Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Is it improved? Yes, quite a bit. (Click the image above for a closer look.) Is it still very obviously a ‘head pasted on yay’ Photoshop job? Yes. But at least the head itself is slightly better? For Mara, anyway. Overall: Meh.
Remember those neat painted covers we were getting for a while? Can we please get more of those? At least for Zahn? (via)
The Random House site has come through with a blurb for the July hardcover from Timothy Zahn, Choices of One.
The fate of the Rebellion rests on Luke Skywalker’s next move. But have the rebels entered a safe harbor or a death trap?
Eight months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion is in desperate need of a new base. So when Governor Ferrouz of Candoras Sector proposes an alliance, offering the Rebels sanctuary in return for protection against the alien warlord Nuso Esva, Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to evaluate the deal.
Mara Jade, the Emperor’s Hand, is also heading for Candoras, along with the five renegade stormtroopers known as the Hand of Judgment. Their mission: to punish Ferrouz’s treason and smash the Rebels for good.
But in this treacherous game of betrayals within betrayals, a wild card is waiting to be played.
The cover, alas, remains. (via)
NJOE (via) was first to spot that Random House’s summer catalog has gone up for public consumption – and in it is an early cover for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition on page 75.
Cover art that appears in the catalogs tends be very preliminary, so it’s hard to say if the final will look anything like this. But you know what? I don’t mind it. And if they do it in foil, it’ll stand out nicely from the crowd. Granted, I loath the original, so your mileage may vary.
The catalog also contains a listing for Choices of One (page 79,) but I’m not seeing anything new there. But also appearing with a preliminary cover is Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare (page 89.)
A preliminary version of the cover for Timothy Zahn’s July novel Choices of One has gone up on StarWars.com. It’s pretty rough, but nice to see Mara get some love again.
Sue Rostoni just posted that she’s received Timothy Zahn’s manuscript for his upcoming Star Wars novel – and that the book, which we’ve known as Choices and Hand of Judgment, now has yet another title: Choices of One.
Criticizing the titles of Star Wars novels is like shooting fish in a barrel and Hand of Judgment wasn’t some great prize, but… Choices of One? Really? It just makes me think of a crossover between Wheaties and those lame army commercials. Meh.
Meanwhile, Paul S. Kemp has tweeted a brief peek at his upcoming Crosscurrent sequel, Riptide:
“Indeed,” Grandmaster Skywalker said. “The dark side is at work through more than the clones. Be careful, Jaden.”
Del Rey brought plenty to the table for Celebration, but the biggest EU news is without a doubt the reveal that Aaron Allston will be writing a brand-new Wraith Squadron novel. It’s too early for details, but expect a spring/summer 2012 release date.
We also learned that Thrawn will appear in Zahn’s Hand of Judgment, Drew Karpyshyn will be writing a third Old Republic novel, Jeff Grubb’s 2012 paperback will feature Hutts, and Han Solo will appear in the Dash Rendar/Holostar novel. And TFN reports that something is in the works for the 20th anniversary of Heir to the Empire, to which I say: Damn straight.
As for Fate of the Jedi, we learned that the final book will be titled Apocalypse. Cheery! Also addressed was the heightening of drama, Vestara’s role, and (sigh) the whole Jacen/Tahiri thing. Except, not really. (I do love the Mando quote, of course.)
Meanwhile, the comic fans got a surprise of their own: Crimson Empire III is a go, for real this time. The 6-issue series will begin in March with Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley scripting and Dave Dorman on covers.
Knight Errant got a big push, complete with a costumed representation, but if the EUC report is anything to go by it’s too soon for much of a reveal.
As for Legacy, there are currently no plans for anything after the War mini – Ostrander and Duursema will “will be working on something entirely different.”
The rest of the news rehashes much we’ve already heard, but a hardcover edition of Dark Empire will commemorate the comic’s twentieth anniversary. And the return of Dark Horse Presents may yield some Tales-like stories.
Also getting some love at the con (but not enough for their own entry) was The Force Unleashed (Yoda? Really? That Muppet needs a better agent.) and The Old Republic.
Sue Rostoni updated her schedule blog today, and most of 2011 is affected. A lot of the moves are only by a month or so, however, and perhaps the biggest news here is that Timothy Zahn’s Allegiance sequel finally has an official title: Hand of Judgment. (You may know it by the working title: Choices.) It’s also moved up a month to July.
The most pressing move is Paul S. Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived, which drops from December to March – to be closer to the release of the MMO. (Which is just now launching beta testing: I’m no gamer, so make of it that you will.) Joe Schreiber’s Red Harvest moved into the vacant late-December spot.
Also drastically pushed back were Alex Irvine’s Nomi Sunrider novel (from May to December 2011) and Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion (to March 2012.) As for the rest, check the book schedule.
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:
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.
Okay, so I lied about updating that last post, as I forgot all about the Fate of the Jedi panel. First of all, a big thanks to EU Cantina for live-tweeting this so I could write up the post in real time (their roundup of today is here) and please don’t hate me for quoting you too much… Hopefully one day I can repay the debt.
We should be getting detailed panel reports later tonight.
The official site announced tonight that one of our favorite authors, Timothy Zahn, will be back with a new novel – sounds like a direct sequel to 2007’s Allegiance – in 2011. Just in time for the 20th anniversary of Heir to the Empire!