Friend of TF.N kernel32 has contacted us to let us know about a new collection of Star Wars short stories... in the Czech language!

Under the title Setkání v mlze, which means "Mist Encounter" in Czech, a dozen prequel-era short stories and novellas have been collected and translated by Egmont ČR, the publishers of the Star Wars novels in the Czech Republic.

The collected stories are: "Darth Maul: Saboteur" by James Luceno, "Elusion Illusion" by Michael A. Stackpole, "The Pengalan Tradeoff" by Aaron Allston, "League of Spies" by Allston, "Equipment" by Matthew Stover, "Hero of Cartao" by Timothy Zahn, "In Changing Seasons" by Zahn, "Mist Encounter" by Zahn, "In His Image" by Karen Traviss, "Two-Edged Sword" by Traviss, "The Final Exit" by Patricia A. Jackson and "Interlude at Darkknell" by Zahn and Stackpole.

That's a pretty impressive collection of authors and tales, and this is actually the first time that several of these stories have been published in book form in any language, so it's something of a coup for them. Kudos to the translators: Jana Jirásková, Peter Kadlec, Marta Kadlecová, and Milan Pohl (none other than the same kernel32 who contacted us with this story).

Perhaps even more importantly, this collection has a brand new piece of what kernel32 tells us is official, Lucasfilm-approved cover art, by Czech sci-fi illustrator Jan Patrik Krásný, featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn in a scene from the title story of the collection!

According to the publishers' website, Setkání v mlze is due to be released in the Czech Republic on 15th July! If I'm reading the website right, the cover price is 329 Czech crowns, which Yahoo tells me is around $18 in American money at today's prices (please note that the exact value is always changing); but the website is offering a discount of 66 crowns, reducing the price to 263 crowns, or $14.20 at the time of writing.

I have no idea if there's going to be an easy way to order the novel from abroad, though, or what international shipping costs would be. When I asked kernel32, he had no idea either, but after looking around the internet a bit, he tells me that this website will enable you to buy a book in the Cxech Republic and send it abroad: apparently, once the book is on sale (ie, after 16th July), you take can the details from a Czech online bookstore (like egmont.cz) and e-mail them to prodej@ceskeknizky.cz; then, when the order is placed, you are expected to follow up with a payment using a method like PayPal (I can't see any information online about what sort of price they charge for their service and postage, though).

There's also the possibility of setting up a virtual address, a forwarding mailbox in the Czech Republic, using a facility like this website, but I believe that's prohibitively expensive for a one-off purchase.

Also, I want to stress that I've not got any direct experience of those sites, so I can't vouch for their cost or reliability. If anyone knows anything more about mailing books abroad from the Czech Republic, then they should e-mail me at paulFILLER@theforce.net (but remove the obvious spamblock phrase to e-mail me)....

Also, remember, Setkání v mlze is due to be released on the 15th of July, so even Czechs can't actually get it before then!

We'll keep you updated on this story as we get it, of course!