EUbits: New covers for Phantom Menace, Lost Tribe

Covers. Knight’s Archive found the new cover to The Phantom Menace novelization earlier this week. Shockingly, it looks just like the poster. Like the last TPM-centric rerelease, Shadow Hunter, this one contains a new James Luceno short story and may be a bit difficult to find because both editions share the same ISBN. It’s due out on the 31st.

In other cover reveals, StarWars.com has the covers for eighth Lost Tribe of the Sith installment and the paperback compilation. They look pretty much the same as all the Lost Tribe of the Sith stuff.

Fate of the Jedi. The mini-excerpts for Denning’s Apocalypse begin with – who else? – Saba.

Interviews. In a two-parter, James Luceno talks Darth Plagueis at TFN and Suvudu, while John Jackson Miller chats with CBR’s Tim O’Shea.

EUbits: Zahn talks Han Solo, Chiss, and short stories

Zahn says… On his Facebook page, Tim Zahn narrows the timeline of his upcoming Han Solo novel from OT era to “around the time of” A New Hope, brainstorms a theory on why Chiss are hanging around The Old Republic, and reveals possible topics for the short stories that would have gone with the probably-not-happening annotated editions of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. (Two of these originally brought to my attention by Roqoo Depot, since I haven’t been paying as much attention to Facebook as I should.)

Excerpts. With James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis coming out on Tuesday, the machine was in full swing this week, with a mini-excerpt on Facebook, two pages on Entertainment Weekly and the first 50 pages on Suvudu. Is there anything in the book that hasn’t been released as a tease at this point?

Well, this is disturbing. If you’re a Sith in The Old Republic, you get your own Twi’lek slave to torture. Yeeeeah, no thanks.

Short stories. Eric Geller daydreams up some short story anthologies. (Remember anthologies? We haven’t seen one since ’99. They didn’t sell at that well, apparently.)

Chat. Dark Horse and John Jackson Miller will have a Twitter chat on Tuesday for the occasion of Knights of the Old Republic: War #1, which will apparently be coming out on Wednesday. You’ll want to keep an eye on the hashtag #KOTORWarChat.

Out this week: New Shadow Hunter, CEIII #3

You ought to be seeing the new edition of Michael Reaves’ Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter in stores today. It has a new cover and contains a new short story by James Luceno, ‘Restraint,’ as well as an older short, ‘Saboteur.’ I’d recommend caution – and buying the book in a real live bookstore – to make sure you have the right edition, since it doesn’t seem to have a fresh ISBN. The new cover, along with our comic release this week, is at the right.

There should be no issues with Wednesday’s lone comic release, Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #3. It’s brand new.

And with that we official close out the 2011 releases. Up in two weeks, on January 10, we’ll get the first novel of the new year with Luceno’s Darth Plagueis.

EUbits: Grubb, Fry short stories coming to Insider

Short stories. David Pomerico revealed that Jeff Grubb and Jason Fry will both have short stories in upcoming issues of the Star Wars Insider, tying into Scourge and The Essential Guide to Warfare, respectively. Both books will be out in April, so expect to see the stories soon.

Authors. Troy Denning wrote a post on climactic scenes for Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog today.

Interviews. Sohaib Awan talks to Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, while Jedi Journals has James Luceno.

Excerpts. Plagueis is nigh, with excerpts upon excerpts.

Reviews. Over at Big Shiny Robot, James reviews the Phantom Menace comic reprints, Agent of the Empire #1, and Knight Errant: Deluge #5.

EUbits: New excerpts for Darth Revan, Riptide, & Darth Plagueis

Plagueis the child? Today, Star Wars Books gives us the first in a series of mini-excerpts for James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis on Facebook. The Sith aren’t babysnatchers… most of the time.

On Stranger Tides: Paul Kemp dishes out a second excerpt, eight pages long, from Riptide, which comes out next week. If you missed the first excerpt, check it out on Suvudu.

Inside the Sith Empire: Random House has a good chunk of the first chapter of The Old Republic: Revan up on its site. Drew Karpyshyn’s novel about the character from the Knights of the Old Republic game comes out in November. If there’s one thing to be said about the Sith Empire, it’s that the trains run on time, so they must be doing something right.

Vader turns the page: At Suvudu, Eric Geller previews The Complete Vader with a video walkthrough of the book that looks at Darth Vader as both character and as pop culture icon.

Fate of the Jedi: In case you missed it, last week, Troy Denning has turned in his manscript for Apocalypse.

Comics: I’ve been busy reviewing the latest Star Wars comics over at Big Shiny Robot: Last week we had the awesome Invasion – Revelations #4, and the lackluster The Old Republic – The Lost Suns #5. This week, I take a peek at Knight Errant – Escape #3, and a The Clone Wars digest: Strange Allies.

EUbits: Darth Plagueis retreats to January

Street date shuffle. The release of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has been pushed back from December 27 (read: still after Christmas) to January 10. No big; our ever-present Star Wars book release schedule has been updated.

Hintage. Lucasfilm editor J. W. Rinzler hints at future projects with DK on Twitter.

Excerpts. Fans longing for the return of Diet Han (just one calorie!) will love the latest Shadow Games mini-excerpt.

New York ComicCon. Del Rey will have Drew Karpyshyn and Bonnie Burton at their Star Wars booth. NYCC runs Oct. 13 – 16.

Interviews. Amazon’s Omnivoracious blog interviews Paul S. Kemp, while the official blog talks to Carlos Garzón about Star Wars Art: Comics.

Luceno’s Darth Plagueis get blurbed

Knights Archive was (again!) first to spot that a blurb from James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis has gone up at Random House.

Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master—but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power . . . over life and death.

Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

I remain, as ever, deeply skeptical about this book, but we’ll have to wait until December 27 to see if Luceno pulls it off.

Apocalypse to contain excerpt from next series

On the page for the final Fate of the Jedi novel, Apocalypse, the Random House Spring catalog says that the book will feature an “extensive excerpt of book one of the next Star Wars series.” (via)

Given that they’ve been saying for some time now that we won’t be seeing another mega-series in the nature of Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, we can only hope that means a trilogy at the most. And, while I can’t really summon much vitriol for the guy, I hope dearly it’s not going to be by Troy Denning.

The catalog also contains pages for Luceno’s Darth Plagueis book and Fry’s Essential Guide to Warfare, as well as a new Caine book by Matt Stover. Head under the cut to see the pages for Apocalypse and Plagueis. Continue readingApocalypse to contain excerpt from next series”