EUbits: Last-minute Celebration updates and more

Celebration VI Lots of schedule-posting has been going around. Leland Chee has his at the StarWars.com blog, while the official CVI site has the Barnes & Noble booth signing schedule. Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, Jason Fry, and John Jackson Miller have their schedules up as well.

The blogside. Miller wrote a nice post on Star Wars things you probably don’t remember for the TOS blog, including a version of Heir to the Empire that came with an overwrap. Meanwhile, Pete Morrison goes into Encyclopedia Brown mode to deduct what Jason Fry is working on now.

Interview. Linda Hansen-Raj talks to Del Rey’s Shelly Shapiro at the Fangirl blog.

Reviews. A couple more looks at Mercy Kill from Brian at Tosche Station and Kirkus. And James reviews the Bruce Lee vs Darth Maul smackdown of The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters digest.

Del Rey reveals final Crucible cover art

Del Rey posted the finished version of the Crucible cover on Facebook today. It hasn’t changed all that drastically since the first version revealed at SDCC. (Click on Luke over there to see the whole thing.) They’re also calling it for Summer 2013, as opposed to the original announcement of Spring, but until we get a more specific date I’m not going quibble over that.

The book is still by Troy Denning, and it’s still a hardcover. We’re pretty much guaranteed to hear more about it next week at Celebration.

EUbits: To Crucible or not to Crucible?

Crucible The upcoming post-Fate of the Jedi is on everyone’s mind. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren takes a look at Scoundrel’s Luck, the 1990 WEG gaming adventure that author Troy Denning hinted holds a clue to the book’s villain. Meanwhile, Nanci at Tosche Station – not exactly Denning’s chief cheerleader – implores burned fans to give Crucible a chance.

I myself remain rather ambivalent on the book, but I can pretty much guarantee I’ll read it. Or try to, anyway, which is more than I can say for the other SDCC announcements.

The blogside, pro edition. Over at the Star Wars Blog, Leland Chee explains the Holocron, while Jonathan Rinzler introduces himself and writes about interviewing George Lucas. And this morning, Pablo Hidalgo gives us a tour of the new Insider

Nonfiction. The new book by super-collectors Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins, Gus and Duncan’s Guide to Star Wars Prototypes, will be available in August.

Interviews. John Jackson Miller chats with the Wisconsin State Journal about Star Wars and his new book.

Chat. There’ll be a Twitter chat with Tom Taylor on Thursday.

Charity. EUCantina is selling t-shirts for their A Force for Childhood Literacy program.

Han, Luke and Leia: Passing the torch? Again?

Umpth time’s the charm? A Random House listing for Troy Denning’s Crucible, the post-FOTJ novel announced last week at San Diego Comic Con, contains this:

SETS UP NEW SERIES: With this book, Han, Luke, and Leia are passing the torch to the next generation of Star Wars heroes, and the stage will be set for the next major Star Wars series.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this, but the New Jedi Order didn’t manage it, Legacy of the Force rounded out Jacen Solo only to kill him off, and Ben Skywalker… Well, okay, Ben is in better shape than his cousins ever were as teenagers. But that’s a pretty low bar, and thus a slim hope to hang on. Ironically, just this morning I was talking about an opinion piece I’ve been mulling, tentatively titled “Hey Del Rey, it’s your last chance to make me care about Jaina.” More then…

On the other hand, I’m guessing this means we’ll be seeing either a Jaina or Ben standalone announced at Celebration…

SDCC: Post-Fate of the Jedi novel from Denning, Dawn of the Jedi novel from new author coming

We got not one but two Expanded Universe announcements from Del Rey in San Diego today, and Fangirl has the details. You might also want to check out Bryan Young’s writeup of the panel, or the live tweets from it.

UPDATE: You’ll also want to check out Pablo Hidalgo’s blog post on his panels today, which covers the full laundry list of releases they talked about (including the comics, which I have, uhh, kind of neglected. Whoops.)

The one I know you’re hanging on your seats for is the first novel to follow the Fate of the Jedi series. Crucible by Troy Denning (of course) is a hardcover standalone with the Big 3 – that is, Luke, Han, and Leia.

They’ve earned the right to rest on their laurels and let the younger generation shoulder the burden–but fate has another adventure in store for our heroes, a quest only they can tackle and hope to survive…

It’s due out in the spring and features a Cliff Nielsen cover.

The big surprise, though, is that Del Rey is going into Dark Horse territory with a Dawn of the Jedi novel, Into the Void. It’s a paperback by new-to-the-EU author Tim Lebbon and is also due in the spring.

The also revealed the cover and a brief blurb for the fourth Coruscant Nights book, The Last Jedi. It’s also (still) a paperback.

Earlier in the day, Pablo shared a few tidbits from the Quirky Point of View panel. Something that’s sure to thrill a lot of Jaders: Jeffrey Brown will be doing a companion book to Darth Vader and Son, Vader’s Little Princess. And Matthew Reinhart (Star Wars: A Galactic Pop-Up Adventure) is working on a prequel trilogy pop-up book.

Oh, and fear not:

We’ll be there!

SDCC’s Star Wars book and comic panel set for Friday; Does Denning have a post-FOTJ contract?

SDCC released their Friday schedule, and the wording on the Star Wars EU panel has folks speculating that Troy Denning is back for another round.

3:00-4:00 The Future of Star Wars Publishing: Dark Horse & Del Rey. Find out what’s coming up in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars publishing. Editors Randy Stradley and Dave Marshall from Dark Horse Comics discuss what’s next for Agent of the Empire, Dawn of the Jedi, Lost Tribe of the Sith, and Darth Maul, as well as reveal a new secret title that’s on the horizon. From Del Rey Books editors Frank Parisi and Erich Schoeneweiss, along with author Troy Denning (Apocalypse), look at new novels coming later this year from fan-favorite authors Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston, as well as give a peek into 2013. Also on the panel is Jennifer Heddle, senior editor at LucasBooks. Moderated by author Pablo Hidalgo (Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion). Room 7AB

I think that the speculation might is almost certainly jumping the gun, and since Golden’s announcement came so late maybe that’s why she’s not a part of it… And who the hell writes these things anyway? Basically, I don’t know. So let’s not panic about Dark Nest 2: Electric Bugaloo just yet, okay? (via)

UPDATE: Roqoo Depot has some thoughts on the comic portion (which I won’t even touch,) but they also speculate that the book announcement might be the upcoming Kemp duology.

However, remember that Heddle told EUC last month about post-Fate: “We’ll be making an announcement about that at San Diego Comic-Con, so stay tuned.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some news on the duology, or even at it being set after Fate of the Jedi, but with Kemp’s wheelhouse thus far being rather niche, I’m not sure it would qualify as big enough news for a general con like SDCC. Still, it’s one of the few announced projects we have little-to-no detail on at the moment, making it a certain contender.

EUbits: Apocalypse reverb continues with Denning chat

Chat season. Troy Denning will be chatting Apocalypse tomorrow afternoon on the Star Wars Books Facebook page. (He’ll also be at San Diego Comic Con in July… A behind-the-scenes FOTJ panel, perhaps?) Also chatting, on the 11th, will be Essential Guide to Warfare author Jason Fry. We’ll likely be recapping both.

Scoundrels. Del Rey editor Frank Parisi was on last week’s ForceCast where he revealed two of the established characters that will be on the team. (If you want the fairly minor spoilers, highlight this: Kell Tainer and Winter. If Kell means nothing to you, he’s in the X-Wing series.)

Upcoming. We can expect news on something post-Fate of the Jedi what’s next “sometime this summer, if not sooner,” Erich Schoeneweiss said in response to a fan question. Not at SDCC, I hope.

Blurbs. Knights Archive spotted a longer summary for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion in the Random House online catalog.

Interviews. Roqoo Depot talks to Matt Stover – mostly about his new book, Caine’s Law, which was out in stores yesterday – but they also touch on Star Wars. Meanwhile, Angela Slatter interviews Karen Miller and Sean Williams about working in franchises.