War! Television viewers are trembling with anticipation for the new 3-D cartoon series Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuting this fall. The inevitable tie-in books will be everywhere.

In a stunning move, Lucasfilm has hatched a plot to sweep a Clone Wars cartoon movie into theaters August 15th, creating an almost unforeseen summer movie event???threatening to overwhelm Star Wars book fans with yet more dazzling displays of lethal literary firepower.

As the July 26th (August 7th in the UK) release date for these Clone Wars books approaches, TF.N Books leads a desperate mission to summarize every known upcoming Clone Wars tie-in???


Novels and Novelizations

According to the Children???s Shelf newsletter at the Publishers Weekly website, the Clone Wars cartoon will be getting five adult novelizations from Del Rey; one for the film, four for the television show. Releasing an adult adaptation of a cartoon is unusual in my experience, but not unheard of. Alan Dean Foster, the first Star Wars novelist, wrote lengthy adaptations for each episode of the animated Star Trek series, for example.

No authors have been officially announced yet, but Karen Traviss and Karen Miller are all but confirmed, as both have had listings for Clone Wars novels on Amazon and Random House for some time now.

The Clone Wars. Karen Traviss. $20. July 26th. Del Rey

We???re 99.99% sure that this hardcover is the movie novelization. Traviss has written several Star Wars books previously, including the popular Republic Commando series. Though she???s no stranger to clones, this would be the first time she???s tackled the big-time Old Republic Jedi heroes like Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Clone Wars 2. Karen Miller. $15. November 25th. Del Rey

Miller is a newcomer here. She???s written several fantasy works and a Stargate: SG-1 novel. I know, I know, another sci-fi franchise with ???Star??? in the title, but what can you do? This inexplicably expensive softcover is most likely an adaptation of one or more episodes of the TV show.

Both Taviss???s and Miller???s books have listings on Random House for audiobook adaptations, retailing at $34.95. Jeff Gurner will read the movie novel. (Yup, these are audio adaptations of novelizations of a cartoon spun off of a film that???s a prequel to three movies and a sequel to two others. Boggles the mind, doesn???t it?)

Comic Books

As reported here, the Rebellion and Dark Times comics will be going on a temporary hiatus to make way for two new Clone Wars related series. One is a traditional ongoing monthly series, the other a small format graphic novel series known for now as Clone Wars Quarterly. This is similar in length and style to the long running series Clone Wars Adventures (inspired by the original Clone Wars microseries) but possibly without the multiple stories found in each Adventures volume.

Shipyards of Doom. Henry Gilroy. $6.95. September 25th. Dark Horse.

The first book in the Quarterly series. Gilroy is the head writer for the TV show, and the illustrations are by the Filbach Brothers, who have drawn many of the Clone Wars Adventures. According an early listing (since removed) on Amazon.ca, this story has Anakin and Obi-Wan leading a strike force to destroy a Separatist shipyard, with Ahsoka stepping in to help when their plan goes awry. More information on this title is coming up at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Guides

DK has produced visual guides for the original trilogy and each of the prequel films, so it comes as no surprise that Clone Wars: The Visual Guide will be hitting shelves in July. An author has yet to be announced.

An ???Art of??? Clone Wars book was also mentioned in the Bookshelf article. Previous books in the series were published by Del Rey.

Young Readers

Like any of the prequels, particularly The Phantom Menace, the selection for young readers runs the gamut from picture books to trivia games to a junior novelization. Are you ready? Here we go:

The Clone Wars. Tracey West. $6.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap. (Puffin in the UK.)

This appears to be the junior novelization of the movie. This would be Tracey West???s first Star Wars adaptation. She???s written a number of children's books, including the Pixie Tricks series and some Pokemon titles.

The New Padawan. Eric Stevens. $3.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap.

This seems to be one of those ???learning-to-read??? books for the 4-7 crowd known as (guess what?) ???Readers???. The author seems to have been previously listed as Steven Brezenoff.

The Battle Begins. Rob Valois. $16.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap. Jacketed picture book.

Rob Valois is responsible for several of the new Clone Wars books. He has apparently done some editing for TokyoPop Mangas.

The Galactic Photobook. Zachary Rau. $6.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap

Rau has also adapted Cars and Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie for TokyoPop.

Battle at Teth. Kristen Mayer. $3.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap.
This is an interesting title???it appears that the Expanded Universe planet Teth will be in the movie. Teth first appeared in the Han Solo Trilogy novels, and was first connected to events leading up to the Clone Wars during starwars.com???s now defunct What???s the Story contest.

Clone Wars Adventures: Operation Huttlet. Steele Filipek. $3.99. October 2. Penguin Young Readers Group

Another newcomer, Filipek is apparently the New York-based author mentioned here.

DK Reader Level 1: Watch out for Jabba the Hutt!
DK Reader Level 2: Anakin in Action

Authors and prices for these two are unknown, but recent DK Readers have retailed for $3.99.

Decide Your Destiny # 1: The Way of the Jedi. Jake T. Forbes. $4.99. October 2. Penguin Young Readers Group.

This is apparently some kind of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure type book. Most American Star Wars books in this format have been film adaptations, so it will be interesting to see whether this one breaks the mold. Forbes has previously written Return to Labyrinth for TokyoPop, a Manga sequel to the film Labyrinth. (Which was produced by George Lucas!)

Meet Ashoka Tano. Kirsten Mayer. $3.99. October 2, 2008. Penguin Group.
Mayer again. Not surprisingly, she also has connections with Tokyo Pop, having done editing work on some of their collections.

Activity Books

Intergalactic Adventure: Activity Book. Rob Valois. $4.99. July 26th. Grosset and Dunlap. (Ladybird in UK.)

Here we see Valois again, apparently as editor.

Ultimate Sticker Book. July 26th. DK.

Previous Ultimate Sticker Books covered the Clone Wars microseries and the six films.

Ultimate Sticker Collection. $12.99. February 16. DK.

This seems to be the latest Clone Wars release we know of.

Sticker Storyteller. $12.99. October 2. Penguin Young Readers Group.

Those who are sticklers for stickers will have a lot of fun during the Clone Wars???

Activity Book to Color With Stickers. $1.89. Dalmatian Press.

Troopers Sticker Play Book to Color. $2.99. Dalmatian Press.

Scratch and Color Book to Color. $4.99. Dalmatian Press.

Paint With Water Book to Color. $3.99 Dalmatian Press.

May the Force Be With You Book To Color With Lightsaber Pen. $3.99. Dalmatian Press.

Jedi Force Big Best Book to Color with Stickers. $2.99. Dalmatian Press.

Oddly enough, several of these have a release date of the 15th of June on Amazon, although they???re not currently available from that site. Most of them are listed for the 15th of August, which is probably the correct date.

Activity Kit. $4.99. July 26th. DK.

Activity Book. $4.99. July 26th. DK.

UK Only Releases

Clone Wars: Funfax. ???5.99. August 7th. DK.

Previous entries in this series have covered Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter. Cheerful fact: ???5.99 is about $11.82 U.S.

The following books will be published by Ladybird. Ladybird isn???t terribly well known in the US, but it has been publishing tie-in books in the UK for decades. I have particularly fond memories of their LEGO Pirates and Thomas the Tank Engine series.

Clone Wars: Official Movie Storybook. ???4.99. August 7th. Ladybird.

Clone Wars: Front Row Seat Storybook. ???2.99. August 7th. Ladybird.

Press Out 'n' Build. August 7th. ???12.99. Ladybird.

Prepare for Battle August 7th. ???2.99. Ladybird.

Help lead Anakin and Ahsoka to victory by solving puzzles and breaking codes!

The UK will also get Rob Valois???s Clone Wars Model Making Kit. (It???s untitled as of yet, but I think that gets the point across.) This promising format was reportedly first launched as a Doctor Who tie-in for Ladybird. It???s set for release on October 7th.

RPG

Wizards of the Coast has an RPG Campaign Guide scheduled for release on January 20th, 2009. A previous sourcebook based on the larger Clone Wars multimedia event had been cancelled. It is unknown if anything from that book is being re-used.

That's it for now! We'll bring you more updates on the staggering numbers of tie-in books as the news comes in from the front lines of...The Clone Wars.

(Special thanks to Eddie and Zee Zee, our very own Clone Intelligence Units who hunted down many of these book listings.)