EUbits: Considering Padme Amidala and Jaina Solo

The blogside. On Livejournal, Chameleon Irony takes a look at what implications the events of Darth Plagueis may have had on Padme throughout the films. (Contains Plagueis spoilers.) Meanwhile, at Rooqoo Depot, Lane considers fandom, Jaina Solo, and ‘strong female characters.’

Fate of the Jedi. The latest mini-excerpt from Apocalypse features Luke and a Sith.

Celebration VI. Two more authors have been confirmed to be attending: James Luceno and Jason Fry. Paul S. Kemp, not so much.

Art. Two more looks at the interior art of The Essential Gude to Warfare: An Imperial refueling and a fantastic Dave Seeley title page spread showing the Battle of Couscant from Revenge of the Sith. It’s better than the actual cover!

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James considers Agent of the Empire #3, Crimson Empire III #4 and Knights of the Old Republic: War #2.

EUbits: The Millennium Falcon workshop team speaks

Gearheads With this week’s release of The Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual, you’ll see the folks behind it are all over the place. Roqoo Depot has an interview with Chris Trevas, Ryder Windham, and Chris Reiff; Suvudu talks to Windham.

Fate of the Jedi. The third mini-excerpt of Denning’s Apocalypse features actual Skywalker-Solos!

War! Also on Facebook, two new images from The Essential Guide to Warfare, both featuring the Falcon: The first with another YT-1300 and another in a scene from Aaron Allston’s Legacy of the Force: Fury

Review. James takes a look at Dawn of the Jedi #0.

EUbits: Essential Reader’s Companion cover revealed

Cover art. Revealed on the official blog today is the finished cover for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. Clearly inspired by the Micheal Whelan piece used for the preliminary cover, the art was painted by Paul Youll.

Celebration VI. Del Rey has confirmed Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn, and John Jackson Miller will be at the con in August. And of course we already knew about Timothy Zahn.

Dawn of the Jedi. i09 has some interior pages and an interview on the upcoming series from John Ostrander and Jan Duursema, while Dark Horse gives us a look at some sketches.

The hype continues. On the off chance you haven’t heard of that Darth Plagueis book, there’s a trailer. Of course.

Chats. Author Paul S. Kemp did a Q&A with Reddit’s fantasy group the other day. There are a few questions about Star Wars scattered throughout.

Reviews. James takes a look at Knights of the Old Republic: War #1 and Agent of the Empire: Iron Eclipse #2.

Essential Reader’s Companion prelim cover, blurb revealed in Random House summer catalog

Knights Archive was first to spot that Edelweiss has the Random House summer catalog items up. The highlight is a preliminary cover for Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion. Here’s the blurb:

A new, never-before-published entry in our extremely popular series of fully illustrated Star Wars Essential Guides. Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion is a book Star Wars fans have been asking for, and will be presented with astonishing full-color artwork throughout!

Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion is the first Essential Guide devoted entirely to published Star Wars fiction, from the original movie novelization, to young reader’s books, short stories, eBook novellas, and the most recent adult novel. This book will cover all the fiction that has built the Star Wars Expanded Universe over the last thirty-five years.

Also appearing are X-Wing: Mercy Kill, which features a very vague ‘blurb’ with no cover, and The Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop, which we already know plenty of.

And while we’re on the topic of catalogs, both Mercy Kill and The Essential Reader’s Companion have made their appearances on Random House’s main online catalog as well. They’re currently due out on August 7, 2012 and August 21, 2012, respectively.

EUbits: Book of Sith trailer, Bohnhoff interview

Video. IGN has an exclusive reveal trailer showing Dan Wallace’s Book of the Sith in action.

Interview. Roqoo Depot talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff about next week’s Shadow Games and the upcoming fourth Coruscant Nights novel.

Pictures. A few more looks at the Essential Guide to Warfare art… Mostly technical stuff this round.

Excerpts. The Darth Plagueis drum has started beating with mini and audio peeks.

Reviews. James checks out Invasion: Revelations #5 at Big Shiny Robot.

EUbits: A look at Essential Guide to Warfare art

Essential art. Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss gave fans a first look at some of the art from The Essential Guide to Warfare. They include an “an ancient battle between the Rakatans and the Killiks” by Darren Tan, an OTish space battle by Paul Youll (who did the covers for the X-Wing novels), and a Dark Empire World Devastator by Stephan Martiniere.

Street date shuffle. Speaking of X-Wings, Schoeneweiss also gave us a solid date for Aaron Allston’s Mercy Kill: August 7. Our schedule has been updated.

Interview. Author Drew Karpyshyn talks Revan at Suvudu.

NYCC: Back covers for Apocalypse, Plagueis, plus additional Fate of the Jedi teases

Jaina Solo, Jag Fel, and Darth Maul are spotlighted in the back cover art for Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse and Darth Plagueis. The art was revealed at the Del Rey panel at New York Comic Con yesterday, and posted online today by editor Erich Schoeneweiss. The Darth Plagueis cover is by Torstein Nordstrand while the Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse cover is by Ian Keltie.

Suvudu has more details from panel at NYCC. In addition to the announcements of two new novels, Drew Karpyshyn’s untitled The Old Republic tie-in for fall 2012, and Timothy Zahn’s untitled Han Solo novel, there was also this teaser from Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse:

“Perhaps they feared Luke Skywalker just that much.

And that was a mistake.

Luke Skywalker was not the Sword of the Jedi. Jaina was, and now the Sith had trapped themselves inside a locked Temple with her.”

And for those waiting for a picture of Abeloth from Fate of the Jedi, Erich has mentioned that there will be a scene of her confronting “Luke, Ben, Vestara,” and the Sith in Allies in the Essential Guide to Warfare.

EUbits: Essential Guide to Warfare moves back, win breakfast with Zahn at DragonCon

Street date shuffle. The release of Jason Fry’s Essential Guide to Warfare has been moved to May 22 next year, Erich Schoeneweiss announced on Facebook. On the plus side, it’s only two months, and he did include a nice Hoth sketch from Tommy Lee Edwards.

Contest. Suvudu is planning another meal for three fans with Timothy Zahn. This time it’s breakfast at Dragon*Con with Tim, Shelly Shapiro and Betsy Mitchell.

Fate of the Jedi. Suvudu also has five Ascension tidbits with Christie Golden, while the Star Wars Books Facebook will have a live chat with her tomorrow.

Video. The Blueprints has a trailer. Naturally.

EUbits: Drew Karpyshyn takes on Darth Revan

Revan will be Karpyshyn’s Old Republic novel. The third novel tie-in to Bioware’s Old Republic MMO will feature the Sith Lord from Knights of the Old Republic, SWTOR.com announced today. Other characters from the KOTOR games, including Canderous, T3-M4, the Exile and Bastila Shan, will also appear.

Upcoming. Dan Wallace is currently working on an updated Essential Guide to Characters.

Art books. Abrams will follow up last year’s Star Wars Visions with Star Wars Art: Comics.

Interview. Sci-Fi block talks to comic writer Tom Taylor.

Opinion Lightsaber Rattling makes a point for Star Wars eBooks.