1.
Phoenix Comicon
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Phoenix Comicon is a multigenre entertainment and comic book convention held annually in Phoenix, Arizona. It was founded as the Phoenix Cactus Comicon in June 2002, PCC plays host to comic related panels, programming events, art contests, and autograph signings for all ages. It is an event held during the summer at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix. On Thursday evening prior to the opening of the event, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors. In 2016, the set a attendance record of 106,096. Phoenix Comicon has also begun to expand programming into the hotels, including the Hyatt Regency, Marriott Renaissance. It was re-branded as Phoenix Fan Fest and moved to October in 2016 at the Phoenix Convention Center, the first Phoenix Comicon was held in June 2002 as Phoenix Cactus Comicon. It was a convention for six hours held at a Best Western in Ahwatukee. Admission was $3 per person and there were 432 attendees, along with a few local creators and exhibitors, the following three years, the convention was held at the Glendale Civic Center. The size of the convention and the attendance were doubled from the year. The convention began to bring out some guests from out of state including Spider-Man artist Todd Nauck, the programming was increased to include Q&As with guests, how-to workshops, and film trailer presentations. In 2006, the convention was held at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa and it also became a two-day convention, with Friday preview night, and had guests such as voice actors Johnny Young Bosche and Greg Ayres. The exhibitor room was expanded, as was the amount of programming offered. This was the first convention to expand beyond comic books into the pop culture community, including Anime, Manga, Sci-Fi, Fantasy. Attendance was over 2,600 people for the weekend, the convention was held in January from 2007 to 2009, at the Mesa Convention Center. 2007 was considered the conventions first foray into media guests, with Feedback, in 2009, the event was expanded to 3 days, with a Thursday preview night. Beginning in 2010 the convention was held on Memorial Day weekend, at the Phoenix Convention Center and this change was due to the large increase in attendance, and the availability of funds to hold the convention in a larger venue. Bigger names, such as Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, in 2014, due to a scheduling conflict, the convention was moved to the first week of June as opposed to Memorial Day weekend
2.
Chicago, Illinois
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
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Author
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An author is narrowly defined as the originator of any written work and can thus also be described as a writer. More broadly defined, an author is the person who originated or gave existence to anything, in the copyright laws of various jurisdictions, there is a necessity for little flexibility regarding what constitutes authorship. The United States Copyright Office, for example, defines copyright as a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to authors of works of authorship. After a fixed amount of time, the copyright expires on intellectual work and it enters the public domain, however, copyright is merely the legal reassurance that one owns his/her work. Technically, someone owns their work from the time its created, an interesting aspect of authorship emerges with copyright in that, in many jurisdictions, it can be passed down to another upon ones death. The person who inherits the copyright is not the author, questions arise as to the application of copyright law. How does it, for example, apply to the issue of fan fiction. If the media responsible for the authorized production allows material from fans, what is the limit before legal constraints from actors, music. Additionally, how does copyright apply to fan-generated stories for books, what powers do the original authors, as well as the publishers, have in regulating or even stopping the fan fiction. In literary theory, critics find complications in the term author beyond what constitutes authorship in a legal setting, in the wake of postmodern literature, critics such as Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault have examined the role and relevance of authorship to the meaning or interpretation of a text. Barthes challenges the idea that a text can be attributed to any single author and he writes, in his essay Death of the Author, that it is language which speaks, not the author. The words and language of a text itself determine and expose meaning for Barthes, with this, the perspective of the author is removed from the text, and the limits formerly imposed by the idea of one authorial voice, one ultimate and universal meaning, are destroyed. The psyche, culture, fanaticism of an author can be disregarded when interpreting a text, because the words are rich enough themselves with all of the traditions of language. To expose meanings in a work without appealing to the celebrity of an author, their tastes, passions, vices, is, to Barthes, to allow language to speak. Michel Foucault argues in his essay What is an author and that all authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. He states that a letter may have a signatory—it does not have an author. For a reader to assign the title of author upon any written work is to certain standards upon the text which. Foucaults author function is the idea that an author exists only as a function of a work, a part of its structure
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Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
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Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
6.
Lombard, Illinois
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Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 42,322 at the 2000 census, the United States Census Bureau estimated the population in 2004 to be 42,975. The villages challenge to the Census Bureau regarding its official 2010 population was accepted, originally part of Potawatomi Native American landscape, the Lombard area was first settled by Americans of European descent in the 1830s. Lombard shares its history with Glen Ellyn. Brothers Ralph and Morgan Babcock settled in a grove of trees along the DuPage River, in what was known as Babcocks Grove, Lombard developed to the east and Glen Ellyn to the west. In 1837, Babcocks Grove was connected to Chicago by a line which stopped at Stacys Tavern at Geneva. Fertile land, the DuPage River, and plentiful timber drew farmers to the area, sheldon and Harriet Peck moved from Onondaga, New York, to this area in 1837 to farm 80 acres of land. In addition, Peck was an artist and primitive portrait painter who traveled to clients across northeastern Illinois, the Peck house also served as the areas first school and has been restored by the Lombard Historical Society. In 2011, the Peck House was inducted into the National Park Services Network to Freedom—a list of verified Underground Railroad locations. The 1848 arrival of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad provided local farmers and merchants access to Chicago. Lombard was officially incorporated in 1869, named after Chicago banker, on April 6,1891, Ellen A. Martin led a group of women to the voting place at the general store. She demanded that the three male election judges allow the women to vote, the judges were so surprised that one of them had a spasm, one leaned against the wall for support, and the other fell backwards into a barrel of flour. They did not want to let the women vote, so a county judge was asked to decide and he agreed that the women were right. Ellen Martin then became the first woman in Illinois to vote, in 1916 Illinois women could vote in national elections, but the 19th Amendment was not passed until 1920. In 2008, the city of Lombard, Illinois declared April 6 to be Ellen Martin Day in commemoration of Ms. Martins historic victory for womens suffrage, William LeRoy built a home in the Italianate style on Lombards Main Street in 1881. LeRoy specialized in making artificial limbs for war veterans and lived in this house until 1900. The house would become the home of Harold Grays parents and the studio of Harold Gray. Harold Gray used the study to work on the Annie cartoons, and some features of the house are drawn into some of his cartoons, such as the grand staircase
7.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, also known as U of I, University of Illinois, UIUC, or simply Illinois, is a public research-intensive university in the U. S. state of Illinois. Founded in 1867 as a land-grant institution in the cities of Champaign and Urbana, it is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system. In fiscal year 2015, total research expedentures at Illinois totaled $640 million, the campus library system possesses the second-largest university library in the United States after Harvard University. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is home to the fastest supercomputer on a university campus, the university comprises 17 colleges that offer more than 150 programs of study. Additionally, the university operates an extension that offers programs to more than 1.5 million registrants per year around the state of Illinois. The university holds 647 buildings on 4,552 acres and its operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. Even though Illinois is a university, only about 12% of the budget comes from the state. Between several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school, the University opened for classes on March 2,1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students. Gregory is largely credited with establishing the University as it is today, Gregorys grave is on the Urbana campus, between Altgeld Hall and the Henry Administration Building. His headstone reads, If you seek his monument, look about you, the Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the Board of Trustees in 1912 and it is now one of the worlds largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a farmhouse for the schools experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus, the original University Hall was the fourth building built, it stood where the Illini Union stands today. During the Presidency of Edmund J. James, James is credited for building the foundation of the large Chinese international student population on campus, on June 11,1929, the Alma Mater statue was unveiled. The Alma Mater was established by donations by the Alumni Fund, the University replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth, the enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period was marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific. During the 1950s and ’60s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses, among these were the water fights of the fifties and sixties
8.
New York Comic Con
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The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006, ReedPOP is involved with other events, including Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo and PAX Dev/PAX East/PAX Prime. ReedPop and New York Comic Con were founded by Greg Topalian, the first con was held in 2006 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Due to Reed Exhibitions lack of experience with comic conventions, attendance was far more than anticipated, despite crowding on Friday afternoon, tickets continued to be sold due to low pre-reg numbers, and the non-counting of professionals and exhibitors. The main exhibition hall hit capacity Saturday morning and was locked by the marshals until people left. Major guests, including Kevin Smith and Frank Miller, could not enter the main hall, the line to enter the convention wrapped around the building with waits of two hours to enter, and many were turned away. Ticket sales for Sunday were suspended, Reed announced that additional space would be acquired for the 2007 show. The second con was held in 2007, with the convention organizer booking double the floor space than the previous years space, the show on Friday was again only open to industry and press until 4 p. m. when it opened to the public. Due to better planning, advance sales were controlled. Lines started forming at midnight Saturday to enter the convention, and by Saturday morning, crowding was a problem in the Artists Alley, which was off the main convention floor, causing it to be moved to the main floor for 2008. The American Anime Awards, hosted by New York Comic Con, was held on February 24 at the New Yorker Hotel, the third con held in 2008 moved to April, continued to grow, and occupied most of the main level in the Javits Center. Stan Lee was awarded the inaugural New York Comics Legend Award at the Times Square Virgin Megastore before the Comic Con, kids Day programming was added to the convention on Sunday with the help of Kidss Comic Con. The fourth con held in 2009 returned to February and featured a charity art auction to support The Hero Initiative, the New York Anime Festival, previously a separate event created by Reed, was also merged into Comic Con. The main floor of the center was split by a large construction area due to repairs to the Javits Center. Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge – New York took place in Comic Con 2011 and it featured eSport tournaments for games such as StarCraft II, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike. In 2011, the convention was expanded to four days, the first day of the convention was initially limited to press, professionals, and fans that purchased a four-day pass. This changed in 2013, when single day Thursday passes were put on sale for the first time. With this addition, attendance at New York Comic Con grew to over 130,000, in 2016, it was announced that everyone attending NYCC2016 would be required to complete a Fan Verification profile
9.
Star Wars expanded universe
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The Star Wars expanded universe is a collective term for all Star Wars fictional material produced by Lucasfilm or officially licensed by it. This restructuring left the Star Wars theatrical films, the Clone Wars animated film, a number of works have subsequently been produced, including the Rebels animated TV series, the 2015 film The Force Awakens, and multiple novels and comic book series. Fosters 1978 novel Splinter of the Minds Eye was commissioned by Lucas as the basis for a potential sequel to Star Wars should the film prove unsuccessful. A Star Wars comic book series from Marvel Comics ran from April 1977 to May 1986, former Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter credited the titles strong sales for saving Marvel financially in 1977 and 1978. Marvels Star Wars series was one of the top selling titles in 1979 and 1980. The material was used as a resource by some novelists that followed, StarWars. com wrote in 2014 that the novel jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe. It introduced, among others, the popular characters Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade and this so-called Thrawn trilogy is widely credited with revitalizing the Star Wars franchise. In The Secret History of Star Wars, Michael Kaminski suggests that this renewed interest was a factor in Lucass decision to create the prequel trilogy. Around this same time, Dark Horse Comics acquired the Star Wars license and launched a number of series set after the film trilogy. In 1999, Star Wars book publishing moved from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey Books, New Jedi Order, set 25 to 30 years after the original films, introduced a new threat, the Yuuzhan Vong, a powerful alien race attempting to invade and conquer the entire galaxy. The bulk of Expanded Universe storytelling explores the time period after Return of the Jedi, subsequent novels and comics were set before, concurrent with, and after the events of these works. In 2004, USA Today reported that over 1,100 Star Wars titles had been published, including novels, comics, non-fiction, then-president of Lucas Licensing, Howard Roffman, estimated that there were more than 65 million Star Wars books in print. He said, The books are a way of extending the fantasy of Star Wars, the movies have had a really profound effect on a couple of generations. Star Wars has become a cultural touchpoint, and our fans are avidly interested in exploring more stories, the animated television series Star Wars, The Clone Wars ran from 2008 to 2014 and was set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Lucas discussed ideas for a sequel trilogy several times after the conclusion of the original trilogy, in October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion. In April 2014, Lucasfilm rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends, the companys focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. The announcement called these works the immovable objects of Star Wars history and it was also made clear that a planned Star Wars sequel trilogy, and subsequent works developed within the restructured canon, would not be based on Legends material but could possibly draw from it. Lucas had previously used the character Aayla Secura, introduced in 2000 in the Star Wars, Republic comic book series, in Attack of the Clones
10.
Grand Admiral Thrawn
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Grand Admiral Thrawn is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. Thrawn faces off against classic Star Wars characters Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian in the Thrawn trilogy, but is ultimately defeated. He is seemingly resurrected in the Hand of Thrawn duology, and his backstory is explored in other novels, short stories, comics. The character will also be featured in a 2017 novel titled Thrawn, Thrawn has been called one of the most significant and popular characters in the Legends continuity, and several Star Wars action figures and other merchandising have been produced of the character. Thrawn first appeared in the 1991 Timothy Zahn novel Heir to the Empire and he is a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy, and categorically the most brilliant of the Emperors minions. A member of the alien Chiss species, Thrawn is described as a tall, solidly built humanoid with blue skin and he has risen in power thanks to his tactical brilliance and cunning, and has been described as one of the most threatening antagonists in the Star Wars universe. IGN described the character as diabolical, brilliant and ruthless, Zahn said in 2017, Most of the Imperial leaders we see in the movies rule through a combination of fear and manipulation. I wanted to something different, a commander who could lead through loyalty. The result was Thrawn, a genius whose troops follow him willingly. Zahn explained in 2008 that Thrawns version of the Empire is different than that of Palpatine because Thrawn does not have Palpatines megalomania and xenophobia and he is often cited as one of the most popular characters in the franchise. Star Wars Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni said of the character in 2016 and it was a dark time when there werent any more movies, and it blew our minds that there could be more. The Thrawn trilogy itself is credited with reviving interest in the Star Wars franchise. In 2010, Star Wars, The Clone Wars creator Filoni expressed interest in using Thrawn in that series, in Timothy Zahns Heir to the Empire, master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn plots to destroy the New Republic despite their numerical advantage over the remaining Imperial forces. He sets his sights on the Wayland storehouse of the late Emperor Palpatine, which contains an array of Spaarti cloning cylinders. Cbaoth offers his allegiance in exchange for two acolytes to bend to his will, Darth Vaders twin children, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa Solo, Thrawn sends some of his Noghri killers to capture Luke and a pregnant Leia, but their attempts repeatedly fail. Leia defends herself from one attack, and is surprised when the Noghri suddenly surrenders, Thrawn launches his first offensive, a series of hit-and-run attacks into New Republic territory, and then steals a complement of mole miners from Lando Calrissians mining operations on Nkllon. In need of warships, and with his previous tactics having forced over 100 lightly manned ships to be stationed at the Sluis Van shipyards as he planned, Thrawn invades. His stormtroopers use the stolen miners to board and hijack the ships, the Grand Admiral withdraws his forces, but thanks to Thrawns plotting, his New Republic nemesis Admiral Ackbar is soon arrested for treason
11.
Outbound Flight
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Outbound Flight is a novel set in the Star Wars expanded universe, released on January 31,2006. Written by Timothy Zahn, it is a prequel to Zahns Thrawn trilogy, the book was released by Del Rey, first in hardcover, then in paperback in January 2007. The cover art is by Dave Seeley, if Id known that Id eventually write two books dealing with the project, Id have definitely tried to come up with a classier name. Suggested by Sue Rostoni at Lucasfilm, the novel was scheduled to be published in 2002 just before the release of the film Star Wars. It was subsequently rescheduled for November 2005, and then January 2006, the storyline was not originally intended to be connected to that of the 2004 novel Survivors Quest. Lucasfilm and Del Rey had planned that novel as a Luke/Mara parallel to Tatooine Ghost, Outbound Flight on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki First Look, Outbound Flight. Archived from the original on October 11,2007, archived from the original on February 4,2006. Podcast - TFN podcast including Timothy Zahn talking about his upcoming Outbound Flight novel Official CargoBay Listing
12.
Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game
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Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe, written and published by West End Games between 1987 and 1999. The game system was modified and rereleased in 2004 as D6 Space. An unrelated Star Wars RPG was published by Wizards of the Coast from 2000 to 2010, since 2012 the official Star Wars role-playing game is another unrelated game, published by Fantasy Flight Games. Many of the first uses of Star Wars alien names appeared for the first time in WEGs Star Wars books, even after Disneys reboot of the Star Wars Expanded Universe in 2014, much of this nomenclature still exists in new canon works. In 1992 West End Games published the edition of the game. By the end of the run around 140 sourcebook and adventure supplements were published for the game during its run through three editions. In addition fifteen issues of a series, the Star Wars Adventure Journal, were published between 1994 and 1998. WEGs license to produce Star Wars material was lost after the company declared bankruptcy in 1998, and the license was picked up by Wizards of the Coast. Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987, Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game uses the D6 System, originally developed for the Ghostbusters roleplaying game. Brak Sector The Star Wars Rules Companion Galaxy Guide 1, A New Hope - 1st Edition,1989, Galaxy Guide 2, Yavin and Bespin- 1st Edition,1989, 2nd Edition,1995. Galaxy Guide 3, The Empire Strikes Back- 1st Edition,1989, the Imperial Doublecross, published in 1997, wasnt part of the Solitaire Adventure series and used the Star Wars D6 rules and characters die codes. The Lightsaber Dueling Pack and Starfighter Battle Book were picture gamebooks, presenting viewpoint series of pictures, the game also gathered a large internet following via such mailing lists such as the SW-RPG Mailing List
13.
Heir to the Empire
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Star Wars, Heir to the Empire is a 1991 Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn, and the first book in the Thrawn trilogy. It reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, Heir to the Empire is part of the Star Wars expanded universe, and takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins. Luke Skywalker has become the first in a new line of Jedi Knights. Thrawn is searching for a Dark Jedi and is succeeding in restoring the Empire, Gilad Pellaeon, captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, receives word of a successful information raid on the Obroa-skai system. A retaliatory strike by an Obroa-skai task force is defeated by Pellaeons superior. On Coruscant, Obi-Wan Kenobi approaches Luke Skywalker in his sleep to say farewell, Leia Organa Solo, three months pregnant with twins, senses Lukes depression and sends C-3PO to speak with him. On Myrkr, smuggler Talon Karrde and his subordinate Mara Jade help Thrawn, afterward, the Chimaera travels to the Emperors storehouse on Wayland. On the planet, Thrawn and Pellaeon encounter Joruus Cbaoth, the guardian of the storehouse, thrawns ysalamiri prevents Cbaoth from using the Force within a short radius, with little choice, Cbaoth offers his services in exchange for two prospective students, Luke and Leia. Thrawn sends a group of Noghri to capture Luke and Leia on Bimmisaari, meanwhile, Thrawn launches his first offensive, a series of hit-and-run attacks into New Republic territory. After another failed kidnapping on Bpffash, Han and Leia keep a low profile, Noghri aliens once again attempt to capture Leia. On Dagobah, Luke discovers a metal cylinder and decides to bring it to Lando for investigation, when the protagonists meet on Nkllon to visit Lando,51 of his mole miners are stolen by the Empire. Han and Lando discuss plans to visit Talon Karrde as part of the smuggler recruitment operation, Thrawn nearly captures Luke in a space ambush, Luke escapes but becomes stranded in his X-wing fighter with R2-D2 until the Wild Karrde discovers them. Luke guesses that the Wild Karrde is either a smuggler, a pirate, still, he takes his chances and goes aboard as he has no other option. Luke wakes up and realizes that he is no longer on the freighter, when he finally wakes up, he notices Mara is in the room with him. Karrde is undecided as to what he wants to do with Luke, Han uses C-3PO to transmit a message to Coruscant in Leias voice. Han interprets the response to mean that Feylya is gathering forces to possibly push Ackbar out of the New Republic Council, in the meantime, Han and Lando leave the Falcon to meet with a fellow smuggler who is supposed to tell them the location of Talon Karrdes base. Karrde alerts Mara to Han and Landos arrival and has Luke brought to an area before the two arrive
14.
Conquerors'
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The Conquerors trilogy is a series of science fiction novels by Timothy Zahn, published between 1994 and 1996. Set in a space opera future, the trilogy is concerned with a failed first contact that leads to a war between humanity and an alien race, the Zhirrzh. Meanwhile, other alien races try to take advantage of the conflict between the two powers, Conquerors Pride, published in 1994, is the first novel in the series. The book begins with the invasion of aliens who, after a brutally efficient battle. Adam Quinn, under orders from Lord Stewart Cavanagh, later leads a team of fighter pilots to embark on a perilous mission to rescue Commander Cavanagh. Books 1 and 2 in the trilogy were released in hardcover, paperback and audio cassette, while Conquerors Legacy was only released in hardcover, Conquerors Heritage, published in 1995, is the second installment of the trilogy. Unlike the first novel, it is told from the viewpoint of the Zhirrzh, in the book, the human Pheylan Cavanagh has escaped his captors. He soon believes his only hope is to convince the Zhirrzh authorities that the humans were not responsible for the war, meanwhile, his former captor Thrr-gilag struggles with the disgrace of permitting Cavanaghs escape, and gradually comes to believe that his own people are weakened by their customs. It is herein revealed that the Zhirrzh preserve the psyches of their dead as holographic Elders, Conquerors Legacy, published in 1996, is the third installment of the trilogy, and is told from multiple viewpoints. In the novel, Lord Stewart Cavanagh looks for a defense against the Zhirrzh races planned attack, individuals from both sides of the war discover the foundations for it, a tragic misunderstanding that threatens to destroy both sides. 1996 review at Changing The Times 2007 review at the Bookshelf Review
15.
Chicago Tribune
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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by tronc, Inc. formerly Tribune Publishing. The Tribune was founded by James Kelly, John E. Wheeler, forrest, publishing its first edition on June 10,1847. The paper saw numerous changes in ownership and editorship over the eight years. Initially, the Tribune was not politically affiliated but tended to either the Whig or Free Soil parties against the Democrats in elections. By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners, about this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr. brother of Edwin Cowles. Each purchased one third of the Tribune, under their leadership the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party. However, the continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials. Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as the Chicago Press & Tribune, on October 25,1860, it became the Chicago Daily Tribune. Before and during the American Civil War, the new editors pushed an abolitionist agenda and strongly supported Abraham Lincoln, the paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards. In 1861, the Tribune published new lyrics for the song John Browns Body by William W. Patton, Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Under the 20th-century editorship of Colonel Robert R. Joseph McCarthy, when McCormick assumed the position of co-editor in 1910, the Tribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicagos eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000. At the same time, the Tribune competed with the Hearst paper, by 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out Managing Editor William Keeley. By 1918, the Examiner was forced to merge with the Chicago Herald, in 1919, Patterson left the Tribune and moved to New York to launch his own newspaper, the New York Daily News. In a renewed war with Hearsts Herald-Examiner, McCormick and Hearst ran rival lotteries in 1922. The Tribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks, also in 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower. The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received, the winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The newspaper sponsored an attempt at Arctic aviation in 1929
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Entertainment Weekly
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Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by Time Inc. that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books and popular culture. Different from celebrity-focused publications like Us Weekly, People, and In Touch Weekly, EW primarily concentrates on entertainment media news, however, unlike Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which are aimed at industry insiders, EW targets a more general audience. The first issue was published on February 16,1990, the cover price was $1.95 The title word entertainment was not capitalized on the cover until mid-1992 and has remained so since. By 2003, the weekly circulation averaged 1.7 million copies per week. In March 2006, managing editor Rick Tetzeli oversaw an overhaul of EWs graphics, Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television and these beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. First Look, subtitled An early peek at some of Hollywoods coolest projects, is a spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies. The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries. This column was written by Jim Mullen and featured twenty events each week. The Hollywood Insider is a section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in the columns, on the most-current news in television, movie. The Style Report is a section devoted to celebrity style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is rich in nature. Recently, the converted to a new format, five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week. A spin-off section, Style Hunter, which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. The Monitor is a two-page spread devoted to events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page obituary titled Legacy and this feature is nearly identical to sister publication Peoples Passages feature. Harris column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns, harris has written about the writers strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics
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Tor Books
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Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tom Doherty Associates LLC publishing company, based in New York City, US. It is noted for its fiction and fantasy titles. Tor was founded by Tom Doherty in 1980, Tor is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning the peak of a rocky mountain as its logo shows. Tor Books was sold to St. Martins Press in 1987, along with St. Martins Press, Henry Holt, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, it became part of the Holtzbrinck group, now part of the Macmillan in the US. Tor is the imprint of Tom Doherty Associates. There is also the Forge imprint that publishes an array of titles, including historical novels. Tor Books also publishes two imprints for young readers, Starscape and Tor Teen, Tor Books also has the Tor. com imprint that focuses on short works such as novellas, shorter novels and serializations. A United Kingdom sister imprint, Tor UK, also exists and specializes in fiction, fantasy. Tor UK maintains an open submission policy, orb Books publishes science-fiction classics such as A. E. Van Vogts Slan. Tor Teen publishes young-adult novels such as Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, Tor UK has published authors such as Douglas Adams, Rjurik Davidson, Amanda Hocking, China Miéville, Adam Nevill, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tor publishes a range of its works as e-books and, in 2012, one year later, Tor stated that the removal of DRM had not harmed its e-book business, so they would continue selling them DRM-free. Tor won the Locus Magazine poll for best science fiction publisher in 29 consecutive years from 1988 to 2016 inclusive, in March 2014, the Worlds Without Ends website listed Tor as the second-most awarded and nominated publisher for science fiction, fantasy and horror books, after Gollancz. As of March 27,2014, Tor has received 316 nominations and 54 wins for 723 novels, official website Tor. com community site Tor Books profile at Reason, December 2008
19.
Dark Force Rising
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Star Wars, Dark Force Rising is a 1992 Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn, and the second book in the Thrawn trilogy. The book continues a short time after the events of Heir to the Empire, prior to the Clone Wars, the Old Republic had constructed a fleet of 200 Dreadnaughts that were highly automated. This reduced their crew complement from 16,000 to 2,000 without diminishing their firepower, the flagship of this fleet was the Katana and hence became known as the Katana fleet. Unfortunately, a virus infected the crews of the entire fleet, the madness caused the crews to slave the controls of all ships in the fleet to the Katana and send them all into hyperspace. The fleet was never again until veteran smuggler Talon Karrde discovers it through a lucky accident several years before the events of the first book. When his forces capture one of Karrdes colleagues who knew where the fleet was. Han Solo and Lando Calrissian try to recruit former Republic Senator Garm Bel Iblis to join the fight against the Empire. However, the two face stern opposition from him because he fell out with Mon Mothma in the stages of the Rebellion. They also discover that Bel Iblis fleet also has Katana warships, elsewhere, Jedi Master Joruus C’baoth uses the Force to summon Luke Skywalker. Luke responds to the summons and begins instruction with C’baoth on the planet Jomark, however, the presence of Mara Jade complicates things further, especially when it is revealed that she was a former agent of the Emperor. With Noghri captive Khabarakh in tow, Leia, C-3PO and Chewbacca travel to Khabarakhs home planet of Honoghr and she learns of the Empires deception of the Noghri and convinces them to support the New Republic. After escaping Cbaoth, Luke rejoins Lando and Han in securing the Katana fleet against Thrawns troops, however, over the course of the battle, they find out that Thrawn has captured all but 15 of the Dreadnaughts. Mara is also knocked out during the fight when her fighter is shot down, fiction Book Review, Star Wars, The Thrawn Trilogy, Dark Force Rising. Not Rising Fast Enough, On Zahns Dark Force Rising
20.
The Last Command (novel)
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Star Wars, The Last Command is a 1993 Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn, and the third book in the Thrawn trilogy. The book is set a month after Dark Force Rising, now emboldened by his recent capture of the Katana fleet and staffing them with clone personnel, Grand Admiral Thrawn launches his offensive against the New Republic with great success. Through certain deception techniques, several planets quickly capitulate to the Empire and he ups the ante when the Imperial fleet deploys 22 cloaked asteroids over Coruscant and fakes the presence of over 260 asteroids to immobilize the planet and the Republic leadership. By this time, Mon Mothma finally reconciles with Sen Garm Bel Iblis, elsewhere, Han Solo, Chewbacca and Talon Karrde work to form an alliance of smugglers to assist with the New Republic defense. Although the smugglers consider staying in the sidelines, an Imperial raid on their meeting place finally unites them against the Empire, the Jedi Master wants to turn Leia, Luke and the twins to the Dark Side. The raids sole survivor points to Mara as their mole and she is arrested, as they slip out of Coruscant, Republic security shuts down an Imperial eavesdropping system located in the former Imperial Palace. Mara, Luke, Han, Lando, Chewie, the droids and they slip past Imperial forces in the area with help from the Noghri and two local alien races. Han, Lando, and Chewie rig the base to explode, Mara, Luke, Karrde and Leia face Cbaoth, who produced his own Skywalker clone named Luuke to attack them. After a fierce battle, Mara kills Cbaoth and fulfills the Emperors orders - by killing Luuke, having learned of Thrawns deception strategy, the Republic fleet organizes an assault on the Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi to capture a device that can find the cloaked asteroids over Coruscant. A feint operation at Tangrene will draw Imperial forces away from Bilbringi, however, Thrawn sees through the deception and marshals his forces at the shipyards. When the Republic fleet and the attack, the Imperial forces severely maul them. Things nearly go the Empires way - until Capt. Gilad Pellaeon receives word of the attack on Wayland, when he reads that Noghri were among the attackers, Thrawns own Noghri bodyguard Rukh stuns him and kills the admiral himself before disappearing. With all hopes of victory now dashed by Thrawns death, Pellaeon orders all Imperial forces to retreat, back in Coruscant, Luke gives Mara Jade his fathers lightsaber and invites her to train as a Jedi. Like the other books in the series, West End Games created for this novel a role-playing game sourcebook that expanded on Zahns characters, locations, weapons, and other facts
21.
Specter of the Past
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Specter of the Past is the first of the two Hand of Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn, which follow his Thrawn trilogy. Specter of the Past is set in 19 ABY,14 years after the events of The Last Command, all are shocked by the reappearance of Thrawn, very much alive, and Luke joins forces with Mara Jade to investigate the multiplying mysteries. Fiction Book Review, Star Wars, The Hand of Thrawn, Specter of the Past
22.
Vision of the Future
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Vision of the Future is the second of the two Hand of Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn, which follow his Thrawn trilogy. Admiral Gilad Pellaeon admits that the Empire, down to only a few sectors, is now fighting a losing battle and he initiates preliminary peace talks with Princess Leia, who acts as the New Republic representative. However, several Imperial officials are vehemently anti-surrender, the most notable being Moff Disra, another Imperial plot is underfoot, to provoke civil war in the New Republic, involving the Caamas Document. Caamas was a world destroyed by the Empire shortly after the Clone Wars, various alien races take sides over treatment of the Bothans and what would be justice for Caamas, more than a hundred alien warships gather in orbit over the Bothans homeworld of Bothawui. Several of this books plotlines revolve around major characters seeking a copy of the Camaas Document. Han Solo and Lando Calrissian travel to an Imperial base at Bastion in an attempt to find it, meanwhile, Garm Bel Iblis attempts a raid on an Imperial Ubiqtorate base at Yaga Minor. The Empire hopes that the confrontation over Bothawui will reach a flash point, furthermore, an Imperial sabotage team knocks out a major section of the Bothawui planetary shield. Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade sneak into a fortress called the Hand of Thrawn, many secrets are revealed there, including mention of an expedition by Thrawn to the galaxys Unknown Regions. Luke and Mara are about to die, when Luke proposes to Mara and they escape and at the end of the novel, a peace treaty is signed by Admiral Pellaeon and New Republic president Ponc Gavrisom
23.
Survivor's Quest
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Survivors Quest is a novel set in the Star Wars expanded universe, published by Del Rey on February 1,2004. Written by Timothy Zahn, it is a sequel to Zahns 1998 Star Wars novel Vision of the Future, Survivors Quest is set in 22 ABY, three years after the events of Vision of the Future and three years before those of Vector Prime. Karrdes people had earlier picked up an urgent transmission, addressed to Luke, before the message could be passed on, however, it had been stolen by a member of Karrdes own organisation, one Dean Jinzler. Fearing that the message might be connected with the unknown menace Parck. There, they learn that the message had in fact come from Chiss Aristocra Chaformbintrano, the Chiss have found the remains of the pioneering Jedi expedition, Outbound Flight Project, which had been mercilessly destroyed by Grand Admiral Thrawn many years previous. As they voyage on the Chaf Envoy deeper into Chiss space, into a cluster of stars known as the Redoubt, Luke. Occurrences of sabotage and theft only serve to deepen their suspicions, on top of that, Mara begins to feel torn between her duty to the New Republic and her troubled respect for the Empire. The expedition reaches its destination, the remains of the Dreadnaughts that made up the Outbound Flight project, not only are the ships fairly intact, but Mara can sense life. There are survivors, possibly hundreds of them, suddenly, everything comes together in a whirlwind of events. Luke, Mara, the Chiss, the Imperials, and the survivors now must work together against the Vagaari if any of them are to come out alive. They manage to defeat the Vagaari, who in turn sabotage the Chaf Envoy, the Vagaari then head back through the Redoubt to attack the Chiss command center, leaving Luke, Mara, and the others practically stranded. Following the welcome discovery of a Delta-Twelve Skysprite, however, Luke and they catch up to it and make their way aboard. They find out that the main Vagaari colony ship is actually a starfighter carrier that is beginning to overwhelm Chiss defenses, using a fake signal, Luke and Mara trick the Vagaari into believing the Dreadnaught to be a friendly ship. However, Luke and Mara use the Dreadnaught under their control after a showdown with a droideka, the survivors are entrusted into the care of the Empire of the Hand, and Luke and Mara finally have time to settle down and enjoy their marriage. Lucasfilm and Del Rey planned Survivors Quest as a Luke/Mara parallel to Tatooine Ghost, during the outline process, Zahn got the idea to connect the novel to Outbound Flight, another Star Wars novel he was writing about a doomed space expedition. Fools Bargain is a novella written by Zahn in conjunction with Survivors Quest. Set before the events of that novel, it tells the backstory of a 501st Legion stormtrooper, the novella was first released electronically on February 3,2004, and later published in the paperback edition of Survivors Quest on December 28,2004. Survivors Quest on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki Timothy Zahn, Survivors Questions, archived from the original on June 9,2008
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Allegiance (novel)
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Allegiance is a novel set in the Star Wars galaxy released in January 2007 by Del Rey. The book was written by Timothy Zahn, the story is set just after Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope. The books subject is, according to Zahn. three different people and groups with allegiance issues, the story was told in three parallel threads which eventually intertwined in the later part of the book. The planet had a base, but evacuated just moments before the Reprisal arrived. The Imperial Security Bureau officers in charge of the operations had the innocent people killed anyway, back on board the Star Destroyer, the ISB Major Dreflin made a mistake of pushing the stormtrooper too far and ended up killed by his own weapon. The five stormtroopers aboard realized official channels would get them nowhere, leia was dispatched to the Shelsha Sector to meet three local representatives of the Rebellion. Luke, Han and Chewbacca went along as her escorts, Mara Jade was investigating corrupt Imperial moffs, and clues from stolen valuable artworks led her to the Shelsha Sector. It was indicated in the original Thrawn Trilogy novels that Rebels met Mara Jade for the first time during the events of that same trilogy. As such, despite being in the place at the same time on more than one occasion. The first hardcover printing has the time period mislabeled as taking place during the Rise of the Empire/Prequel Trilogy period instead of the time period. StarWars. com First Look Official Announcement Star Wars Message Board Topic Allegiance on Wookieepedia
25.
The Icarus Hunt
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The Icarus Hunt is a science fiction novel by Timothy Zahn. It was first published in hardcover in August 1999, and was released in paperback in July 2000 and it is an homage to the thriller novels of Alistair MacLean. McKell is offered a job by a man named Alexander Borodin, Cameron wants McKell to pilot the ship Icarus, which is carrying a very important cargo in its sealed storage core, to Earth. McKell accepts the job and instructs Ixil to continue on to Xathru and he and Ixil theorize that Camerons archaeological dig on Meima had uncovered an advanced, alien stardrive, which he intends to be brought to Earth by the Icarus. While waiting to board the Icarus, McKell becomes acquainted with the rest of the Icarus rag-tag crew, all of whom are complete strangers to him and to each other. At the last minute, they are informed that Cameron is unable to accompany them and he stops as planned on Xathru to pick up Ixil and contact Brother John, who gives him a reluctant go-ahead to carry on with the voyage. While on Xathru, he is assaulted by a pair of aliens who say they want the Icarus cargo. McKell escapes and pilots the Icarus to a planet called Dorscinds World, convinced that the Icarus is carrying something far more important than hed originally supposed, and that they are being hunted, he lands the Icarus under a false name. He then attempts to contact with his benefactor, Uncle Arthur, both to inform him of his current situation and to get information from him about his crewmembers. McKell realizes that the Icarus is being hunted by the Patth and he becomes suspicious that the Icarus isnt carrying the recently discovered alien stardrive, instead, he thinks the Icarus itself is the alien stardrive. If this stardrive were to remain outside Patth hands, it could spell the doom of the Patth economic empire, there are more scattered sabotage incidents aboard the ship, leading McKell to believe that one of the crewers is a Patth agent. He requests background information on all of them from Uncle Arthur, McKell and Ixil discover that the ships computer tech, Tera, is in fact the daughter of Arno Cameron. They also discover that Cameron himself had been aboard the ship, the Icarus successfully evades an attack off the planet Utheno, and McKell decides to make a break for Earth, outrunning the Patth by using the alien stardrive. A forced landing on the planet Palmary leads to McKell being captured by the Patth, he is rescued, however and they decide to take temporary refuge at the isolated planet Beyscrim. Then, recognizing the Icarus value, he had decided to take it for himself, Antoniewiczs plans are thwarted, however, with the arrival of a Kalixiri commando force that had been sent by Uncle Arthur. In the end, McKell reveals that he and Ixil are not smugglers, the book concludes with the crew celebrating their rescue, while Cameron makes plans for smuggling the Icarus back to Earth for research. A secondary plot involves a chemical dependency of one of the crewmen. A skilled pilot, he is also a major in the EarthGuard Military Intelligence unit and he has been in intelligence for twelve years
26.
Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
