Club Jade

You ought to be seeing the new edition of Michael Reaves’ Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter in stores today. It has a new cover and contains a new short story by James Luceno, ‘Restraint,’ as well as an older short, ‘Saboteur.’ I’d recommend caution – and buying the book in a real live bookstore – to make sure you have the right edition, since it doesn’t seem to have a fresh ISBN. The new cover, along with our comic release this week, is at the right.

There should be no issues with Wednesday’s lone comic release, Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #3. It’s brand new.

And with that we official close out the 2011 releases. Up in two weeks, on January 10, we’ll get the first novel of the new year with Luceno’s Darth Plagueis.

Short stories. David Pomerico revealed that Jeff Grubb and Jason Fry will both have short stories in upcoming issues of the Star Wars Insider, tying into Scourge and The Essential Guide to Warfare, respectively. Both books will be out in April, so expect to see the stories soon.

Authors. Troy Denning wrote a post on climactic scenes for Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog today.

Interviews. Sohaib Awan talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, while Jedi Journals has James Luceno.

Excerpts. Plagueis is nigh, with excerpts upon excerpts.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James reviews the Phantom Menace comic reprints, Agent of the Empire #1, and Knight Errant: Deluge #5.

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.

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.

Knights Archive was (again!) first to spot that a blurb from James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has gone up at Random House.

Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master—but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death.

Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

I remain, as ever, deeply skeptical about this book, but we’ll have to wait until December 27 to see if Luceno pulls it off.

…A very odd choice of cover art. Your thoughts?

On the page for the final Fate of the Jedi novel, Apocalypse, the Random House Spring catalog says that the book will feature an “extensive excerpt of book one of the next Star Wars series.” (via)

Given that they’ve been saying for some time now that we won’t be seeing another mega-series in the nature of Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, we can only hope that means a trilogy at the most. And, while I can’t really summon much vitriol for the guy, I hope dearly it’s not going to be by Troy Denning.

The catalog also contains pages for Luceno’s Darth Plagueis book and Fry’s Essential Guide to Warfare, as well as a new Caine book by Matt Stover. Head under the cut to see the pages for Apocalypse and Plagueis. (more…)

Erich Schoeneweiss is super-excited about receiving James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis manuscript… So much so that he shared a brief snippet from the front page:

“Darth Bane would appreciate our efforts,” the Sith Master was telling his apprentice…

If things continue shaping up well, Darth Plagueis (the tentative title) will be out in January… And yes, I will cling to that icon until the last hope is gone.

First of all, big thanks to the Star Wars Action News folks for live-tweeting the news out of yesterday’s Star Wars novel panel with Paul S. Kemp, John Jackson Miller, and Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss.

It may not be a surprise, but The Making of Return of the Jedi was officially announced – as confirmed by J.W. Rinzler this morning on Twitter. Look for it in Fall 2013.

The ‘big’ news here seems to be all short-story related: The next two Insider stories will be ‘First Blood’ by Christie Golden (about Vestara Khai) and ‘Buyer’s Market’ by Tim Zahn, which features Lando. TFN reports that the Zahn will be an Original Trilogy era story to tie in with Choices of One, as well as comments from Schoeneweiss that at least three more Insider shorts are in the pipeline.

The shorts with the reissued Phantom Menace and Shadow Hunter paperbacks will both feature a new Darth Maul story by James Luceno. (Also noteworthy: Luceno has finished his Darth Plagueis novel.)

And here’s a tiny bit of hope for those yearning for more Tales of books: There’s nothing planned, but Del Rey would like to do one.

Here’s a puzzling one: “Big things” coming after Fate of the Jedi? “Conversations have been had” on linking the Legacy comics? Hmm… As long as it all happens in standalones and single trilogies.

Naturally, the events of ‘Citadel Rescue’ were discussed. The Clone Wars “is making glitches in the canon.” But “nothing that can’t be fixed.” I remain shrugful at the whole issue.

Ad finally, if it’s comic news you want, Dark Horse has announced Knight Errant: Deluge. Newsarama has an interview with John Jackson Miller. Dark Horse’s Star Wars panel is tomorrow so we may hear more then.

This morning, NJOE posted about a listing they’d found for a James Luceno Darth Plagueis novel scheduled for 2012. I was doubtful (after all, the book was canceled) but it was brought to the VIP thread, where Sue confirmed that the book has indeed risen from the dead:

Yes, apparently a database has leaked this upcoming hardcover that will follow Palpatine’s rise to power and his Master, Plagueis. “Not Yet Published” should have read: “Not Yet Announced.”

I’m very hesitant about this: I believe that Palpatine’s backstory, like Yoda’s, is one the EU should give a wide berth, and I can’t fathom that it’s possible to do that effectively with story of his Sith Master.

(Of course, given what I really want out of this story, it’s probably for the best that I don’t make these decisions.)

Sue also said this book is not the replacement for Imperial Commando #2 (we might hear more on that next week) and that no more adult Clone Wars novels are planned through the end of the current contract.