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.
I wonder if they’ll re-release the whole trilogy. If not, then I probably won’t buy this.
I haven’t heard anything, but I’ll honestly be very surprised if they don’t.
Erich was able to read 20 pages of annotations. Says that it is great, Tim’s stuff had him giggling the whole time. Says it’s not just a few notes either. There will be a lot.
Surely they’ll do all three. Who would want one book out of a trilogy as an anniversary edition?
I am SO excited for this!
I honestly figured they’d only publish the one anniversary edition, since this book kicked it all off. Maybe they’re waiting for sales figures to commit to the other two.
I’m looking forward to this too. And I actually kind of like the original Heir to the Empire cover art, so I’m glad they’re looking at keeping it for this edition. *ducks for cover*
I don’t know what I’m more excited for – the HttE reprint or Choices of One. I think HttE is slightly winning the battle, if only becasue the idea of the the annotations makes me giddy.
I really, really hope they do the rest of the trilogy, especially since the end of TLC is my favorite EU scene ever. :)
Don’t be afraid, Greg. (Much.)
I hope they do the whole trilogy, but I could see the current book market limiting it. I guess we’ll see.
I respect and am grateful to Zahn for his hand in inspiring the EU, but I could barely get through that trilogy and would not read it again. Other novels in the EU are a lot stronger, like Shatterpoint and the Darth Bane trilogy.
Shatterpoint was very good, but it’s a whole different pace and attitude than the Thrawn Trilogy. If Shatterpoint is your thing, I can see you not liking the Thrawn stuff, because they are so different. I’ve never read the Darth Bane books though.
I can see Zahn not being to everyone’s taste – he can be a bit dry – but Bane? I only read the first one, and while it was okay, it wasn’t even in the same stratosphere.
To each their own, I suppose.
Can’t get through the Thrawn trilogy? Wouldn’t read it again? The *Bane trilogy* is better?
Whoa, I’m feeling kind of dizzy. *sways* My eyes can’t handle those words positioned like that. :p
I just finished listening to the interview. While The EUCast guys did a great job, I was disappointed that there was no actual squeezing :P
There was a lot of cool info though. The Essential Guide to the Underworld Sounds really awesome!
I think the Darth Bane trilogy is great and so is the Thrawn Trilogy, but one is a real MAJOR point in the EU and the other is a ‘historical’ series outlining one of the Sith Lords. The Thrawn trilogy has much more significance.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll even bother with Choices of one, the first book was so bad!