend of the show and JediNewsUK blogger Mark Newbold.
Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.
This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.
New Star Wars Films to Be Released Every Summer Starting in 2015
You get a Star Wars film! And you get a Star Wars film! And you…well, you get the point.
Today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that a new Star Wars film will be released each summer starting in 2015.
Episode VII will come first, followed by a standalone film in 2016. This alternating “episode-standalone” schedule will continue until, presumably, Episode IX is released (it felt really really really weird to type Episode IX as an actual thing that will happen, by the way). Bob Iger confirmed upcoming standalone films back in February, but this is the first we’ve heard of this aggressive release schedule. No note of how many standalone films will be produced, or if they will continue after the Sequel Trilogy ends.
We’re recording a new episode of Tosche Station tonight, so be sure to look out for a new episode with all of our thinky thoughts.
Patton Oswalt filibusters ‘Parks and Recreation,’ explains how a Marvel and Star Wars crossover can work
I would watch the living daylights out of this Episode VII proposal.
The Martha Wells “Leia novel” Gets Official Title
Martha Wells announced on her Live Journal that her new Star Wars novel, the first in the “Rebels” series, now has an official name: Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge. Sounds like we might finally get into the nitty-gritty of Leia’s character in this book, which is awesome.
I’m very excited for this book, and I’m also really excited for potential implications of the new series name, Empire and Rebellion. Does this mean we might get stories from an Imperial point of view, say with fan favorite characters like Baron Fel and Tycho Celchu? Just imagine how awesome a Tycho defecting from the Empire novel would be.
Razor’s Edge is scheduled for release on October 15. Other upcoming novels in the Empire and Rebellion series include a Han-centric novel from James S.A. Corey and a Luke-centric novel from Kevin Hearne.
Del Rey also confirmed the titles on Twitter and Facebook:
Title for the upcoming Leia novel by @marthawells1 is STAR WARS: EMPIRE AND REBELLION: RAZOR’S EDGE. On sale in October. #SWEU #StarWars
— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) April 17, 2013
More layoffs at Lucasfilm targeting licensing and marketing
By all indications, there’s been another round of layoffs at Lucasfilm. This time it also affects the Lucasfilm Licensing division.
Hatchet day at #Lucasfilm and #LucasLicensing. Bad news: I got laid off. Good news: I got laid off!Look out, world, here I come!
— Stacy Arnold-Strider (@batsnaps) April 16, 2013
These layoffs are reportedly impacting individuals within licensing, marketing, and publishing. The first two make a certain amount of sense since Disney has huge licensing and marketing arms, but publishing would be a bit more out of left field as they do not have much in the way of in-house options on that front. Possibly the layoffs within that arm are confined to children and reference materials, which Disney can probably replicate. Adult fiction would be tougher.
UPDATE: Publishing not impacted
Sounds like the initial report was wrong on the publishing front. LFL’s Jen Heddle got in contact with Club Jade to clear things up:
@clubjade No publishing layoffs.
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) April 17, 2013
This makes quite a bit more sense. If Disney can do anything internally, it’s licensing products and marketing everything under their umbrella. Publishing is still something that they in theory have the framework to do entirely internally, but isn’t what I would call a strong suit. For now (and I suspect for a long, long while), the setup remains the same for Star Wars literature.
Latest ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ trailer drops
May is going to be a pretty great months for movies, isn’t it?
Mythbusting: Did George Lucas order Anakin Solo’s death?
The myth: George Lucas feels that there would be marketing and brand confusion to have two heroes named Anakin at the same time, one in the Prequel Trilogy and one in the Expanded Universe. Because of this, he orders Anakin Solo to be killed in the New Jedi Order books. Troy Denning is given the instructions from Lucasfilm itself to kill off Anakin.
Murdered by George Lucas!?
The investigation: To get to the answer, Nanci went to the Twittersphere and all-around-awesome Lucasfilm person Pablo Hidalgo dug into his notes to get to the bottom of the issue.
Has the Anakin Solo death coming on high from George ever been confirmed? What I’ve heard is that he said Anakin couldn’t be the hero. #SWEU
— Nanci Schwartz (@nancipants) April 16, 2013
@nancipants the note says “Change person who is responsible for ultimately saving the day to Jacen – not Anakin”
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
@nancipants and that was listed under the header “Too redundant to movie storylines – books should be more original” (5/6/98) BB memo
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
@nancipants circled specifically in the outline is a mention that Anakin Solo “that he is the prophesied one”
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) April 16, 2013
The reality: It turns out that George Lucas and Lucasfilm itself didn’t order that Anakin Solo be killed. Rather, they stated that he couldn’t be a prophetic hero and that role should be changed up to someone else. Hello, Jacen.
It appears that the decision to kill Anakin was made somewhere lower on the chain, perhaps the editors and/or authors working with Del Rey at the time. Whoever made the call, what’s clear is that there wasn’t a directive from on high to off Anakin Solo. The decision to kill him rather than change his role or put him on a bus appears to have been made by the people actually producing the books.
Michael Giacchino Says John Williams Should Score Episode VII
These days, there are seemingly two constants in the film universe. First, if there’s a Star Wars movie, John Williams is scoring it. Second, if there’s a J.J. Abrams movie, Michael Giacchino is scoring it.
Uh oh.
Given these two virtual certainties, a number of fans are wondering exactly who is going to score the next episodic installment of the Star Wars saga. Will it by franchise legacy composer Williams, or will J.J. Abrams bring in Giacchino? There’s no telling for sure yet, but Giacchino himself seems to think it should be Williams back at the conductor’s stand.
“He has been a great inspiration to me over the years,” he continued. “He has been a great teacher to me and good friend and I would love nothing more than to hear more of his music from that universe.”
“If it were up to me I would say ‘John, you must do it.’”
For whatever it’s worth, I do agree with Giacchino. If Williams is able and willing, he should be the one that scores Episode VII. If nothing else, maintaining a constant presence on the film score side of things will go a long ways in linking these three distinct eras of Star Wars together.