Club Jade

It’s yet another Sith-heavy week for new releases. Out Tuesday is the latest Old Republic novel, Drew Karpyshyn’s Annihilation. And on Wednesday, Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #4.

And after these, we’re down to just one more book release through the end of the year – Fate of the Jedi: Ascension in paperback on November 27th. Of course, there’s always Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels on January 1st…

There’s quite a variety of things coming this week, at least if you take formats into account. (…Lots of Sith.) First up, today, is Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Revan in paperback.

Then Wednesday brings Darth Maul: Death Sentence #3 to comic shops. That night, tune into Cartoon Network at 8:00 p.m. EDT for LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out.

And finally, The Clone Wars returns Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. with the Maul-centric ‘Revival‘.

If none of this catches your fancy (I hear that, sister) hold tight: Pablo Hidalgo’s The Essential Reader’s Companion is coming on October 2.

Convention swag. Star Wars Books has revealed some of the summer freebies on their Facebook. There’s a nifty 84-page sample books with excerpts and the Insider short stories, a Mercy Kill iron-on and Scoundrels bookmarks. The catch: There are 7, but they won’t all be available at the same con, so unless you’re going to be at SDCC, CVI and NYCC, prepare to swap with some pals to get them all.

In other relevant con season news, Christie Golden will be at SDCC, and Erich is looking to arrange a Warfare signing with Jason Fry and some of the artists.

The blogside. Skuldren wants a Streen series, while Bry Dean reviews I, Jedi and Tosche Station looks back at The Bacta War.

Gaming stuff. Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Annihilation has been blessed by the blurb fairy. (via) There’s also going to be an Old Republic Encyclopedia.

Audiobooks. Speaking of Karpyshyn, his Darth Bane books will be getting the unabridged audiobook treatment. Look for them in October.

Endnotes. Never-ending endnotes! Jason Fry has posted part 13 of his look behind The Essential Guide to Warfare

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.

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.

The Star Wars Books Facebook page hosted a chat with author Paul S. Kemp this evening. Kemp is the author of last year’s Crosscurrent, The Old Republic: Deceived, and the just-released Riptide. Warning: This chat will contain some spoilers for all three of his books. I’ve tried to contain them to the last part here, but be warned: I might miss some, since I haven’t read any of them. Head beneath the cut to check it out the highlights. (more…)

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.

Crimson Empire III. With Empire Lost #1 in stores, Dark Horse founder and co-writer Mike Richardson talks to Comic Book Resources about getting the Star Wars license and getting re-acquainted with Kir Kanos and crew.

The Complete Vader. Undecided on whether to get the book or not? Take a peek at some of the contents courtesy of Wired. For those who already have it, the Star Wars Books Facebook page is hosting a chat with authors Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur on Tuesday.

Nonfiction. Also coming on Tuesday is the release of Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation, a nice coffee-table book for the effect nerds.

Video. Author J.W. Rinzler & Art Director Leslie Dilley talk about the massive Blueprints book at NYCC.

Excerpts. A tiny bit of The Old Republic: Revan, and a bigger one for Shadow Games.

Poll At Suvudu, Eric Geller asks which Star Wars books you’d like to see adapted for the screen. Alas, there’s not option for ‘none of them.’