A Galaxy of Things explores the ways in which all puppets, masks, makeup-prosthetic figures are "material characters," using iconic Star Wars characters like Yoda and R2-D2 to illustrate what makes them so compelling. As an epic franchise, Star Wars has been defined by creatures, droids, and masked figures since the original 1977 movie. Author Colette Searls, a theatre director and expert in puppetry studies, uncovers how non-humans like Chewbacca, semi-humans like Darth Maul, and even concealed humans like Boba Fett tell meaningful stories that conventional human characters cannot. Searls defines three powers that puppets, masked figures, and other material characters wield—distance, distillation, and duality—and analyzes Star Wars’ most iconic robots and aliens to demonstrate how they work across nearly a half-century of live-action films. Yoda and "Baby Yoda"—two of popular culture’s greatest puppets—use these qualities to transform their human companions. Similarly, Darth Vader’s mask functions as a performing object driving mystery and suspense across three film trilogies. The power of material characters has also been wielded in problematic ways, such as stereotypes in the representation of service droids and controversial creatures like Jar Jar Binks. Bringing readers forward into the first Star Wars live-action streaming series, the book also explores how the early 2020s stories centered material characters in particularly meaningful, often redemptive ways. A Galaxy of Things is an accessible guide to puppets, masks, and other material characters for students and scholars of theatre, film, puppetry, and popular culture studies. It also offers useful perspectives on non-human representation for researchers in object-oriented ontology, posthumanism, ethnic studies, and material culture.

And Another Thing ... will be the sixth novel in the now improbably named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Eight years after the death of its creator, Douglas Adams, the author's widow, Jane Belson, has given her approval for the project to be continued by the international number one bestselling children's writer, Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl novels. Douglas Adams himself once said, 'I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book. Five seems to be a wrong kind of number, six is a better kind of number.' Belson said of Eoin Colfer, 'I love his books and could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new.' Colfer, a fan of Hitchhiker since his schooldays, said, 'Being given the chance to write this book is like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice. For years I have been finishing this incredible story in my head and now I have the opportunity to do it in the real world.' Prepare to be amazed...

2020 IBPA Awards Winner! "I honestly can't recommend this book enough" Starwarsnews.net "This book takes things to a whole new, and massive, level. Magnificent to behold" Geekdad.com From famed New York Times best-selling paper engineer Matthew Reinhart comes Star Wars: The Ultimate Pop-Up Galaxy. This glorious pop-up book is a fitting tribute to the entire Star Wars saga, from A New Hope to The Rise Of Skywalker See Padmé battle alongside the Jedi and clone troopers, Luke train with Jedi Master Yoda on Dagobah, and Rey and Kylo Ren battle Supreme Leader Snoke’s Praetorian Guards, as well as other memorable moments from the saga. With five amazing scenes rich with detail and secrets that fold out into one breathtaking map of the entire Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Ultimate Pop-Up Galaxy is the perfect gift for boys, girls, and Star Wars fans of all ages. —The Entire Star Wars Saga. Featuring all 11 Star Wars movies, including A New Hope, Rogue One, Revenge of the Sith, and The Rise Of Skywalker. —Illustrious Characters. Jedi, Sith, royalty, and rogues are all featured. See Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Finn, Poe Dameron, Mace Windu, Darth Sidious, General Hux, Supreme Leader Snoke, and more! —Legendary Locations. See locations come to life, including Geonosis, Mustafar, Yavin, Tatooine, Crait, Endor, and, of course, the notorious Death Star and the fearsome Starkiller Base. —Iconic Moments. Witness battles and duels from across the saga, including the Jedi’s heroic struggle on Geonosis, the battle of Hoth, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s tragic duel with Anakin Skywalker, and Anakin’s rebirth as the fearsome Darth Vader. —Famous Vehicles. See the Millennium Falcon, Star Destroyers, X-wings, TIE fighters, snowspeeders, AT-ATs, and other vehicles from the saga.

Star Wars: The Book of Lists takes a fascinating look at the galaxy far, far away through trivia culled from both on-screen and off over the history of the franchise. More than a simple accounting of fan-favorite characters or biggest opening weekends, this book is a compendium of the most compelling facts about the saga and fandom summarized in 100 lists. Find out these fun facts and more with comprehensive lists covering everything you'd want to know about the characters, creatures, ships, planets, and more: Which character has been to the most planets? What are the deadliest creatures in the galaxy? Who shared the most memorable kisses? Which actors have voiced the most characters? What are some of the most surprising cameos? Compiling a galaxy's worth of trivia and information about the Star Wars Universe, Star Wars: The Book of Lists is an entertainingly accessible trivia format for both hardcore fans and casual viewers.

A dazzling collection of original essays by some of America's most notable young writers on the cultural impact of the Star Wars films A Galaxy Not So Far Away is the first ever exploration of the innumerable ways the Star Wars films have forever altered our cultural and artistic landscape. Edited by Glenn Kenny, a senior editor and critic at Premiere magazine, this singular collection allows some of the nation's most acclaimed writers to anatomize, criticize, celebrate, and sometimes simply riff on the prismatic aftereffects of an unparalleled American phenomenon. Jonathan Lethem writes of the summer he saw Star Wars twenty-one times as his mother lay dying of cancer. Neal Pollack chips in with the putative memoir of a certain young man having problems with his father, written in the voice of Holden Caulfield. Erika Krouse ponders the code of the Jedi Knight and its relation to her own pursuit of the martial arts. New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell meditates upon the mysterious figure Lando Calrissian. A classic assemblage of pop writing at its best, A Galaxy Not So Far Away is a book for everyone who loves Star Wars films and seeks to understand just what it is about these films that has so enchanted an entire generation of filmgoers.

Essays by a Whiting Award winner: “Like a descendant of Lewis Carroll and Emily Dickinson . . . one of the most exciting and original writers in America.” —Yiyun Li, author of Must I Go Things That Are takes jellyfish, fainting goats, and imperturbable caterpillars as just a few of its many inspirations. In a series of essays that progress from the tiniest earth dwellers to the most far-flung celestial bodies—considering the similarity of gods to donkeys, the inexorability of love and vines, the relations of exploding stars to exploding sea cucumbers—Amy Leach rekindles a vital communion with the wild world, dormant for far too long. Things That Are is not specifically of the animal, the human, or the phenomenal; it is a book of wonder, one the reader cannot help but leave with their perceptions both expanded and confounded in delightful ways. This debut collection comes from a writer whose accolades precede her: a Whiting Award, a Rona Jaffe Award, a Best American Essays selection, and a Pushcart Prize, all received before her first book-length publication. Things That Are marks the debut of an entirely new brand of nonfiction writer, in a mode like that of Ander Monson, John D’Agata, and Eula Biss, but a new sort of beast entirely its own. “Explores fantastical and curious subjects pertaining to natural phenomena . . . for those interested in looking at the natural world through the lens of a fairy tale, this is a bonbon of a book.” —Kirkus Reviews

A monumental, genre-defying novel that David Mitchell calls "Michel Faber’s second masterpiece," The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter. Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us. Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos.