Club Jade

Star Wars Books and StarWars.com have released the cover and blurb for Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill, one of next year’s most highly-anticipated novels. Here’s the blurb:

Outcasts and misfits, spies and warriors, pilots and troublemakers — they’re Wraith Squadron. Founded decades ago by ace pilot Wedge Antilles, this elite intelligence unit, disbanded at the end of a catastrophic civil war, is reunited by former leader Face Loran to find out whether one of the galaxy’s most powerful military officers is a traitor… and whether anyone can stop him if he is. To succeed in their mission, the Wraiths must become thieves, pirates, imposters, forgers, and liars, staying just one step ahead of their enemies and the law!

The cover art is by Mike Bryan. It’ll be the tenth novel in the X-Wing series, which was a staple of the 90′s Expanded Universe, and the first in more than a decade.

Mercy Kill, a hardcover, is currently on the schedule for August 7.

Knights Archive was first to spot that Edelweiss has the Random House summer catalog items up. The highlight is a preliminary cover for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. Here’s the blurb:

A new, never-before-published entry in our extremely popular series of fully illustrated Star Wars Essential Guides. Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion is a book Star Wars fans have been asking for, and will be presented with astonishing full-color artwork throughout!

Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion is the first Essential Guide devoted entirely to published Star Wars fiction, from the original movie novelization, to young reader’s books, short stories, eBook novellas, and the most recent adult novel. This book will cover all the fiction that has built the Star Wars Expanded Universe over the last thirty-five years.

Also appearing are X-Wing: Mercy Kill, which features a very vague ‘blurb’ with no cover, and The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop, which we already know plenty of.

And while we’re on the topic of catalogs, both Mercy Kill and The Essential Reader’s Companion have made their appearances on Random House’s main online catalog as well. They’re currently due out on August 7, 2012 and August 21, 2012, respectively.

Essential art. Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss gave fans a first look at some of the art from The Essential Guide to Warfare. They include an “an ancient battle between the Rakatans and the Killiks” by Darren Tan, an OTish space battle by Paul Youll (who did the covers for the X-Wing novels), and a Dark Empire World Devastator by Stephan Martiniere.

Street date shuffle. Speaking of X-Wings, Schoeneweiss also gave us a solid date for Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill: August 7. Our schedule has been updated.

Interview. Author Drew Karpyshyn talks Revan at Suvudu.

TheForce.Net recorded the ‘Ask the Authors’ panel at the con, held last weekend in Irving, Texas. The first part is above – head below the cut for the rest. (more…)

Author Aaron Allston announced today that he’s returning to blogging with a brand-new venue on his site. His first entry has updates on his health, convention appearances, and details some of his recent projects, including the upcoming X-Wing: Mercy Kill. Join us in welcoming him back to the blogging world!

Fate of the Jedi. For those still on board with the most tedious series since the nigh-endless New Jedi Order, there’s finally a blurb for the final volume, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse. I haven’t the slightest idea how spoilery it is since I have yet to make it past the first chapter of Ascension, so head on over to the link to check it out.

X-Wing. In happier news, Erich Schoeneweiss confirms EUCantina’s report that Face Loran will be back – and Myri Antilles will be flying with the Wraiths – in Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill.

Interviews. Roqoo Depot has an interview with Jeff Grubb, who’s writing next year’s Scourge.

Staffing. Editor Frank Parisi has moved from Lucasfilm to Del Rey.

Review. Our own JawaJames reviews Dark Times: Out of the Wilderness #2 at Big Shiny Robot.

John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant: Deluge #1, which follows up January’s Knight Errant novel, will be in the comic shops on Wednesday.

And don’t forget to check out Aaron Allston’s new short story/ebook, An Occurrence at Bifrost Bridge.

Aaron Allston, author of many Star Wars novels including the upcoming Wraith Squadron novel, X-Wing: Mercy Kill, has announced the ebook release of a new short story, An Occurrence at Bifrost Bridge. Set in the 1940s, this fantasy story journeys into the realms of Norse mythology, with a title reminiscent of a classic Ambrose Bierce tale.

Available in several formats, the story is available for purchase at Allston’s ArcherRat Publishing store or get the Kindle edition on Amazon. Physical copies may be available for purchase from the author at Dragon*Con. Also now available in multiple electronic formats is Allston’s first ebook, Dead But Hostile, a trio of horror shorts.

The title for Aaron Allston’s new Wraith Squadron novel will be X-Wing: Mercy Kill, Del Rey revealed on Facebook. It will be, Leland Chee points out on Twitter, the first X-Wing novel since 1999.

The book is currently scheduled to be released next July.

In an interview with Del Rey’s Suvudu blog, Aaron Allston talks about the current series, Fate of the Jedi (Have you finished Conviction yet?) and drops a few more details on his upcoming Wraith Squadron book.

Most of the action takes place in the same approximate period as Fate of the Jedi, but there are critical chapters that revisit the Wraiths in earlier years, starting just after they made the jump to become an Intelligence unit. The current-era story reunites some of the longtime Wraiths, introduces new ones, and even has second-generation Wraiths.

Head on over to Suvudu for more on the Wraiths, FOTJ, and the Jedi in general.