Club Jade

For May 4th, Suvudu is giving fans an excerpt of Crucible, the upcoming post-Fate of the Jedi novel by Troy Denning. The book will be out in hardcover on July 9th.

If that’s not quite your thing, they also have 50 pages of Tuesday’s new release Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void by Tim Lebbon.

Have a Kindle? Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire – the book that started the modern Expanded Universe! – is only $1.99 today. Buy it! Buy it like the wind! (Okay, Darth Plagueis, Path of Destruction and Tatooine Ghost are also $1.99 – and a bunch of comics are deeply discounted too – but trust me, it’s Heir to the Empire you should be voting for with your wallet buying.)

Knights’ Archive spotted that Troy Denning’s Crucible, the first Big 3 adventure set after Fate of the Jedi, now has a blurb in the Random House catalog.

When Han and Leia Solo arrive at Lando Calrissian’s Outer Rim mining operation to help him thwart a hostile takeover, their aim is just to even up the odds and lay down the law. Then monstrous aliens arrive with a message, and mere threats escalate into violent sabotage with mass fatalities. When the dust settles, what began as corporate warfare becomes a battle with much higher stakes—and far deadlier consequences.

Now Han, Leia, and Luke team up once again in a quest to defeat a dangerous adversary bent on galaxy-wide domination. Only this time, the Empire is not the enemy. It is a pair of ruthless geniuses with a lethal ally and a lifelong vendetta against Han Solo. They will stop at nothing to control the lucrative Outer Rim mining trade—and ultimately the entire galactic economy. And when the murderous duo gets the drop on Han, he finds himself outgunned in the fight of his life. To save him, and the galaxy, Luke and Leia must brave a gauntlet of treachery, terrorism, and the untold power of an enigmatic artifact capable of bending space, time, and even the Force itself into an apocalyptic nightmare.

The book is still due out on July 9.

Ponders. Christian Blauvelt asks eight Star Wars authors (Drew Karpyshyn, Paul Kemp, Troy Denning, John Jackson Miller, James Luceno, Michael Reaves, Christie Golden and Aaron Allston) what they’d like to see in Episode VII and the other new films. Lots of love for the EU and female characters, naturally, which is more than I can say for most of the other wishlists that have been popping up daily.

Spin-offs. Ewan McGregor continues to voice his willingness to return as Obi-Wan. “I don’t know what he did in the desert,” he tells MTV. “We could make up some stuff.”

Superfans. Kevin Smith is (still) very excited. Though his casting for a young Han Solo is… the worst I’ve seen yet. Hopefully for the LULZ.

Video. J.J. Abrams D.I.C.E keynote speech.

Adjustments. The Han on the Crucible cover got a slight tweak. (Why yes, it is a slow week for EU news!) The important thing is, the release date remains the same: July 9.

Street dates. Speaking of upcoming releases, pencil in Joe Schreiber’s Maul: Lockdown for a January 21, 2014 release. Not because we don’t believe it’s coming, but because this far out, dates are subject to change. And on that note, 2014 is now an actual thing on our release schedule. Meanwhile, if you don’t want to wait most of a year to read about Maul, Aaron Goins has a list of 7 tales you can check out right now.

Comics. Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman chat about their forthcoming Legacy: Prisoner of the Floating World at Geek of Oz.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James gets enthusiastic about the happenings in Agent of the Empire: Hard Targets #4 and Dark Times: Fire Carrier #1.

Dawn of the Jedi. Del Rey has posted a blurb for Tim Lebbon’s Into the Void, the first novel tie-in to the comic series. It reveals the novel’s protagonist, Je’daii Lanoree Brock. Always nice to see another female lead!

Previews. Jedi News has first looks from Dark Horse at standalone Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin, the Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral trade and what looks to be the first Legacy omnibus.

Comics. Brian Wood’s very upcoming Star Wars comics, Scoundrels, and The Clone Wars got some love from USA Today this weekend, including another cover and some extra preview material for the comic.

Interviews. Fangirl Blog continues their talk with Troy Denning. He hints a bit about Crucible, revealing that it’s a “Han-driven” book.

Reviews. James is underwhelmed by Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #2.

Scoundrels. With only a few days until the book’s release in January 1, we’re seeing plenty of Scoundrels action. There’s 50 pages on Suvudu and a brief excerpt on io9 (which is also part of the larger chunk.) And Aaron Goins’ review is up over at Star Wars Report.

Interviews. For it being the holiday season, there sure are a lot of them popping up lately. Fangirl has Troy Denning, there’s Brian Wood at Newsarama, Randy Stradley at CBR and Steve Sansweet at GalacticHunter.

Rebels. Martha Wells is nearly done with the first draft of her Star Wars novel.

Another excerpt. Knights Archive was first to spot that there’s a chapter of Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s The Last Jedi up at the Random House catalog.

Release dates. Troy Denning’s Crucible has appeared in the Random House catalog with a date of July 9 – last we heard, it was the 2nd. But remember, we’re far enough out that it may still change again.

Comics, currently. Brian Wood talks about his Star Wars comic with Westfield Comics. (You can take a look at the cover for issue #2 at Newsarama.) And CBR has a look at Doug Wheatley’s cover for Dark Times: Fire Carrier.

Interviews. Fangirl talks to Drew Karpyshyn, while the latest installment of Jedi Journals has Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss – recorded before the Episode VII announcement.

Comics, history. CBR’s Comic Book Legends Revealed looks at the rumor that George Lucas was not so pleased with Jaxxon the giant green rabbit, among other Marvel hearsay.

The blogside. If wacky old Marvel isn’t crazy enough for you, Tosche Station’s Nanci has continued her Jedi Prince retrospective with Zorba the Hutt’s Revenge, Mission from Mount Yoda, and Queen of the Empire.

#StarWars Scoundrels will feature excerpts from Crucible and the Dawn of the Jedi novel, Into the Void by @timlebbon #SWEU #Zahnsolo

— StarWarsBooks (@DelReyStarWars) October 17, 2012

Scoundrels will be out January 1st, while Into the Void and Crucible are currently scheduled for May 7 and July 2. All three books are hardcovers.

Same Cliff Nielsen art, new layout. What do you think?

The book is due out July 2 in hardcover and eBook.

That’s no moon. With the Essential Reader’s Companion only 3 weeks away, copies are landing on the desks of the official types (with, one assumes, an audible thud.) Expect to see a lot of reviewer tweets about it soon. In the meantime, you can get a closer look at some of the portraits and check out the first 28 pages in the Random House catalog. (via)

The blogside. Tor’s Emily Asher-Perrin takes a look at ‘the true nature of the force,’ addressing a lot of the weird and complicated issues at hand with ‘balance’ and all the rest of the simple tricks and nonsense scattered throughout fandom.

Costuming. Trisha Barr interviews Shea Standefer about her great Jaina Solo costumes at CVI. Bria wrote about gender-swapped costumes, including a crossplay Wraith Squadron she took part in at D*C. And, on that note, more Expanded Universe costumes from D*C.

Interviews. John Ostrander talks about the next arc of Agent of the Empire at CBR; Roqoo Depot caught up with Timothy Zahn, James Luceno, and Troy Denning at Celebration.

Blurb. There’s now one for The Last Jedi by by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. (via)

Audio Random House Audio has a poll up on Facebook asking which of three books – Miller’s Knight Errant, Reaves/Perry’s Death Star or Zahn’s Allegiance – you want to hear on audio first.