Next update November 22
We are just days away from the release of Star Wars: Annihilation, my latest Old Republic novel. You can buy it by clicking on the links from my NOVELS page, or by clicking the links here for Kindle, Audio, or apple ibook formats and through Barnes and Noble in hardcover and Nook formats.
I’m very excited for Annihilation to come out, because it’s a bit of a different take on the Star Wars universe for me. For startes, Theron Shan – the main character – isn’t a Jedi or a Sith. That’s a pretty big change from characters like Bane and Revan, who are in large part defined by their relationship with the awesome power of the Force. But Annihilation also has a different feel than some of my previous novels.
The Darth Bane trilogy – now available in kindle, nook and apple ibooks formats – was pretty grim; it explored the nature of evil and the dark side. Revan was also very dark; he’s a conflicted and tragic figure. And even my Mass Effect books -now in a single e-bundle for the kindle, nook and apple ibook – have the specter (pun intended) of total galactic extinction looming over them. But Annihilation is different. It has more of an adventure/thriller/James Bond/Ocean’s Eleven vibe to it – less grim and more “fun”. It even has a dash of humor thrown in.
That’s not to say it doesn’t have some dark moments. There’s a bit of torture and a smattering of war crimes. There’s sacrifice and loss. And I can’t get away from the dark side completey: Darth Karrid – the main villain – has some wonderfully creepy scenes that I hope will make a few readers squirm.
But overall Annihilation has more in common with Temple Hill, my first novel – a fantasy adventure set in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms. Temple Hill is out of print now, but it was recently released through kindle, so I hope some of you will pick it up – it’s a solid sword and sorcery tale. You could almost consider it an appetizer before the main course of my upcoming original fantasy trilogy, Children of Fire.
But Children of Fire is still a year or more away, so let’s get back to Annihilation, which is coming out on Tuesday. I really enjoyed writing the book, and I think you’ll enjoy reading it. But don’t just take my word for it. As I mentioned in my Twitter feed, the first reviews for Annihilation are already on the web: one over at Lightsaber Rattling, and two reviews over at The Founding Fields.
I’ve also had a couple new(ish) interviews hit the web recently: Linda over at Fan Girl Blog chats with me about a variety of topics, and Roqoo Depot has posted a transcript of a podcast interview they did with me at Celebration back in August.
Finally, I just want to let people know that the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO is going free to play later this week. I don’t work at BioWare anymore, so please don’t e-mail me with questions about what this means for the game or what I think of free to play versus subscription… I left all that behind. All I know is that the game is fun to play, and it has a lot of cool Star Wars story stuff in it. (Most of my work was with Hall Hood on the Jedi Knight character class – if you liked Revan I suggest you start there.) You can read Damion Schubert’s developer blog if you want more details.
Okay, that’s all for this update. Next time I’ll try to have more (hopefully positive) reviews, maybe some more interviews and – if I’m lucky – an update on Annihilation’s surge into the New York Times bestseller charts!