Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
It doesn’t take a whole lot for Star Wars fans to panic, and the latest one was the low page count Amazon gave for the new Aaron Allston mystery book. Sue says:
They can’t count the pages of a book that hasn’t been written yet.
Naturally. On the other hand, this is more or less a confirmation that the book isn’t just an Amazon fever dream.
So sayth the official blog this evening: Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor has been moved back to December, and Luceno’s Millennium Falcon moved up to October. But the main focus of the post is a nice bit from artist Dave Seeley on the how and why of the image, and we get our first look at Mindor’s back cover – Lord Shadowspawn.
This is also the second time we’ve gotten a real news item via the blog… Interesting, no? (I suppose an all-Flash site would be mildly bearable if this method continues. Permalinks good!)
Yes, yes, I’m updating the book schedule.
UPDATE 05/20: On TOS, we have word from Sue Rostoni on the how and why of the switch:
Matt is late with his manuscript, and Jim is early — just made sense to swap them to give us a bit more time.
Editor Sue Rostoni is back, addressing fan questions and concerns about Invincible and beyond (so yes, there are spoilers!) Look for Rostoni posting as Eeusu Estornii, starting on page 432 of the BCaT VIPs thread.
She revealed a bit of news regarding Millennium Falcon as well – it’s set about two years after the events of LOTF.
Not the most surprising comment in the world, but hey, at least it’s something:
I can’t comment on this yet because the contract (a different one than the “main” contract) has not yet been signed. And “first announcements” will appear on starwars.com first, so if you haven’t read it from the main site, I can’t comment on it here.
As for ongoing contract issue that she also addresses, it should be noted that both books are listed as Del Rey releases on Amazon and also appear on RandomHouse.com (with the Del Rey logo) just like all the currently announced upcoming books. Would LFL pursue a secondary contract with Del Rey if they weren’t planning on renewing the main one? (And for that matter, why is Del Rey adding them to the catalog if the contract isn’t signed? Solicitation requirements?)
We have had dual book contracts before (Del Rey/Bantam in the 90’s) but I’m not really inclined to believe that LFL would go back in that direction.
First off, she explains that while the ‘Rogue Leader’ image “hasn’t been chosen to become the cover of the Luke book, the idea is one that appeals to us.”
She also addresses the concept of covers and canon, which has been a hot topic over at the TOS boards lately:
With SW, we’ve tried to get covers to stay true to what’s happening inside, but it’s rarely completely possible. I think we’ve done a very, very good job with our covers in conveying the sense and feeling of the books. Personally, I don’t think covers should be cannon at all…… an exception might be when an EU character who has never been seen before shows up on a cover, then we’d use that as future reference… but people need to be realistic about these things.
Check out the Books, Comics, and Television VIP thread at StarWars.com for more.
Sue Rostoni made a flurry of posts over on the starwars.com boards today. Nothing too detailed, but we’ve learned that that Jaina is most likely the cover subject for Invincible; the Lucas people have had a meeting with the folks handling the new book contract and they’re aiming for “a good mix of eras.”
Meanwhile, there’s an interview with Timothy Zahn over at Fractal Matter.
Sue Rostoni posted the Dramatis Personae for the upcoming Death Star by Steve Perry and Michael Reaves. The book comes out in September, and the DP is quoted beneath the cut.