Thanks to fellow fan site Making Star Wars and live tweets Brian from EU Cantina, we have some highlights from the Star Wars at Del Rey panel that you don’t want to miss!
The panel took place yesterday afternoon, which was day three of Star Wars Celebration. Together with the Marvel panel (which you can get a recap of here), the discussion with Del Rey’s editor Shelly Shapiro, Lucasfilm senior editor Jennifer Heddle, and authors Christie Golden, James Luceno, and John Jackson Miller made for an interesting day for Star Wars literature. There was also a special guest author who will be making a return to the galaxy far, far away in a big way.
So without further ado: punch it, Chewie!
First off, a bit of confirmation about a novel we already knew about: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden, and featuring The Clone Wars favorite Asajj Ventress and Jedi Quinlan Vos, is an adaptation of eight un-aired The Clone Wars episodes. Golden was able to use all eight episodes scripts and see four animatics in developing this story for novel format. The release date for this book is July 7th.
I’m really looking forward to this one, by the way. From the plot synopsis on Amazon.com, it sounds like it’s going to be part adventure and part romance. Plus, Ventress’ character is very interesting and complex, and I want to see where they take that.
Next up, another book we already knew about: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig, to be released on September 4th. Aftermath is part of a trilogy of books that will look into the era following Return of the Jedi. This promises to be the first step into the new world of post-original trilogy canon, so you definitely do not want to miss it.
According to Jennifer Heddle, there will be six-seven important pieces of fiction in the Journey to The Force Awakens literature series hitting book store shelves in September. “Easter eggs will be in all of them,” tweets Brian from EU Cantina.
On October 6th, you can expect the release of a packaged book deal called Rise of the Empire – “a collection of A New Dawn [John Jackson Miller] and Tarkin [James Luceno], with new short stories, one of which nods to The Force Awakens,” tweets Brian.
November 3rd will see the release of a brand new novel by Alexander Freed called Battlefront: Twilight Company. According to the panel, the book will not be a novelization of the Battlefront video game that was announced at Star Wars Celebration on Friday; rather, it will give the reader the experience of being a Rebel soldier on the front lines.
Finally, here’s the special guest news I alluded to earlier: Alan Dean Foster, ghost writer of the A New Hope novelization and author of Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, made a surprise appearance at the panel to announce his authorship of The Force Awakens novelization! With this announcement come some release dates: the e-book will be available December 18th (the day of the film’s premiere), while the hardcover will not hit store shelves until January 16th. For this last tidbit, I am personally very happy because it means that no one (or at the very least, very few people) will get to read the story before they see the movie. This means fewer spoilers, and less temptation for me to go to Barnes & Noble to get a sneak peek!
So that’s it from the news out of Del Rey! Not a whole lot of new information this time around, but there will be likely be many more developments throughout the year.