Tag: essential guides

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EUbits: Del Rey to preview Zahn’s Heir to the Empire annotations

Whoohoo! Beginning next Thursday, the Star Wars Books Facebook page will be posting a Heir to the Empire annotation from Timothy Zahn each week until the book’s release in June. Suddenly, I hate Facebook just a tiny, tiny bit less.

In the meantime, Del Rey is asking what Thrawn scene you’d like to see illustrated in The Essential Guide to Warfare.

The blogside. Paul S. Kemp on readers who complain there’s too much focus on Jedi and Sith in the EU. I’m so with him on this. Sure, it’s nice to have novels about other folks in the galaxy sometimes, but Jedi and Sith are pretty much integral to the DNA of Star Wars.

Pop quiz. Head on over to EUC to find out if you are smarter than a Star Wars blogger. I can neither confirm nor deny that some of the snarky quotes are mine.

C2E2. Not surprisingly, there are several Star Wars events at the Chicago con later this month, including Del Rey and Dark Horse panels. And I’m changing my mind every other day about going…

Weird facts. Pete at Lightsaber Rattling follows up his author list with a look at who’s written the most young adult novels. The ultimate result this time around, though? Not a surprise. Think if we pester him enough he’ll do one by word count?

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EUCast squeezes Heir to the Empire 20th details out of Del Rey’s Schoeneweiss

The EUCast had Del Rey editor Erich Schoeneweiss on their latest podcast, and he revealed a few tidbits about upcoming projects. Most notably (at least to us,) is that we have some confirmation that Timothy Zahn is not the only one contributing annotations to the book; Editor Betsy Mitchell and a few folks at Lucasfilm (Leland? Pablo?) will be as well.

He also said that the cover art we’ve seen for the Heir to the Empire 20th Anniversary Edition is likely to be close to the final, but:

To my knowledge it hasn’t been completely approved yet, but that’s definitely the direction that we want to go. I believe the plan is that that will be the jacket, and it will have sort of treatment, some sort of silver foil treatment on it. But then when you take the jacket off of it, underneath, (kind of similar to what we did with the Death Troopers hardcover) it will have the original book cover as the paper-over-board cover.

Does this make me a prophet? Well, except for the part about it being the original (ugh) art.

In other news, Schoeneweiss said that Jason Fry’s The Essential Guide to Warfare is being pushed back to 2012 and an Essential Guide to the Underworld is in the planning stages. Updated versions of the character and ship guides are also likely in the next few years.

They also got in touch with Shelly Shapiro, who said that while they’re still discussing Paul S. Kemp’s duology, “There’s a good chance” it will be in the Old Republic era.

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Random House catalog offers preliminary cover for Heir to the Empire anniversary reissue

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.)

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Celebration V: The madness begins

I spent much of the day at the StarWars.com booth. While they weren’t selling anything, there were several products on display. Including the small Mara Jade statue you see above! It’s a Star Wars Shop exclusive and will be on sale sometime next year, along with a Darth Bane. Stop by the booth to get a closer look, or I’ll have more pictures later. (Sorry. Conhaustion is kicking in.) Also coming? A friend for the Garden Jawa:

I only got to one panel today, and that may very well be the record for the attending Jaders. (Yes. Ouch. By which I mean, our feet.) The good news is it was the Essential Guides, and there was news: A third Essential Guide to Characters is coming, tentatively dated for 2012.

But the big news, if Twitter and my RSS feeder is to be believed, is that a clip shown at ‘The Clone Wars: Evolution’ panel featured Republic Commandos. Big Shiny Robot has a write-up of both Clone Wars panels, while EU Cantina found video.

I’m hearing that the Hoth Ice Bar is the place to be. Hoping to make it over tomorrow: And I will tweet if I can stay for a while, but it’s looking like another crazy day!

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Zahn’s Hand of Judgment revealed in schedule shuffle

Don't get excited, it's just the Japanese Allegiance coverSue 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.

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Sue reveals two new Essentials, updated schedule

So I finally do an EUbits and then we get more news? Such is the life. But Sue Rostoni posted an updated book schedule today – and revealed two new reference/nonfiction books – so no sitting on/twittering this, thank you very much. Here’s what’s new:

  • Jason Fry is taking on The Essential Guide to Warfare – previously known as The Essential Guide to the Military. Folks have been clamoring for this for a while, so good to see it finally get pinned down. It’s due in June 2011
  • Meanwhile Internet Rockstar/Man Who Never Sleeps Pablo Hidalgo will be penning The Essential Reader’s Companion. And I am forced to devolve into aged memes. (I hate you, Pablo. Okay, not really.) Seriously now, Sue describes this as “a non-fiction guide to fiction, with side-bars calling out related comics and events.”
  • We also get a timeframe for Visions: November!

Meme or no meme, our schedule is updated, so go check out a new sneak peek at The Making of The Empire Strikes Back. (Holy heavy metal!)

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The fandom minute: Defending TPM, subtext, politics, cake, and other things you do under the cover of night

Rebuttal. Big-time prequel fan Bryan Young has begun his response to the 90-minute Phantom Menace review that was going around a while back.

Presented without comment. Karen Miller, whose Star Wars books have been enthusiastically received by certain areas of fandom, wants folks to know that she’s not writing homoerotic subtext into her Clone Wars books. Okay then. (It seems the rant was inspired by this thread. Sigh.)

If we ever see an Essential Guide again… Suggestions for a book on GFFA politics. Dan Wallace is game!

Cakes! Clone Wars’ fame continues to spread with an impressive Republic Gunship and an adorable Jabba with Rotta. (via/via)

Crass fansumerism. Chewbika or soap? A bank?

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EUbits: Essential Atlas falls back to July

Bad news, folks – The Essential Atlas release date has moved from February to July. Still confident we’ll see it… eventually. (Thanks for the heads-up, Zee Zee!)

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Confirmed: Del Rey has the Star Wars license through 2013; Fate of the Jedi series is post-LOTF

The contract renewal we’ve all been expecting has finally been announced, (45 books: 35 novels!) along with the Fate of the Jedi series which has been burning up all the rumor mills. Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, and SW newcomer Christie Golden will be handling author duties on the post-LOTF series, but perhaps the biggest surprise here is that it will be entirely in hardcover. The first book, Allston’s Outcast, will be out in April.

Also name-dropped is The Making of The Empire Strikes Back coming in 2010, though whether it’s a reprint or reworking of previous material we’ve yet to learn.

There’s no mention of several other projects we’re awaiting official word on, like Cunningham’s Blood Oath or Traviss’ Fett standalone, but further Essential Guides are mentioned.