First Heir to the Empire annotation: Star Destroyers

The Star Wars Books Facebook page posted their first excerpt from the annotations of the Heir to the Empire 20th anniversary edition.

“Each of the three classic Star Wars movies includes a Star Destroyer in its opening scene. All of my Rebellion-era books do the same.” — Timothy Zahn

Okay, so many of us have reread the Thrawn trilogy dozens/hundreds of times and are already pretty familiar with this. But Del Rey says in the comments: “They get longer…just wanted to get everyone’s feet wet.” One down, 13 to go!

The annotated edition will be released June 21.

EUbits: Del Rey to preview Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations

Whoohoo! Beginning next Thursday, the Star Wars Books Facebook page will be posting a Heir to the Empire annotation from Timothy Zahn each week until the book’s release in June. Suddenly, I hate Facebook just a tiny, tiny bit less.

In the meantime, Del Rey is asking what Thrawn scene you’d like to see illustrated in The Essential Guide to Warfare.

The blogside. Paul S. Kemp on readers who complain there’s too much focus on Jedi and Sith in the EU. I’m so with him on this. Sure, it’s nice to have novels about other folks in the galaxy sometimes, but Jedi and Sith are pretty much integral to the DNA of Star Wars.

Pop quiz. Head on over to EUC to find out if you are smarter than a Star Wars blogger. I can neither confirm nor deny that some of the snarky quotes are mine.

C2E2. Not surprisingly, there are several Star Wars events at the Chicago con later this month, including Del Rey and Dark Horse panels. And I’m changing my mind every other day about going…

Weird facts. Pete at Lightsaber Rattling follows up his author list with a look at who’s written the most young adult novels. The ultimate result this time around, though? Not a surprise. Think if we pester him enough he’ll do one by word count?

EUbits: Insider #124 brings Kemp short story, news of yet another Old Republic comic

Another Old Republic comic is coming. The new Insider contain news of a mini-series called The Lost Suns. Game writer Alexander Freed will be doing the writing honors, with the team from Blood of the Empire on art. Head on over to NJOE and/or Star Wars Universe for the full image and details.

This is the same issue that features Paul S. Kemp’s ‘The Third Lesson,‘ a Darth Malgus short story, so if you’re a fan of the era it’ll no doubt be worth picking up. On that note, Kemp is giving away a Deceived audiobook or two.

Also upcoming… Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff reveals a new tentative title for her and Reaves’ Coruscant Knights followup: The Last Jedi.

More on the Dark Side: Scott Allie talks more with MTV Geek about Qui-Gon Jinn’s adventures in the upcoming comic Star Wars: Jedi – The Dark Side. Without revealing whether Qui-Gon is the one to cross over to the dark side, Allie talks about developing a story about the Jedi’s imperfect judgment, with a plot that is flashbacked to in the YA books, and describes Qui-Gon’s role here as a “powerful Jedi out on the rim of the galaxy, angry and alone, like a hero from the Clint Eastwood western.”

Recent releases. John Jackson Miller has notes for Knight Errant.

Nonfiction. J. W. Rinzler tweets about a new Star Wars Art installment.

Learn something. In his latest blog entry, Drew Karpyshyn writes about how a book makes it from outline to novel.

Coming in the back way. A prequel fan’s review of Heir to the Empire. He liked it!

Heir to the Empire anniversary edition cover, details confirmed: Metallic cover, introduction from Zahn

The new information pretty much lines up with what Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss told the EUCast earlier in the month, but we do get a title for the new Thrawn novella – and word of an introduction from Timohy Zahn:

Del Rey Books is publishing a commemorative edition hardcover of Heir to the Empire, with commentary-style annotations by Zahn and other behind-the-scenes people responsible for making the book a reality. Zahn will also pen an introduction to the book.

The book features a reflective jacket (fitting for the book’s platinum anniversary) and also has a specially printed version of the original cover underneath. It will include a new Zahn novella, Crisis of Faith, featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn. Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition is due out from Del Rey on June 21, 2011.

EUCast squeezes Heir to the Empire 20th details out of Del Rey’s Schoeneweiss

The EUCast had Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss on their latest podcast, and he revealed a few tidbits about upcoming projects. Most notably (at least to us,) is that we have some confirmation that Timothy Zahn is not the only one contributing annotations to the book; Editor Betsy Mitchell and a few folks at Lucasfilm (Leland? Pablo?) will be as well.

He also said that the cover art we’ve seen for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition is likely to be close to the final, but:

To my knowledge it hasn’t been completely approved yet, but that’s definitely the direction that we want to go. I believe the plan is that that will be the jacket, and it will have sort of treatment, some sort of silver foil treatment on it. But then when you take the jacket off of it, underneath, (kind of similar to what we did with the Death Troopers hardcover) it will have the original book cover as the paper-over-board cover.

Does this make me a prophet? Well, except for the part about it being the original (ugh) art.

In other news, Schoeneweiss said that Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare is being pushed back to 2012 and an Essential Guide to the Underworld is in the planning stages. Updated versions of the character and ship guides are also likely in the next few years.

They also got in touch with Shelly Shapiro, who said that while they’re still discussing Paul S. Kemp’s duology, “There’s a good chance” it will be in the Old Republic era.

Random House catalog offers preliminary cover for Heir to the Empire anniversary reissue

NJOE (via) was first to spot that Random House’s summer catalog has gone up for public consumption – and in it is an early cover for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition on page 75.

Cover art that appears in the catalogs tends be very preliminary, so it’s hard to say if the final will look anything like this. But you know what? I don’t mind it. And if they do it in foil, it’ll stand out nicely from the crowd. Granted, I loath the original, so your mileage may vary.

The catalog also contains a listing for Choices of One (page 79,) but I’m not seeing anything new there. But also appearing with a preliminary cover is Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare (page 89.)

EUbits: Would you be brave enough to revisit KJA?

Revisiting the Jedi Academy trilogy. Bryan Young is a glutton for punishment: He reread Kevin J. Anderson’s first Star Wars novel, Jedi Search, even though he knows better. Joining him is Kelly, aka Scarlett Robotica, who actually likes the series. (I suppose someone has to.) They’re debating it. I’m sure you can guess whose side I’m on. (And no: I wouldn’t. Last time I tried I couldn’t get past Luke’s speechifying.)

Details, details… Sue Rostoni updated us on a couple of minor details this weekend: There’s a hint that the Heir to the Empire anniversery edition will indeed have a new cover, and confirmation that short stories are coming back, at least in the Insider.

More on The Jedi Path. Daniel Wallace has posted a fourpart series of endnotes for the in-universe instruction manual.

Veitch talks Dark Empire on Tuesday. The comic’s writer is holding a discussion on the comic this Tuesday evening at the bookstore he co-owns in Bennington, Vermont.

EUbits: FOTJ except, Sue updates, Knight Errant story

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.

EUbits: The Jedi Path marches on; HttE 20th details

The Jedi Path. I have yet to see any copies in a brick-and-mortar store yet, but The Jedi Path has been dominating the news cycle. There are interviews with Daniel Wallace at TheForce.Net, and Geekdad, plus a feature on Amazon.com – which is probably your best bet for getting a copy right now.

More on Heir anniversary edition. First, Del Rey’s Suvudu blog confirms that Timothy Zahn is working on the annotations, while Sue Rostoni has confirmed that they are “looking into some variations of a special cover.”

Comics CBR has features/interviews on John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant and Tom Taylor’s Blood Ties arc.

Columness. EUC’s latest columns are on zombies and Boba Fett. I am so clearly not the intended audience here. (She says with a resigned, sisterly affection.)

Two-for-one classic comic artists. The next Star Wars Insider will feature an exclusive Howard Chaykin cover and poster, while a Star Wars drawing by Jack Kirby surfaces on Twitter.