Tomorrow’s the day! Aaron Allston’s Fate of the Jedi: Backlash – the fourth in the series – will be in stores Tuesday.
EU Cantina has an excerpt, and don’t forget you have until Monday to enter Aaron’s contest to win an autographed copy.
Win a copy of Backlash from Aaron Allston
Aaron will be giving away an autographed and personalized copy of next week’s release to the person who can guess the below:
So, what’s the contest? I sometimes imagine a specific actor or actress when I’m writing a character. It can be useful to see specific expressions characteristic of that performer, to hear dialogue in the exact voice of an individual. Such was the case when I was writing the Admiral Daala character in Outcast and Backlash, especially the former. Guess who the actress I was envisioning when writing Daala and the copy is yours.
Head over to AaronAllston.com for a couple of hints – and how to enter.
EUbits: Gambit excerpt, Kemp, Miller and comics
Random housekeeping. With two months to release date, Random House has put out an excerpt from Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth. In other news, Fate of the Jedi: Backlash has been moved back to the original release date of March 9.
Interviews. Paul S. Kemp talks Star Wars and Forgotten Realms with Stomping on Yeti, while Knights of the Old Republic’s John Jackson Miller is over at CBR.
Comics. StarWars.com has an excerpt from Dan Wallace’s Insider article about Dark Horse bringing back Star Wars comics. (The very same article from which the ‘prequel infinities’ confusion arose from. Turned out that the article is a multi-parter and the next installment will include the original Infinities and the prequel era.)
EUbits: Amazon still breaking all the TOR novelization news
Still nothing official, though. An extended title for the unconfirmed novel by Sean Williams was spotted on Amazon: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance. (The release date remains listed as July 2010, but we still don’t have a date for the actual game, so count on nothing at this point.) Wonder if this means we’ll get some kind of official announcement soon?
The blogside. Drew Karpyshyn is going on about the Sith again, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff writes about filk.
Authors. Aaron Allston is on Twitter. Sort of.
Hyperspace: Go obscure with The Forgotten War: The Nagai and the Tofs by James McFadden.
Street date shuffle: Fate of the Jedi, Clone Wars
Sue Rostoni said Saturday that Aaron hasn’t finished Backlash yet, so it may need to be pushed back a month to April.
In other 2010 release date changes, the Random House online catalog is now listing Karen Miller’s Clone Wars Gambit: Siege for June 22 instead of May 25. But the good news is that Gambit: Stealth is now set for February 23 – and Miller finished up the rough draft of Stealth earlier this month, so things should be on track.
I’ve added a few new dates – no real surprises, just specifics – to our release schedule, but will wait on for additional details on Backlash.
Admiral Daala brings up the rear on Backlash
StarWars.com has revealed the back cover of Fate of the Jedi: Backlash, featuring an extremely flattering image of the sixtysomething Admiral Daala. Sue says: “She’s now sporting an artificial eye — her left one. She has been taking excellent care of herself over the years.” Or, this is just a cover, can we please stop overthinking it?
Oh, and there’s a blurb:
Repercussions from the dark side’s fatal seduction of Jacen Solo and the mysterious plague of madness afflicting young Jedi continue to wreak havoc galaxy-wide. Having narrowly escaped the deranged Force worshippers known as the Mind Walkers, and a deadly Sith hit squad, Luke and Ben Skywalker are in pursuit of the now Masterless Sith apprentice Vestara Khai. It is a chase that leads to the forbidding planet Dathomir, where an enclave of powerful dark-side Force-wielders will give Vestara the edge she needs to escape — and where the Skywalkers will be forced into combat for their quarry and their lives.
Meanwhile, Han and Leia Solo are on their own desperate mission, shuttling madness-stricken Jedi from Coruscant to safe haven in the Transitory Mists — and beyond the grasp of Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala. But the bold maneuver only intensifies Daala’s fury, and she is determined to shatter Jedi Order resistance once and for all.
Yet, no greater threat exists than that which still waits in the depths of the distant Maw Cluster: A being of pure, ravenous dark-side energy named Abeloth calls out across the stars to Jedi and Sith alike. For some, it may be the ultimate source of answers crucial to their survival. For others, it could be the ultimate weapon of conquest. But for all, it is a game-changing — and life-altering — encounter of untold magnitude, and a tactical gambit with unimaginable consequences.
Backlash is the fourth Fate of the Jedi novel and the second by Aaron Allston. It’s due out in March.
EU interview roundup: Allston, Schreiber, Chee, and Peña
There’s been a flurry of interviews with Expanded Universe folks coming out in the last few weeks. Joe Schreiber of Death Troopers fame is the man of the hour, appearing at StarWars.com and LAist. But he’s not the only one: There’s Leland Chee, Aaron Allston, and Abel G Peña, too.
EUbits: Atlas and then some, Denning, Ostrander, Bohnhoff, iPhones and Twitter
More on the Atlas. First up, there’s a live chat with Jason Fry and Daniel Wallace today at 2pm EDT at Suvudu. And there’s heaps going on at StarWars.com: Background, an online appendix, and endnotes. And there’s a new interview with Jason Fry over at Lightsabre.
Fate of the Jedi. Lightsabre also has an interview with Troy Denning.
Charity. Another auction to help out John Ostrander. And don’t forget the Aaron Allston Donation Fund!
Short stories. Hyperspace members can now read ‘Passages’ by our own Charlene Newcomb!
The blogside: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff on alien dialogue.
Technology! A select few Star Wars comics are now available on the iPhone. And Death Troopers has a Twitter!
Video: Suvudu interviews the Fate of the Jedi authors
Aaron Allston, Christie Golden, and Troy Denning talked with Del Rey’s in-house blog at SDCC.
New schedule, new titles, new authors from Sue
We’re at JadeCon, having a blast – and I’m just taking a brief email break, and what should come up on my feed reader but a brand-spanking new book schedule from Sue Rostoni? I can’t even wrap my brain around the date changes right now, but here’s the big news:
- Fifth and final Clone Wars book (Karen Miller) is Gambit: Siege. March 2010.
- July 2010 will be a “coming attraction by well-known author.” Nothing more to be revealed. Sean Williams, maybe?
- September 2010. A book that only “might” come to be.
- A second book by Joe Schreiber (not a Death Troopers sequel) is coming October 5, 2010.
- Fate of the Jedi book seven (Allston) is titled Conviction. April 2011.
- The tentative title for Zahn’s Allegiance sequel is Choices. September 2011.
- October 2011 bring a new author: Jeff Grubb.
Our book release schedule will be updated… Uhh, soon. Soonish.
In other news, she has confirmed that the Boba Fett book and Blood Oath are both canceled.