Category Archives: SWEU

George Lucas Approves New Book Project

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While no one’s sure just how deeply involved George Lucas is with Star Wars Books, there’s always reason for excitement/optimism/fear/loathing when word gets out that he’s personally approved something. Take it away, Lucasfilm executive editor and writer J.W. Rinzler:

If I had to wager a guess, I would say it’s some kind of reference book ala the Essential Guide series.

Del Rey Acquires Original Trilogy By Drew Karpyshyn

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Expanded Universe author and guru of all things Old Republic Drew Karpyshyn has to be thrilled with how his week is going. On Monday, he announced that his agent had closed a deal Del Rey to publish an original trilogy.

I can finally announce that my agent – Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown Ltd. – closed a deal with Del Rey to publish  my original fantasy trilogy! Here’s the official announcement in Publisher’s Weekly, though I should clarify that this is a fantasy series, not sci-fi. I’m really excited about this, and I’m ecstatic to be working with Del Rey and Tricia again. (I worked with her on some of my Mass Effect novels.)

The plan is to publish the first two books of the trilogy (Children of Fire and The Scorched Earth) in 2014, with the final installment (Chaos Unleashed) coming 9-12 months later. Some of you may remember that I’ve mentioned this series before – I’ve been working on it sporadically over several years… basically squeezing in time to write between my work-for-hire novels (SW and ME) and my work at BioWare.

Karpyshyn notes that the first book in the trilogy is nearly finished but he’s waiting to publish it until he can get started on the second entry.

Originally well-known for his work at game developer Bioware, Karpyshyn has branched out to write numerous media tie-in novels both for the studio and for Lucasfilm Licensing. His novel Revan revisited the protagonist from the critically acclaimed videogame Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. 

For more information, see the announcement post on his blog.

Jason Fry Releases Fourth Batch of ‘EG to Warfare” Endnotes

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Rejoice, fans of Mandalorian culture. Jason Fry’s fourth batch of Essential Guide to Warfare endnotes dishes the Mando love.

War and the Mandalorians:Dan Wallace and I were almost finished with the Essential Atlas when we learned the Clone Wars TV show would shake up everything we thought we’d known about the spur-jangling warriors and nomads of the galaxy far, far away. Working quickly, I consulted with Pablo Hidalgo and Leland Chee at LFL to adapt the existing backstory to accommodate Satine and the New Mandalorians, and explain (at least for the most part) how swathes of the planet were turned into wastelands of fine white sand.

Dan and I wanted to do more: Originally, the Atlas was going to include a “Closer Look” at Mandalorian Space, with a local map and write-ups for its major systems. With Mandalorians taking center stage for a number of Lucasfilm projects, that idea was discarded — until Warfare gave me a chance to fill in a gap or two.

It’s understandable that with the uncertainty caused by The Clone Wars, Fry would want to avoid going into too much depth about Mandalorian culture and space. Now that things appear to be more settled, it’s quite a bit safer to flesh out more about them.

For more, head on over to Jason Fry’s Tumblr.

Dream Star Wars EU Novels

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The slow news period continues, so we’re just going to outsource our content to you. We asked for your dream Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, and you delivered. It seemed like there were some common themes, and one that really stuck out was the desire to see some female characters take the lead of a narrative. Many people asked for Leia, Winter, Mirax, and Mara books.

There were also a lot of people dreaming about a Valin and Jysella Horn novel. And, well …

We’re updating the list throughout the day, all you have to do is reply to this tweet and tell us what you’d love to see from the EU.

To see what people are clamoring for, head to the jump!

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Trope Tuesday: Hold Your Hippogriffs

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It’s another edition of Trope Tuesday and this week we bring one that’s especially relevant to the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Hold Your Hippogriffs.

The author uses a popular and/or modern phrase in a work of Speculative Fiction, and adjusts it to the setting by replacing certain concepts with their more-or-less appropriate counterparts. Works as a sort of Shout Out to make the reader/viewer more at home in the world, while at the same time highlighting the difference; it can also be used to disguise swears. Can backfire if the adjustment comes off as too arbitrary (e.g., if the proverb refers to concepts that should exist in the speculative setting as well).

At times these are specific to an exact scene, too. The replacement concepts can be tailored to characters and current action, rather than being a common phrase of its own. A cop with an antagonistic relationship to his Imperial liaison can sardonically say the liaison’s investigation team got past security like X-Wings go through a Death Star. In this way it can overlap with Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?, though it can refer to past moments anywhere on the spectrum of awesome and suck.

Well frak me, I get the holo. The trope namer is Harry Potter, a series that introduced the world to such lovely phrases as “son of a bludger” and “get off your high hippogriff.”

Occasionally this trope can be amusing in the EU, but sometimes authors have a tendency to go just a tad overboard. The brilliant, foul-mouthed duo behind Penny Arcade pointed this out once. Some fine examples courtesy of TV Tropes:

  • “He was as green as the foam on Lomin-ale.”
  • “Less chance than a flame on Hoth.”
  • “Blue milk-run.”
  • “Sabacc face.”
  • “Out of the reactor core and into the supernova.”

If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get out of here faster than a Hutt in free-fall.

EU Interview Roundup

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Over at Club Jade, James conducted a video interview with Essential Guide to Warfare author Jason C. Fry.

To celebrate the release of Scourge, Roqoo Depot and EUCantina have interviews with Jeff Grubb. He also made an appearance last week on Star Wars Books’ official Facebook page to answer questions from fans. TFN has a lovely recap here. If the interviews have you curious, you can read a 50-page excerpt from the book over at Suvudu. Scourge hits bookshelves today.

Big Shiny Robot talks to Tom Taylor about his latest project, Boba Fett is Dead.

Buy a Cool Shirt, Support a Great Cause

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Hey Twitter users and Expanded Universe fans, want to support a good cause and get a stylish new shirt for your wardrobe? EUCantina sultan and our Podfather Austin Blankenship is selling wardrobe with my favorite hashtag, #SWEU. Just the thing to take with you to conventions.

Profits will be donated to Reading is Fundamental, a nonprofit geared towards getting books in the hands of kids. A multitude of styles and colors are available, so head on over to Cafepress to get yours.

Check Out Nanci’s ‘Survivor’s Quest’ Retro Review at EUCantina

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Our own Nanci has a new review over her other gig at EUCantina. This time around, she takes a look back at Timothy Zahn’s Survivor’s Quest.

As a self-contained story, Survivor’s Quest doesn’t add much to the main storyline. As a standalone novel, it could easily be passed over if one is trying to catch up with the main storyline.

However, skipping the book entirely would be a grave disservice.

SQ is a must-read for fans of the Chiss, the Empire of the Hand, the Fels, and the 501st Legion. In fact, SQ is the novel that first canonized the 501st, named for the fan costuming organization. We meet two new prominent Chiss, Formbi and Drask, and learn more about Chiss culture and hierarchy. This novel first identified the Empire of the Hand, the government established by Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Unknown Regions.

Check out the rest of Nanci’s review at EUCantina.

‘Star Wars Insider’ Short Story Updates

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Who wants updates? You guys do! Or at least some of you do. There are lots of you. With many different tastes. I’m clearly stalling at this point so let’s just get into it. Star Wars Books released a list of upcoming shorts you can look forward to in future issues of Star Wars Insider.

-Issue #132 (on sale now) features Jason Fry’s short story “The Guns of Kelrodo-Ai” and stars the “Rebel Destroyer” Shea Hublin (with some beautiful art by John VanFleet!).

-Issue #133 will include the tale of Parella the Hutt, hunter extraordinaire, from Star Wars: Scourge author Jeff Grubb.

-Issue #134 is your first taste of post Fate of the Jedi action as author Christie Golden brings you a story starring Jaina and Jag.

-Issue #135 sees Karen Miller return to the SWEU with an exciting story starring Myri Antilles.

I’m definitely looking forward to issue #135. Myri Antilles as the lead of her own short? Yes, please.

If there’s a short you’d like to see, leave a comment on the announcement post.

Children of the Jedi, Part 4 and Conclusion

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There are a few things that I expect when I’m reading a published book from a major series from a major publisher.

One of those things is editing.

Another one of those things is that when I read it, I don’t feel like I need to be proofing this for my fourteen-year-old brother for a freshman English assignment. The writer submitted this, which is one problem. The second problem is that someone then approved it.

And I just want to make this clear: at this point, I am not talking about the things I talked about before—story elements that don’t make sense, characters not acting like they should, etc. I’m talking about literal technical writing ability.

My expectations were obviously too high.

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