Video: Star Wars publishing panel at SDCC


With most of the book news (for our purposes) dropping at Celebration – the authors of Catalyst and the Rogue One novelization and Thrawn – the SDCC panel was fairly light on news, but there was plenty of discussion.

There were two cover reveals, though: The Art of Rogue One and the back cover of Aftermath: Empire’s End, which you can see below.

The Art of cover was shared by StarWars.com today. You can also get a closer look at the Thrawn art at Two Dots’ Behance page.

SWCE: Ahsoka’s Untold Tales panel reveals characters past, future, book cover

Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein and Pablo Hidalgo discussed the past and future of Ahsoka Tano at Celebration Europe today. Fans got a first look at her upcoming Funko POP figure and the cover for E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka novel, both coming in the fall. The novel’s cover art is by Wojtek Rus, Jennifer Heddle has revealed on Twitter.

They also revealed a few things (new love interest?) about her unproduced arcs from The Clone Wars and go behind her Rebels appearance. Check out the official liveblog of the panel for all the details!

Or just watch the video!

Get a load of the Aftermath: Empire’s End cover (and some Life Debt extras)

As first revealed on today’s Star Wars Show, we have the cover for the last book in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy. Due in January, Empire’s End has been long-expected to deal with the Battle of Jakku – thus the flaming Star Destroyer, no doubt.

A bit closer (next Tuesday) is the second book, Life Debt. And if one buys the special edition from Barnes & Noble, it comes with a pair of posters featuring the Millennium Falcon and breakout character Mr. Bones.

Battlefront: Twilight Company now has a cover

battlefront-twilight-company700Revealed today at StarWars.com, the cover for Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed. The game tie-in comes out November 3, 2015, in the long drought (ha) between Force Friday and The Force Awakens. As it happens, the novel’s blurb quietly went up a few weeks ago and I never got around to posting about it, so here you go:

The bravest soldiers. The toughest warriors. The ultimate survivors.

Among the stars and across the vast expanses of space, the Galactic Civil War rages. On the battlefields of multiple worlds in the Mid Rim, legions of ruthless stormtroopers—bent on crushing resistance to the Empire wherever it arises—are waging close and brutal combat against an armada of freedom fighters. In the streets and alleys of ravaged cities, the front-line forces of the Rebel Alliance are taking the fight to the enemy, pushing deeper into Imperial territory and grappling with the savage flesh-and-blood realities of war on the ground.

Leading the charge are the soldiers—men and women, human and nonhuman—of the sixty-first mobile infantry, better known as Twilight Company. Hard-bitten, war-weary, and ferociously loyal to one another, the members of this renegade outfit doggedly survive where others perish, and defiance is their most powerful weapon against the deadliest odds. When orders come down for the Rebels to fall back in the face of superior opposition numbers and firepower, Twilight reluctantly complies. Then an unlikely ally radically changes the strategic equation—and gives the Alliance’s hardest-fighting warriors a crucial chance to turn retreat into resurgence.

Orders or not, alone and outgunned but unbowed, Twilight Company locks, loads, and prepares to make its boldest maneuver—trading down-and-dirty battle in the trenches for a game-changing strike at the ultimate target: the very heart of the Empire’s military machine.

There’s also a patch for the company’s members. And don’t forget about Janine K. Spendlove’s short story in the October Insider!

EUbits: Upcoming books, the blogside and more

SWEARHAT!Upcoming. Del Rey has revealed the back cover of Honor Among Thieves and posted another mini-excerpt for Maul: Lockdown.

The blogside. For the detail oriented, StarWars.com has Imperial warlords from Abel G. Peña and Daniel Wallace and Xim the Despot by Jason Fry with Paul Urquhart. From the fan side, Eleven-ThirtyEight has Alexander Gaultier looking at the lost books of the EU and Ben Crofts defends implausible victories, or, welcome to the wonderful world of Space Opera.

Interview. Roqoo Depot talks to artist Chris Trevas about the Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual.

On the Tumblr. Mirax Terrik art from Tony Foti for the RPG.

Leia at Razor’s Edge: First Empire and Rebellion cover debuts

Empire and Rebellion: Razor's Edgeio9 has our first looks at the cover for Martha Wells’ Empire and Rebellion: Razor’s Edge. No blurb – the provided text is just the stuff we already know about the series, but hey. Cover!

It’s another new look for Star Wars books – kind of a melding of the stark Fate of the Jedi covers with the old-school photo montages. It’s crisper than the montages, but less severe than the stylized Fate covers – will fandom as a whole like it? Who knows!

Razor’s Edge – we just learned the title last week – is due out in hardcover on October 15. The next entries in the series will probably come in 2014 – we know that James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) are working on their Han novel, while Kevin Hearne’s Luke novel is still in the outline stage.