All I want for Christmas is… more Star Wars book announcements!  Now before you say anything, I know.  I know and I understand why they haven’t been able to give us any news about future books in the Expanded Universe.  It is not Del Rey’s fault that they cannot tell us more.  Several projects like the Paul Kemp duology and the Sword of the Jedi trilogy seem to be in book limbo so while we miiiiiiight see those in 2014, I’m not going to hold my breath for them even though I’d love to see them finally be published.  Instead, I’ll use that breath to give you my thoughts on eight different books that I’d like to see Del Rey possibly announce as new projects.  Yes, some of these are definitely pipe dreams.  But hey!  It’s always fun to speculate wildly and close your eyes and wish really hard.

So without further ado and in no particular order, eight ideas that could take place in the already established timeline:

1. Greg Keyes writing a Tahiri book
It’s hard to think of an author who handled Tahiri Veila better than Greg Keyes.  Go back and look at his three New Jedi Order novels if you don’t believe me.  While in my ideal world, I’d love to see something happen that erases all the terrible things that happened to her character in the post-New Jedi Order, I’d also really love to see Keyes write her again regardless.  It could be in that five year gap between the New Jedi Order or something set post-Fate of the Jedi that helps rectify all the damage done.  Anything really.  Just Greg Keyes.  Writing Tahiri again.  Please?

2. Martha Wells writing more Leia
It’s hard to get my stamp of approval when it comes to writing Leia Organa but Martha Wells absolutely did with how she handled everyone’s favorite princess in Razor’s Edge.  I’d love to see her tackle writing Leia again soon.  Another book set during the Rebellion would be fun but what would be especially neat is to see a book that focuses on Leia while she’s Chief of State and trying to juggle those duties with her family.  It wasn’t always something that Leia did well which is why I think Wells would handle this sort of story awesomely.  She’s an author who really gets Leia, her flaws, and her strengths.  We could definitely do with some more of that in the Expanded Universe.

3. Bryan Young writing a young Padme political book
Politics are fun and interesting!  No really!  I’ve always thought that Padme was one of those characters who was criminally underutilized.  Star Wars books don’t always need to have giant space battles or galaxy spanning plots to be interesting or to do well.  Kenobi already proved that.  Why not show us how Padme managed to become Queen of Naboo at the tender age of 14 or her ruling at some point during the ten years between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones?  Or Padme being great at politics at really any point of her career.  Bryan Young not only already loves Star Wars but he’s someone who gets politics.  Plus, he’s already said he’d love to write a book like this.  It’d be a nice addition to the Expanded Universe to say the least.

4. Aaron Allston writing another X-Wing/Wraith book
Come on.  Like you didn’t know this was going to be on the list.  A Wraith Squadron book could be a really smart move though.  While I believe Allston has said something along the lines of any future Wraith books will be set in the current timeline, there’s plenty of stories that could be told during the war against the Empire if Del Rey wants to avoid moving past 45 ABY.  Sure, we already know how a few of the Wraiths make their exits from the team but there are plenty of stories that could be told in between.  Just what were the Wraiths up to during Daala’s various attempts to defeat the New Republic?  And I bet they probably ran up against Admiral Pellaeon at least once over the years.

5. Mike Stackpole writing a Rogue Squadron-led-by-Syal book
This is another no brainer addition to the list but it would be awesome if it actually happened.  Star Wars is a franchise that’s built upon legacies.  We’ve already seen Wedge Antilles’ younger daughter join the Wraiths so it really only makes sense for his elder-pilot-daughter to join Rogue Squadron or, even better, restart the Rogues with the daughter of Tycho and Winter Celchu at her side as her second-in-command.  (I’m all about dreaming a little bigger, darling.)  The X-Wing books still have a strong fanbase and are generally accepted by fandom as being some of the better books in the Expanded Universe.  It probably wouldn’t take much arm twisting to bring Stackpole back to the galaxy far far away too.

6. Matthew Stover writing a pre-PT book about Mace and Depa as Master/Padawan
This is the most pipe-y of the pipe dreams but oh gosh do I want to read it.  Shatterpoint is one of the best books in the Expanded Universe and throughout it, Matthew Stover teased us with brief mentions of the days when Mace Windu and Depa Billaba were Master and Padawan.  There are more than enough openings of empty space in the years before The Phantom Menace so why not fill in a bit of the timeline by having this kickass and efficient Jedi duo go on a mission and save a planet or something?

7. Books focusing on Baron Fel and Wedge Antilles for the E&R series
Thus far, the Empire and Rebellion series has published/announced fairly expected books: one focusing on each of the Big Three.  While the series’s name change from Rebels likely had to do with the forthcoming television show, it does leave plenty of room for speculation.  After all, why include Empire in the title if you’re only going to focus upon the Rebel Alliance?  From there, it really only makes sense to have at least one of the Empire books focusing on Baron Soontir Fel as he is one of their best pilots of all time.  We could get the Empire’s point of view from the flying front lines and then turn it right around and get the Rebellion’s with Wedge Antilles and (dare I say it) Rogue Squadron in its early days.

8. Something Genre
In all honesty, this one has the best chance of coming true because not only is it significantly vague but we’ve already seen moves in this direction.  Joe Schreiber already has the horror genre on lockdown with Death Troopers and Red Harvest and the forthcoming Maul book and John Jackson Miller gave us a western this summer with Kenobi but why stop there?  What about a true noir or a true detective novel?  Or heck, any other sort of genre .  The Star Wars galaxy is so vast that the sky really is the limit here.  Anything could work.  Also this is vague enough that in a year’s time, I could potentially come back to this post, point at this particular one, and go “Look!  I got my wish!” without anyone being able to say otherwise.

Of course, this is just my wishlist and set of pipedreams.  Who knows what we might actually get.  My guesses could be completely wrong or this post will reveal in a year’s time that I’m actually psychic.

As always, feel free to share your ideas about what books we might get or what books you’d like to see announced over the next year!