As first reported a few days back, Del Rey was promoting Joe Schreiber’s upcoming Deathtroopers novel with a free soundtrack CD at the New York Comic Con. Now, Schreiber goes over the soundtrack playlist on his blog. With some of the aforementioned musicians, the soundtrack also included some Pixies, Allison Krauss, Tool, and Rob Zombie — and starts off with the 20th Century Fox fanfare. Not since “Christmas in the Stars” have some lucky fans gotten a Star Wars album so eclectic.
The internet hype is strong with Deathtroopers
The cover for Joe Schreiber’s Deathtroopers was revealed on Monday, and since then it’s spread through the internet at large like wildfire: Pretty unusual for your standard Star Wars novel, which usually only surface among us obsessives and maybe a SF/F book blog or two. Whereas Deathtroopers has showed up at horror staple Fangoria and sizable movie blogs /Film, Cinematical and Film School Rejects. It even inspired a list of film franchises that need a genre change.
If blog hype is anything to go by, it seems that the publishing program’s foray into genre crossovers may finally have a bona fida hit outside of the usual audience… Or at the very least, they might be able to sell some posters to the Saw-loving masses.
And perhaps most tellingly, Deathtroopers has been the week’s top search keyword leading people to CJ… You can read all our coverage, including comments from Schreiber, by clicking on the ‘deathtroopers’ tag below.
Deathtroopers cover revealed
The official site has a Monday surprise for us: The cover art for Joe Schreiber’s Deathtroopers.
EUbits: Joe Schreiber talks Deathtroopers with Bookspot Central, Legacy preview
Bookspot’s Jay Tomio talks to author Joe Schreiber about his upcoming Star Wars horror novel, how he got the job, and his history with the franchise. I believe this is the first interview with Schreiber focusing solely on Deathtroopers.
In other EU news, the preview for Legacy #32 went up on Friday.
Deathtroopers are coming…
Joe Schreiber’s Star Wars horror novel now has a title and a time period… Deathtroopers, set just before A New Hope. It’s due out in November. (Thanks, Zee Zee!) Here’s what Schreiber had to say on his blog:
I had the time of my life on this one, I have to say. I’m doing the final edits now, and I’ve tried to make it into exactly the kind of book you’d want to read if you were a child of the 70s who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy and really digs horror in the vein of The Shining and Alien, with a little dose of William Gibson mixed in.
Infodrop: Sue Rostoni on the new contract
Sue posts furthur details about the upcoming books on her blog. The relevant (new!) information…
- Fate of the Jedi #1: “Luke and Ben attempt to follow Jacen’s previous journey in the hopes of discovering what and how various Force-using groups influenced him to accept and use dark side powers.”
- The Clone Wars: Wild Space: Stars Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa! (Did we already know this?)
- Blood Oath: Takes place just after we last see Zekk, Dave Seeley is doing the cover!
- Joe Schreiber’s horror novel: Set between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back.
- Paul S. Kemp’s Jaden Korr book: Takes place during the… Great Hyperspace War? Well, I’m confused. UPDATE: Kemp clarifies.
- Alex Irvine’s novel will star Nomi Sunrider!
- The paperback by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff features “a promising holostar – a rags to riches story set against the backdrop of the early days of the Rebellion.” (Fan speculation/wishful thinking is pegging the holostar as Wynssa Starflare.)
Poll results: Anticipating the new publishing contract
Behold, the next three years of Star Wars publishing, ranked by CJ readers. Most of you seem to be looking forward to Fate of the Jedi: This poll also got more votes than the second, 172 to 143. Of the second poll, which asked you to choose from among the rest of the new contract’s fiction (at least those that we have some detail on) the clear winners were those that have established fanbases: Cunningham’s Blood Oath, featuring charter member of the Jaina Solo harem, Zekk; Irvine’s Knights of the Old Republic novel, set just before the popular games; Traviss’ Imperial Commando; and Drew Karpyshyn’s third Darth Bane novel. The rest are certain to see their stock rise as we get more details.
Poll: So we already know you want FOTJ…
The response to our Fate of the Jedi poll was pretty clear: Most of you (58%) are sure to be reading it, 24% are waiting to hear more before you decide, and only 19% have given up entirely (and/or were never big EU readers to begin with.) I’ll make a pretty pie chart after we finish our latest poll, though: Which of the other upcoming novels tickle your fancy the most? Vote below the cut or on the sidebar. Continue reading “Poll: So we already know you want FOTJ…”
The next three years in Star Wars publishing
Well, after starting an avalanche of reveals last week, StarWars.com gives us a lowdown of the new publishing contract (so far.) Some of it we already know: Fate of the Jedi, Blood Oath, The Clone Wars. As for reveals…
- Blood Oath features… Zekk! Still not dead.
- Christie Golden’s Star Wars debut in summer ’09 will be titled Fate of the Jedi: Enigma.
- Karen Traviss’ Imperial Commando series will be in paperback, and the first book is 501st, also due next summer.
- Winter ’09 brings another (horror!?!) standalone from a new author, Joe Schreiber.
- And a guide to Vader published by Becker & Mayer, who handled last year’s Vault.
- Drew Karpyshyn’s third Bane novel (hardcover, natch) will appear in early 2010, as will Kemp’s standalone.
- Fall 2010 bring a Star Wars craft book by Bonnie Burton.
- And another new-to-us author, Alex Irvine, tackles the ancient Jedi.
- For 2011 expect Traviss’ Boba Fett standalone in paperback.
- And another PB from Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.