Sean Williams

The nominations for the annual Scribe Award have been announced, and I'm very pleased to see Star Wars:The Force Unleashed II on the list. Presented by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, the awards acknowledge excellence in the field of licensed tie-ins--novels based on TV, movies and games--and I'm absolutely chuffed to have one of my books nominated. It's the first time, and quite an honour. The results will be announced at a special ceremony at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.

This reminds me that there has been some good press recently for my Star Wars novels, so here are reviews and news that I've been remiss in posting.

The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance was voted one of the top ten best Star Wars novels of 2010 over at Village Gate. It's been described as "an outstanding addition to the Expanded Universe” (EUCantina) and “one of the most solidly entertaining Star Wars novels I’ve read” (Fantasy Book Review), with “space battles, lightsaber fights, chase scenes and lots of strange planets to visit, not to mention scheming Sith lords – everything you’d want out of a great Star Wars book” (Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin’). So that's awesome. 

The first Force Unleashed instalment continues to garner reviews: “This is a great book with lots of action and some interesting plot twists. I highly recommend it.” (Ezine@rticles) “[A] book that even manages to resonate on an emotional level with a belter of a finale”. (HorrorScope) And the sequel has been getting a bit of love too, apart from the Scribe nomination. “If you were a fan of The Force Unleashed, you'll definitely want to see where this next installment leads.” (SF Site) And Itchy Thumbs described it as “an enjoyable look at the early Rebel Alliance...altogether making for a worthwhile read”.

I'm making notes for a Star Wars short story this week (more later, I hope) so it's a great time to get good news on that front.
 

Pity poor Pawel at Galactic Holofeed, who copped an earful this morning when he Skyped to talk about my upcoming Old Republic novel. I neglected to warn him that this was my first interview on the subject, and that I've been busting to talk about it for months. It's been such a unique and exciting project to work on. I'm really excited it's about to burst forth upon the world.

Anyway, here are the links, to the story notes and podcast. The latter runs for well over an hour. As well as Fatal Alliance, we cover The Force Unleashed (original and sequel) so there's lots to listen to!

The official announcement came and went without me noticing (whoops) so I am unintentionally tardy in confirming that I am indeed writing Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, the first novel tie-in to the LucasArts/Bioware MMORG due next year: Both game and the book are set “more than 3,500 years in the past of the far-away galaxy...when the Jedi and the Galactic Republic clashed with the Sith Empire.” Sound like fun? It was. The book is epic, hardback, and due in July 2010.

I say "probably" in the subject line, btw, because the first two titles in The Fixers series (Castle of Zombies and Planet of Cyborgs) are due the same month. It's anyone's guess at this stage which one will actually come out first.