StarWars: Ylesia

The eBook Ylesia from the StarWars “New Jedi Order” series of books has caused a of confusion. After some handy hints from a friend, I’ve worked it all out.

I like to read the StarWars books in chronological order as much as possible. If there is a book listed in the timeline that I haven’t read yet, or hasn’t even been released yet, then I will wait until I can read it before I buy subsequent books in the series.

After reading the book Traitor, I was hanging out to read the next book, Destiny’s Way – but they released it in hardback first, and then took over 6 months to release the mass market paperback version. I prefer the paperback versions since I like to read them lying down in bed, or on a plane, or somewhere where I can hold the book in one hand, which you can’t do with hardback books.

So I was very frustrated with there being at least three new books that had been released in paperback format that I couldn’t read yet until I had read this one.

When Destiny’s Way was finally released in paperback, I bought it and read it quite quickly. Great, I thought, I can now go and buy those next books. So I checked the timeline to see which books I needed next, and noticed another book called “Ylesia”, which I haven’t seen in bookstores, not even in hardback format. This comes before the last three books currently listed for the series – the “Force Heretic” series, so I can’t buy them until I can get Ylesia, and who knows how long that will take to be released.

I expressed my frustration to my friend Michael Gruber, a fellow StarWars enthusiast, who had already discovered that Ylesia is actually an eBook, for sale on Amazon.com and other online bookstores.

Well that would explain it !

So, we checked out Amazon.com, and some of the user comments mentioned that it is actually available for download from the official StarWars website.

I did a bit of searching, and indeed, it is there, and even better, it is free !

Apparently it was advertised that the eBook would be included in the printed version of Destiny’s Way, and when they failed to do so, many fans complained bitterly.

In recompense for the misleading information, StarWars.com have published the book as a PDF download (free and fully printable !) on their website. Read the webpage Ylesia: Erratum and Recompense for more information and a link to download the book.

After a bit of experimentation with my printer drivers for my HP colour laser printer, I have been able to print the book out on A4 paper in booklet format, so I can fold it in half (A5 size), and have it read just like a book would, with printing on both sides. The printer makes it easy !

So I’m happy, I have the eBook, which I will read on the plane tomorrow, and I have the next three books in the series, so I will have plenty of reading material while I’m away.