Club Jade

We got a lengthy update from Del Rey’s Frank Parisi today, and what’s most of interest to our particular readership is probably the cancellation of Alex Irvine’s Nomi Sunrider novel, one of the few upcoming projects featuring a female protagonist. The novel was known – tentatively – as Mandorla and apparently featured Mandalorians. (Which takes a bit of the sting out of the news, I must say.)

The rest of the post is a few details of Drew Karpyshyn’s next Old Republic novel, including the title, Annihilation. It also has a release date, November 13, and features Republic agent Theron Shan, from the comic The Old Republic: The Lost Suns.

The schedule given is consistent with what we’ve had, though we do have a new tentative date for Zahn’s Han Solo novel – Winter 2012.

The year of Maul, indeed. Dark Horse’s Randy Stradley announced two upcoming projects featuring Darth Maul yesterday. Up in August will be a digest, The Sith Hunters, from Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. There’s also an four-issue mini-series from Tom Taylor that we’ll learn about in “the near future.” (Celebration, maybe?) Stradley also reveals that the Maul storyline will bridge S4 and S5 of The Clone Wars.

Authors. Drew Karpyshyn has retired from Bioware, where he worked on The Old Republic, to “focus more time and energy on my novels and other non-video game related projects.” Karpyshyn is currently working on the fourth Old Republic novel.

Curious… A new book appeared on the Random House site this week: Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars by author and cultural critic Camille Paglia. It’s set for an October release.

Excerpt. This week’s mini-excerpt is from Jeff Grubb’s Scourge. It features Wookiees slapping droids around a bunch of other people I’ve never heard of.

Interviews. Graphic Novel Reporter talks to John Jackson Miller about Knights of the Old Republic: War. On that note, the last standalone Lost Tribe of the Sith story is now available for preorder. (Yes, it’s still free, it just won’t be out until March 5.)

Review. James has good stuff to say about Dawn of the Jedi #1.

Cover art. Revealed on the official blog today is the finished cover for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. Clearly inspired by the Micheal Whelan piece used for the preliminary cover, the art was painted by Paul Youll.

Celebration VI. Del Rey has confirmed Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, and John Jackson Miller will be at the con in August. And of course we already knew about Timothy Zahn.

Dawn of the Jedi. i09 has some interior pages and an interview on the upcoming series from John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, while Dark Horse gives us a look at some sketches.

The hype continues. On the off chance you haven’t heard of that Darth Plagueis book, there’s a trailer. Of course.

Chats. Author Paul S. Kemp did a Q&A with Reddit’s fantasy group the other day. There are a few questions about Star Wars scattered throughout.

Reviews. James takes a look at Knights of the Old Republic: War #1 and Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #2.

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.

Coming out tomorrow is our second-to-last Star Wars novel of the year, Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Revan. In the meantime, you can check out a 50-page excerpt or a spoiler-free review from Pete at Lightsaber Rattling. Or, if you’ve been sitting around and boggling at the excitement this novel has been generating, here’s some psuedo-learning for you instead: All the Darths by Dan Wallace.

Showing up in comic shops on Wednesday will be Invasion: Revelations #5.

Our next book, coming up on the 29th, will be Shadow Games by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.

Something something Sith. Flavor-of-the-month The Old Republic: Revan was everywhere last week – in fact, I daresay we have shortage of other Expanded Universe news, which makes this the shortest roundup I’ve done in a while.

There’s an interview with Drew Karpyshyn at Barnes and Noble, new excerpts at Random House and Entertainment Weekly, and Pete of Lightsaber Rattling will be giving away a copy when he reaches 500 followers on Twitter. The book still isn’t coming out until the 15th.

Chats. TFN has recapped the Facebook talk with Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur, while another with Paul S. Kemp has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Same line, different Sith. Dan Wallace reveals a bit about the Book of the Sith on his blog.

Plagueis the child? Today, Star Wars Books gives us the first in a series of mini-excerpts for James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis on Facebook. The Sith aren’t babysnatchers… most of the time.

On Stranger Tides: Paul Kemp dishes out a second excerpt, eight pages long, from Riptide, which comes out next week. If you missed the first excerpt, check it out on Suvudu.

Inside the Sith Empire: Random House has a good chunk of the first chapter of The Old Republic: Revan up on its site. Drew Karpyshyn’s novel about the character from the Knights of the Old Republic game comes out in November. If there’s one thing to be said about the Sith Empire, it’s that the trains run on time, so they must be doing something right.

Vader turns the page: At Suvudu, Eric Geller previews The Complete Vader with a video walkthrough of the book that looks at Darth Vader as both character and as pop culture icon.

Fate of the Jedi: In case you missed it, last week, Troy Denning has turned in his manscript for Apocalypse.

Comics: I’ve been busy reviewing the latest Star Wars comics over at Big Shiny Robot: Last week we had the awesome Invasion – Revelations #4, and the lackluster The Old Republic – The Lost Suns #5. This week, I take a peek at Knight Errant – Escape #3, and a The Clone Wars digest: Strange Allies.

Erich Schoeneweiss posted on Star Wars Books account on Facebook:

Just announced at our Del Rey Star Wars books panel: Drew Karpyshyn will write a fourth novel that will tie into The Old Republic for Fall 2012 and Tim Zahn will write a new novel starring Han Solo set in the classic films era. More details to come on both as they develop.

Dunc adds: I’m sad to see Zahn in the movie era again, but as Han has frequently been the highlight of his other works there, it has possibility. Some on Twitter are hopeful that this could tie into Han’s smuggling days (or at least, other smugglers) which could be interesting.

Short stories. Two brand-new authors have a story coming to the Insider in January. David J. Williams and Mark Williams’ ‘Maze Run’ is a “classic Han & Chewie adventure aboard the Millennium Falcon,” to tie into the release of The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual. Fittingly, the ship is “the star of the story.” Will we see the Williams doing anything more lengthy for the franchise?

Riptide. With Paul S. Kemp’s latest only weeks away, Suvudu has a excerpt, while Kemp himself is doing an e-signing.

More excerpts… This week’s Facebook mini-excerpt is from Drew Karpshyn’s Revan; There’s another from the audiobook as well.

Fate of the Jedi. The manuscript for the final book, Troy Denning’s Apocalypse, is in the hands of Del Rey. In case you were wondering.

Press. Timothy Zahn in the Lansing City Pulse.

Street date shuffle. The release of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has been pushed back from December 27 (read: still after Christmas) to January 10. No big; our ever-present Star Wars book release schedule has been updated.

Hintage. Lucasfilm editor J. W. Rinzler hints at future projects with DK on Twitter.

Excerpts. Fans longing for the return of Diet Han (just one calorie!) will love the latest Shadow Games mini-excerpt.

New York ComicCon. Del Rey will have Drew Karpyshyn and Bonnie Burton at their Star Wars booth. NYCC runs Oct. 13 – 16.

Interviews. Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog interviews Paul S. Kemp, while the official blog talks to Carlos Garzón about Star Wars Art: Comics.