Del Rey posted a new mini-excerpt from James Luceno’s upcoming book Tarkin to their Star Wars Books Facebook page today. You can read it here.
Tarkin will be released in hardback and ebook formats on November 4.
Tag Archives: books
A.C. Crispin bids farewell to her fans.
A.C. Crispin, author of the Star Wars Han Solo Trilogy, posted a farewell to her fans yesterday on StarTrek.com. Ann, who has written for a variety of franchises, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as her own original Starbridge universe, made the announcement that her battle with cancer is nearing its end.
Crispin thanked her fans for their support and assured them that she was receiving excellent care, let them know that her husband was collecting messages sent to her, but warned them that she may not have the strength to post to her Facebook or website again.
In addition to being a prolific science-fiction writer, Crispin has also served as the Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and with colleague Victoria Strauss, founded Writer Beware, a offshoot of SFWA that helps writers avoid publishing scams and assists law enforcement in shutting down criminal activity in the publishing world. She has also been a leader in ensuring female voices and representation among the science-fiction community.
Ann’s Star Wars resume includes the Han Solo trilogy and two short stories, one for both Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba’s Palace.
Random Penguin
Official news came down the pipeline today that the rumors are true: Random House and Penguin are merging in a massive business deal that will create the largest publishing company in the world. Why is this Star Wars news? Well, as Dunc over at Club Jade pointed out, both Random House and Penguin both have imprints in DelRey and DK that print Star Wars material.
But don’t get too excited yet. This deal is still subject to regulatory approval, and that may be a problem. Dunc and I have both posited that this could be a case for anti-trust investigations. Why? Right now, in the UK, Random House and Penguin make up 27% of book sales. Forbes speculates that in the US, that number jumps to about 40% of trade book sales. Globally, according to the Huffington Post, the two would make up 26% of world wide book sales. I would note that none of these numbers specifically address the academic publishing arms of these companies either; Pearson (owner of Penguin) has a massive education publishing arm, and combining with Random House could end up with a larger share of the textbook market as well, and any college student taking a look at textbooks in their college bookstore knows what kind of problem that might be.
It is important that in all of these articles, the words “subject to regulatory approval” or “anti-trust approval” come up. The fact that both Random House and Penguin are European-based companies could complicate matters. And for those of us who are aspiring authors, this new conglomeration could be good or bad (see the Forbes article linked above.) In any case, this smacks of desperation on the sides of the publishers in the face of ebooks (especially after the Department of Justice came down on the agency pricing model). But don’t look away yet. The Huffington Post also reports that NewsCorp is looking to add to HarperCollins, so more big publisher mergers may be on the horizon.
Rethinking Romance
I read a lot—at least by any average person’s standards. Sure, there are plenty of people in fandom who can put me to shame, but I showed Brian my pinboard a while ago, and he commented that I’d read more fic in the past year than he’s read in his life—and that was just the fic. And I read everything from modern literary fiction to fanfiction.
So, while I’m certainly not qualified to comment on a lot of things about literature and stories, I do feel comfortable talking about why I read, and why I think a lot of people do. It’s an escape, certainly—last night I was unhappy and I immediately went after charming short stories that I knew would cheer me up while distracting me from my own life—but it’s also a reflection of the human condition, pretentious as that sounds. Stories are interesting because the people in them are interesting, because they have lives and struggles and triumphs and failures.
And here’s the thing I think we forget sometimes: romance and love are huge parts of the human condition. People fall in love every day, at parties and jobs and while walking their dogs. They also fall in love during wars and natural disasters, and they will continue to fall in love after the world ends. Girls fall in love and boys fall in love; teenagers and thirtysomethings and senior citizens all fall in love; deaf people and blind people and smart people and ignorant people fall in love. Sometimes the love is requited and sometimes it isn’t.
(More under the jump)
Timothy Zahn’s ‘The Icarus Hunt’ Now Available in Electronic Format
We’re just going to keep talking about this book until we convince you all to buy it.
If you have ever been curious about an Expanded Universe author’s offerings outside of the realm of Star Wars, the first novel you absolutely must pick up is Timothy Zahn’s The Icarus Hunt, a science fiction noir and chase mashup that’s made its way onto my list of yearly re-reads. If you need a bit more convincing, check out the review I wrote a little while back for Roqoo Depot.
The Icarus Hunt is a fascinating book because it delivers a sense of grandeur but, at the same time, is a rather intimate story. Alien species, futuristic technology, starships and freighters, sprawling locations, and criminal factions. With this setup, it would be easy to delve into a tale about war between species ala Ender’s Game or some sort of galactic apocalypse ala any major multi-author Star Wars series since 1999. The framework was there to tell that sort of a novel. Zahn, to his credit, chose instead to dial back on the type of doomsday conflict that we see far too often in science fiction and tell a different kind of story.
If you have a measly $7 handy, you can get yourself a copy via Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Congratulations to Timothy Zahn as well, I know in talking with him on his Facebook page that he and his agent have been working for a long time to secure the rights to get this out in eBook format.
‘Harry Potter’ Will Be Free in Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library
For those of you who have Amazon Prime, your Kindle just got a little bit more magical. Time Online reports that Harry Potter will soon be available for for free as part of the Kindle Lending Library, a service offered to Prime customers that allows them to one book per month.
Today Amazon announced that it’s adding all seven of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
That means if you have an Amazon Prime membership (available for an annual fee of $79) you can “borrow” any of the Harry Potter books for free. Amazon Prime members can borrow one book per month with no due dates, plus they get free two-day shipping on most products sold directly by Amazon and the ability to stream certain movies and TV shows for free.
As if the free two-day shipping wasn’t enough to entice you to the Amazon Prime service (I swear my account pays for itself every Christmas thanks to that). The books will be available in the lending library starting June 19th.
Timothy Zahn’s ‘Icarus Hunt’ Coming To Ebook Readers
Let’s hear it from the man himself!
Over the past few months several of you have asked about ebook versions of The Icarus Hunt. I’ve just learned that it’s going to be released for Kindle and Nook (and possibly other platforms — my information source was a bit vague) on May 23.
Thanks to all of you who pushed for this for your help in making it a reality.
If there is one non-Star Wars novel of Zahn’s that you absolutely must read, it’s The Icarus Hunt. Nanci, Emily, and myself fully endorse it and if you need a bit of persuasion, you can read my spoiler-free review of the novel here. Or you can just take our word for it and pre-order your copy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.