• Novel Review: Annihilation

    Players who have completed the existing story content found within Star Wars: The Old Republic have been eagerly awaiting the next chapter. Drew Karpyshyn’s latest novel, Annihilation, is that next chapter. Picking up where things leave off at the end of SWTOR’s current story, Annihilation follows several familiar characters as they plan and execute a key Republic mission. It also looks deep inside the Republic and Imperial leadership as both sides continue to engage in a full-blown war.

    Note: The following article contains spoilers, both for the story as found in SWTOR and the Annihilation novel.

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived Available in Paperback

    Some of you may remember Paul Kemp’s Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived that delved into the story of Malgus, one of the central characters of the game. Well, a little over a year later the more reasonably priced paperback version made its way to bookstores today. If you have yet to pick up Deceived, this may be the time to give it a chance.  You can pick up the novel at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookstores.

    We have a review and interview with the author available if you would like to hear our opinion of the book.

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation Novel Cover and Interview

    Today, BioWare unveiled an interview with writer Drew Karpyshyn and cover on the upcoming novel Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation.

    Drew Karpyshyn
    Drew, can you tell us what Star Wars: The Old Republic fans can look forward to in your new book?

    Annihilation gives readers a closer look at several characters that will play important roles in future updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Satele Shan, head of the Jedi Order; Jace Malcom, the Supreme Commander of the Republic military and Darth Marr, senior ranking member on the Dark Council are all featured in the novel, along with Jedi Master Gnost-Dural and of course Theron Shan, Satele's secret son.

    For the full interview and cover, hit the official site.

    Caution: It contains spoilers.

  • New SWTOR Novel Details Revealed

    As players anxiously await the next chapters of the story within Star Wars: The Old Republic, author and former BioWare writer Drew Karpyshyn has updated his website with some details regarding the next SWTOR novel he is writing. Entitled Annihilation and due out November 13, the second novel focuses on Theron Shan from The Lost Suns comic book series and picks up where game events currently end.

    Drew Karpyshyn

    Republic agent Theron Shan and his Twi’lek compadre, Teff’ith must contend with a Sith Empire counter-attack against the Republic, spearheaded by the lethal apprentice of Darth Malgus. Satele Shan and Jace Malcom co-star in what will be a fast-paced and tension-fraught tale based on the award-winning video game from BioWare and LucasArts.

    It’s a bit vague, but that’s the problem when you try to stay spoiler free. But I think I can add a bit more without ruining anything. It’s a stand alone story – it has no connection to Revan, and it doesn’t tie in directly with any of the storylines from the SWTOR video game, though it is set in that era. It actually takes place just after the events of the game, and the novel will reflect the Empire and the Republic as they stand at the end of the game’s storylines. (I won’t say anymore to avoid spoiling people who play the game but aren’t finished.)

    More information about the novel can be found after the jump.

  • Next Drew Karpyshyn SWTOR Novel Revealed

    Despite Drew Karpyshyn recently announcing his departure from BioWare, the author of Revan continues to work on a new novel set during the era of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Up until now, not much had been known about the book. Thanks to a post on the DelRay Facebook page, some interesting tidbits have been revealed. The title of the book is Annihilation. It will feature several well-known SWTOR characters and delve deeper into the war between the Republic and the Sith Empire.

    DelRay
    First, DARTH BANE and REVAN author Drew Karpyshyn is cranking away on his next novel, STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: ANNIHILATION. Republic agent Theron Shan and his Twi’lek compadre, Teff’ith (from Dark Horse Comics’ STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: THE LOST SUNS) must contend with a Sith Empire counter-attack against the Republic, spearheaded by the lethal apprentice of Darth Malgus. Satele Shan and Jace Malcolm co-star in what will be a fast-paced and tension-fraught tale based on the award-winning video game from BioWare and LucasArts.

    Star Wars: The Old Republic: Annihilation hits store shelves on November 13. Look for coverage of the book here as we get closer to its release.

  • Revan Interviews and Excerpts

    Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan hits store shelves next Tuesday. With the release less than a week away, facts about the novel are rapidly becoming more available. Jay Shephard and Chris Wyman had an interview with the author, Drew Karpyshyn, in their latest episode of The ForceCast: Jedi Journals. During the interview, they discuss Drew's previous Star Wars books, Revan, and the Dark Side. Drew also revealed that his recently announed SWTOR book will take place after SWTOR's in-game story. The episode is available on the podcast's website, as well as iTunes. The intervew begins at 1:14:41 and runs just under 30 minutes.

    If you cannot wait for Revan to release, Drew also compiled a list of websites that have posted other interviews and excerpts from the book.

  • Random House Releases Revan Excerpt

    Random House posted an excerpt of Chapter One from Revan, Drew Karpyshyn's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic novel. In the excerpt, the reader learns more about the environment & people of Dromund Kaas and of Lord Scourge, the Sith focal point of the excerpt. As Darth Hater previously reported, the novel synopsis is also available.

    Visit the Random House site to read the full excerpt.

  • NYCC 2011: Second Drew Karpyshyn SWTOR Novel Coming Fall 2012

    At New York Comic Con during the Del Rey Star Wars Books Panel, Drew Karpyshyn revealed that he will pen a second Star Wars: The Old Republic novel in Fall 2012. Unfortunately, Drew did not give any details on the subject of the book or its name. When more information becomes available about the novel, you can be sure we will bring it to you as it happens.

    On another note, Drew stated that when fans pick up the Revan novel on November 15, it will include details on how Revan turned to the dark side. He also stated players want the full Revan experience in SWTOR will have to play the Republic and then Empire.

    Update: Full audio of the panel is now available for stream and download below.

  • Revan Excerpt in Star Wars Insider



    An excerpt from Drew Karpyshyn's upcoming novel, Revan, was published in the latest issue of Star Wars Insider. The excerpt features Revan in the Ebon Hawk as he navigates the ship down to land. Canderous Ordo gets a mention among others as well. For anyone looking forward to the novel, the excerpt should tide them over.

    Star Wars Insider issue #127 will be available on shelves July 26, but you can order the full digital copy now at Zinio Digital Magazines for PC, iPad, and Mac. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan will be available on November 15, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon.

    Update: Del Ray Spectra publishing schedule for Comic-Con went up and includes the cover for the upcoming Revan novel.



    Make sure to check out the PDF on their website for a high resolution version of the cover.

  • Revan Novel Synopsis Revealed

    In what may seem an obvious way of getting information about a pre-release Star Wars: The Old Republic book, Random House made the synopsis of the upcoming Drew Karpyshyn Revan novel available for readers anticipating its release.

    Theres something out there:
    a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic --
    unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.

    Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All thats left are nightmares and deep, abiding fear.

    What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can't quite remember, yet cant entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for hes never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.

    The Random House listing contains the synopsis above as well as other important details pertaining to the book. Pre-orders are available via Amazon and Random House should you be interested in picking up the novel later this year. Revan by Drew Karpyshyn hits store shelves on November 15, 2011.

    Hat tip to RogueJedi86 on the tip via TheForce.net.

  • Drew Karpyshyn Details Revan Novel

    Drew Karpyshyn, Senior Writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic took time out to detail some of the points fans will be reading in the upcoming Revan novel. Among several points that were elaborated on were the differences between the players version of Revan in Knights of the Old Republic and Revan's importance.

    To put it bluntly, Revan in the book will not be the uber-powered death machine you controlled at the end of the video game. You might have min-maxed your character to smack Darth Malak down in seconds without breaking a sweat, but in a book that battle would have been a brutal, hard fought affair spread over multiple pages. In a video game it's fun to kill hundreds of Sith Masters, but in a book that would just be boring. It would suck out any drama or conflict or tension, and as an author I have no interest in writing that.

    Now, I suspect some of you are already getting worked up about how Im ruining SW canon by nerfing the Revan from the game. Well, tough. The game was a game the powers and abilities you had in it were ways to make the game fun. They were representative of Revans power level versus enemies faced in the game, but they weren't a blueprint of his abilities in the persistent fiction of the Star Wars universe.

    That doesn't mean Im going to ignore Revans accomplishments as detailed in the game. The high level events and history are canon. Revan did defeat Mandalore and Darth Malak. He was an incredibly powerful Jedi. But a powerful Jedi in story terms (films, TV, books) is very different from a powerful Jedi in game terms.

    To catch more of the article, make sure to visit Drew's blog. Pre-orders are also available via Amazon should you be interested in picking up the novel later this year.

    Update: According to Del Ray, the Revan novel release date was shifted to November 15th.

    STAR WARS: CHOICES OF ONE moves back to July 19, 2011
    STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE 20th Anniversary Edition moves to September 6, 2011
    STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC: REVAN moves to November 15, 2011

    Hat tip to DarthNii on the heads up on the change.

    Update 2: Drew Karpyshyn confirmed the shifted release date as the official one via Twitter just moments ago.

    Website updated. I'm a day late with the Tweet, so I figure I owe you something else: the official release date for Revan is Nov 15!

  • Friday Update: Fan Friday, Studio Insider, and Community Q&A



    This week's Friday Update brings a Fan Friday and a Studio Insider. The Fan Friday features a good selection of avatars, wallpaper, emoticons, and other goodies, while the Studio Insider goes into depth about the design of Coruscant.

    The second Community Q & A thread also opened, and once again questions are open, so feel free to head over and ask the developers about whatever parts of The Old Republic you want to hear about. With the opening of the second Q & A thread, the first one has closed, and some of those questions have been answered in the Community Q & A section of today's Studio Insider. More than a few hot button issues were answered in the Q & A, most notably one on PVE and PVP servers. DevTracker posts after the jump.

  • Deceived Review & Paul S. Kemp Interview



    Scheduled for release in March 2011, Deceived is the second novel based around Star Wars: The Old Republic. We were lucky enough to get our hands on an early copy of the upcoming novel and quickly devoured each and every page. Hit the jump for our review and a special interview with the author of the book, Paul S. Kemp.

    Update: Excerpts of Deceived chapters one and two are now online for those interested in getting a sneak peak before release.

  • Comic-Con: Sean Williams Interview



    After attending the Star Wars: The Old Republic Comic-Con panel, we met up with Sean Williams, the writer of the new Star Wars: The Old Republic novel Fatal Alliance. We were lucky enough to ask the Australian author a few questions about his new book and what it is like to work on the expanding narrative of The Old Republic.

  • Friday Update: Fan Friday

    This week's friday update is a Fan Friday which includes some nice screens of Cathars, new avatars, new polls, and fan art from the Star Wars: The Old Republic community:

    Take a look at the incredible creations were spotlighting from the Star Wars The Old Republic Community and check out the Developer Corner to see new content the team wants to share with you!

    [Read more]

    More after the jump.

  • Deceived Book Pushed to 2011

    Earlier today, we learned the eagerly awaited Star Wars: The Old Republic novelization Deceived will now be released March 2011. Speaking on his personal blog, the author Paul S. Kemp posted the following statement.

    Some of you may already know this, but Deceived, my next Star Wars novel, will be released in March 2011, rather than December 2010. I understand the move was made because there is a desire to time the release of the novel nearer to the release of the Old Republic MMORPG.

    This is unfortunate news for everyone patiently waiting to dive head first into the lore and narrative surrounding The Old Republic; just make sure to keep March in your calenders and an open spot on your reading list. Hat tip to Tim

  • Paul S. Kemp on the Dramatis Personae for Deceived

    Paul S. Kemp revealed the Dramatis Personae for his upcoming novel, Deceived.

    I'm hoping to get approval in July to begin posting excerpts from Deceived, my Star Wars novel set in the The Old Republic. But in the meantime, I thought I'd post the Dramatis Personae for the novel. There are four core characters (these four are either point of view characters, or characters with a lot of screen time) and several important, but non-core characters.

    The Core Characters

    Darth Malgus, male human Sith lord.

    Eleena Daru, female Twi-lek, a trained combatant and Malgus's companion.

    Aryn Leneer, female human Jedi Knight and Force Empath.

    Zeerid Korr, male human smuggler, former Republic commando

    The Non-Core characters

    Master Ven Zallow, male human Jedi Master

    Darth Angral, male human Sith Lord.

    Lord Adraas, male human Sith.

    A few of the names should be familiar to fans who have read the Threat of Peace webcomic and the Biographies. The most notable character on the list is Malgus' companion, Eleena Daru, who appeared in the Deceived trailer and until now remained unnamed. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived is due out in hardcover on December 28, 2010. You can pre-order the novel from Amazon.com. Hat tip to r2d2arm.

  • Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived Details Revealed

    New details about the second Star Wars: The Old Republic novel, Deceived, were revealed today on StarWars.com:

    Hot on the heels of the unveiling of the cover to Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance is this first look at another hardcover set in the time of the eagerly anticipated video game in development by LucasArts and BioWare.

    In Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived, readers will learn more about Darth Malgus, the Sith Lord who brought down the Jedi Temple. Star Wars fans first experienced the devastating might of Darth Malgus in last year's epic cinematic trailer to Star Wars: The Old Republic which depicted the Sacking of Coruscant. Readers will learn more about the man behind the mask in this novel by author Paul S. Kemp.

    Deceived tells the story of Darth Malgus and gives fascinating insight into his rise to fame and glory as the Sith Lord who destroyed the Jedi Temple. This stunning narrative finds the dark hero battling a veteran Jedi Master, setting the stage for the affairs and betrayals surrounding the last battle of the Great War before the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant.



    Also shown in this announcement was the cover art for the book. Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived is due out in hardcover on December 28, 2010. You can pre-order the novel from Amazon.com.

    Update: Sean Dahlberg just announced the update -

    You first experienced the devastating might of Darth Malgus on the day that changed the galaxy forever during the Sacking of Coruscant. Now you can learn more about the man behind the mask in the latest novel set in the same time period as Star Wars: The Old Republic!

    Learn More.