Burning Skies
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Burning Skies |
| Publisher: | Nut Hatch Press/Entropy Press |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | December 1991 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Star Wars |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | zine flyer |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Burning Skies is a Star Wars 162-page gen anthology of stories by Jack Heston, one of Jane of Australia's pseuds.
All of the art is by Mike Adamson, the author's brother. There are many telepics that may or may not be manipulated.
Cheques were to be made out to "Mike Adamson," rather than Entropy Press, something emphasized on the table of contents.
Flyers
From the publisher's flyer:
Jack Heston began this series long ago and the first three stories appeared in Syndicated Images. They form a connected story over 20 000 words long, and the following never-before published tales bring the zine up to 70 000 words! This zine is a must for STAR WARS enthusiasts, featuring Luke Skywalker's last summer of technicolour adventure before an old man, two droids and a Princess changed his life forever. There was heat before the storm, and Luke packed a lot of living into a short time. This is his story!
From an ad in Southern Enclave #30:
Features the early adventures of Luke Skywalker. A year before he met two droids, an old man and a pirate, Luke chased adventure over a long, scorching summer between harvests, flying his trusty old T-16 half-way to hell in the process. Five stories from the prolific Jack Heston: "Luke's Kingdom"-packing air racers, Tuskens, Imperials, Jawas, Jabba the Hutt, Beggar's canyon and a Rancor into four hours of Technicolor action; "Hit and Run" -in which Luke is escorted by a TIE fighter to Tatooine' s Arctic Facility to face questions about the above adventure; "Ocean of Stone" sees Luke make a hard landing on the Plains of Creation, 1000 miles from nowhere, and befriend an Imperial officer in the name of survival; "Gazenji"-the Gazenji traders arrive on Tatooine and bring a breath of the star worlds to Luke's jaded life, but amongst them walks evil; why are Luke's friends disappearing one by one? "Storm Runner"--Luke finally gets a summer job as engineer on an air truck, under Corina Mace, a rowdy female Corellian expatriate with whom Luke and Biggs unwittingly go up against some of Tatooine's nastier natives. Art by Mike Adamson.
From the Zine
By Mike Adamson:
When Entropy Express first came into existence in late 1984 it was with the launch of the media zine SYNDICATED IMAGES. SI was devoted to many subjects, the fannish mainstays appearing regularly, supported by unusual stories from the more obscure parts of fandom. This was perhaps its great mistake: it was too varied.
Following from the concept of the previous release, the UFO zine FLIGHTPATH #1, this volume also contains material from the one subject, and this time the zine is devoted to STAR WARS. More specifically, it features the SW adventure series "Luke's Kingdom" created by our regular writer Jack Heston. Three of these stories appeared in SYNDICATED IMAGES, the first three in this volume, but Jack did not stop writing there. The following two stories are longer by far than the first three combined.
The "Luke's Kingdom" stories detail Luke Skywalker's adventures on Tatooine about a year before STAR WARS takes place. Ue see the life he made for himself while yearning to leave for the stars, and the atmosphere and flavour of these tales is that of the first hour of the film. All the details are there, the hardware, the characters, everything that made up Luke's early life, plus the revelations about his past revealed in the later films but kept from him.
It is something of a misconception to assume Luke's adventures only began when he left Tatooine. He was a highly capable person with transport and weapons to his name, well versed in the ways of living on a harsh and dangerous planet, so it stands to reason that Luke went his own way at least some of the time and got up to all sorts of mischief in the process. While we do not see him fly his Incom T-16 in the film, seeing merely a model of it and its rear end in prop form, we are told in the novel that Luke had flown the craft all over the planet and pulled all kinds of crazy stunts. by which he learned to handle a ship well enough to take on a T-65 X-wing and acquit himself in baucle. Clearly, these things were nothing new to him, if they were he would have died in the first engagement. The learning process is therefore a rich source of adventure in itself.
Jack Heston has drawn these themes together and created a rich image of the Rim Worlds, fairly lawless and held in a tight grip by the Imperial forces, a world in which Luke grew up as a self-conscious youth who only found his true vocation, his authority and release, in the art of flying. A word about the title. Luke's Kingdom was an Australian TV series made about 1975 and starring Oliver Tobias, a very gritty drama about a family of pioneer settlers coming to New South Wales in 1829. It ran only one season and has disappeared into history. But it was a catchy title and translates surprisingly into an allusion to Luke's mastery of flight. His "kingdom" is the sky, and the very art and science of the fighter pilot. I hope you enjoy this anthology, some of Jack Heston's best hard-edge science fiction work. Jack has further stories, rich in adventure and humour, and I would love to bring them to you at a future date in a second volume of BURNING SKIES.
May the Force Be With You, Mike
Content
- Luke's Kingdom ("The harvest season closes and Luke embarks on a day of adventure, racing his T-16 to the deep desert where he takes on everything Tatooine has to offer!") (reprinted from Syndicated Images) (5)
- Hit and Run ("On his way home, Luke is intercepted by a Tie Fighter and escorted to the Imperial polar base to answer questions, and gets a first hand taste of Rebellion.") (reprinted from Syndicated Images) (28)
- Ocean of Stone ("On his way back from the north pole Luke's T-16 malfunctions and puts him down in the most terrible place in the world -- the dreaded Plains of Cremation. It is ironic that his only friend is an Imperial soldier.") (reprinted from Syndicated Images) (40)
- Gazenji ("The galactic circus of the Gazenji Traders arrives on Tatooine and Luke immerses himself in the delights they sell, but what dark secret hides amongst their ranks and why are Luke's friends disappearing, one by one.") (63)
- Storm Runner ("Luke takes a summer job as engineer on a United Carriers hypersonic cargo truck, and meets skipper Corina Mace, the loudest Corellian redhead in the air. Big winds are blowing and only the crazy fly the unfriendly skies!"(125)
