Club Jade

Hey, remember Fate of the Jedi? The site StarWarsBookExtras.com is offering an excerpt from Try Denning’s Vortex – Chapter 5, to be exact. The catch? You need to redeem a code. Or, just click this direct link to the PDF. (Thanks, EUC!) The cards with the code were available at C5 or in the Hyperspace member kit.

Details, details. We got a couple of updates from Sue Rostoni on the StarWars.com forums last week. I had asked if there was a chance or others joining Zahn to do annotations for the Heir to the Empire anniversary edition, and she wasn’t sure — but did say that Del Rey was looking into it. She did have a solid answer on the ETA for the next Lost Tribe of the Sith story: October 25th, aka next Monday. (Hopefully it’ll contain a different Vortex excerpt.)

Short story. Speaking of John Jackson Miller, StarWars.com has an original Knight Errant short story, ‘Influx.’

Shadow Games. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff reveals the main cast for the novel-formerly-known-as-Holostar.

Really? The Star Wars Books page on Facebook is starting a Reader’s Club. Not a bad idea, in theory… But starting with The Bounty Hunter Wars? Really? Uh… Good luck.

Straight from the Star Wars Books Facebook account… The winner of the title poll for the novel formerly known as Holostar is Shadow Games. (via)

Suvudu has three possible titles for Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s Holostar novel (none of which are Holostar, sadly.) They’re all pretty generic, so let’s focus on the blurb, which is our first detailed look at the book:

Stranded on Tatooine with a broken-down hyperdrive, Dash Rendar and crew—his Nautolan copilot, Eaden Vrill, and a droid named Leebo—have to find a way to raise credits. It comes in the lovely form of Javul Charn, a multi-talented human holostar being stalked by an over-zealous fan. She needs bodyguards to protect her during her tour along the Corellian Run; Dash needs credits. It’s a perfect match… until things begin to go wrong—seriously and dangerously wrong. By the time Dash realizes that the threat to Javul is not what it seems, he’s in up to his neck in a conspiracy that goes much deeper than anything he would have signed up for. Even with the help of his hated rival—Han Solo—will Dash be able to protect this spoiled entertainer, all the while being reminded that he couldn’t protect his own family?

It’s cute that Dash Rendar, the expanded universe equivalent of New Coke, thinks he’s actually a rival of Han Solo. At least, that’s how I hope they play it. We need the comedy, guys!

UPDATE 10/05: In the comments of the Suvudu post, Del Rey editor David Pomerico explains why Holostar isn’t an option the poll.

…Just wanted to let you know the reasoning behind changing from HOLOSTAR. Ultimately it was felt around here that while there is a holostar as one of the main characters, the feel of this book is much more like a traditional thriller than an adventure, and we wanted it to have a slightly darker, slightly more exciting edge.

I honestly think once you get a chance to read the novel that you’ll see that one of these three titles truly works best for this story, and I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

Oh well. I suppose my (comedy) prince will come another day.

The book, whatever the title ends up being, is scheduled for a September 2011 release.

Del Rey brought plenty to the table for Celebration, but the biggest EU news is without a doubt the reveal that Aaron Allston will be writing a brand-new Wraith Squadron novel. It’s too early for details, but expect a spring/summer 2012 release date.

We also learned that Thrawn will appear in Zahn’s Hand of Judgment, Drew Karpyshyn will be writing a third Old Republic novel, Jeff Grubb’s 2012 paperback will feature Hutts, and Han Solo will appear in the Dash Rendar/Holostar novel. And TFN reports that something is in the works for the 20th anniversary of Heir to the Empire, to which I say: Damn straight.

As for Fate of the Jedi, we learned that the final book will be titled Apocalypse. Cheery! Also addressed was the heightening of drama, Vestara’s role, and (sigh) the whole Jacen/Tahiri thing. Except, not really. (I do love the Mando quote, of course.)

Meanwhile, the comic fans got a surprise of their own: Crimson Empire III is a go, for real this time. The 6-issue series will begin in March with Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley scripting and Dave Dorman on covers.

Knight Errant got a big push, complete with a costumed representation, but if the EUC report is anything to go by it’s too soon for much of a reveal.

As for Legacy, there are currently no plans for anything after the War mini – Ostrander and Duursema will “will be working on something entirely different.”

The rest of the news rehashes much we’ve already heard, but a hardcover edition of Dark Empire will commemorate the comic’s twentieth anniversary. And the return of Dark Horse Presents may yield some Tales-like stories.

Also getting some love at the con (but not enough for their own entry) was The Force Unleashed (Yoda? Really? That Muppet needs a better agent.) and The Old Republic.

Still nothing official, though. An extended title for the unconfirmed novel by Sean Williams was spotted on Amazon: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance. (The release date remains listed as July 2010, but we still don’t have a date for the actual game, so count on nothing at this point.) Wonder if this means we’ll get some kind of official announcement soon?

The blogside. Drew Karpyshyn is going on about the Sith again, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff writes about filk.

Authors. Aaron Allston is on Twitter. Sort of.

Hyperspace: Go obscure with The Forgotten War: The Nagai and the Tofs by James McFadden.

Nonfiction corner. StarWars.com talks to Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur about The Complete Vader. On a related note, take a peek at Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Death Troopers. Did you catch all the Purge letters? No? Well, here are the direct links: DeathTroopers.com, StarWars.com, Star Wars Action News, NJOE, RebelScum, TheForce.net, and ours.

Podcasts. Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace are on the latest Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib. (Warning: auto-pla.)

Blogsided. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on the pool of knowledge and Star Wars as part of the vernacular.

Ye Olde Databank. New or expanded entries for Jocasta Nu, Cad Bane, and Cato Parasitti. And hey – Ben Skywalker is in there now. That’s new! Newish. Wait, don’t tell me: They added him with the Backlash cover, didn’t they?

Sweet mockery. Checked in with We Hav to Take a Trip with Jacen Solo lately? Havac is currently working his way through Legacy of the Force.

More on the Atlas. First up, there’s a live chat with Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace today at 2pm EDT at Suvudu. And there’s heaps going on at StarWars.com: Background, an online appendix, and endnotes. And there’s a new interview with Jason Fry over at Lightsabre.

Fate of the Jedi. Lightsabre also has an interview with Troy Denning.

Charity. Another auction to help out John Ostrander. And don’t forget the Aaron Allston Donation Fund!

Short stories. Hyperspace members can now read ‘Passages’ by our own Charlene Newcomb!

The blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on alien dialogue.

Technology! A select few Star Wars comics are now available on the iPhone. And Death Troopers has a Twitter!

Winceworthy. Geekdad’s Lonnie Morgan gets a bit too into reading Star Wars novels and celebrates by inflicting yet another round of fantasy casting upon the internets. (I dislike this kind of thing: They all tend to come out in fail.) There’s also a poll on which (if any) EU series/era you’d like to see come to the screen.

Lost Tribe of the Sith: Sue Rostoni gave a tentative date of February 9th for the next installment of the Fate of the Jedi tie-in ebooks. That’s about a month before the fourth book, Allston’s Backlash, is due out.

The blogside: Dan Wallace and Jason Fry continue with their Essential Atlas endnotes; Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on dealing with aliens.

Podcasts: Thursday’s EUCast (7pm EST) will focus on Mara Jade.

Comic previews: Invasion #3, Knights of the Old Republic #45, and The Clone Wars #9.

Gaming: A 20-minute video walkthrough of The Old Republic MMO.

Essential Atlas: Suvudu has a multi-part video interview with Jason Fry and Dan Wallace about this week’s release… And if you still want to know more, there’s a live chat scheduled for September 2.

Darth Bane: Take a peek at the blurb and final cover for Drew Karpyshyn’s Dynasty of Evil. Let me mention again how very, very grateful I am to see John Jude Palencar back on cover duty for this storyline.

A Padawan’s Journal: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on What Comes After Chapter One and Reality is in the Nuts and Bolts.

The blogside: Mandy considers Karen Traviss’ departure in the first of a four-part series.

Fate of the Jedi: Hard up for something even after the panel video? Well, you can listen to an audiobook sample of Abyss at Random House now. Seems to be the same section we got a peek at in Omen. (Thanks to Zee Zee.)

The Old Republic. I’m pretty sure I missed blogging that the second part of the TOR webcomic is well underway. (The gaming is always the first to go.)

Dark Horse. Randy Stradley reveals the one-shots on the boards. (via) And also lost in the shuffle, several previews: The Clone Wars #8, Knights of the Old Republic #44, Legacy #39 and Dark Times #14.

Holostar. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff talks the title of her book… But no reveal of who the holostar is yet.