UPDATE: Del Rey is shooting this down. Maybe the listing is actually Golden’s Ventress book? (But how the hell did Stover get on there?) New edition of his Revenge of the Sith novelization, maybe?
Now, the last time we heard anything at all about Stover and Star Wars it was 2012, and it was a rumor that he was going to continue/finish the Imperial Commando series. Nothing was ever confirmed, and just over a month later Episode VII and the sale to Disney were announced, putting much of the Expanded Universe in a holding pattern.
We never had any official confirmation that Stover was or had been working on another Star Wars book after 2008’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. But if he had been under contract or working on something with Lucasfilm, it’s entirely possible that he may have been set to write something else in the new line of canon novels, just like Paul S. Kemp, Christie Golden and Kevin Hearne.
The publisher, Century, rereleases the Del Rey Star Wars books in the U.K. (They even seem to be keeping close to the U.S. release dates now – Tarkin is out only two later.) Of course, it is an Amazon listing, but the hardcover status makes it hard to write this off as a reprint of one of his older books. (And it seems unlikely the rumored Comando book would have been hardcover, if it somehow made it into the database regardless.) A June release date makes it unlikely this is the Episode VII novelization, alas, but who knows?
Well, I’m curious… And I hope this doesn’t turn out to be some sort of mistake, or some sort of special edition of his Revenge of the Sith novelization. (Admittedly, it’s excellent, just not new.) Fingers crossed!
This sounds like it’d be out awfully close to Dark Disciple, so I’m hesitant to get my hopes up about this rumor yet. They probably would’ve been able to talk about it at NYCC if it were a thing coming out around June.
The nice thing about Amazon being Amazon is… I doubt that’s the real date. Or will be the real date, come closer to June.
But, you know… ::prayer circle::
Del Rey:
“That Amazon UK info is inaccurate. Sorry to mute your excitement but it’s not a new book.”
https://twitter.com/DelReyStarWars/status/524027142464897024
Sigh. They really need to get a handle on Century if that’s the case.
TBH this is more likely to be a placeholding for the UK edition of Dark Disciple. Yes, there are a lot of inconsistencies between Amazon’s listing and what we know so far of Golden’s upcoming novel but this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last time, that Amazon UK’s info is off.
Some thoughts:
1]. The title “Star Wars 44”: in UK all SW novels are also given a number, given that A New Dawn was “Star Wars 84”; Maul: Lockdown was “85” and Crucible “88”; to me it implies that as a placeholder, Amazon/Century/Random House UK have used a older title, one by Stover, possibly either Shatterpoint or Traitor (I can’t find my listings of UK SW novel numbers to check what SW 44 was);
2]. The author’s name can be amended/changed/corrected. Actually, some UK online book sellers are still listing JJM’s A New Dawn as also being co-written by Alex Irvine (e.g. http://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/star-wars-a-new-dawn-star-wars-84/9781780892238). This is because the UK placeholding of Miller’s A New Dawn was originally assigned to Irvine’s cancelled Nomi Sunrider novel and retailers haven’t updated their listings.
3] The release date can be amended to bring it into line with US date (usually, but not always, to after US release; or US can be brought forward).