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Archived News and Website Updates 2008 (The former has titles, the latter does not)
12/14/08 Dave Filoni! Edited content about why I love Dave Filoni:
http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000738.html#rss
Watch the short interview. If you're a fan of the Expanded Universe, you'll understand. And why does he dare the wrath of the Maker? Four simple words that make Mr. Filoni a hero for every SW reader: "I respect the EU."
Thank you, Dave! And WE respect you too!
If you're not watching the Clone Wars, you're missing out on some great fun! Check it out 9:00 PM Eastern time on the Cartoon Network!
12/16/08 Death Comes to Star Wars In the form of Joe Schreiber's upcoming novel Deathtroopers. Set shortly before A New Hope, it marks the first full-on horror novel set in the SW universe.
12/28/08 Added a small article and link to the subject of early continuity, a much-misunderstood period in Star Wars history.
12/12/08 More Clone Wars series updates. Jim Lehane sagaciously pointed out that Prelude (the prequel comic to the episode Ambush) features Skytop Station. Since that was destroyed in the R2-D2 duology, I've moved it to before those episodes, making it the first episode again.
12/14/08 For those wondering, Wild Space takes place during the events of Clone Wars, episode 6: Downfall of a Droid. And while the focus is on Obi-Wan and Bail Organa during the episode, the Anakin/Ahsoka story-arc is dealt with and expanded. And while I don't like splitting up visual media on the timeline, the official episode guides do divide each episode into three "acts". Based on that, I try to show where Wild Space falls in accordance with each act. It's hardly perfect (some events overlap), but I've tried to show simply where each portion might fit. I may find a better way to do this if we get more episode adaptations (and if R2-D2's Adventure from Grosset & Dunlap proves on March 5th to be the two-parter of episodes 6 and 7 that I suspect it is).
12/13/08 Added the wonderful Clone Wars: Wild Space. If you haven't picked this up, do yourself a favor! It's brilliant, and one of those books that's a natural extrapolation from the films (especially Episode II) that improves the film in countless ways. Karen Miller's a fantastic writer too, and the book is a page-turner as well as being a great character study.
As regards the continuity issue with Anakin's knighting, I'll be writing a new essay on my views towards the recent controversy in a couple of days that I hope will offer a way for fans to get through these "dark times" in fandom.
12/10/08 It's not perfect, but I've placed the two Rebel Force books. This series is set early in the crowded period following the Battle of Yavin. Some evidence for when it should be placed:
1. The Emperor has heard the news of the Death Star's destruction, though Palpatine mentions that he heard it from across the galaxy (which is correct as Vader took awhile to get back to Coruscant). This is still news as the Imperial underlings he tells are first hearing it.
2. Luke mentions that they've been at Yavin base for almost two weeks. While the implication seems to be that they've literally stayed on planet, that will have to interpreted as meaning they've been on planet most of the time. The next point supports this conclusion.
3. Han tells Leia that he's "risked his neck to rescue" Leia "20 times." While this is certainly hyperbole, she doesn't deny it. This indicates that they've had more adventures since the one that destroyed the Death Star (in which he'd only risked his neck to rescue her twice).
Based on this evidence, and the fact that "Day after the Death Star" and the Missions books come immediately after the close of the film, I've placed them after Missions #4 and the Pizzazz strip.
12/08/08 I'm approaching a juncture in year 2 BBY where I have to go through a lot of what I'd once considered ancillary material from West End Games to see what fits where in the scheme of events in this period. Should be interesting.
Update: Some small changes and some larger ones, e.g., the Ewok films have been moved, as well as the related Imperial Survey reports (in the Star Wars Sourcebook and Illustrated Star Wars Universe) to 2 ABY. The "raid on Hoth" noted by the in-universe author of the latter book will have to be chalked up to a pirate or smuggler raid, and not the Battle of Hoth which takes place a year later. It takes more than a year to construct a Death Star, and other evidence points to the beginnings of construction in 2 ABY.
Other important changes include moving Bidlo Kwerve's death earlier along with the introduction into Jabba's palace of the rancor (both from Tales from Jabba's Palace: . This was predicated by Hoole's tale in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe's Tatooine section (which is noted as taking place before Luke left Tatooine) where the the infamous rancor is already present in the palace.
12/08/08 Added Part 1 of Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force. Parts 2-4 will come later. This is a really good book that's loaded with short fiction that serves as supplementary story material to the books and comics from all across the timeline spectrum. If you don't already own this baby, definitely pick it up.
12/06/08 New covers, KOTOR 35 and Legacy 29.
12/02/08 Updates have been slow as I've had to focus on a personal project, but there's a new Hyperspace story up called Castaways of Endor which should prove interesting to you fans of the old Ewoks cartoons series. It takes place in 12 ABY.
11/11/08 Apes are Coming! Updated 11/23/08: Apes are Here! Planet of the Apes Chronology The Definitive Chronology, by Rich Handley. NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2008—"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" This classic line, spoken by Charlton Heston in 1968's Planet of the Apes, ranks alongside "May the Force be with you," "Bond…James Bond" and "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" as one of the most recognized bits of dialog in film history—and for good reason. Planet of the Apes, created by French writer Pierre Boulle in his novel La planète des singes ("The Monkey Planet"), was crafted for the big screen by Rod Serling, Michael Wilson, Paul Dehn and others. In the series' first outing, Heston's Col. George Taylor found himself stranded in a madhouse of a future in which an oppressive ape civilization had inherited the Earth in the wake of mankind's evolutionary and revolutionary downfall. This classic post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama has riveted audiences with its stunning performances, brilliant make-up work, resonant soundtrack and powerful statements on humanity, science and religion, as well as the jaw-dropping revelation in its legendary final moments. But the 1968 film was just the beginning of the story. Four sequels, two television series, a 2001 film re-make, and more than a dozen novels and 120 comic books later, Planet of the Apes remains a living, breathing universe that celebrates its 40th anniversary (and Blu-Ray release) this year. To help commemorate this landmark event, Hasslein Books announces the upcoming publication of Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology. This hefty volume will explore: • How a small-scale simian rebellion grew, in so short a time, into a complete, planet-wide reversal of fates for humanity and apekind
• How the apes acquired the power of speech—while man was rendered mute
• Where the plague that ravaged the planet came from, and the effects it had not only on man and ape, but on other creatures as well
• The many unique ape and human cultures that spawned around the globe in the war's aftermath—and how the Statue of Liberty ended up in pieces on a desolate beach Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology explores these and other questions, presenting every recorded event of the Planet of the Apes saga in its proper chronological context—from long before Caesar's birth to far beyond Earth's destruction. This book covers every film, television episode, cartoon, novel, comic, short story and audio-tale produced under the Planet of the Apes banner over the past four decades—including a number of rejected or unpublished tales unavailable to fans. No other reference book has covered the expanded Apes saga so completely. Along with a painstakingly detailed timeline spanning millennia, this volume features a gallery of more than 350 cover images, a recommended viewing/reading order, an examination of time travel in the Planet of the Apes mythos (both on screen and in print), and a title/creator index of published fiction—plus, insightful notes discussing preliminary and discarded story concepts, inconsistencies and discontinuities, unpublished lore and other fascinating trivia. Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology will be published as a 322-page softcover volume, at a cost of $24.95. A release date will soon be announced. Timeline of the Planet of the Apes is an unauthorized, unlicensed publication, created as an academic source-work. Planet of the Apes and all related characters, concepts and titles are the sole property of 20th Century Fox, with no copyright infringement intended. About the Author Rich Handley has authored numerous fiction titles, articles, features and columns for Lucasfilm's licensed Star Wars universe. His work has appeared on starwars.com, as well as in publications such as Star Wars Insider, Star Wars Galaxy Collector, Star Wars Gamer, Star Wars Fact Files, Star Wars Adventure Journal and Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars Tales. Handley served as a columnist and reporter for Star Trek Communicator magazine for several years, and currently writes a weekly column for the Roddenberry Sci-Fi Network. His work has also appeared in a number of other genre magazines and on websites, including Cinefantastique, Cinescape.com, Dungeon/Polyhedron, Toons: The Animation Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Sci-Fi Invasion! and Simian Scrolls, a British Planet of the Apes fanzine. In addition, he has edited and written for a variety of trade publications, and is currently a member of the editorial team at RFID Journal. 11/10/08 There is a lot of evidence that the Droids cartoon series (and comic books) take place much later than the 15 BBY date that was given by LFL in the 90's. The appearance of A-Wings (later retconned as R-22 Spearheads, yet even these shouldn't appear so early), IG-88 and 3PO's mention of the "Rebel Alliance" (which wouldn't have even been a possibility until about 4 BBY, two years before the Alliance was formed) suggest a later date. The Dark Horse Droids comic Rebellion features a cameo by Han's droid Zee-Zee (and according to the author Han Solo himself) which dates these stories to around 3 BBY.
11/09/08 Updated the Upcoming page with some new titles and revamped dates. Quite a few more Clone Wars books are coming out from Grosset & Dunlap. These appear to be episode adaptations. I hope that trend continues as it's a long-standing SW tradition going back to the Droids and Ewoks cartoons (though those unfortunately didn't see anything close to every episode adapted).
Also, added a link to the three new Lego Clone Wars comics, and added the flashback portions of Millennium Falcon (in the Rise of the Empire section between 19 and 5 BBY).
11/06/08 Just playing catch-up at this point after a very busy two weeks. The last thing left for me to do is figure out all the flashbacks in the new Millennium Falcon (which is a really fun book incidentally).
10/29/08 Sorry, not a lot of updates lately. Been busy around the house. Had to get a new roof, a new TV (the upstairs one exploded), and a lot of running around. I've also been busy slowly going through the new Millennium Falcon book (it's good!) But I figured I'd post this since it's not often an author confirms a date. Henry Gilroy stated on the DH message boards that indeed the comic Shipyards of Doom takes place before the Malevolence arc. There was some confusion on that point, but now we know!
10/23/08 Fate of the Jedi Synopsis Curious about the plot of the upcoming Traviss novel, No Prisoners and Fate of the Jedi series?? Be curious no more... They sound mighty interesting!
10/21/08 KOTOR III? Sort of... Fans of the Lucasarts video game Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) are divided on today's news of the sort of sequel to the KOTOR II. The new game is called The Old Republic. The story is set three hundred years after KOTOR in an unexplored era of Star Wars history (smart move on Bioware's part -- the makers of TFU should've done the same and saved fans the headache of more continuity errors!) What's getting some fans' upset is the fact that it's an MMO. For the layman, that means Massively Multiplayer Online game where basically everyone can play together (or play apart), and the game is basically going on all the time. Star Wars Galaxies was an MMO, which some embraced and some deplored, so the latter group (and even some of the former) are probably annoyed at the perceived storytelling and gaming limitations of the format. (KOTOR, of course, was an RPG -- Role Playing Game). To combat this, Bioware is claiming they've made some pretty big leaps in technology for this MMO, and that fans can expect lots of character growth, action and versatility. Essentially, a true RPG in an MMO setting. We'll see, but storywise, it sounds pretty interesting (actually it sounds a little bit like the premise for the Legacy comics, but that's not a complaint). Not being remotely someone who has times for games (otherwise, you wouldn't be viewing this site), I'll be curious to hear what others have to say. Hopefully, they'll give us a few books that'll tell the canonical version of events. For more information on the game, setting, screen shots, etc., go here.
10/14/08 I'm Han Solo, Captain of the Millennium Falcon Just a reminder that the new hardcover novel Millennium Falcon comes out next week (today, Han Solo's alter ego Indiana Jones is celebrating release on DVD). We also have a title on the upcoming digest due out in early '09: Star Wars Adventures: Han Solo and the Hollow Moon of Khorya. Sounds like fun!
10/13/08 Finally got around to properly placing the fantastic Princess Leia Diaries (from Tales #11) as per the individual diary entries listed. I must have missed one or two internal entries as I see I had one or two completely off. Also, her training with Giles Durane works with the Weapons Master flashback which indicates she meets him during her first term as Senator. And interestingly, with every diary entry placement, there's a corresponding story of Luke Skywalker at the same age. That's a nice coincidence. At any rate, I'm convinced Jason Hall should write a Princess Leia novel.
Ok, the covers for the newest Clone Wars books are up. Operation: Huttlet, Meet Ahsoka Tano and Decide Your Destiny: Way of the Jedi are all on the timeline. You can find their covers here. The latter is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type book. I've plotted out every course, and there are several favorable ones. As of yet, none have been declared the canonical path. It features two fellow padawans of Ahsoka and takes place at the same time as the film. Good to see an older Bant (Obi-Wan's Mon Cal friend from the Jedi Apprentice series) after so many years.
10/11/08 Some corrections in the order of events with the new Clone Wars material. I still need to upload some covers and things, but overall things are shaping up nicely.
I also updated the Era of Rebellion portion. I'd forgotten to move Vader's Quest/Marvel #35 to after the first portion of Goodwin's newspaper strips (arrggh! I thought I had moved it)! In case you've forgotten the need for that, Vader doesn't know the identity of the pilot who destroyed the Death Star in the second strip, Darth Vader Strikes.
10/09/08 Finally updated The Hutt Gambit (see the Rise of the Empire page) to include chapter titles and proper placements. Rebel Dawn will follow in a few weeks.
10/07/08 I've rearranged the way Droids cartoons appear on the timeline (see the Rise of the Empire page) and added the cover image for the rare Dragon Books version of The White Witch. I've also added the title and lead-in comic to the upcoming episode of The Clone Wars. Expect a new update on each (and a Holonet news) every week.
10/05/08 Dates and cover images of KOTOR #33 and Legacy #28 are up.
10/03/08 The Clone Wars is Here... At least in the U.S., and before you watch them tonight at 9:00 and 9:30 PM (Eastern), check out the official site's webcomics which lead right into each episode! Written by Pablo Hidalgo and illustrated in color by Tom Hodges, these are a really nice treat for fans! Check them out here!
And while you're at it, the new audio Holonet news is now available. This is pretty amazing as it mimics an actual news program with newscaster, guest experts debating the topic, "breaking news", HNN music, etc. The first episode is called "A Galaxy Divided" and takes place before the second episode tonight, Rising Malevolence. Check that out here!
9/28/08 At Long Last... As per the quote from Leland Chee in the recent Luke Skywalker: Last Hope for the Galaxy hardcover comic-book collection (available now!), Dark Horse will be reprinting the long-lost Marvel UK stories, Pizzazz serials and possibly the 3D stories from Blackthorne in a "Lost" collection! I know this is exciting news for me, and so too for anyone who visits this site! Fans have been clamoring to see these great old stories for quite a long while! We don't yet know if this is going to be an Omnibus reprinting, a standard trade paperback or what. Nor do we know yet if Dark Horse will be coloring the original b&w tales, such as World of Fire. Now it has been their pattern of late to color b&w Star Wars stories (Luke Skywalker's Walkabout, Day after the Death Star), so let's hope that's the case again here because these stories certainly deserve the royal treatment! Head over to Dark Horse and give them a hearty Thank You!
9/25/08 Clone Wars DVD In North America, a single and two-disc DVD of the Clone Wars is coming on November 11th. There's also an interesting Target and Best Buy exclusive. Head over the official site for pictures and details. And don't forget that next Friday debuts the Clone Wars series on TV (you can see a preview tomorrow on Cartoon Network).
9/25/08 Thank Janek Zech and Freetibet83 for pointing out that Boba Fett #5 and 6 best go before Dreadnaughts of Rendili due to the possible appearance of Asajj Ventress in book 6 (and the fact that Anakin isn't surprised by her appearance).
9/24/08 Some refinements with the 2-1 BBY period, additions of the Death Star Technical Companion, and some changes and additions in the Clone Wars era. Also, thanks to Plaristes for pointing out I hadn't included flashback back info for Anakin: Apprentice and that I should include the short comic Evil Eyes from Manga Black in continuity.
9/22/08 We can thank Freetibet83 for some movement with the Missions books, now placed later as it's been brought to my attention that Vader in fact did not meet with Palpatine after the events of the much earlier Empire #14 (thanks to a retcon Abel provided in Vader's Guide which indicated that the actual meeting with Palps occurred much later in Vader's Quest, Missions #17 and presumably Crossing the Dark Lord). Update: Thanks to Freetibet83 again, I've managed to find a way to rectify the seeming discrepancy of Vader not knowing Luke's abilities in the newspaper strip Darth Vader Strikes by placing that block of strips (up to and including The Return of Ben Kenobi) before issue #35, where he encounters Luke face to face for the first time. Since Goodwin left time specific gaps in Marvel and the newspaper strips, this may have been close to his intentions
Republic Commando: Order 66 has been added to the timeline, interspersed in and around Labyrinth of Evil and Revenge of the Sith.
9/19/08 Yeah, lots of changes and additions to the timeline with the news of the upcoming titles from Del Rey. Also, the fourth and final Republic Commando novel: Order 66 has augmented some new dates and changed a few old ones (Hero of Cartao and The Cestus Deception are now at 7 months ABG). I enjoy seeing the timeline grow and take shape! I've no doubt they'll be much more refining of the Clone Wars timeline as the TV series commences and picks up steam
9/16/08 Upcoming Books: Bane, Blood and More! Lots of news regarding future Star Wars titles today, the day Republic Commando: Order 66 comes out! Aside from the 9-volume Fate of the Jedi series that's been announced, two more books will take place during the post-Legacy of the Force period. Elaine Cunningham's Blood Oath and a novel by Paul S. Kemp involving an as-yet undeveloped Jedi (who's only been mentioned by name a few times in the novels). Curious. And this last bit of news will thrill fans (and it sure as heck thrills me!). There will be a third Darth Bane novel!! Drew Karpyshyn currently only has a vague notion of events, but with a March deadline, he's ready to be start cracking! Will Darth Zannah kill Darth Bane and get her own apprentice? Will Bane kill her and replace her with another? Will the Jedi come to see the Sith's new Rule of Two?
Update: The official site has posted even more news and titles of upcoming books in the new contract! Great to see new names join the SW family! And fans will be pleased to see there will be a novel set in the time of the ancient Jedi knights (Tales of the Jedi/KOTOR era possibly?) Check out the full story here!
Update: Joe Schreiber has been commissioned to write a Star Wars horror novel! Expanded Universe indeed! This is happy news! Welcome to the family, Joe!
9/13/08 Haven't posted updates in a bit, but I continue to move forward chronologically, now at the 5 BBY point. Good stuff and pretty clear sailing so far. Adding some cover images today: Clone Wars #1 of 6: Slaves of the Republic, KOTOR #32: Vindication, Rebellion #16 and Legacy #27. I also added a link to Janek (no, not Sunber) Zech's Clone Wars Timeline, which manages, like mine, to fit the older Clone Wars stories in which Anakin is a knight before the Clone Wars film. Good stuff, check it out! And while you're at it, download Rob Mullin's creative Star Wars Chronology which is a unique take on the theme. I think you'll enjoy it!9/12/08 Now Official We kind of knew it anyway, but it's nice to have confirmation. Del Rey will be holding on to the Star Wars license till 2013! That is great news! Del Rey's been carrying the license since 1976 and I personally think they've done a bang-up job ever since!
As has been reported, a new nine-book, multi-author series is scheduled called Fate of the Jedi, which will pick up after the upcoming Millennium Falcon and after the bestselling Legacy of the Force series. Aaron Allston will start it off in April with Outcast. The two authors to follow will be Christie Golden and Troy Denning. Interestingly, each of these titles will be released in hardcover! I love that idea!
In addition to that series, Del Rey will release 26 more novels in the span of their five-year contract, averaging about 5 per year. Expect an additional 10 non-fiction titles in that span as well.
We'll also get to see a deluxe edition of The Making of The Empire Strikes Back in 2010 to celebrate that film's 30th anniversary!
Happy news all around! Congrats Del Rey!
9/11/08 Hamilton Collection Update Looks like, as with the fate of the old Star Wars Bantam novels deluxe collection, Hamilton has cancelled production on this 10 volume series of hardcover graphic novels. As gorgeous as they would have been (judging by the picture), I personally thought they were extremely expensive at a time when a lot of people are pulling back a bit.
9/03/08 Set those Tivo's If you're in the U.S., Friday, October 3d, will be the one-hour premier of the new Clone Wars TV show on Cartoon Network. "Ambush" will debut at 9 PM (eastern) to be followed by "Malevolence" at 9:30. The following week (October 10th) Cartoon Network will air a repeat at 8:30 PM (eastern) and a new episode at 9:00!
And if you haven't yet seen the trailer for the series: http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/clonewars/. Enjoy!
9/1/08 Lots of little things, changes and updates, almost too many to list! I added placements for Ryder Windham's new Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi. You can check out the new cover for that here. The cover for the hardback Boba Fett book (which collects the first three Scholastic Boba Fett books) here. And the new cover for Coruscant Knights II: Street of Shadows here.
8/28/08 More minor changes, this time around the 10 BBY period as several items get placed in more accurate time zones. There was an issue with the Boba Fett story, Payback, as it can take place any time from 20 BBY to 40 ABY! But Andy Diggle confirmed that while he never pinned it down, between ANH and TESB makes sense. Thus, it currently stands in 1 ABY. Thanks Andy!
Additional changes include moving The Force Unleashed to a more appropriate time to fit in with Leia's ascension to the Senate. 2 BBY (the date stated in the graphic novel) should mark the very beginning of TFU (not the end) in order to work with pre-established continuity
Another minor change: Adventures in Beggar's Canyon has been moved to Infinities. Unfortunately, this Little Golden Book story, which was published a year prior to the Dark Horse story Luke Skywalker's Walkabout, which covers the same event (but in a very different way), can't be reconciled with that story.
8/26/08 Lots of little things added here and there, some RPG stuff, some minor corrections. I'm finally done with the Clone Wars period (though I'll be returning to it as I have to double check HNN and CIS reports to make sure there's no asynchronous information. I'm up to the first Han Solo book, The Paradise Snare, which includes some nicely detailed flashbacks on Han's childhood.
8/23/08 Hyperspace Unleashed Two new short stories have debuted on Hyperspace, Deader than an Triton Moon, by Jason Fry (author of The Clone Wars Visual Guide; co-author of the upcoming Star Wars Atlas), and Crossroads by Chris Cerasi (former Lucas Licensing editor and author of the upcoming Star Wars Fandex). Additionally, a comic book tie-in to the SoulCalibur IV videogame (in which Darth Vader, Yoda and the Secret Apprentice of The Force Unleashed play a role) called Visions of the Blade is available at Starwars.com. Click on any of the titles to check them out!
8/21/08 Added SoulCalibur IV and the tie-in webcomic Visions of the Blade to Infinities at 3 BBY.
8/19/08 Force Unleashed Finally Debuts At least the novel and trade paperback portions... Head on over to your local bookstore. In the US, Borders has it discounted 40% for members (membership is free).
8/19/08 Major change on the Clone Wars timeline. Turns out Yoda: Dark Rendezvous does take place while Anakin is a knight! Despite the fact that Obi-Wan refers to him as "Padawan" on page 148, it's revealed on page 285 that, "technically he was no longer Obi-Wan's Padawan." That's why it's important to check the whole source!
So back to its original position it goes: 30 months ABG, right before Republic #69-71: Dreadnaughts of Rendili.
8/12/08 Dark Horse revealed the contents of the upcoming Omnibus: Rise of the Sith. It includes the two Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan tales: The Aurorient Express and Last Stand on Ord Mantell, as well as the rare Aurra's Song (from Dark Horse Presents: Annual 2000), Jedi Council, Prelude to Rebellion and Darth Maul.
Clone Wars recalculation: A good way to reconcile the line on page 10 of Yoda: Dark Rendezvous regarding Honoghr being ravaged by bioweapons (which by the new calculations takes place eighteen months later) is to place the flashback in the first three pages right before the novel. With everything going on in the war, it took the Republic a year and a half to send more Jedi.
8/11/08 I near the end of the Clone Wars rereading, and so far, everything fits fine in the two months prior to the Clone Wars film and series. There are some internal dating issues that will need correction in future reprints, but far fewer that I'd expected. The stories are also very self-contained, and very easily work within a shorter span of time than originally conceived (the Quinlan Vos saga in fact benefits from each story occurring in quick succession after the other). 8/11/08 New Series! It's not been announced officially yet, but it looks as though Aaron Allston, Troy Denning and new to the SW-Universe-author Christie Golden will be writing a nine-part series called Fate of the Jedi. LFL has confirmed Allston and Golden's participation, but cannot yet divulge details. A German fan site revealed that it will take place after the upcoming Millennium Falcon book (itself set after the Legacy of the Force series), the first book will be called Outcast and involve Luke and his son Ben going on a journey together.
8/10/08 Continuing on from yesterday's changes. With the movement of Rebel Thief (SW Kids #1-5) to an earlier spot, the epilogue of issue #5 (Sprool bringing the treasure to Jabba) had to be moved to a later position after Jabba discovers Han's culpability in the destruction of Crimson Jack's ship (and Han's part in blowing a later job in Russ Manning's The Second Kessel Run (on Hyperspace and in Classic SW: The Early Adventures #6) to account for Jabba's refusal to lift the bounty on Han's head. Trust me, it all makes perfect sense when it's in the right order!
8/9/08 Changes: In placing Missions #17-20 earlier, I failed to recall that Q-7N makes his final appearance at the end of book #20, necessitating his appearances in Star Wars Kids #1-5 to before those Missions books. However, due to the issue of Han's treasure (which in SW Kids #1-5 he gives back to the Alliance), it has to go after Marvel #7 (wherein he first loses the treasure to Crimson Jack not getting it back till issue #15). Since the earliest Han, Luke and Leia are able to get back to Yavin 4 is after issue #17, that's where Star Wars Kids #1-5, Missions #17-20 and Empire #14: The Savage Heart currently reside. And for all that, it's a pretty good fit. Thanks to Chad for the reminder...
Tim Zahn's Hero of Cartao from Insider #68-70 has moved to the place where it's internally indicated, namely two years after the Battle of Geonosis at 20 BBY.
8/06/08 Millennium Falcon Revealed
The cover and plot synopsis of the upcoming book Millennium Falcon has been revealed on the official site today. The book is due out in October by James Luceno, and takes place two years after the Legacy of the Force series. "The Solo family then finds itself at a new turning point, about to set out on an odyssey into uncertain territory, untold adventure, and unexpected rewards." Check out the rest of the details here. (Note: there are spoilers for the end of the Legacy series)
New Essential Guide In other news, Karen Traviss will pen an as yet-untitled Essential Guide to ... military aspects of the SW universe, likely detailing aspects of the armies, navies and special forces of the Republic, Empire and Alliance. Should be interesting!
8/05/08 Live Action SW news... The as-yet untitled Star Wars live action TV series will likely shoot in Sydney, Australia, says George Lucas at a recent press conference. Two Australian screenwriters have already been hired to write scripts, and are currently writing it, while Lucas continues to get the technology worked out for the series. Projections point to shooting in 2010. According to Lucas, "It has nothing to do with the Skywalker saga... It is about the lower levels of life, the lower depths. They hear about the fact it is no longer a Republic and now it's an Empire, but they're from a world where none of that really means too much to them."
8/03/08 Weekly Online Comic! Here's some interesting news from from Comic-Con, the official site will be hosting a five-page weekly color comic, and here's the interesting part. Each story will tie-into (or at least be peripherally connected) to the Clone Wars episode that's airing that week! Four artists will be rotating on it (including Tom Hodges from the Reversal of Fortune webstrips) and Pablo Hidalgo will be writing! No official word yet as to whether this will be available to all or just Hyperspace members.
Pretty damn cool if you ask me!
8/01/08 As many of you know, with the launch of the new Clone Wars, and Lucas' mandate that Anakin be made a padawan in the first year of the war (as opposed to the last year of the war where it had been), several stories are going to either require shifting or complete re-editing. I'm going to try to make a list of those stories that will need addressing in some form:
Secrets of the Jedi (Scholastic): This book internally states that Anakin is still a padawan. This shouldn't be a problem to move, and the external date (which would place this at 19 BBY) will have to be ignored (Watson's dates have been off before).
Jedi Trial (Del Rey): This is one of Anakin's final missions before becoming a Knight. This is the easiest one to move as it's not internally dated.
Republic #55-68: Anakin is definitely still a padawan in these issues (confirmed by the text and images of him with the padawan braid). Unlike Jedi Trial, these are going to be a challenge to move. Aside from instances such as the Jabiim battle dated by Holonet News, each story is attached to the other, e.g., Last Stand on Jabiim (#55-58) is connected not only to Enemy Lines (#59), but the ongoing storyline of Obi-Wan's kidnapping by Asajj Ventress, which sees continuation in issue #61: Dead Ends, #60: Hate and Fear, and #62: No Man's Land. In addition, a number of those stories touch upon the running Quinlan Vos storyline, which make up the majority of the Republic series. Later stories affected by the above issues include #65-66: Show of Force, #67: Forever Young, #68: Armor, and of course #69-71: Dreadnaughts of Rendili (where incidentally, Anakin gets his scar from Asajj). But at the point of issue #69, Anakin is no longer a padawan.
While an argument could be made for placing this storyline before the Clone Wars cartoon (he's without Ahsoka; he gets his scar), the problem with that is that it leads into the following issues #72-73: Trackdown, which of course leads into the pre-Revenge of the Sith issues, Siege of Saleucami (#74-77).
Holonet News can be rewritten and redated (though for the time being at least three issues, those dealing with Jabiim, have relegated to Infinities. See 21 BBY in the Infinities page for the issues). For the Republic series, the best bet, in my opinion, would be for the creative and editorial team at Dark Horse to carefully re-date these issues (internally and externally) so that most of them (pre-issue #69) take place before the new Clone Wars film, which can dated per Traviss' novelization either 5, 6 or 7 months (which make up the final three months of the year 22 BBY) after the Battle of Geonosis.
It should be noted that Republic #65-66: Show of Force takes place after Shatterpoint (we see Depa Bilaba in a coma), which is currently at month 6 ABG, unless that novel is moved earlier. But that proves trickier and possibly unnecessary. For one, Mace knows Sora Bulq has turned to the dark side (3 ABG: Jedi: Mace Windu); and for another, Depa has been fighting the Clone Wars on Haruun Kal for four months (4 ABG), leaving Shatterpoint only one month back it can be pushed (possibly: I'd need to re-read it again to know for sure).
The best bet would be to place the new Clone Wars film at 7 months ABG (the final month of the year) which allows plenty of room for Republic #55-64 (and don't forget Jedi: Count Dooku) to fit before Shatterpoint (at 6 months ABG) and #65-67 after it. #68 doesn't feature Anakin and might be able to stay put, provided the Dreadnaughts of Rendili storyline (#69-71) remains where it is.
8/01/08 The New Clone Wars Timeline For those of you wondering how the Clone Wars timeline *could* be rearranged with the new information that Anakin was knighted in the first year of the war (as opposed to the last), see my Website Updates page.
*Update: I've created an Original Clone Wars Timeline page to preserve the original conception of the timeline prior to the change as brought about the summer 2008 Clone Wars film and adaptations. This is solely for the sake of posterity so that in the future fans can see how things had been arranged. Both the History and Rise of the Empire pages will reflect the current timeline with the 'new' understanding that Anakin was knighted in the 1st year of the war.
7/31/08 Posted covers for the latest KOTOR, Legacy and Rebellion. Also posted covers for the new Clone Wars adaptations.
7/30/08 Exclusive Shorts Target online is featuring exclusive short Star Wars stories! The Clone Wars: Outfoxed is the first story available to be downloaded for free! Apparently, the way it works is that after a certain amount of clones are created (by you), content is unlocked. No idea if there are any future stories ahead, but there's quite a bit left to be unlocked, so get cracking!
7/29/08 Continuing work on the CW books. Also some changes to the Era of Rebellion era as Missions #17-20 are moved up to before issue #7 of the Marvel series to account for Vader's need to return to Coruscant before the events of the Wheel storyline. Thanks to Chad for the heads up!
*Update: Ok, I've completed the new Clone Wars spin-off adaptations and moved them up to month 6 ABG (to allow room for the sequel spin-offs to fit in the year 22 BBY should that be the case). I can always move it back to 7 ABG again if need be. I'll upload cover images tomorrow.
7/28/08 Future Series In an interview with Karen Traviss on the Random House/Del Rey website here, the prolific author mentions that there are plans to continue the Republic Commando series past the upcoming Order 66 with Imperial Commando. She also mentions there will be a standalone book about Boba Fett! Might this be the Fett/Fenn Shysa story that seems to have been set up in LOTF: Revelation (which offers tantalizing hints as to what the two Mandalorians went through in the past)? Time will tell... Either way, it'll be great to have old-school Marvel veteran Fenn Shysa take a major role in a novel (though if the rumor mill is correct, he may have an active part in Stover's upcoming Shadows of Mindor novel).
7/27/08 Hard at "work" at reading the new Clone Wars books. There are no definitive or specific months given as to when in year 22 BBY, the new Clone Wars film and adaptations take place, however, indication is given that it takes place after the 4th month ABG (the Battle of Geonosis took place in the 5th month of the year, so month 4 After the Battle of Geonosis is nine months into the year).
For one, reference is made to the Republic's botched hostage negotiations in recent times. This is a nod to the events of Traviss' short story Omega Squad: Targets which takes place in 4 ABG. Secondly, it's also made clear that Anakin knows Asajj Ventress and has encountered her before. This points to their first meeting in season one of the Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon, which also takes place in 4 ABG.
Until further evidence comes forth, I'm placing this in the final month of the first year, 7 ABG. As stated, it could take place in months 5 or 6 ABY (or even at the end of 4 ABG), but there are likely going to be a lot of stories that are going to have to move to before this animated film, and this allows the greatest possible room for them. If evidence comes forth that it is in fact earlier, I'll make note of it and move the placement accordingly.
7/26/08 Timeline Changes It's just a start, but I've placed the new Clone Wars animated film on the timeline at 7 ABG (for the reasons for that specific month, see Website Updates). As with the other films, adaptations, novelizations, etc., I'll be breaking it down into sections in the days ahead.
* Update 7/29/08: The breakdown of the adaptations is done, and I've currently moved everything to month 6 ABY to allow room for potential sequel stories to take place in 22 BBY (if such is the case). I can always move it back if need be. I'll upload cover images tomorrow.
7/24/08 Got Your Checklist? Rebelscum.com was kind enough to prepare a checklist of books for this Saturday, July 26th, which will see in the US, the release of the various new Clone Wars tie-in books. Print your copy here!
7/23/08 Some of you are wondering how the Clone Wars timeline is going to change in view of the upcoming film, tie-ins and series. Well, in three days we'll find out a little more, in particular when Anakin gets knighted, which has been moved to early in the first year of the war. This will necessitate some changes, at least of where Jedi Trial is placed, and possibly some of the comics. Anakin's scar is going to be another issue. It's possible he received an earlier scar (we'll likely find out from who), eventually got it healed in bacta, and then at the end of the war, received a similar scar from Asajj Ventress.
Very few things are irreconcilable.
7/13/08 Calendar of events Ok, I've finally updated the Upcoming page with a listing of all the relevant books coming up, in particular the plethora of Clone Wars titles serving to tie into the upcoming movie and TV series. I don't list the non-fiction sources as I don't think most of you guys care about the sticker books, coloring books, or activity books. I also don't list the single-issue comics as those dates are notoriously subject to change. Finally, I only list US dates and titles. Apologies to my non-US readers, but things start to get very cluttered very quickly when you start incorporating international dates and titles.
7/8/08 Fixed a few things in the 17-15 BBY range, including splitting and delineating Boba Fett's tale from Tales of the Bounty Hunters into its proper sections, and removing the non-canonical paragraphs from the short story Dark Vendetta to Infinities.
Better delineated the Dagobah entry in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe. In order for Deecee's research (in Galaxy of Fear #12) to be correct, Dagobah was first discovered and catalogued around 39 BBY, but Halka-Four-Den's tragic expedition there occurred just weeks prior to the outbreak of the Clone Wars. The period of chaos that ensued resulted in no one responding to their distress signal.
7/7/08 As mentioned in the Latest News section, expect many of the links to Hyperspace short stories and vignettes (such as material from old West End Games sourcebooks) to not work whilst the site continues to update to its new format.
In other updates, I've moved Tim Zahn's short story Mist Encounter (from Adventure Journal #7) to the start of month 36 ABG as it's internally dated to a week after Palpatine declares the New Order.
7/6/08 Patience! With the revamp of Starwars.com and Hyperspace, expect some of the links on this timeline to short fiction and vignettes to misdirect for the time being until all the former fiction is back online. More word on this over the next few weeks.
7/5/08 Back to War!
6/29/08 Expanding Encyclopedia Turns out reports on the upcoming Star Wars Encyclopedia were a bit smaller than the reality. According to TFN, the release date, page count and price are not yet determined, AND, it will be a THREE-Volume set (as opposed to the two-volume formerly reported) "containing over 1000 pages of information covering the entire Star Wars timeline and featuring entries from all 6 feature films, comic entries from Marvel to Dark Horse and will also include entries from the forthcoming Clone Wars animated movie/television show!"
That is certainly happy news! More information as it's revealed...
** Update: The new page count is now 1408! That's a lot more than the original 800 pages noted. The cost, of course, has also gone up to a MSRP of $125.00. Of course, that will discounted on Amazon and other sites. The new release date is November 18th.
6/26/08 Added covers for the latest Dark Horse issues: Legacy 25, KOTOR 30 and Dark Times 12. Also included Omnibus: Droids tag for the issues it contains.
6/25/08 Added the flashbacks in Legacy #16 and #17 to the years 19 and 18 BBY. The Obi-Wan flashback was a difficult one to ascertain, but I'd say that based on how harsh, unforgiving and black-and-white he is towards who he perceives as a nemesis (no spoilers), that he's still embittered and grieving over Anakin and the loss of the Jedi, and that he hasn't yet begun to heal or train with Qui-Gon in the Last of the Jedi series, thus explaining his unusually sour temperament in that encounter. The flashback in #17 is set some time after that, as the character in question has found employment as a bounty hunter, but since the frame story indicates it's shortly after he left Tatooine. Thus the following year (18 BBY) is reasonable.
Also added the cover for Coruscant Knights I: Jedi Trial. The date, from a quick glance, appears to be 2 or 3 months after ROTS, but I should have a more concrete placement of it once I read the book.
6/24/08 Twilight Time Head out to your bookstores to pick up Michael Reaves' new potboiler: Coruscant Knights I: Jedi Twilight. In the aftermath of Order 66, former Jedi Jax Pavan roams the seamy underbelly of Coruscant eking out a living as a private investigator. But when reporter Den Dhur (Medstar duology) and the self-aware droid I-5YQ (Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Medstar duology) come with shocking news of his late father, Jax comes out of hiding to fulfill an old mission, and comes under the sights of the Emperor's new enforcer, Darth Vader!
6/22/08 Nothing major to report, some minor delineations (Death on Naboo finally dating to the month the Last of the Jedi series), and a clarification in the way I handle flashbacks. I'm going back to my older policy which was that if they're not significant portions of a story, I'm not listing them. Otherwise, to list every time a character thinks back to the past in a novel, or when a comic shows a panel or two of the past, begins to border on silly. Thus I removed the two flashbacks from Prelude to Rebellion that occurred within the story and were no more than a handful of panels. However, when a flashback is a significantly large portion of a story, when it's its own chapter, when it's individually titled, I'll list it. This timeline is meant to provide a reading guide, not a scholarly dissertation listing the date for every passing moment in SW history. There are timelines that do that (Eddie's Starwarstimeline.net comes to mind). This isn't that. For someone to jump into the middle of a story to read just a single panel where Ki-Adi-Mundi is a teenager, for example, goes against the intended purpose of this site.
6/21/08 Minor changes to the months following ROTS, mostly fine-tuning involving Dark Lord, Evasive Action: Recruitment and Watson's final series, Last of the Jedi, which I'm currently going through.
6/19/08 More changes to the year 19 in and around Episode III, mostly fine-tuning a few things and some minor additions (such as the relevant chapters in The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader). The webstrips Evasive Action: Prey and End Game were moved to the year 18. These supposedly intersect with the upcoming novel by Michael Reaves Coruscant Nights.
6/18/08 Well into the 'dark times' of SW history: The Pax Empirica novella from the Galactic Battlegrounds Prima Guide, written a year before Episode II, is not an easy fit, dealing as it does with a new type of Genome Clone trooper (who doesn't know he's a clone—a premise I'm not sure I'm buying) during the early days of the Empire. But it could be made to work in the context of the Kashyyyk invasion in Luceno's Dark Lord where I have it (though I was off by two chapters) and seen as a special mission to try out these new types of clones. Apparently, the mission is deemed a failure and the Empire abandons the project in favor of the Lekauf clones we see coming up in the In His Image story, as well as conscripts and recruits.
6/17/08 I've gotten behind in posting cover images. Got the latest issues from Dark Horse up, but still need to get some books and trade paperbacks on here.
6/17/08 Casting a Long Shadow
6/11/08 New Trailer! There's a brand new Clone Wars trailer available here! It's a great trailer and a nice surprise!
New Book! In other news, Randy Stradley of DH comics has listed the contents of the upcoming Luke Skywalker giant-size book (832 pages, 12-15 lbs!): Luke Skywalker: Last Hope for the Galaxy, here. You can preorder it at Amazon.com for $62.97.
6/12/08 The restructuring of Revenge of the Sith and its various tie-ins is for the most part complete. I have to make sure that the opening part of Dark Lord fits where I put it, and doesn't require further delineation, but essentially, this period is done. Three film-eras down, three to go!
6/11/08 As I complete ROTS, I also updated the timeline to indicate the stories that will appear in the upcoming Dark Horse compilation book, Luke Skywalker: Last Hope for the Galaxy. See here for the list of works in total. I also expanded the Chewbacca chapters from that miniseries on the History page (25 ABY), although due to space restrictions, I left the shortened version on the New Jedi Order page. I'm in the process of updating the publisher info to include all the stories that will appear in the Hamilton Collection Star Wars Graphic Novel Library. I have to say the amount of stories being reprinted in two, three or even different collections (when you count the original trade paperback, the 30th Anniversary set, the Omnibus collection and now the Hamilton Collection!) is really making the timeline look cluttered. While I've determined to leave the publisher info intact (on Gato's advice), I will at some point begin assigning the various collections to the cover gallery page, so that when you click on any title, the cover and all the material it's been reprinted in will appear.
6/10/08 Dooku Lives! Christopher Lee has lent his vocal talents to the voice of Count Dooku in the upcoming Clone Wars movie! This news was released by his personal website and comes on the heels of Sam Jackson's confirmation that he too will be reprising his role (via voice) as Mace Windu. No news yet as to what other actors might be returning to Star Wars this August, but Hayden Christianson has said he would love to do the voice of Anakin for the project, so who knows!?
6/4/08 The Clone Wars is concluded... at least until the new TV series begins in August when we revisit this time period, likely with lots of corrections and retcons. Month 35 has been completely overhauled to properly show how James Luceno's Labyrinth of Evil and the Reversal of Fortune webstrip by Paul Ens and Tom Hodges beautifully interweave. Onto Revenge of the Sith and the dark times...
I also removed Chaz' attempt to reconcile the 3d season of Clone Wars cartoons with canon, a valiant effort, but upon closer examination, it's clear that Labyrinth of Evil and Reversal of Fortune form a tightly woven tapestry leading up to Revenge of the Sith. The cartoon's creators (who were supposed to follow those sources) eschewed all of that in favor of their own completely different version of events, which ultimately prove irreconcilable and contradictory to the novel and webstrip. See here for more details.
6/1/08 More changes, this time to month 4 ABG to incorporate the Clone Wars PhotoComic adaptation of the 1st season of the animated Clone Wars micro-series. A few minor changes to months 31-35.
5/30/08 Some changes to 22 ABY, month 1 ABG, adding the flashback from Republic #72 and breaking Boba Fett #1: The Fight to Survive into a third part to indicate the span of time that passes in which Dooku goes from Geonosis to Bakura to Raxus Prime. Moved Republic #73-77 to month 35 ABG.
Also, made some changes to month 30, including reversing Yoda: Dark Rendezvous with the Dreadnaughts of Rendili (Republic #69-71) story-arch due to the fact that Anakin believes he killed Asajj at the end of Republic #71 (he insists she's dead in the later Obsession). However, Whie and Scout encounter Asajj in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, and survived to tell the tale, which means that the New Essential Chronology is correct in placing the book before Republic #69-71. Thus, the reference of the Rendili 'crisis' in the novel has to be an earlier conflict that precedes the 'battle' of Rendili.
Since Palpatine has Obi-Wan and Anakin go to Vjun (in the Yoda novel) from an unnamed mission and not Coruscant, they must have left Coruscant on other missions in between. Thus the placement of the Clone Wars Adventures stories (which also feature Anakin with the scar Ventress gave him in Republic #71).
5/23/08 Officially added the latest Hyperspace short story Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array to the Era of Rebellion page! I've always had it on the timeline as an unpublished short story, but now it's officially part of Star Wars lore! Kudos to Rich!
5/22/08 Lando Sequel Debuts I'm proud to announce that my friend Rich Handley's short story Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array has after 13 years at last been published on Star Wars Hyperspace! Click on the link to check it out! It's a great story, and an especially rewarding one for long-time readers of the EU (it also serves as a sequel to Tales #3's Lady Luck though you need not have read the latter to enjoy this). I've be waiting to see published since the first time I read it all those years ago. Congrats Rich!
On another note, the mainstream TV world makes another nod to the EU, this time out of the mouth of one of the doctors on the show Grey's Anatomy! A patient, locked in cement (a stunt he pulled to impress a girl who apparently could care less about him) jokes that he's like Han Solo in carbonite. The doctors don't respond until later when he begins to despair that he's going to die (a very real possibility considering his situation) and that he's a loser because of what he did. One of the doctors says that 'Han Solo is not a loser,' and goes on to recount Han's exploits and the fact that he helped save the universe, and then married Leia and had twins who also went on to save the universe! It's not every day Jacen and Jaina get a reference on a mainstream TV show! (Although it seems the doctor hasn't gotten to the Legacy of the Force series yet!) Kudos to the writers of Grey's Anatomy!
5/20/08 Minor change: moved Bounty Hunter and Jango Fett: Open Seasons to after Star Wars #7-12: Outlander. Thanks to Tusken Jedi for the heads up on Gardulla!
5/20/08 Wrote a rather lengthy review of Prince Caspian on the Reckoning page.
5/16/08 I removed the listing for the Clone Wars TV show from the 19 BBY year, the reason being that there's something about the show I didn't know: The Clone Wars TV show will be an anthology that is going to span the entirety of the Clone Wars... That's a very interesting piece of news, and I have to imagine it's giving LFL editors Sue Rostoni and Leland Chee (not to mention the TV show's story editors Filoni and others) lots of late-nights and headaches!
I don't know how the process of coordination works. The Clone Wars timeline is pretty clear in terms of the novels and comics' place. Whether Lucas has chosen to upset the apple cart -- and to what degree -- nobody outside of LFL and the TV's production yet knows. But an anthology series that spans the entirety of the wars with standalone stories (shows that have sequels or prequels will provide recap for the audience) will prove challenging no matter how you slice it.
Time-wise, there's plenty of that in each of the three years of the war for many more stories. The issue will be with the interactions of characters, e.g., Asajj Ventress, who have pre-established interactions, and with established battles and events. As we saw from the comic anthology series, Clone Wars Adventures, standalone stories don't necessarily harm the continuity at all. It's possible, if LFL doesn't nail each and every episode to a specific timeframe, that fan-chronologers, such as myself, can juggle where episodes fit. Even if the series lists dates, if it does so by year or month only, there's still room for flexibility provided the show's writers know what's already occurred in each month (which should be simple enough from a synopsis of the books and comics).
200 episodes of an anthology is not going to be an easy thing plot out, even simply keeping continuity within the show itself, let alone prior books and comics. Overall, I think so long as people are putting effort towards keeping continuity (which I imagine will require maintaining a written timeline of events that the writers can look at and access), looking at the events of the Clone Wars (books, comics, episodes, etc.) as 'historical' events of a three year period, it'll be fine. I don't doubt discrepancies will arise, and I imagine each will have to be reconciled on a case-by-case basis. It will be interesting to see what develops...
5/12/08 LA Times Top Ten of the Expanded Universe Hey, finally the Expanded Universe gets some love and attention in a major media source. This 'essential' list of about eight works (odd choice; why not 10?) includes not only the standard clichés (Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy and KOTOR), but the oldies, like the Marvel series and Splinter of the Mind's Eye! Anyone who knows me or this site knows how how strongly I feel those are essential stories. Kudos to authors Patrick Kevin Day and Geoff Boucher for remembering the expanded universe began in 1978 not 1991. Admittedly, the authors makes a small gaffe claiming that fans were outraged over the cloned Emperor in Dark Empire (which was hardly true across the board), but it's a minor point in an otherwise nice nod to Star Wars stories outside the movies. Check out the article here!
5/10/08 After some deliberation, I moved the short story "Mutiny on the Rand Ecliptic" to the Infinities section. Given the very different series of events portrayed in Dark Horse's Darklighter series, it unfortunately just doesn't fit into continuity without convoluted, pretzel-like twists of logic. Also moved, X-Wing Rogue Squadron #1/2 up a notch. Thanks to Chad for the corrections.
Added covers for the latest issues of Legacy and Rebellion.
5/9/08 Added Omnibus: Early Victories tag to the stories it will collect including Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Shadow Stalker, River of Chaos, Tales from Mos Eisley, and Vader's Quest.
Back to our regularly scheduled Clone Wars re-editing.
I've added the Holonet News and CIS Shadowfeed dates from Insider issue #71 despite the fact that they're the same dates from issue #70. You'll notice that Wookieepedia has different dates (14:10:03 and 14:10:05), but despite my notifying them of the discrepancy, they've been unable to produce any evidence to back up those dates. Where do they come from? Until I get any kind of information on that, the dates written in the magazine are the ones that are standing.
5/8/08 Minor note: Was able to restore issue #1 of Star Wars Kids' comic Rebel Thief from Infinities back to continuity. It seems Han did in fact get his treasure back from Crimson Jack after the latter's defeat. That 20,000 credits he then gave back to the Alliance, as we learn in Rebel Thief issue #1.
5/7/08 Clone Wars trailer tomorrow
Keep your eyes open tomorrow for the Clone Wars trailer, which should be debuting online (likely on the official site). Chances are the this is the same trailer that leaked a few weeks ago in Polish, but we'll see. To the left is the new Clone Wars poster. Not bad. It'll be nice to have a Star Wars movie back in theaters, and just a little over three months away (August 15)! And on July 26th, we can expect most of the tie-in material to the film to be released as well. And for those who've seen the leaked trailer and were wondering, that is Sam Jackson's voice for Mace Windu! That was confirmed by an article in the recent LA Times.
5/6/08 Giant Falcon Spotted I don't usually report on toys, but this is a particularly cool one. Come July 26, Hasbro will release a new giant-sized Millennium Falcon ship for your 3 3/4" figures. If this is your kind of thing, start saving your pennies. Interestingly, there will be a new hardcover novel by James Luceno called Millennium Falcon that will take place after the Legacy of the Force series. This likely confirms that Del Rey will continue as Lucas' book publishing partner. December 30th is the release date.
I forgot to list the latest Hyperspace exclusive: "Precipice". This short story deals with Obi-Wan's emotional struggle while he's imprisoned on Geonosis. Check it out here.
5/5/08 Added the upcoming James Luceno book Millennium Falcon to year 41 ABY. Not certain of the date, but we do know it takes place after LOTF: Invincible.
5/3/08 No major work on the site as I plow through the MedStar duology, but some new release dates for a few upcoming Clone Wars tie-ins. I'm certain there'll be lots more dates and revisions in the coming weeks and months as we get nearer the release date of the 3D animated film. Should be fun if they were careful not to screw up the carefully orchestrated timeline of the period.
5/3/08 Clone News Dark Horse will be having a quarterly Clone Wars digest coming out in September, the first one, The Shipyards of Doom is written by Henry Gilroy (who's one of the writers on the upcoming Clone Wars TV series) and illustrated by the Fillbach Brothers (who illustrated the well-received Clone Wars Digests -- no word on whether they'll be updating their style to that of the movie and TV series), and a regular monthly Clone Wars series with back-up features by the writers of the series. Karen Traviss (Republic Commando series, Sacrifice) will be penning the novelization of the upcoming Clone Wars movie. As reported on 4/8, there should be some nice tie-ins. More on this as it develops.
4/30/08 Approaching the end of year 20 BBY, with updates including the final series of Holonet News, CIS Shadowfeed articles and other corrections.
4/25/08 Updated the Upcoming page with some forthcoming titles, including a date at last for the 2-volume slipcase Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia! Knowing that Pablo worked on this will mean it's going to be pretty comprehensive. November 4th is the release date, and I can't wait!!
Added cover galleries for KOTOR's Vector crossover, new Dark Times and cover for Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.
4/24/08 It's Officially Official... ...as in the contracts are signed. Guillermo del Toro is moving to New Zealand for the next four years, from which will emerge a two-picture film adaptation of The Hobbit! Happy news indeed! And in a bit of serendipity, April 25 is the day Gandalf knocked on Bilbo's front door, the very opening scene of the Hobbit! Check out www.theonering.net for more info.
Now, as regards the Tolkien's Estate's lawsuit against New Line Cinemas, word has it that they're in talks and are not preempting the making of these films during this period. Hopefully, a deal will be worked out, and everyone comes away a winner.
4/23/08 Added the newest Hyperspace exclusive short story: Precipice to the timeline, taking place during chapter 22 of the Attack of the Clones novelization.
4/22/08 Finished True Colors (great read!) and am soon to conclude Year 21, the second year of the Clone Wars.
4/17/08 Counting, a useful skill. One I clearly don't have. I've rearranged Republic Commando: Triple Zero and True Colors to Months 13 and 16 respectively, where they belong. Why? Simple. There's 30 days in each galactic month. While the Republic utilizes a 10 month calendar, to make things "easier" for us Earthlings, LFL has converted that to a 12 month calendar (keeping the 30 days a month with an additional 8 days interspersed throughout the year). Triple Zero (the body of the story, not the prologue which is two months earlier) begins the day before the anniversary of the Battle of Geonosis (367 days ABG) and continues on to 395 ABG. In other words, the eve of Month 13 ABG to the end of month 13 ABG. Odds (the short story included with True Colors) begins 60-65 days later (2 months later) after that at 460 days ABG, which is the start of Month 16, and True Colors begins ten days after that.
4/13/08 Changes, changes, changes. With much more to come. *Updated: Eventually, we're going to see all the publisher information on the cover galleries pages, leaving the timelines themselves free for just the titles. I think this more streamlined format will cause less clutter and eye-strain on the body of the timeline itself. Anyone looking for further information can click on the title and find the publisher and collection info. This is going to take some time, but my goal is to update this information as I go through the timeline chronologically. My current plans are also to include author and illustrator info (where applicable) by trade paperback collection, not by individual issue (unless a particular issue hasn't been collected). * Update: As Master Gato Branco brought to my attention, it may be best to leave at least the publisher info available to view at a quick glance, and I agree that makes sense. (Thanks Gato!)
And coming next week: a big news announcement from the publisher of this site!
4/12/08 Hot New Trailer... ...for the upcoming Clone Wars film is up on Youtube! It looks pretty amazing!! August 15th can't come soon enough. Check it out here! * Update: It appears LFL has had the trailer removed. No doubt we'll see it again in the coming weeks, and in much nicer quality.
4/10/08 Minor changes in the Clone Wars. * Fixing more of my mistakes in regards to dates in the Clone Wars.
4/9/08 Exclusive Fiction Hyperspace has published its first piece of exclusive Star Wars short fiction: "Labor Pains" is by John Jackson Miller and takes place in between Knights of the Old Republic #12 and 13. An additional treat is that it's illustrated by Pablo Hidalgo himself! If you're a Hyperspace member of the Official Site, you can check it out here.
Lucas Interviewed Total Film's May 08 issue has a good interview with George Lucas talking about Indiana Jones, Clone Wars and the upcoming live-action series. Highlights:
Lots of good stuff in this interview, including a refinement of his statement about the three pillars of Star Wars. Noting he'll likely get in trouble for saying it, he likens the three pillars to the Trinity, with him as the father, Howard Roffman (in charge of Lucas Licensing) as the Son, and the holy spirit as the nebulous world of fans inventing stories in their heads. He says that his world (the films and TV series) are consistent with themselves. Roffman tries to keep his world (the EU) consistent with his, but occasionally goes off on tangents. "They created this whole amazing universe that goes on for millions of years!" He does say there will be no Episodes VII-IX, and that the novels have gone there, although they aren't necessarily what he would have done (Luke getting married, the Emperor being cloned). He admits, however, that he never thought of any story for that period. "The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader." Of course, what's interesting about that statement is that the upcoming live-action Star Wars series "is not about the Skywalkers or any of that stuff... It's a completely different kind of idea." Check it out here!
4/8/08 Here we go, 4:00 AM again and working on the site. Will bad habits never cease? At any rate, you'll notice some improvements on the Star Wars site; just trying to get things appearances to be a bit more concise. Much more to come in an endeavor to bring this site up to speed in the late 0's.
4/8/08 Clone Wars Still Raging With the upcoming Star Wars animated film in theaters on August 15th in the US and an animated series to follow on the Cartoon Network and TNT, there will be some interesting tie-in books for young and adult readers. Here's the scoop: Mark July 26th on your calendars for a trip to the bookstore. If you've got 'em, bring the younglings because there will be a more concerted effort to provide titles for them. Aside from movie tie-ins (such as from Grosset and Dunlap), there'll be sticker books, activity books, coloring books and read-along books. But adults need not feel left out either. NY Times Bestselling author Karen Traviss will pen the film's novelization from Del Rey, along with some additional TV show adaptations from her and her friend and sci-fi/fantasy author Karen Miller. Dark Horse will produce a graphic novel tie-in. We may also see an Art of Star Wars saga book covering all six films.
Speaking of Dark Horse, keep your eyes on Amazon and other bookstores for the next Omnibus collection, called Early Victories. This will cover some never before collected mini-series and single-issues:
4/2/08 Added some Holonet News articles from the Insider to the Clone Wars era (months 9-12 ABG). More to come.
3/30/08 I just discovered that despite the fact that the Republic uses a 10 month calendar during the Clone Wars, LFL chose to convert those dates to our calendar. Thus, for the sake of consistency, I'll be utilizing 12 months per year as well. Note, the Battle of Geonosis still stands as taking place 5 months into the year; thus 1 month ABG (After the Battle of Geonosis) is 6 months into 22 BBY.
4/2/08 Sansweet at LA Wizard World Con Head of fan relations, Steve Sansweet discusses plans for the upcoming Star Wars Saga box set. He says they've "always been looking at a deluxe box set with all six movies." He goes on to say that they look at the market, what fans are asking for, and he's sure that will be coming up at some point, but they have "no specific plans for that right now." When asked about a Blu-Ray release, he's far cagier, saying "we're always looking at all of our options." Click here to see the video.
3/27/08 Ok, the first five months after the Clone Wars (with encompasses year 22 BBY) are done. I'll be starting year 21 BBY (and months 6 to 15).
3/22/08 Changes continue to come slowly in the 22 BBY period. Added placements and cover images to Random House's Battle in the Arena and I am a Jedi Apprentice. Both of which come just at the end of the Episode II: AOTC material, and right before Month 1 of the Clone Wars. This is a densely packed period, which is fun to read through, but a challenge to get right. Since I'm trying to eliminate the "circa" elements in the site (since so much material crosses over from "minor" stories to "major" ones), it can take a little longer than I'd like. That, plus I'm working on some projects I can't yet discuss. But when I can, be sure I'll let all you guys know in the Latest News section. There should be some exciting announcements in the weeks or months to come. Sorry to tease! Ok, back to work. Shatterpoint is ended (brilliant book!) and I'm on to other battles in the Clone Wars!
Also added cover images for the recent Rebellion and Legacy titles. On the subject of Rebellion, since they seem to be filling in the 6-12 month gap after the Battle of Yavin, I've moved some of the earlier (non-Yavin based) stories to 1 ABY. Whether or not this will stay at this spot remains to be seen. To my recollection, there's nothing in most of these stories preventing a later time-slot (though it has been some time since I've read them, so don't quote me on that), other than Luke and Leia wearing their A New Hope outfits in some issues. But as of now, it seems the better option than jumping back and forth from Russ Manning's 1979 comic strip to something written nearly 30 years later. That said, I prefer Manning's tales and wish we had more of those. No offense, of course, to any of the current writers, but Goodwin, Manning (and later Michelinie and Duffy) really knew how to write fun Luke, Leia and Han stories that were memorable. I think I'd enjoy Rebellion better if it felt more connected to those earlier tales. There's no reason we couldn't see Anduvil of Ogem, Tanith Shire or Domina Tagge make an appearance, but even a reference to some earlier adventure would be nice from time to time. At any rate, this isn't a reviews blog, is it? (And don't give me any ideas! I've got enough work to do!)
3/5/08 Ok, some changes and updates as I work through the first six months of the Clone Wars. This one unrelated to that period. I moved the Ewoks cartoons and comics from the 0-2 BBY to the 2 ABY period. Contrary to some sources which indicate a 3.5 ABY dating (six months after TESB), this dating allows time for the construction or relocation of Death Star II. The last episode of the Ewoks cartoon series featured the Imperial discovery of the Endor moon (and the implication that the Emperor decided this satellite would be an ideal place for the shield generator), thus it must take place prior to the establishment of the Death Star above Endor.
2/26/08 Book of Revelation In this case, the Star Wars book, Legacy of the Force: Revelation comes out today! I'm off to grab mine!
2/17/08 I move into one of the most convoluted and difficult dating periods in the Star Wars saga, the Clone Wars. You would think that because most of it is individually dated in each book, comic or game itself, that it would be an easy period to lay out. Yet due to constant conflicts with other sources, LFL was forced to change dates a few times for a few different stories. This led to some confusion.
Another part of the problem is that this period was the first to fully incorporate events exclusively found in video games (of which there were several), events that are difficult for those who played the game to recall exactly where each mission occurs (or what each mission was even about) and extremely difficult for non-gamers to get a handle on. Several online walkthroughs aided me in this regard, but the placements are guesstimates at best.
You'll notice too that I'm now separating the Clone Wars period into individual months (I had it by 6 month period before). This is the only era where that can be successfully and appropriately done as LFL did attempt to plot all the Clone Wars material by month, and these numbers (and some later revisions) are provided with each EU source.
2/16/08 Expanded on more material from the Episode II period, including the video game Galactic Battlegrounds (which is pretty safe continuity-wise). I gave a brief summary of the pertinent aspects of each mission. As this is a real-time strategy game, there aren't a lot of story elements, as it mostly deals with combat, resource-gathering, base-building and unit-control. But what plot mechanics are in place, I've summarized for non-gamers. As this game deals with the Rebellion and New Republic eras as well, we'll return to it down the road.
2/14/08 In the Rise of the Empire and History sections, the Episode II: Attack of the Clones section has been overhauled and more finely delineated.
2/13/08 The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia Rumors of this book have been circulating for some time, but Amazon.com just listed this item for a November 4th release date. The original Star Wars Encyclopedia came out in 1998, 10 years ago when the Star Wars Universe was much smaller than it is today. This new version is double in size, coming in at a whopping 800 pages! Should be fun! Update: Steve Sansweet confirmed that Pablo Hidalgo has been co-updating the book with him, and that Amazon's date might be off.
2/04/08 New Star Wars film in Theaters! The recent UK Toy Fair is lending further fuel to the fire of the theatrical debut of the Clone Wars series in theaters (see the 12/5/07 news). According to the latest information, the first three episodes will be presented as a theatrical feature in the US and UK in August/September, and will feature... (potential spoilers)... a story involving the kidnapping of Rotta the Hutt (Jabba's nephew or son). Head over to www.theforce.net for the full story.
**Update: It's confirmed: August 15th in the States will see the 7th Star Wars film to hit theaters. The 100 or so minute feature length presentation will be followed in the Fall by a half-hour series on the Cartoon Network. TNT will then rebroadcast them. And it really looks good! Check out the web documentary on the Official Site for scenes from the upcoming Clone Wars animated theatrical film and subsequent TV series. And TV Guide has provided an article answering some questions as well.
1/23/08 Added cover images of the newest trade paperbacks: KOTOR vol. 3 and Dark Times vol. 1. Some minor changes made to the period before Episode II: AOTC, but much more to come!
1/19/08 Updated Upcoming schedule. Some things added, some changed.
1/18/08 Minor changes, including an update on the upcoming Coruscant Knights trilogy. Seems Book 2 has been changed from Chiaroscuro to Street of Shadows, and Book 3 is Patterns of Force.
1/15/08 Made some changes to Watson's Jedi Quest chronology (27-23 BBY). Updated the Upcoming schedule.
1/10/08 Added Legacy #18 and 0½ covers.
1/03/08 Added Darth Bane: Rule of Two detailed chronology to the Jedi vs. Sith chronology.
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The highly
anticipated Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matt Stover has
switched release dates with James Luceno's intriguing Millennium Falcon
book (the latter now coming out in October, Shadows in December). To tide
us over, the official blog has released the back cover, which is just as
fantastic as the front! Illustrator Dave Seeley tells the interesting story of
how it all came about
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Note: Unpublished. rare. or out-of-print Star Wars stories will be taken down if/when officially released/reprinted |
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Cult Encounters
Previously unpublished duology intended for Hyperspace and the Star Wars Blog. |
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Lightsider
Tom Veitch's unpublished bridge story between Dark Empire I and II |
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Much More over at |
