Poll: Your thoughts on Fate of the Jedi: Omen

omen-horizSo Christie Golden’s first foray into the GFFA and the second book of the latest series has been out for nearly a week now… Time to put up the book poll.

But first, here are a few reviews from out and around the web: TheForce.Net staff, EU Cantina, Big Shiny Robot, Starlog, Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review, and NJOE. Or get down with the unwashed masses at the TFN Lit’s official review thread. I haven’t read any of them yet: I won’t until after I do my own review in a few days, so forgive me the simple listing.

Weigh in yourself with the mystical power of click beneath the cut. Continue reading “Poll: Your thoughts on Fate of the Jedi: Omen

Tidbits from Random House’s fall catalog

Random House’s fall catalog is now available to the pixel-soaked masses, and there’s not a ton of news in it… Mostly the standard publicity stuff: Author podcasts, convention appearances, 501st marketing events.

  • Death Troopers (page 113) will have a fan cover design contest and a special cover with a full-color poster on the reverse. (The winning entry to the contest, perhaps?)
  • Another free e-story will be coming with Fate of the Jedi: Abyss (page 107.)
  • The Complete Vader (page 111) will.. uhh.. be shrink-wrapped? You’re probably better off looking at StarWar.com’s preview pages.
  • Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil has the same blurb we saw with the cover announcement. It’s hanging out on page 115.

Keep in mind this catalog copy is done fairly early on, so all this is subject to change… And no, there’s nothing Star Wars in the trade paperback catalog – the next Clone Wars book isn’t due out until February.

Editor Sue Rostoni on Blood Oath

Sue has stopped in at the VIP thread at StarWars.com with an update:

…We’re all doing our best to keep it in the line-up and, if the manuscript comes in soon, the book will be moved again, maybe to April 2010. If there’s no manuscript, then it’ll have to be dropped. Events beyond the author’s control, or wishes, have caused the delays. I know, that really doesn’t tell you much, but it’s not my story to tell, ya know?

UPDATE: Today, Sue elaborates on why the manuscript has to be in at a certain point… And what it has to do with FOTJ.

Out this week: Fate of the Jedi, Legacy

omen-horizTomorrow the second Fate of the Jedi book, Omen, will hit the stores. This is the first Star Wars novel we’ve seen by Christie Golden, and so far the buzz on the boards is pretty good.

Wednesday is brings something as well, with Legacy #37, the first issue of the highly anticipated ‘Tatooine’ storyline.

New blurb for Fate of the Jedi: Abyss

fotj-abyss-175SWBooks.co.uk noticed a new, heftier blurb on the Random House listing for the third Fate of the Jedi book, Denning’s Abyss. This might be spoilery for book 2, Omen, so highlight to read:

Following a trail of clues across the galaxy, Luke Skywalker continues his quest to find the reasons behind Jacen Solo’s dark downfall and to win redemption for the Jedi Order. Sojourning among the mysterious Aing-Tii monks has left Luke and his son Ben with no real answers, only the suspicion that the revelations they seek lie in the forbidden reaches of the distant Maw Cluster. There, hidden from the galaxy in a labyrinth of black holes, dwell the Mind Walkers: those whose power to transcend their bodies and be one with the Force is as seductive and intoxicating as it is potentially fatal. But it may be Luke’s only path to the truth.

Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the war of wills between Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala and the Jedi Order is escalating. Outraged over the carbonite freezing of young Jedi Knights Valin and Jysella Horn after their inexplicable mental breakdowns, the Jedi are determined to defy Daala’s martial tactics, override Council Master Kenth Hamner’s wavering leadership, and deal on their own terms with the epidemic of madness preying on their ranks. As Han and Leia Solo, along with their daughter Jaina, join the fight to protect more stricken Knights from arrest, Jedi healers race to find a cure for the rapidly spreading affliction. But none of them realize the blaster barrel is already swinging in their direction–and Chief Daala is about to pull the trigger.

Nor do Luke and Ben, deep in the Maw Cluster and pushing their Force abilities beyond known limits, realize how close they are–to the Sith strike squad bent on exterminating the Skywalkers, to a nexus of dark-side energy unprecedented in its power and its hunger, and to an explosive confrontation between opposing wielders of the Force from which only one Master–good or evil–can emerge alive.

Abyss is due in August, while Omen comes out on the 23rd.

EUbits: That Blood Oath thing, a FOTJ short, Bohnhoff on rollercoasters, Invasion, TOR

Zekk and Leeloo take a trip to FabiovilleBlood Oath in flux. The fan sites and forums are seeing some buzz about the strange vanishing of Elaine Cunningham’s whatever-happened-to-Zekk paperback from the various online catalogs and booksellers. (Last things we heard were a cover and a postponement.) It is rather mysterious, but I’m willing to wait this one out…

EUbits: Hyperspace fiction, Bohnhoff, Insider, book club and free Clones

The fiction is coming from inside the house! The latest piece of Hyperspace original fiction, ‘Death in the Slave Pits of Lorrd,’ is by TFN’s Adrick “TalonCard” Tolliver.