Tag: aaron allston

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Dinner with Face and the fam in Mercy Kill excerpt #3

Thursday afternoon? It’s time for our third excerpt from Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill!

Face’s approach was so silent that neither noticed until he was almost at the table. Both turned to look at him and, seeing the expression on his face, fell silent.

He turned to Dia. “I promise I will never make you so mad that you borrow an X-wing, take it up, and use it to burn me to a cinder.”

“Smart of you.” She gestured at the third chair. “Whose turn is it to cook?”

“Yours.”

“We’ll order something.”

He sat and turned to his daughter. “And you, young lady . . . Beware of older military officers who chase you when you’re a teenager. They’ll just dump you when you turn thirty.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Dad, I hate it when you bring work home.”

Yes, Face and Dia have reproduced. I can’t wait to see the message boards threads discussing that one. Mercy Kill is (still!) slated for an August 7 release.

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The buck is passed in new Mercy Kill mini-excerpt

It’s Thursday afternoon, and thus we are treated to our second mini-excerpt from Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill.

A young human woman in clothes styled to resemble a starfighter pilot’s jumpsuit and jacket but made of crinkly gold cloth, her hair a more striking and unnatural red than Face’s, bumped into Face, made a vague noise of apology, and hurried past, continuing onward toward the exit.

Voort scowled at Face. “I saw that.”

“Of course you did.”

“What did she slip you?”

Face reached into a suit coat pocket and drew out a datapad. It was small, its once-gleaming surface scratched and dull. “This. It’s wired to overheat and ignite in about three minutes.”

“Well, then, don’t hold it in your mouth.”

Mercy Kill is slated for an August 7 release.

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X-Wing eBook bundle details, pricing emerge

Roqoo Depot has spotted some more details on the X-Wing series bundle, including the price: $56.99 for all 9 books. It’s eBook only and will be out on July 30.

The individual X-Wing paperbacks and eBooks are currently listed for $7.99 a pop; A full set would cost you $71.91 (plus sales tax, if applicable.) So if you’re looking to catch up on the series, this is probably your best bet outside of used copies and/or the library. (Unless you already own them all, of course!)

I still wish we were seeing the series reissued as trade paperback collections (maybe if Mercy Kill sells really well?) but this is a nice way to give some EU classics a little refreshing.

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Another not-so-mini excerpt from Allston’s Mercy Kill

Well, not so mini by Facebook excerpt standards, anyway! Here’s the official #1 mini-excerpt from Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill.

Then she noticed that Trey had stopped talking. Instead, he was leaning forward, his forehead pressed against a heavy-duty, locking transparisteel cabinet.
Myri moved until she could see his face. “Four? You suddenly look like you want to cry.”

“I do.” He stepped back from the cabinet and shone his glow rod on its contents.

The cabinet had two shelves, themselves transparisteel. On the top shelf were two silvery bowl-like stands, and in each rested a globe larger than a balled human fist—a globe with dials and a depressible button.

Myri stared at them for a moment, then clamped her hand over her mouth to suppress a gasp. “Thermal detonators.”

“Two of them.” Trey’s voice was almost rapturous. “I have to steal these.”

Myri also featured in the Wednesday preview excerpt. Mercy Kill will be out in hardcover August 7.

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Mini-excerpts return with Allston’s Mercy Kill

Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss gave us a peek at Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill on Facebook last night:

He crawled southward, keeping well below the trench lip above.

Myri followed, occasionally peeking up above the rim to see her surroundings. “My father was on the Death Star Trench Run. You know, the famous one. Me, I get the General’s Basement Trench Crawl.”

We’ll see another one this afternoon.

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EUbits: Everybody loves pilots


Spotlight. Essential Guide to Warfare co-author Paul Urquhart takes a look at ‘the best star-pilots in the galaxy’. But what we’re really talking about here is the art by Frank-Joseph “Mazzic” Frelier, which includes what I think is out first look at Syal Antilles.

In other Warfare-related matters, there have been three more installments of endnotes since we last checked in: 9, 10 and 11.

Awards. John Jackson Miller’s Knight Errant is a Scribe Award nominee for Best Original Novel in the Speculative Fiction category. The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers are also naming Expanded Universe alumni Kevin J. Anderson as the year’s Grandmaster. Other familiar names among the nominees include Mike Stackpole (for his Conan the Barbarian adaption) and A.C. Crispin for her Pirates of the Caribbean novel.

Interviews. Lots of them! In the world of podcasts, we have Aaron Allston over at Tosche Station Radio and Mike Stackpole at Star Wars Book Report. If you can stomach the ForceCast, they had Leland Chee on, plus there’s a new Jedi Journals. If it’s text you prefer, Tom Taylor talks Darth Maul at CBR.

Teases. A bounty hunter short story by a new-to-Star Wars author will be gracing the pages of Insider #136. Karen Miller’s Myri Antilles story will be in the next issue, #135.

Now hiring… NJOE, EUCantina and Knights Archive are looking for some dedicated fans to join their respective sites. (Rather limited) internet fame! Glamour! No money! But possibly drinks at CVI!

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Miller’s Insider story features Myri Antilles

As previously alluded, it appears that the short story by Clone Wars Gambit author Karen Miller will indeed tie-in to August’s Mercy Kill.

Myri Antilles was confirmed as one of the new Wraiths last year. The youngest daughter of Wedge Antilles and Iella Wessiri Antilles, Myri made her adult debut in the Legacy of the Force series.

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EUbits: Cover art for Allston’s Mercy Kill gets a makeover

Okay… The Mercy Kill cover has been tweaked. The ships appear the same, but the background has been tweaked – the ‘gray’ background will be silver when printed. It seems a bit overdone to me: you know Coco Chanel’s old axiom about always removing one accessory before you leave the house? I think it applies here. Maybe it’ll look better in actual silver? Still, I don’t think it’ll hurt Aaron Allston’s sales figures, and we’ve certainly seen worse.

Nonfiction. Knights Archive spotted Steve Sansweet’s next book, Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection: 35 Years of Characters, on Amazon. Rancho Obi-wan publicist Consetta Parker confirms, as well as giving us a look at the production. Amazon gives an October 17 release date.

Essential Guides. With The Essential Guide To Warfare just a week away, there’s already a brief review from Knight’s Archive and an interview with Jason Fry at EU Cantina.

Fate of the Jedi. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren takes a look at the series as a whole. Meanwhile, as you may have heard, Apocalypse made the New York Times’ bestseller list.

Hey, librarians! You can contact DK to hold a “Summer of Star Wars” day in June or July. By the by, we don’t recommend handing kids Fate of the Jedi.

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New blurb for Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill

Knights Archive spotted that Random House has posted an longer, extended blurb for Aaron Allston’s X-Wing: Mercy Kill that includes a few specifics the first version didn’t.

Note: The new portion does contain some spoilers for the Fate of the Jedi series. They’ve been black-barred: Highlight to read.

The intrepid spies, pilots, and sharpshooters of Wraith Squadron are back in an all-new Star Wars adventure, which transpires just after the events of the Fate of the Jedi series!

Three decades have passed since Wraith Squadron carried out its last mission. Taking on the most dangerous and daring operations, the rogues and misfits of the elite X-Wing unit became legends of the Rebellion and the Second Galactic Civil War, before breaking up and going their separate ways. Now their singular skills are back in vital demand—for a tailor-made Wraith Squadron mission.

A powerful general in the Galactic Alliance Army, once renowned for his valor, is suspected of participating in the infamous Lecersen Conspiracy, which nearly toppled the Alliance back into the merciless hands of the Empire. With orders to expose and apprehend the traitor—and license to do so by any and all means—the Wraiths will become thieves, pirates, impostors, forgers . . . and targets, as they put their guts, their guns, and their riskiest game plan to the test against the most lethal of adversaries.

Mercy Kill is currently due out in hardcover in August.