Category Archives: SWEU

Win A Copy of the Essential Guide to Warfare

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To celebrate the official launch of Tosche Station, we’re giving away two copies of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare. How can you claim one for yourself? Simple!

Opportunity the First: Follow the Tosche Station Twitter account and retweet this message

Opportunity the Second: Give us a Like on Facebook.

We will randomly select one winner from each pool to receive a copy, so enter in both places to increase your odds of winning a book that I really enjoyed.

The contest will run through Thursday with a winner announced Friday. Good luck!

Karen Miller ‘Star Wars Insider’ Short Story Features Antilles Spawn

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Hit it, @DelReyStarWars

That high-pitched sound your dog just picked up on was probably me. Between this short story and Mercy Kill, it’s going to be a good year for the Antilles sisters in EU literature.

Facebook Chat With Jason Fry, Paul Urquhart, and Erich Schoeneweiss

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Yesterday the writers behind the Essential Guide to Warfare stopped by Star Wars Books official Facebook page to answer questions from fans. Among the hard hitting questions: was there a classic Disney influence on the book?

Johann Mitzscherlich: It may seem obviously, but is the name “Skere Kaan” (where you first introduced his forename) to the tiger Shere Khan from The Jungle Book.

Jason Fry: Yep, Skere Kaan is a Jungle Book nod. That was Paul. Made me smile.

I’m always game for clever little nods to things outside of the Star Wars universe. Reading over a Han Solo profile, I spotted an Animal House reference. Austin over at EUCantina noticed a Kent Brockman reference in the book.

For a lengthy recap of the chat, head on over to Club Jade.

Jason Fry Releases Second Batch of ‘Essential Guide to Warfare’ End Notes

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Yesterday, Jason Fry posted a series of end notes from EG to Warfare. Today he drops more!

Blasters: The mechanics of blasters have been explained rather differently in a couple of Star Wars sources, and Paul Urquhart did a lot of heavy lifting helping me sort through the differences. My question about how a stun setting would work led to some breathtakingly geeky emails between myself, Leland Chee, Pablo Hidalgo, Dave Filoni, Tony Rowe and Robert Clarke. Yes, my job kicks ass.

For even more bits of awesomeness, check out the rest of the notes he’s posted on his Tumblr.

Jason Fry to Talk ‘Essential Guide to Warfare’ on Facebook Today

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Don’t forget, at 3PM EDT/12PM PST, author Star Wars Books will be holding a Facebook chat with Jason Fry to talk about the Essential Guide to Warfare. Want to know what went into the various character profiles and warship writeups? You can ask him yourself.

Just remember, this isn’t the chat to ask what’s coming after Fate of the Jedi or when Karen Traviss will come back to the Expanded Universe (she won’t). Your EG to Warfare questions are fair game, though!

New ‘Essential Guide to Characters’ in the Works

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Yesterday, the official Del Rey Star Wars Twitter account dropped this tease:

I know I’d love to see a number of post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe characters included. A longshot, sure, but any chance I could see something about the Antilles sisters?

Who would you like to see in the third EG to Characters? Drop a comment in this post to tell us!

Jason Fry Releases ‘Essential Guide to Warfare’ Endnotes

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Over on his blog, Jason Fry posted a set of endnotes from his latest Expanded Universe release, the Essential Guide to Warfare.

The book originally began with a transcript of a briefing featuring Admiral Motti, Bevel Lemelisk, a general from the Department of Military Research and Dr. Insmot Bowen, a pre-Republic specialist from the Obroan Institute. Dr. Bowen explained that some of the odd characteristics of the galaxy — including that barrier west of the Core — were the remnants of Celestial technology, and told the panel of an ancient war between the Celestials and the Rakata. (Motti, as you might imagine, wasn’t believing it.)

The section was fun, but my editor at Del Rey, Erich Schoeneweiss, felt it wasn’t the best beginning for the book. He felt we needed something that put the reader in a dynamic scene rather than a briefing room, and that had some actual warfare in it, instead of a discussion of it. I fumed about that for a bit, then fumed a lot more because I realized Erich was right.

I have to say, I’m glad Schoeneweiss suggested a different opening. The prologue was one of my favorite parts of the book and really helped set the stage for perhaps the best Essential Guide I’ve gotten my hands on.

For more interesting notes and tidbits from Jason Fry, head on over to his blog.

Fate of the Jedi Retrospective – Part I

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With Apocalypse hitting bookshelves last month, the three-year Fate of the Jedi series came to a conclusion. Not only did it mark the end of the nine book series, but the end of the megaseries concept Del Rey has been known for since New Jedi Order kicked off in 1999. FotJ marks the end of an era in more ways than one, but how effective was it?

Part I of the Fate of the Jedi retrospective below the cut.

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