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FOTJ: Ascension pushed back a week; Del Rey wants your input on The Old Republic era books

Del Rey announced today on Facebook that Fate of the Jedi: Ascension by Christie Golden will have its release date pushed back from August 16 to August 23. (Our book release schedule has been updated.) Don’t forget that the next FOTJ novel, Aaron Allston’s Conviction, comes out on May 24!

Also, their reader poll this week gives a chances for readers to give feedback on continuing The Old Republic era after the third novel, Revan, comes out. Did people read and like Fatal Alliance and Deceived? Get your thoughts in on their Facebook discussion.

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StarWars.com forums close today as ads go away

Between these two tweets, I have to wonder… Could the closing of the forums and the loss of ads be related? Or is it just simply a coincidence? Just part of the site’s regular housecleaning?

I can’t recall exactly when StarWars.com started running ads (Before the forums? With the forums?) but I do remember when Hyperspace membership ceased to mean browsing ad-free. Not a lot of happy people that day…

Of course, you will still see some ‘ads’ on StarWars.com – but they’re all for Star Wars Shop, DVD/Blu-Rays and other things that directly benefit the company. (House ads, called them back in my print days.) Hopefully this is a good sign for Lucasfilm’s faith in the site – and/or Lucas Online’s ability to support itself.

I may miss the forums a little, but the ads? Nah.

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New audio coming for Heir to the Empire anniversary?

NJOE discovered a new listing for an audiobook download called Heir to the Empire: Behind the Scenes. Set for release the same day as the annotated novel, the audio listing carries the subtitle of ‘An Expanded Universe is Born’ and credits for both author Timothy Zahn and the book’s original editor, Betsy Mitchell.

I suspect this will end up containing an interview/discussion about the book and it’s long-ranging influences of the Expanded Universe. Or, if we look to the new audiobook art lurking in the Random House database – a new, unabridged recording. (The image credits Marc Thompson as the reader — according to Wookieepedia — Denis Lawson read an abridged version back in the day.) We’ll have to wait for an official announcement to know for sure!

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EUbits: Don’t expect a Big 3 novel from Kemp

Interview. Paul S. Kemp’s Star Wars books so far have seemed to be fairly well received, but will we ever see him step up to write Luke, Han, Leia and the rest? In an interview with the Dearborn Press and Guide, Kemp says “I don’t think so.”

“Writers bring certain things to the table as part of the craft. Some are very good at plotting, some are gifted at prose, I think where I excel naturally is developing interesting, conflicted characters. To do that, I need a lot of room. It’s hard to do that with characters with so much history already behind them. It’s difficult for me to tell the kind of story I’d like to tell and have it star Luke, Han, Lando, and Leia, and their kids.”

The rest of the article echos much of what he said in a blog entry about getting started as a writer.

The Old Republic: Revan. Drew Karpyshyn has a brief Q&A on his site about the upcoming book – which, you may be happy to know, is already in the hands of Del Rey. The book is current scheduled for an October release.

Comics. Comic Book Resources interviews John Ostrander about the upcoming series Agent of the Empire. Also at CBR, six pages of Jedi: The Dark Side #1.

Art. If you’re a fan of the Hildebrandt’s artwork for Shadows of the Empire, you’ll want to check out this gallery by Paxton Holley on Flickr, which contains some shots of the models for the some of the paintings. (via mMathab)

Opinion Chris over at EUC has some suggestions for the various publishing eras.

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Heir to the Empire annotation #7: Pronunciation

Foreign pronunciation issues arise in our seventh preview of Tim Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations:

A small thing that I never would have anticipated, and never even knew before I was invited to a Star Wars convention in Munich: The “thr” combination apparently doesn’t exist in German, or so I was told. German Star Wars fans therefore have terrific difficulty pronouncing Thrawn’s name.

Pronunciation issues are fairly common in these books, even in English: Is it Mar-uh or Mare-ah? (Trust me: It’s Mar-uh.) How do you say C’baoth? Fey’lya? Damn apostrophes.

Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition will be out in hardcover June 28.

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Other worlds: GRRM’s A Dance with Dragons is done

Yes, George R. R. Martin finished the book. The fifth volume of A Song of Ice and Fire got a July 12th publication date last month, but he still wasn’t quite finished with the manuscript, leaving many to doubt that the long-awaited book would actually become a reality. Well, worry no longer, because Martin posted today that Kong has been slain. For those not up on GRRM’s lingo – ‘Kong’ is the book’s nickname – his editor, Anne Groell, has confirmed in plain English.

Meanwhile, HBO’s Game of Thrones TV show has been doing well – ratings held steady for the second episode, and it’s already been renewed for a second season. And you’ll certainly want to check out Time’s four–part interview with Martin about the show, including his thoughts on how the next few volumes should be split up for filming.

Awards. Nominees for the 2011 Hugo and Campbell Awards were announced the other day, and I’m still a little in shock that two of my 2010 favorites – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Feed – are up for best novel.

Tolkien. The extended editions of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy will be in theaters this June. Individually, thankfully.

Dark Tower. And for new adaptations, it appears that Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) has signed on to play Roland in Ron Howard’s take on Stephen King’s epic fantasy series.

Recs. Thanks to Jo Walton, I now want to give Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet a swing. And while I was already planning to try Genevieve Valentine’s Mechanique, but Charlie Jane Anders’ review has made me even more intrigued.