{"id":3598,"date":"2015-11-13T10:27:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T15:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/?p=3598"},"modified":"2015-11-13T10:31:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T15:31:31","slug":"a-long-time-ago-exploring-the-star-wars-cinematic-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/a-long-time-ago-exploring-the-star-wars-cinematic-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"A Long Time Ago…Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

As some of you know, this site was launched in 1996. That means it’s been alive for 20 years; a pretty big accomplishment. In that time, I’ve written in my bloggy, informal style here on the site, with the occasional magazine article or sidebar here or there. It gives me great pleasure to announce today that the wonderful Sequart<\/a> organization has released the first in a trilogy of Star Wars<\/em> books called A Long Time Ago… Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe<\/a>. Inside, you’ll be treated to some great writing by some well-respected writers, one of them being me!<\/p>\n

For this first book, I’ve written an essay about The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>, why it’s the best of the bunch, plus a few other points. I’m not featured in book two which centers on comics (but if you love comics, you should grab it!) In book three, which dissects the Expanded Universe, I have a piece on Shadows of the Empire<\/em>, the multimedia extravaganza of 1996, featuring lots of quotes from folks directly involved in the project taken from recent interviews I’ve conducted. Until they’re all released, you can grab the first book over at Amazon.com<\/a>. I hope you enjoy it!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here’s the official press release:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Sequart Organization is proud to announce the publication of\u00a0A Long Time Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe<\/a><\/em>, edited by Rich Handley and\u00a0Joseph F. Berenato.<\/p>\n

In 1977, the cinematic world was changed forever, thanks to a science-fantasy film about a farm boy, a princess, a wizard, a cyborg, two smugglers, and a pair of robots. Star Wars<\/em> was a visual and audio extravaganza like nothing anyone\u00a0had\u00a0seen\u00a0before.\u00a0The movie ushered in two (soon to be three) film trilogies and numerous television shows, making the franchise one of the most successful of all time.\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0mesmerized audience-goers young and old with its state-of-the-art special effects and resonant soundtrack, and made \u201cMay the Force be with you\u201d a permanent household phrase.<\/p>\n

A Long Time Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe<\/em>\u00a0examines the entire\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0saga on the large and small screens. From theatrical films to TV movies, from cartoons and commercials to variety shows and video-based amusement-park rides, the mythos continues to keep audiences glued to their seats. This anthology features insightful, analytical essays about the franchise\u2019s long history from popular film historians, novelists, bloggers, and subject-matter experts, exploring why the films proved so immediately popular, where the movies and TV shows have succeeded and faltered, and why we all keep going back a long time ago to that galaxy far, far away.<\/p>\n

The book runs 354 pages. It features a foreword by\u00a0Scott Chernoff. Essayists include Joseph F. Berenato,\u00a0Jean-Francois Boivin,\u00a0Joe Bongiorno,\u00a0Nathan Butler,\u00a0Julian Darius,\u00a0Ian Dawe,\u00a0Keith DeCandido,\u00a0Kevin Dilmore,\u00a0Rich Handley,\u00a0Zaki Hasan,\u00a0Rocko Jerome,\u00a0Alex Newborn,\u00a0David Pipgras,\u00a0Matthew Sunrich,\u00a0Lou Tambone,\u00a0Dayton Ward, and\u00a0Steven H. Wilson.<\/p>\n

This is the first of three books on\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>; the second will cover\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0comics, and the third will cover the Expanded Universe. This is also Sequart\u2019s fourth book on science fiction, after this year\u2019s\u00a0The Sacred Scrolls: Comics on the Planet of the Apes<\/a><\/em>, last year\u2019s\u00a0New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics<\/a><\/em>, and 2013\u2032s\u00a0The Weirdest Sci-Fi Comic Ever Made: Understanding Jack Kirby\u2019s\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/u><\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

A Long Time Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe\u00a0<\/em>is available\u00a0in\u00a0print\u00a0and\u00a0on\u00a0Kindle. (Just a reminder: you don\u2019t need a Kindle device to read Kindle-formatted books; you can download a free Kindle reader for most computers, phones, and tablets.) Find out more on the book\u2019s\u00a0official page<\/a>\u00a0or its\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As some of you know, this site was launched in 1996. That means it’s been alive for 20 years; a pretty big accomplishment. In that time, I’ve written in my bloggy, informal style here on the site, with the occasional magazine article or sidebar here or there. It gives me great pleasure to announce today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":3597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[662,805,804,806,621,807,9],"class_list":["post-3598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-books","tag-joe-berenato","tag-lou-tambone","tag-publishing","tag-rich-handley","tag-sequart","tag-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3598"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3603,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions\/3603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starwarz.com\/tbone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}