Club Jade

Today on the Star Wars Books Facebook page, a short bit from the next Timothy Zahn book, Scoundrels. It’s due in December.

To celebrate passing 30,00 fans, the Star Wars Books Facebook page gave us three previews today.

The first is four sketches for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion, our first look at the interior artwork. I suspect they’re all from early on: One is from Darth Bane: Path of Destruction and the rest are from various books set in the prequel era.

The second is a lengthy (well, for Facebook, meaning it’s bigger than the usual ‘mini-excerpts’) bit from Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels featuring Han, Chewbacca, and an (apparently) brand-new character.

The third and final gift is a three-page excerpt of Jeff Grubb’s Scourge, which will be out later this month.

Is Miller writing a post-ROTJ story? On her Livejournal, Karen Miller wrote that she is “getting ready to put together a short story for Star Wars Insider magazine.” She also shares/gloats that she got to read Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill for “preliminary research.” All three of Miller’s Star Wars novels were Clone Wars tie-ins, so if Mercy Kill is any indication, this may be her first foray into post-ROTJ – or even post-Fate of the Jedi, since that’s when Mercy Kill is set. Or, she’s just writing about fighter pilots. We’ll see, I suppose.

Inside the beast. A new feature on Del Rey’s Star Wars Books Facebook page offers a few hints, including an “an author who is new to the GFFA.” And they liked our (also your) snark!

Speculation. It may be a moot point since Zahn said most of the Scoundrels scoundrels will be new folks, but EU Cantina has some theories on who might appear.

Excerpts. A little Scourge and a big Scourge. (via)

Review. James seems really excited about Dawn of the Jedi #2. Someone has to be, I suppose.

Randomly… io9 has some art from a Willow cartoon that never came to be. It’s not quite EU – unless you count that StarWars.com April Fools joke a few years back – but where else am I going to put it?

To write a character, you need to get inside their head. So, I’m drinking my coffee out of Darth Maul’s brain #starwars twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/…

— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) March 19, 2012

Welcome to a new feature! As fannish pros and fans alike are so active on Twitter, I thought we’d expose our readers to a little bit of what goes on there. This week: Some tidbits on The Essential Guide to Warfare, a few Fate of the Jedi snarks, and, of course, #ZahnSolo!

(more…)

AND LO, THERE WAS NEWS AND IT BROKE… The announcement we were expecting is here, and it’s the title and cover art for Timothy Zahn’s Han Solo novel. Here’s the blurb:

The Death Star has been destroyed. The Rebellion has had its first big victory. And Han Solo, newly conscripted to the Rebel cause, is on the run from the Empire and the bounty hunters eager to turn him in for the huge reward being offered by Jabba the Hutt. Now a mysterious stranger offers Han the resources to execute a daring robbery from a major crime lord. The mission is impossible, but the prize will make Han a free man. With no choice but to accept, Han Solo and his Wookiee partner, Chewbacca, set out to assemble a cast of rogues, knaves, and cons with the right combination of wits, skills, and derring-do to pull off an operation of this complexity and scale—the best scoundrels the galaxy has to offer. And then the game is on: a rip-roaring, intergalactic, Ocean’s Eleven-style heist adventure starring Han Solo, Chewie, and Lando Calrissian, written by #1 New York Times bestselling Star Wars author Timothy Zahn!

Of course, the other 8 scoundrels are still a mystery, but we need something to debate until December 26! (A Wednesday? Well, I’ll take it.) For the record, Zahn himself says “…While there may be a name or two you recognize, most of the rest of the group will be new characters.”

Knights Archive spotted that the Random House fall catalog is out, and it contains a listing for Timothy Zahn’s yet-untitled Han Solo novel – with a small blurb that gives a few more plot details:

The Death Star has just been destroyed and Han Solo still needs the money to pay off the bounty on his head. Now the opportunity to make that money and then some has walked into his life in the form of the perfect heist. With nine like-minded scoundrels, he and Chewbacca just might be able to pull it off and live to tell the tale!

The listing also mentions a wraparound cover featuring the eleven (ha) scoundrels, and calls it the “perfect” entry for casual fans.

(Also, we now have a tag for the book. It’ll change when we get an actual title, but thanks to StarWars-Union.de ‏for the MUPPETS suggestion.)

Also in the catalog was an entry for Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation, but no new details.

And here a few other entries that might also be of interest: The Lands of Ice and Fire, a map book to the world of ASoIaF and Game of Thrones, and Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st Century Families, from the folks who produce the blog.

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.

On Facebook today, Timothy Zahn reveals a few things about his next Star Wars novel: In addition to starring Han Solo and being set in the original trilogy era, “it will be an Ocean’s Eleven-type heist caper.” Sounds like fun! (via)

We should be getting a title “sometime next month,” Zahn says. Some of us are hoping it goes a little like this.

Zahn says… On his Facebook page, Tim Zahn narrows the timeline of his upcoming Han Solo novel from OT era to “around the time of” A New Hope, brainstorms a theory on why Chiss are hanging around The Old Republic, and reveals possible topics for the short stories that would have gone with the probably-not-happening annotated editions of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. (Two of these originally brought to my attention by Roqoo Depot, since I haven’t been paying as much attention to Facebook as I should.)

Excerpts. With James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis coming out on Tuesday, the machine was in full swing this week, with a mini-excerpt on Facebook, two pages on Entertainment Weekly and the first 50 pages on Suvudu. Is there anything in the book that hasn’t been released as a tease at this point?

Well, this is disturbing. If you’re a Sith in The Old Republic, you get your own Twi’lek slave to torture. Yeeeeah, no thanks.

Short stories. Eric Geller daydreams up some short story anthologies. (Remember anthologies? We haven’t seen one since ’99. They didn’t sell at that well, apparently.)

Chat. Dark Horse and John Jackson Miller will have a Twitter chat on Tuesday for the occasion of Knights of the Old Republic: War #1, which will apparently be coming out on Wednesday. You’ll want to keep an eye on the hashtag #KOTORWarChat.

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.