Heir to the Empire annotation #13: Grand idea…

For the lucky thirteenth annotation from the upcoming Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition, Timothy Zahn decides to make things grander than normal.

‘”I wanted HEIR’s villain to be a military leader, as opposed to a governor, Moff, or Sith. But a normal admiral seemed too commonplace. Hence, the Grand Admirals. I first ran across the title, by the way, in connection with the German navy in William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.”

The novel is due out September 6th. While the slipcover is the new silver cover, the actual bound cover will be a reprint of the classic Heir to the Empire cover artwork.

Win lunch with Tim Zahn at Comic-Con! More con author signings posted…

Del Rey, via suvudu.com, is hosting a contest for a chance to win lunch with Timothy Zahn and editor Shelly Shapiro on July 23 in San Diego. What’s better than some ysalamiri tacos? Contest deadline is this Thursday, and is open to anyone who is going to be in San Diego during Comic-Con.

Also, Del Rey released their schedule of author signings (and related panels) via Star Wars Books on facebook – RSVP for each event:

Signings (and free book giveaways) at the Del Rey booth 2913-D in Star Wars Pavilion:

  • John Jackson Miller (Knight Errant): Thursday, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Timothy Zahn (Choices of One, Heir to the Empire – 20th Anniversary Edition): Friday, 2:30pm – 4:00pm and Saturday, 3:00pm – 4:30pm
  • Joe Schreiber (Death Troopers, Red Harvest): Saturday, 11:00 am to noon
  • Drew Karpyshyn (Darth Bane trilogy, The Old Republic: Revan) Saturday, 12:00pm to 1:00pm (with artist Chris Trevas) – Revan mask giveaway.
  • Bonnie Burton (Star Wars Craft Book): Saturday, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Del Rey has also posted events for their related Comic-Con panels:
Continue reading “Win lunch with Tim Zahn at Comic-Con! More con author signings posted…”

Heir to the Empire annotation #11: How the hell do you say ‘C’baoth,’ anyway?

Del Rey was back today with a new preview of Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations.

‘C’baoth,’ incidentally, is pronounced ‘SA-bay-oth,’ with the first vowel pronounced like the ‘a’ in ‘has.’ If I’d realized how hard it was going to be for everyone else to figure out, I would have changed the spelling.

Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out (hopefully) on September 6th.

EUbits: Zahn will have Heir bookplates for con season, Riptide mini-excerpt

Checking in with the Zahns. Since the anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire is coming out too late for summer con season, Del Rey has made Tim Zahn some bookplates to sign. (He’ll be at SDCC and Dragon*Con this year, among others.) Don’t count on getting any through the mail yet, though.

And don’t forget there’s a new Lando short story in the latest Insider, which is apparently arriving to subscribers now. (I don’t have mine yet, though. Look for it to show up in bookstores in a week or so.)

Mini-excerpt. Star Wars Books gave Facebook fans a quick peek at Paul S. Kemp’s Riptide yesterday.

Interviews Sean Williams talks about The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance at Suvudu.

Podcasts. The new Jedi Journals is out. Chris and Jay talk reboots and more.

Heir to the Empire annotation #10: Last of the old, first of the new

After a week off, we get our tenth preview from the anniversary edition of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire.

One of the parameters I wanted to set for the trilogy was that Luke would be entirely on his own as a Jedi, with no one he could call on for help or advice. And though I didn’t know it at the time, the line about ‘the first of the new Jedi’ nicely sets up Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy trilogy, as well as many other future books.

Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition was is (at the moment_ scheduled for a September 6th release.

Timothy Zahn is on Facebook, reveals Choices, Heir short tidbits

The man responsible for jump-started the Expanded Universe (and thus getting many of us in or back into fans) is now on Facebook! Believe it or not, it’s his first official page in… Ever! We’re happy to see him, so go forth and ‘Like!’

You can let him know who you’d like to see featured in a short story, provided Dark Force Rising and The Last Command get the annotation treatment…

In the comments, he reveals a little about the story that will be in the new Heir to the Empire: “The story in Heir (“Crisis of Faith”) does have Fel in it. The story also acts as a link between Choices of One and Heir to the Empire.” Also, “Pellaeon plays a major role” in Choices of One.

Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro chats with Expanded Universe fans

Del Rey editor Shelly Shapiro chatted with fans this afternoon on the Star Wars Books Facebook page. With more than 108 comments, you can’t say it wasn’t popular! Read on for a few high points, including Fate of the Jedi, book formats, typos, continuity, smugglers and more!

On the new edition of Heir to the Empire. We’ve been wondering if the 20th anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire would lead to Dark Force Rising and The Last Command getting a similar treatment. Shapiro said she’d like to do them, but Del Rey will “let the market guide us on that decision.” So if you want annotations for the rest of the Thrawn trilogy, buy Heir in September!

On the upcoming Wraith Squadron novel. Perhaps the biggest tidbit Shapiro dropped us was the time period of Aaron Allston’s 2012 novel. It “takes place around the end” of Fate of the Jedi! Future Rogue or Wraith novels are “Absolutely possible.”

Continue reading “Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro chats with Expanded Universe fans”

Street date shuffle: Choices, Heir shift again; Revan pushed back to November

Del Rey has tweaked the release schedule again… This time, Zahn’s Choices of One moves back to the original date of July 19th, while the Heir to the Empire anniversary edition moves up slightly to September 6.

Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Revan jumps back a month to November 15. Meanwhile, on his blog, Karpyshyn compares game Revan to book Revan.

As I post this, Del Rey editor Shelly Shapiro is chatting with fans on Facebook. I’ll be back later with another post on her comments when the dust has cleared.

Heir to the Empire annotation #9: What would Karrde drive?

Things go a bit random with our ninth look at Timothy Zahn’s annotations for the anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire.

“Someone asked me once what kind of modern-day car Karrde would drive. I told him that it would probably be a nice, simple, family-style sedan or minivan. A Toyota or Ford maybe … with a Lamborghini V-12 engine tucked away under the hood.”

Also on the Star Wars Books Facebook this week, a mockup of the new Heir covers.

The release of Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition was recently pushed back to September 13.