The first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi may have been the biggest news to come out of Star Wars Celebration last week, but it wasn’t the only news: Lucasfilm also quietly announced several new novels, written by key SFF authors, to expand the Star Wars universe. As part of the “Journey to The Last Jedi” series, these novels will cover ground before Episode VIII—like Ken Liu tackling the legend(s) of Luke Skywalker, Claudia Gray revisiting General Leia in her youth, and Delilah S. Dawson getting underneath the chromium helmet to learn more about the enigmatic Captain Phasma!
Check out the covers and scant hints that were dropped at Star Wars Celebration:
The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu
The Grace of Kings author wasn’t able to divulge much when announcing the news on his blog, but he did share a fond memory of reading his first Star Wars book, a novelization of The Empire Strikes Back as a third-grader in China: “Empire literally blew my mind. I had never seen a world like this: where magic and technology were both vital; where ancient archetypes, some of which I recognized from Chinese myths and legends, pulsed with a futuristic sheen; where hope was not easy, but was always the right choice.”
The Legends of Luke Skywalker will be published October 31.
Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
Gray expanded the character of General Leia in the Journey to The Force Awakens novel Bloodline; now, she’ll depict Princess Leia in a YA novel.
No publication date yet announced.
Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson
Appropriately for the character, we don’t know what this novel will cover. But The Perfect Weapon author Dawson went around Star Wars Celebration taking Phasma selfies (this is totally going to become a thing) and has decided that her new catchphrase is “I DO NOT DOUBT YOUR COMMITMENT TO PHASMA MOTION.”
Phasma will be published September 1.
Dawson and Liu are both also contributing stories to the 40th-anniversary anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View.
Bonus! Del Rey also shared new information on Christie Golden’s forthcoming tie-in novel:
Inferno Squad by Christie Golden
A prequel to the video game Star Wars: Battlefront II, Golden’s book will follow Iden Versio, revealed in the intriguing new trailer for the game, and who leads the Inferno Squad. According to The Verge, the novel takes place in the aftermath of Rogue One and A New Hope, as Iden’s squad chases down Saw Gerrera’s Partisans cell.
Inferno Squad will be published July 25; Battlefront II will be released November 17.
Good. Looking forward to the Leia book (Bloodlines was amazing) and the Inferno Squad book.
I gotta ask the Wendig question. Are these books in present tense or conventional narrative?
I’m also looking forward to the Luke book, but not because of Luke, rather because of Liu.
I hope that’s the final cover for the Leia book. I love it and it makes me sad all over again.
@2:Present tense IS conventional narrative, and I’ve never understood why it’s so difficult for so many, but so far as I know only Wendig’s Star Wars books have been written in it.
(Popular present-tense books: The Hunger Games, The Handmaid’s Tale, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Wolf Hall.)
@2. None of these are written by Wendig, so you have a decent, perhaps better-than-decent, chance of them being good. I’d be extraordinarily surprised if any of these authors (two of whom have established a Star Wars style of their own already) tried to copy his deeply regrettable style decisions.
Though it’s not yet clear what format/target audience the Luke book is for.
I have long thought that a novel about Leia as a young diplomat/spy in training would be fantastic. No idea if that’s what this is about, but the fact that “name” authors are writing these is very, very encouraging.
Nice of people to try to answer @2’s question but honestly, I think that individual wanted more of an opportunity to complain about an author they don’t like rather than they wanted to actually ask a question.
There’s no logical basis to assume that because these authors are writing Star Wars and that also Wendig wrote Star Wars, that these books will be like Wendig. We are all smarter than that here, so there’s no reason to actually ask that question.
If you didn’t like the Aftermath books, that’s fine. You’re allowed to not like things. But the whining about it is getting tiresome.
@8 – jheaney: Yeah, that’s why I ignored that post.