NYCC 2015: New Star Wars Novels, Short Stories, and Comics Announced! (UPDATED)

It’s already seemingly a fantastic time to be a Star Wars fan, what with 6 new films on the horizon and all the comics and novels already in the works, but it’s only going to get better and better: at NYCC the other two entries in the Aftermath Trilogy got subtitles (and release windows), Claudia Gray has a new novel, a couple of short stories are on the way, and a new comics series called Obi-Wan and Anakin were all announced! Your wallets won’t be happy with an awakening of this magnitude.

First off, the last two novels in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series will be titled Life Debt (Summer 2016) and Empire’s End (2017). I really enjoyed the first Aftermath and am excited to see where my favorite new characters Jas, Sinjir, and Mister Bones go (and to see what’s up with the Fleet Admiral I theorized a bit about) with the Empire’s End subtitle hinting at something rather big going down.

New Republic: Bloodline (Spring 2016) will be Claudia Gray’s next contribution to Star Wars novels after the excellent and sprawling Lost Stars (and no, this isn’t a Lost Stars sequel). It’s set 6 years prior to The Force Awakens and that’s about all we know. It’s not a Young Adult novel as far as I can tell and since its time period won’t pass through any movie events, Gray’s talent for writing new pieces in the larger puzzle (my favorite parts of Lost Stars) will get to stretch its legs a bit. Very excited to see what’s so important 6 years before TFA. UPDATE: It’s now titled simply Bloodline and stars Leia Organa!

(one Aftermath sequel and Gray’s book were spotted in the wee hours of the morning prior to the panel by Jedi Bibliothek)

New @DelReyStarWars books that were just announced! #StarWars pic.twitter.com/KfT0sVGYXo
— Tosche Station (@Tosche_Station) October 10, 2015

There are also several short stories coming, all under the “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens” banner, with several of them about characters seen in the Vanity Fair shoot (and in the SDCC BTS Video):

Alan Dean Foster, writer of the upcoming TFA novelization, will write “Bait” for Star Wars Insider #161 and will focus on a character named the ~~Grungar~~ Grumgarr (pictured below)
Delilah Dawson will pen “The Perfect Weapon,” to be released in November. It’ll focus on Bazine (who is using the Grumgarr as a pillow in the picture below) and ~~it’s already available for pre-order~~ out now! Here’s my review.
Landry Walker has a series of 4 short stories, all with a different theme/genre: a western in “High Noon on Jakku”; “All Creatures Great and Small”; horror story “The Face of Evil”; and finally the intriguingly titled “The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku,” with the Corsair pictured below. UPDATE: Here is my review of the first four stories! These will release as e-novellas on 12/1 under the title Tales from a Galaxy far, far away: Aliens, followed by a release in print with two more stories by April, 2017. Whatever aliens the other two stories center on, they are either spoilers for TFA, Rogue One, or even Ep. VIII, which would release the following month in 2017…interesting thing to ponder. The 2017 date was an error (though the official site hasn’t been updated to reflect that yet), but they’ll be released April 2016. Would’ve been unprecedented had it actually been 2017.

A big thanks to Johnamarie Macias for clearing up these short stories releases with her audio from the panel! And now the official site has clarified a few other things, which I’ve updated above.

Marvel has an Obi-Wan and Anakin limited series coming in January set just 3 years after The Phantom Menace. It’ll be written by Charles Soule, who did a magnificant job with the Lando limited series that ended this week, with art from Marco Checchetto (who’s currently working on Shattered Empire). The story will feature a post-apocalyptic planet and some flashbacks to Obi-Wan’s training of Anakin at the Jedi Temple. I’m very excited for this, being a big Obi-Wan fan and having always wanted to explore more of 10 years between TPM and Attack of the Clones. UPDATE: Soule was interviewed about the series at Comic Book Resources and it sounds like he knows what he’s doing with this story.

UPDATE #2: Likewise, his lengthy chat with Dan Brooks at the official Star Wars site is just as informative on how well Soule seems suited for this era about these two giant characters of the Saga. This series was already a must-read, but this quote below should seal the deal for anyone interested in more Obi-Wan and Anakin:

I think, you know, it wasn’t one bad decision that Obi-Wan or Anakin could point to as a failure. It was probably an accumulation of decisions that maybe, over time, added up to a larger failure. Answers that weren’t completely satisfying to Anakin that he stored away, that when Palpatine decided it was time to chip away at the Jedi armor [Anakin] had around himself, that he had those openings available. I don’t even necessarily know that it’s a failure. I think maybe it’s Obi-Wan saying he didn’t understand the scope of the influence and malevolence that was going to be aimed at Anakin from Palpatine, and he didn’t really prepare him for it.

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.

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NYCC 2015: New Star Wars Novels, Short Stories, and Comics Announced! (UPDATED)

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