G.I. Joe, Volume 4 #7
Written by Karen Traviss
Art by Steve Kurth
Colors by Kito Young
Letters by Tom B. Long
Edits by John Barber
Cover art by Jeffrey Veregge and Dheeraj Verma with Sanjay
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 1, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

G.I. Joe #7 continues the story of Cobra versus a group of renegades with what’s left of the G.I. Joe team literally caught in the middle. This book is way more than “good guys vs. bad guys,” it’s almost a political thriller mashed-up with an action movie. If you’re looking for the colorful garb of the Joes or Cobras, you won’t find any of that here.

G.I. Joe #6
Written by Karen Traviss
Art by Steve Kurth
Colors by Kito Young
Letters by Tom B. Long
Cover art by Jeffrey Veregge and Dheeraj Verma & Sanjay
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 4, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

G.I. Joe #6 gives us some much needed closure. Not complete and total closure of the book, but some great wrap-ups on some storylines, and a lot of forward movement on some other storylines. And, that’s just a bonus, because the rest of the issue is pretty awesome!

G.I. Joe #1
Written by Karen Traviss
Art by Steve Kurth
Colors by Kito Young
Letters by Tom B Long
Editor: John Barber
Special Thanks to Max Brooks
Covers by Jeffrey Veregee, Cliff Chiang, David Williams, Dave Dorman & Robert Atkins
IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 24, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

G.I. Joe #1 ushers in a new era of awesomeness for the Joe team. It’s G.I. Joe against Cobra, the…..peacekeepers. Yes. You read that right. Peacekeepers. As in people who keep the peace. Let’s see how that works out for them.

For the first time in history, G.I. Joe has a woman at the helm. Literally. Writer Karen Traviss makes the jump from military fiction novels to comics, and the one burning question that I have is, why didn’t she do it sooner?

Halo: Glasslands
By Karen Traviss
Paperback | Kindle
Tor
Release date: October 25, 2011

Glasslands is the first book of a trilogy in yet another Halo spin-off series written by New York Times bestselling sci-fi and fantasy author Karen Traviss. It takes place after the events of Halo 3; the Covenant has collapsed and the war is”¦ over? Although the fighting has ceased for the moment, no peace deals have been brokered and all sides are tensely assessing the situation.

Full disclosure here: This was my first foray into the Halo universe, so please be kind in the comments section below. Thanks. Being an utter noob to such an elaborately crafted, highly developed saga such as this was more than a little intimidating for me. But I’m your Book Slave, dammit. I’m committed to reading every book that lands on my desk and so, I sought council from real life Halo fanatics to help get me up to speed. Oh boy, did I get an earful.

Star Wars fans, it may be time to update to the digital era of reading: recently, Random House FINALLY released a vast majority of the expanded universe novels in e-book format. The release had been long awaited by fans, and vendors such as Amazon are now offering the full catalog of Star Wars titles from Bantam and Del Rey, both owned by Random House.

To coincide with the release, Del Rey released an e-book trailer, which you can check out at the bottom of this post.

Fans who are new to the expanded universe may find our recent post, 10 Star Wars Novels Worth Checking Out, as a good starting point for choosing which book(s) to start with.

For the more seasoned fans, here is a list of the new e-book releases, listed in chronological in-universe timeline order…