There have been two book-based publishing panels here at Celebration so far, and luckily I managed to attend both! They’ve been low on major news, but they did still contain a few revelations about upcoming fiction.
The first, Lucasfilm Publishing, was Friday, not long after The Rise of Skywalker panel, which is pretty much why you’re getting this post on Saturday. (Fan! Blogging!) We did get a cover reveal for Zoraida Córdova’s Galaxy’s Edge YA novel, A Crash of Fate, which was compared to Lost Stars and features two old friends who reconnect.
Delilah Dawson confirmed that Cardinal will be joining Vi Moradi in her Galaxy’s Edge novel, Black Spire. It will have a very different feel from Phasma – she name-dropped the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine as an inspiration at both panels.
Meanwhile, Christian Blauvelt’s Be More Yoda and Be More Vader are getting two new companion volumes in the fall: Be More Leia and Be More Lando. And Jeffrey Brown returns to the GFFA with Rey and Pals. Check StarWars.com for some of the highlights (and decent images!), and my Twitter thread has a few other bits. (Yes, there will be a Journey to Episode IX. No other details, but it will happen.)
The second panel was Del Rey Behind the Scenes, and it featured Claudia Gray, Delilah S. Dawson, Alexander Freed, Tim Zahn and Cavan Scott with Marc Thompson moderating.
We did learn a few things about Gray’s Master & Apprentice and Scott’s audio drama Dooku: Jedi Lost. Scott was such a fan of a new character in M&A, Rael Averross – Dooku’s previous padawan and another mentor to Qui-Gon Jinn – that he became a big part of Jedi Lost.
As for Thrawn: Treason, we got a few more details – Thrawn gets drawn into the power games of Tarkin and Orson Krennic and “it doesn’t end how anyone expects.” Eli Vanto returns, as does Admiral Ar’alani and the Grysk.
There will be an author roundtable here on Monday, which seems like it will be the hotbed for announcements. I plan to attend that but wasn’t able to get a panel reservation, so… We’ll see. (Ahh, Reed.)
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In addition to the already-announced comic, there’s Black Spire from Del Rey, a sequel-trilogy era novel by Phasma author Delilah S. Dawson.
In this novel, a prequel to the Disney Parks experience, General Leia Organa dispatches her top spy to Batuu in a desperate search for Resistance allies.
Back to Galaxy’s Edge, there’s also A Crash of Fate, a young adult novel by Zoraida Córdova, and middle reader Star Wars: Myths & Fables by George Mann with illustrations by Grant Griffin. That one only features two Batuu stories, and there’s an excerpt of the Tatooine-set story “The Knight & the Dragon” at the link.
Anther comic (this time from IDW) and a cookbook are also in the works. A Crash of Fate and Myths & Fables drop August 6, while Black Spire is out September 3.
Gray and Johnston both have new Star Wars books coming out in the spring: Johnston’s Padme YA novel Queen’s Shadow is out March 5, while Gray’s Master and Apprentice is due April 16, just after the con, so we can likely expect a convention exclusive version.
Celebration Chicago is being held April 11-15, 2019 at McCormick Place.
The special New York Comic Con panel about the Star Wars 40th Anniversary anthology features several of the book’s 40-something writers, including moderator Pablo Hidalgo, Claudia Gray, Delilah Dawson, Jason Fry, E.K. Johnston and more.
