Jedi-Bibliothek spotted previews of the four Journey to The Force Awakens books for young readers on iTunes – and they reveal – or confirm – at least a few things about the film. Turns out, the prologues to Moving Target, Smuggler’s Run, and The Weapon of a Jedi are actually set in The Force Awakens era. In Moving Target we get a glimpse of Leia – and a confirmation of her title – and Han tells a story about the Millennium Falcon in Smuggler’s Run. Luke’s situation will have to wait for the movie, though – Weapon of a Jedi features a red-armed C-3PO and Jessika Pava, a pilot with Blue Squadron. (We’ve heard of her before, spoiler-lovers!)
I’ve cropped the Phil Noto art, above, but head to Jedi-Bibliothek for some screenshots and a bit of story. (Including Lost Stars, which, alas, has no such illustration.)
The Journey to the Force Awakens novels will all be out September 4.
StarWars.com has revealed some short synopses for the three original short stories that will be packaged in the A New Dawn/Tarkin bind up, Rise of the Empire.
The first, ‘Mercy Mission’ by Melissa Scott, follows a young Hera and her father, The Clone Wars’ Cham Syndulla, on Ryloth. ‘Bottleneck’ by John Jackson Miller features Grand Moff Tarkin and A New Dawn’s Count Vidian. And Jason Fry’s ‘The Levers of Power’ features Admiral Rae Sloane during the Battle of Endor.
Rise of the Empire comes out in trade paperback on October 6.
The Journey to the Force Awakens series finally gets a little bit of fleshing out on StarWars.com – and we finally get a synopsis for the centerpiece, Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath. As predicted, it features Wedge Antilles!
As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance — now a fledgling New Republic — presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy’s scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. But above the remote planet Akiva, an ominous show of the enemy’s strength is unfolding. Out on a lone reconnaissance mission, pilot Wedge Antilles watches Imperial Star Destroyers gather like birds of prey circling for a kill, but is taken captive before he can report back to the New Republic leaders.
Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, former Rebel fighter Norra Wexley has returned to her native world — war weary, ready to reunite with her estranged son, and eager to build a new life in some distant place. But when Norra intercepts Wedge Antilles’s urgent distress call, she realizes her time as a freedom fighter is not yet over. What she doesn’t know is just how close the enemy is—or how decisive and dangerous her new mission will be.
Determined to preserve the Empire’s power, the surviving Imperial elite are converging on Akiva for a top-secret emergency summit — to consolidate their forces and rally for a counterstrike. But they haven’t reckoned on the Norra and her newfound allies — her technical genius son, a Zabrak bounty hunter, and a reprobate Imperial defector — who are prepared to do whatever they must to end the Empire’s oppressive reign once and for all.
We also get the covers for the YA novels:
Phil Noto on all three! Note that MVP author Jason Fry, in addition to writing the Luke novel The Weapon of a Jedi, did double duty with Cecil Castellucci on the Leia book, Moving Target. Also getting a full synopsis is Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars:
The reign of the Galactic Empire has reached the Outer Rim planet of Jelucan, where aristocratic Thane Kyrell and rural villager Ciena Ree bond over their love of flying. Enrolling at the Imperial Academy together to become fighter pilots for the glorious Empire is nothing less than a dream come true for the both of them. But Thane sours on the dream when he sees firsthand the horrific tactics the Empire uses to maintain its ironclad rule.
Bitter and disillusioned, Thane joins the fledgling Rebellion — putting Ciena in an unbearable position to choose between her loyalty to the Empire and her love for the man she’s known since childhood.
Now on opposite sides of the war, will these friends turned foes find a way to be together, or will duty tear them — and the galaxy — apart?
The Journey to the Force Awakens books – which will also include several reference books, plus at least two comics – will be out on Force Friday, September 4.
StarWars.com has revealed the cover, release date and short story authors for Rise of the Empire, the “bind-up” that collects A New Dawn and Tarkin that was officially announced at Celebration. The authors who contribute the three original short stories are familiar names John Jackson Miller and Jason Fry, along with Star Wars newcomer Melissa Scott.
Rise of the Empire will be out in trade paperback on October 6, 2015. Check out the full cover below the cut.
We saw saw the first blurbs for the Journey to Episode VII YA books a few weeks back, and now one of them has been revised. Jason Fry’s The Weapon of a Jedi (Amazon) now teases a “a dangerous duel between Luke and a strange new villain” instead of “Luke’s first-ever duel with a lightsaber.” (via)
Fry himself is leading us on a merry chase on Twitter.
This thrilling Young Adult novel gives readers a macro view of some of the most important events in the Star Wars universe, from the rise of the Rebellion to the fall of the Empire. Readers will experience these major moments through the eyes of two childhood friends-Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell-who have grown up to become an Imperial officer and a Rebel pilot. Now on opposite sides of the war, will these two star-crossed lovers reunite, or will duty tear them-and the galaxy-apart?
Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the story finds Luke Skywalker, C-3PO, and R2-D2 stranded on a mysterious planet, and explores Luke’s first-ever duel with a lightsaber.
Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the story follows the warrior princess as she leads a ragtag group of rebels on a dangerous mission against the evil Galactic Empire.
Set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the story follows everyone’s favorite pair of smugglers as they fly the Millennium Falcon on a top-secret mission for the Rebellion.
All four promise “all-new post-Return of the Jedi content, as well as hints and clues” about The Force Awakens.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Journey to Episode VII – of which we’ve already heard about in drips and drabbles – will in fact encompass 20 books and comics across the various publishers. (Including such things as ‘sticker books,’ so it’s not exactly the New Jedi Order all over again, thankfully.)
“The Force Awakens is an extraordinarily, heavily guarded storyline. To track it, a lot of top-secret meetings were happening up in San Francisco as we worked through this program,” says Andrew Sugerman, executive vice president of Disney Publishing Worldwide. The company is managing the release through its own imprints as well as at least seven outside companies, among them sci-fi publisher Del Rey, Dorling Kindersley, and Marvel Comics.
The only Del Rey book mentioned is Star Wars: Aftermath – no author is given, but it certainly sounds like something in the new gap years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Marvel will put out at least two TFA prequel stories, including one from Threepio’s perspective.
The YA books – the one we’ve primarily heard about thus far, do get authors:
Cecil Castellucci (author of Tin Star) will write Moving Target, an adventure following Princess Leia; Jason Fry, who earlier wrote Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy, will be the author of The Weapon of a Jedi, about Luke Skywalker; Claudia Gray, author of the Evernight series of fantasy books, will write a book titled Lost Stars; and Greg Rucka, a comic book scribe and writer of the Atticus Kodiak novels, will pen Smuggler’s Run, a Han Solo tale.
We knew about Claudia Gray, and Jason Fry is (so far) our only returning author. Now, we wait for more from Del Rey and Marvel… Cross your fingers.
There are short story ebooks from Jason Fry and John Jackson Miller for early 2015, which Florian thinks are 100% real.
However, keep in mind we don’t necessarily know that any of these will be Episode VII related, and both the titles and authors may be placeholders. There’s what appears to be parts of a trilogy called “The Duelist,” (#2 and #3) with Christie Golden listed as author. There’s also a single “Roundtable Trilogy #2,” with Troy Denning listed as an author. Only those three have authors listed – there are also three untitled novels. Again, both the titles and authors may be placeholders, as ISBNs can be reused, so don’t panic just yet. (For instance: What if ‘The Duelist’ ISBNs – and that title – were originally assigned to Sword of the Jedi? The same could go for Denning and that ’roundtable’ thing: Maybe they were originally assigned to another pre-Disney project that was planned but never announced.)
None of them are December releases – “Untitled Novel # 4” has a date of November 3, which seems awfully early for the novelization, so it may be something else entirely. Looks like there’s some kind of nonfiction or reference book in there as well – “Untitled Novel # 33” has a price of $38.00 and a January 2016 release date.
These are all fairly curious: I wonder when we’ll hear more? After that disheartening Stover fake-out, I’m wary of everything right now…
The blogside. For the detail oriented, StarWars.com has Imperial warlords from Abel G. Peña and Daniel Wallace and Xim the Despot by Jason Fry with Paul Urquhart. From the fan side, Eleven-ThirtyEight has Alexander Gaultier looking at the lost books of the EU and Ben Crofts defends implausible victories, or, welcome to the wonderful world of Space Opera.
Interview. Roqoo Depot talks to artist Chris Trevas about the Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual.