UPDATE: 7/20/02 (Coopra) - Well, we've officially relocated to TFN. I have a whole buttload of links to fix now, so site navigation will be kinda weird for a while, but it's all here. I own "unjoh.com" for another year, but their stupid URL forwarding thing puts a banner at the bottom of the screen, so I'd recommend getting to the page through the link on TFN Books as soon as it appears (I'm tinkering with the html as we speak). Oh yeah; if you haven't yet, check out Jeff Carlisle's new website!

UPDATE: 7/14/02 (Nom Anor) - Finally an update to the Yuuzhan Vong Database! The Yuuzhan Vong Bestiary is finally complete. Well, nearly complete - I still have to write up a new introduction for that section, but that's not what everybody's interested in anyways! I rewrote at least part of every entry, but most entries have had major overhauls. This section is up-to-date with Rebel Stand. Sorry to keep everyone waiting so long.

UPDATE: 7/7/02 (Coopra) - Lots of NJO-related gaming news lately. Head here for the first (far as I know) Jedi Outcast Yuuzhan Vong skin.

UPDATE: 7/3/02 (Coopra) - We've given a lot of thought to the fate of the forums lately, seeing as how our main point of interest is gonna be the JCs from now on. This is definitely the slowest they've ever been, but seeing as the whole purpose of a forum is to serve the needs of the people, I thought it should be the people who decide its fate. If you vote to disband, the entire forum will be destroyed, so this is a warning to anyone who might have any valuable information there. If you vote not to disband, I'll leave them up, but don't except much in the way of moderation or upkeep.

UPDATE: 6/23/02 (Coopra) - Thanks to Jace for pointing out a new summary of Traitor on the Barnes & Noble website. It's not really anything new, but some might consider it spoiler-laden, so continue on to read it for yourself.

UPDATE: 6/18/02 (Coopra & Nom Anor) - And now, the real announcement #1...

Nick and I have just signed up to join TheForce.net's Books page! What does that mean for UNJOH? Well, mostly, I get to move everything to the TFN server. We're still working out the kinks, but it looks like everything on UNJOH will remain the same, structurally, except that news updates will be done at the main TFN books page. For the next year and a half, the site will serve as a repository of NJO information, and once the series ends, everything will be dissolved into the rest of TFN, and the YVD will get its own section of TFN with a brand-new layout.

More info will be available very soon...

UPDATE: 6/18/02 (Coopra) - And now, announcement #1...

In Destiny's Way, Tsavong Lah is revealed to be Jacen's real father!

.......juuuust kidding. Come back in half an hour. Heheh, suckers...

UPDATE: 6/15/02 (Nom Anor) - The 1st Edition of the French Yuuzhan Vong Database has been released! Corran's team has been working long and hard to translate the guide, so give it a look, even if you can't read French. This is equivalent to Version 2.0 in English.

Note: This is not the big announcement, although it is pretty cool

UPDATE: 6/15/02 (Nom Anor) - Yeah, what Coop said.

UPDATE: 6/14/02 (Coopra) - *achem* Well, we've had some big developments lately. Expect two titanic announcements before the end of the month. In the meantime, um...read Rebel Stand again.

UPDATE: 5/28/02 (Coopra) - Added a few new NJO customs by Craig Mullan to the Gallery. Oh yeah; Rebel Stand is out now. Go, like, buy it or something.

UPDATE: 5/26/02 (Nom Anor) - With only two days until the release of Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand, I bring you a full summary of the new novel. Thanks to Acky of the Unofficial New Jedi Order Encyclopedia for the summary. Beware, this is full of spoilers! Highlight to read:

- This summary is the property of the writer and NJOE.com. This summary is NOT to be reposted in any shape or form without consent from the NJOE.com administration -

Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand

The novel opens with a battle above the Pyria system, in which New Republic forces attempt to escort a Gallofree Transport, Reckless Abandon, to Borleias, against the attack of coralskippers and the ongoing annoyance of dovin basal mines sown there by the Yuuzhan Vong. The fighter squadron escorting the Reckless Abandon, a mixed group of X- and E-wings, is the Taanab Yellow Aces, a volunteer unit led by none other than Wes Janson. Wes and his Aces are set to stay on Borleias to assist in its defense.

Meanwhile, on Coruscant, the action breaks to an odd scene in which a mysterious tall man is attempting to break down a wall which stands in his way to an unknown treasure. He somehow subverts a Coruscant to help him by getting a laser cutter.

On the worldship, Domain Hul, Czulkang Lah greets the arrival of the priest Harrar, on whom he bestows the service of a warrior and pilot named Charat Kraal, whose objective it is to capture Jaina Solo and to expose that she is no avatar or incarnation of Yun-Harla, the Yuuzhan Vong Trickster Goddess.

Back on Coruscant, the team of Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, Tahiri, Danni Quee, and the Wraiths are going about their mission to create resistance cells from Coruscant survivors. They are clad in makeup, fake and actual vonduun crab armor, and modified ooglish masquers to look like Yuuzhan Vong. It works quite well, as they are first attacked by a mob of natives and then believed to be Yuuzhan Vong by one of their patrols. Face, acting as the voice of the group, orders the patrol to give way for their mission of "training his warriors", which naturally will end up in an honor duel. Since the team is very impaired in their fighting ability in their disguises, the Jedi ignite their lightsabers and attack the Vong, but those are no the only ones; there are some nearby. Kell Tainer, being the demolitions expert that he is, blasts the Vong into pieces, leaving the team?s presence there on Coruscant a secret.

When later meeting with a cell of natives fighting the Vong, one of them brings up an experience of meeting an impossibly tall pale man who kills anyone he comes upon, including Vong warriors. He likens it to an old Corellian story about a large pale ghost called Lord Nyax, who stole children from their beds. Quite a mystery for the team.

Back on Borleias, Czulkang Lah launches another probe of the defenders? defenses, sending two cruiser analogs, also called mataloks, and coralskippers. The Twin Suns shred one of the cruiser analogs with a new weapon using a plasma charge and ball bearings heated to the temperature at which their explosions would cause the damage of a proton torpedo.

On Coruscant, the mysterious tall man watches as his servant attempts to break through the wall with a laser cutter, but it fails. He kills the man, named Ryuk, and then sets out to find a smarter person with better machines.

On the planet Vannix, in the Vankalay system, Han and Leia arrive to see the Senator Addath Gadan and see what they can do in the oncoming election for Presider, or President, of the system. Her opponent is the commander of the navy, Admiral Apelben Werl. Addath expects the Solos to bestow their considerable political influence on her campaign, and it appears that that is what they are there to do. Addath supports non-aggression pacts with the Vong, while the Admiral supports military opposition, as one can expect from a self-preservative politician and a military officer, respectively.

On Tsavong Lah?s worldship in Coruscant orbit, his radank claw arm is worsening, but being tended to by Ghithra Dal, his shaper. As Viqi Shesh predicted, Nen Yim uncovers that Dal is inducing a substance that is causing the rejection of his arm. Tsavong Lah proposes then to discover the entire conspiracy of Dal and a young priest of Yun-Yuuzhan, Takhaff Uul, and deal with it then.

Back in the company of the mysterious large man, he has a man and woman use devices of alternating heat and cold to begin to break down the wall. However, they tell him it will be a very long process, and he is displeased with them. One woman suggests the use of a huge machine to break down the wall, and he sends her off to find one.

Tsavong Lah summons Viqi Shesh to him and instructs her to go to the surface to find the supposed Jedi on the planet, and to take a contingent of warriors and the remaining voxyn, among the last of their dying race, with her, to find them.

Back on Coruscant, the tall man has found a name that the people call him. Lord Nyax. He is pleased with the name and his servants? progress in digging out and repairing the huge machine that will bash down the wall. However, he is angered that there are those out there that he cannot control with his mind; those he will destroy.

On Coruscant, the team has found what they think to be a devourer tank, a tank of life forms that metabolizes anything organic that enters it. However, it is not smashed like the rest of the machinery around, and the team cannot understand why. Luke volunteers to go in and try and figure out why, using his Force influence to convince the organisms that he is not food. At the bottom of the tank, he finds a metal wheel, which he turns and then returns to the surface, to find that a 3-meter tall plug had risen out of the ground. Inside it was a turbolift, which led them to a research room.

The Jedi sense the lingering darkness inside, the anger and violent intent that he had sensed on Borleias. They find dead ysalamiri and lightsaber slashes that destroyed droids and cut apart a middle-aged woman. They also find an Imperial-era hibernation tank, one built for a being of 3 meters.

On Vannix, Han and Leia are being bribed by Addath to remain on Vannix and throw their support to her for military materiel that she technically does not control. They catch her in the bribe attempt by use of a holocam newscaster, because they cannot support someone who will make pacts with the Vong instead of fight them, which is what she would do. They arrange for the bribe attempt to be broadcasted as as soon as she leaves the system, so that the Admiral will win and give them the military materiel they were promised by her.

On Coruscant, the team uncovered the records of the "Subject" of the testing in the lab. It turns out he was a human male in who was installed armor plates and exposed to specific growth hormones and cybernetic enhancement past adolescence. He emerged and destroyed the monitoring droids, leaving the team to assume that this Lord Nyax, a three-meter tall Jedi, is wandering around Coruscant, a world where he doesn?t know anything.

Viqi Shesh?s team stumbles across Lord Nyax, and the Vong warriors charge into battle with him. They and the voxyn are slain by the huge Jedi, and Shesh flees. Before this, she had found a tracking device for a ship and now sought to find it, since she is alone.

The Jedi on the team awoke with the ripple of evil sent off by Lord Nyax, and then set out to hunt. They find the dismembered Vong warriors and voxyn, with obvious lightsaber burns on them.

Shesh, still running from the evil of Lord Nyax, the Jedi, the Vong, and the cannibals of Coruscant, finds the ship that her tracking device was attuned to, the Ugly Truth, still spaceworthy, but its exit blocked by rubble.

Han and Leia have now proceeded to the Aphram system, under piratical disguises, although they are found out and arrested. Artoo and Threepio break them out of jail and away from what appears to be a Peace Brigade trap for them. They got offworld and back to Borleias.

Meanwhile, Jaina, Jagged Fel, and Kyp Durron are having an important chat about their relationship. Jaina doesn?t know what she and Kyp are anymore. Certainly not boyfriend and girlfriend or Master and apprentice, and she doesn?t even know if they are partners any longer. She feels, when they are attuned with each other and the Force when they are in combat, that he is readying himself to go off and run someday, sometime. Finally, after some soul-searching, they decide to stay partners, that Kyp won?t go off and try to die alone.

Eldo Davip, commander of the Super Star Destroyer Lusankya, surveys the odd work done to his ship, the long apparatus hidden in the access shaft of the ship. It would mark the end of Davip?s most prestigious command, but prestige wouldn?t mean a thing if the Vong won, so he wished its construction and use well.

On a Vong transport in Coruscant orbit, Tsavong Lah has collected all the priests and shapers who were in on the conspiracy against him. He confronts them about them and takes his revenge, releasing in the transport four rancors who rip the conspirators apart.

Back on Coruscant, the team has uncovered the true identity of Lord Nyax. He was Irek Ismaren, a a possible son of the Emperor, a Dark Jedi in training. He is younger than he should be, which is thirty or so, because his vital processes were slowed. His bones grew for longer than they were supposed to, giving him more muscle mass. As a baby, he was given a computer apparatus implanted in his head to give him more control over the Force. He is imbued with knowledge of lightsaber combat. However, his mother had brought another Dark Jedi into the partnership, and he had gotten into an argument with Irek, and then a battle. Irek killed the other Jedi, but took a lightsaber through the head and technically died; only his vital functions were sustained. A groundquake damaged the hibernation tank and he broke out, killing his mother, who he did not recognize, and everyone else in the complex. He has some deep motivations, such as to destroy Jedi, locate concentrations of the Force and dominate them, and to conquer the galaxy. However, he lacks memory, all emotion but anger, anguish, etc, and linguistics, so it is impossible to reason with him.

Shesh, back at the Ugly Truth, is found by Denua Ku, the leader of the troupe of warriors that was slaughtered by Nyax. He tells her that he escaped and is now prepared to lead a large contingent of warriors to kill the "giant Jeedai". She will return to the worldship after they kill Nyax, he tells her.

The team finds Nyax, who is pleased with the progress of his servants in excavating the construction droid that he will use to batter down the wall. The Vong find him at the same time, and they all attack Nyax and each other.

Kell and Face find Shesh and take from her the locator from the Ugly Truth, in order that they use it to get offworld.

Meanwhile, Nyax faces off against Luke and Mara, who he tries to use the Force to influence themn to assist him in his quest for domination, but they resist, and the battle breaks out. Nyax has lightsabers imbedded in both of his wrists, elbows, and knees. Tahiri joins them in the fight, but it doesn?t look like it is going too well.

The construction droid then begins to plow through the cityscape of Coruscant and pitches all the combatants to the floor. Nyax follows it, and the Jedi him, while Shesh escapes from a wounded Denau Ku.

The droid is heading right for the old location of the Jedi Temple, for unknown reasons. Vong warriors are rushing towards Nyax and the droid, but they are intercepted by huge numbers of natives, controlled by Nyax.

Finally, the Jedi catch up to Nyax, who projects into their heads a command to stop and go fight the Vong. Luke and Mara are about to obey as Nyax pushes sensations of pain into the minds. However, Tahiri, because of the pain and loss that she?s experienced, resists the pain and confronts Nyax. Luke slamed a piece of rubble into his back to distract Nyax. The Jedi together stopped Nyax?s mind manipulation and stood against him together, about to attack before the wall broke open.

The reservoir of pure Force energy slammed into them and through the galaxy, disorienting and confusing all the Jedi. The Jedi Temple had been built over it to protect everyone from it, but it was loose now, and Nyax could drink of it. His expression was of boundless happiness as he drove a hole from where they were to the surface of Coruscant, letting the sunlight through.

The Jedi came to the top of the droid, where coralskippers attacked it. They found that they, too, could use this energy, and used it to send rubble into the air to destroy the skips. Nyax lifted a huge column of rubble in every direction as he floated in the middle of swirling rocks, destroying coralskippers and buildings alike.

Shesh returned to the building where the Ugly Truth had been, and all that was there were military rations and a farewell note from the Wraiths.

The Jedi deliberated shortly on how to fight Nyax. Tahiri suggested that she be able to finish him, saying that he could fight the Jedi by feeling them in the Force, but couldn?t feel the Vong. Since she was both, she could kill him. Tahiri went around as Mara and Luke attacked from the front. She struck him in the back and shattered his bones, and so he fell screaming into the hole that he had created.

Nyax lay at the bottom of the pit he had created and screamed out his last breath, imbuing everything around with his malevolent intent, his last will. He roared out his pain and sent rubble into the air, seeking to destroy anything and everything that he could. He obliterated two cruiser analogs that threatened, and then died.

The Wraiths, feeling sorry for Shesh as she wept there, alone, picked her up in the Ugly Truth, However, she did something unexpected. She said that no Jedi, no Vong, no Noghri, no one could kill her. They were all beneath her. Only Viqi Shesh could kill Viqi Shesh. At that, she stepped out of the viewport and plummeted.

Kell and Luke piloted the Ugly Truth back to Borleias, where Wedge provided the final plan to those assembled. The Starlancer superlaser was a fake, only a ruse to keep the Vong guessing. This was to be their final defense of Borleias, then they would finally retreat. Eldo Davip, commander of the Lusankya, was to pilot the "deadliest single-pilot starfighter the galaxy had ever seen".

Luke was give command of Blackmoon Squadron for the battle and the rest of the elite squadrons; The Rogues, Wild Knights, Taanab Aces, Vanguards, and Twin Suns, lifted off. Czulkang Lah believed that this attack was an all-out push to kill his son, using the pipelighters? superlaser to destroy his worldship. He had tactics, using trained pilots who could function without a yammosk to kill their elite squadrons, and using mobile dovin basal mines to strip their shields. Charat Kraal was off to capture Jaina Solo, but unbeknownst to him, a modified proton torpedo broadcasting her gravitic signal is what he would be chasing.

Lusankya left orbit and headed straight for Domain Hul, Czulkang Lah?s worldship. Meanwhile, Lah sent two cruiser analogs against the Errant Venture, hoping it to be an easy kill. However, there was deception. As Lusankya had suffered minor battle damage, crews had transferred her weapons to other ships, to replace or add weaponry to them. Terrik?s ship now had a great deal of firepower, surprising and destroying the two jaded cruisers. It then hit hyperspace, leaving Lah to believe that all three ships had perished.

Lusankya, now practically ungunned, only carried one crew member; her captain, Eldo Davip. He flew the great spearhead right at the worldship, preparing for Operation Emperor?s Spear. She was escorted by the elite squadrons who had just abandoned the useless pipefighters, trying to keep her somewhat intact to finish her final mission.

Wedge was nearly the only person left on the ground, as the complex?s ground and starfighter defenses began to crumble.

The large number of coralskippers attacking Lusankya and her escort were beginning to take their toll on the ships and fighters.

Wedge finally ran out of the operations center. His shuttle had been destroyed, so he took an X-wing, the one of Blackmoon Eleven. He would not be idenitifed, so if he died, no one would know how or when. He lifted to protect a freighter than had engine trouble. A rakamat and coralskipper threatened the freighter. Wedge led the skip in pursuit and created a smoke and dust cloud in front of him. He flew right over the rakamat, but the skip flew right into it and destroyed them both, leaving the crew time to escape.

Czulkang Lah finally figured out that it was the intent of the Lusankya to ram Domain Hul and instructed the worldship to get away.

Jaina noticed the forming up of coralskippers to attack and capture her, and put her plan into motion. The torpedo codenamed Goddess, with her gravitic signature, was fired into a dovin basal minefield, while she adjusted her own to become an anonymous pilot, Twin Suns Nine. The skips followed into the minefield. The pursuers did not even act in concert; from different domains, some even wanted to kill instead of capture "Jaina".

The freighter Wedge had escorted finally lifted and was headed out, but then a squadron of skips began to vector in on it.

Charat Kraal finally closed upon "Jaina", she whipped around a dovin basal mine faster than any starfighter could, and slammed into him, obliterating his skip.

Eldo Davip was in the control center on Lusankya, deep inside the hull, steering his ship towards the worldship Domain Hul. The ship was falling apart, but together enough that he could finish his mission. There was a Y-wing in the aft of the tunnel; his escape vessel.

Wedge engaged the skip squadron, and through excellent flying and inventive use of a torpedo, had pared their numbers down to four.

Czulkang Lah noted the protrusion of a "stinger" from the eaten-away hull of Lusankya, but could not understand how an infidel ship could have something so organic. Now, the Star Destroyer Mon Mothma dropped out of hyperspace near Domain Hul, activating its gravity well projectors to make sure the worldship could not jump, and its yammosk jamming, to disrupt the Vong?s battle meld. Also, dovin basal mines were chasing five missiles gravitically configured to resemble the Millenium Falcon right near the worldship, interfering with the dovin basals. Lah contacted his son, to tell him that Borleias had fallen, but that his last words would be for him. Tsavong Lah gave the order to evacuate Domain Hul.

Wedge was able to destroy the remaining four skips, but at the loss of his shields and damage to his fighter. However, a second squadron was closing on the freighter he escorted. He fired upon them to draw them to him, knowing it would he his death. He took a great deal of damage and began to ballistic spin, and thought that was the end.

Eldo Davip lined up the Lusankya on Domain Hul and was about to flee in his Y-wing, but the worldship?s dovin basals sought to deflect the arrowhead. Davip redlined his engines to bring it back on target. He would stay there and make sure everything went according to plan, if he needed to. The prow of the Lusankya hit the worldship and drove in deep. The core was swallowed by the innards of Domain Hul as the superstructure flaked off and stayed on the surface of the giant ship. Then, the tip of the spear inside exploded, detonating the next section, and then the next. Then the worldship began to die.

The Rogues intervened in Wedge?s death, chasing off and destroying the attacking skips, leaving the hero to live and fight another day.

All the forces regrouped and rendezvoused elsewhere, leaving Borleias the Vong?s costliest victory.

Tsavong Lah mused, back on his worldship. Did the gods love him? They had restored his arm to him and taken Borleias back. Did they hate him? They had taken his father from him, the great Czulkang Lah. The universe had grown far stranger to the warmaster.

- This summary is the property of the writer and NJOE.com. This summary is NOT to be reposted in any shape or form without consent from the NJOE.com administration -

UPDATE: 5/23/02 (Nom Anor) - Today I bring you a few pieces of info from Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Thanks to Ginger for the advance info! Highlight to read:

Not since Emperor Palpatine have the Jedi battled such monstrous evil. Unless they succeed against staggering odds, the galaxy is doomed.

Luke Skywalker's daring mission to halt the Yuuzhan Vong's nefarious plot to overthrow the New Republic is struggling on all fronts. And time is slipping away for Han and Leia Organa Solo, trapped on a small planet whose rulers are about to yield to Yuuzhan Vong pressure to give up the Jedi rebels.

On Coruscant, Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker have made a shocking discovery that is preventing the Yuuzhan Vong from exerting complete control. Luke and Mara are thrust into a fierce battle for their lives. Suddenly, the chances of escaping appear nearly impossible. And in space, another battle rages, one that holds ominous consequences for the New Republic-and for the Jedi themselves...

Dramatis Personae

The Jedi

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Master (male human)

Mara Jade Skywalker; Jedi Master (female human)

Jaina Solo; Jedi Knight, Twin Suns leader (human female)

Kyp Durron; Jedi Master, Twin Suns pilot (human male)

Corran Horn; Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron pilot (human male)

Tahiri Veila; Jedi student (human female)

With the New Republic Military

General Wedge Antilles (male human)

Colonel Tycho Celchu (male human)

Cononel Gavin Darklighter; Rogue Squadron leader (human male)

Captain Kral Nevil; Rogue Squadron pilot (Quarren male)

Flight Officer Leth Liav; Rogue Squadron pilot (Sullustan female)

Captain Garik "Face" Loran; Wraith Squadron leader (human male)

Kell Tainer (male human)

Elassar Targon (male Devaronian)

Bhindi Drayson (female human)

Baljos Arnjak (male human)

Iella Wessiri Antilles; Intelligence director (female human)

Jagged Fel; Twin Suns pilot (human male)

Zindra Daine; Twin Suns pilot (female human)

Voort "Piggy" saBinring; Twin Suns pilot (male Gamorrean)

Beelyath; Twin Suns pilot (male human)

Sharr Latt; Twin Suns pilot (male human)

Tilath Keer; Twin Suns pilot (female human)

Shawnkyr Nuruodo; Vanguard Squardron leader (female Chiss)

YVH 1-1A (masculine droid)

Civilians

Danni Quee; scientist (female human)

Wolam Tser; holodocumentarian (male human)

Tam Elgrin; holocam operator (male human)

Han Solo; captain, Millennium Falcon (male human)

Leia Organa Solo; Republic ambassador (female human)

With the Yuuzhan Vong

Tsavong Lah; warmaster (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Czulkang Lah; commander (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Nen Yim; shaper (female Yuuzhan Vong)

Kasdakh Buhl; warrior (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Maal Lah; warrior (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Denua Ku; warrior (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Viqi Shesh; former Senator (female human)

Harrar; priest (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Takkhaff Uul; priest (male Yuuzhan Vong)

Ghithra Dal; shaper (male Yuuzhan Vong)

UPDATE: 5/11/02 (Nom Anor) - Well, After a week of studying for AP tests, I've managed to find some time to tell you about my experience at Celebration II. I'll tell about my adventure here, and you can download the schedule of events I attended right here. Pictures will be up soon (and by soon I really mean it could be awhile).

Nom Anor's Indianapolis Adventure!

Friday, May 3, 2002

I arrived Friday at about 11:00 AM (it's about a two hour drive from Louisville). I stayed at the wonderful Adam's Mark Hotel which was a short walk from the Indiana Convention Center. My first task upon arrival was to orient myself - the place is BIG! There was an uncountable number of people swarming around me, but luckily the 501st Imperial Legion was there to keep things in order. After a bit of exploring I stood in line for the International Book Give-Away and snagged a copy of Vector Prime through Balance Point in Japanese. Then I ventured up to the second floor for Bob Salvatore's talk on the writing of the Attack of the Clones Novelization and the following panel on The New Jedi Order. I've already posted on the stuff that was discussed, so no need to repeat that. I got to meet all of the authors who were very nice (although one of them smelled kinda funny, but it was hot in there, so I'll give him that.) The majority of the day was spent wandering around and seeing the awesome sights. I got to meet a good many of the people with whom I've developed working friendships with over the interent, including Dan Wallace, Joe Corroney, and of course my good bud Jeff Carlisle. If anyone stopped by Jeff's table you may have seen my face as a Yuuzhan Vong warrior (Ni'Khess) and you could have picked up a UNJOH flyer and experience firsthand the wonders of my computer's printing capacity. In the evening I stopped by Tatooine for "Attack of the Fetts!" The bounty hunting trio was astounding and they all were in good humor. Then back to the hotel room to watch the Mothman Prophecies (I fell alseep if that's any testament to the movie's quality).

Saturday, May 4, 2002

After a refreshing night's sleep I hurried back to the convention center in time for the panel on presenting a portfolio to Lucasfilm. Next up was the Contuinity panel with majority of the same people as the NJO panel. Good stuff here too. Bob and Troy were constantly bombarded with the same questions about the deaths of Chewie and Anakin. Without a break I met up with my good mom, who was nice enough to stand in line for McCallum's Specatular, which I must say, was well worth her wait. The things our parents do for us! The show was indeed spectacular, especially the part where Yoda kicks some ass and the fact that it was done digitally. Awesome stuff! I spent the next two hours exploring some more, picking up free stuff, chilling with Jeff, and bumping into some guy named Hayden Christenson. He's a really friendly guy and the perfect choice for Anakin. I watched Life as a House last night, and I have to say - the guy's got talent. After I recovered from that encounter I headed back to Naboo on the second floor to hear John Knoll talk about his work on Episode II. He showed a hilarious video he patched together as a thank-you for the hard workers at ILM - the arena monsters pulling a little John Travolta action to Stayin' Alive. Well all that walking certainly made me hungry so we headed out to P. F. Chang's Chinese Bistro - some of the best Chinese cuisine I've had in my life. The crab wontons are great! Our return from dinner yielded another trip to Naboo, this time to hear Lorne Peterson and his crew talk about the modelmaking process for Episode II. Having failed to acquire both tickets to the 25 Anniversery Concert and the exclusive Jorg Sacul action figure we called it a night and headed off to see Spider-Man. After reading the rest of my report, go see this movie!

Sunday, May 5, 2002

Sunday was the shortest of the three days and I wanted to spend most of my time exploring and seeing the Archives exhibit. I listened to Dan Wallace's talk on "Documenting the Magic: The Annals of Star Wars." Dr. David West Reynold was also part of this panel and his story of tracking down the original locations in Tunisia was astounding. After that it was off to "The Art of Attack of the Clones" with Iain McCaig, Dermot Power, Dan Gregoire, and Erik Tiemens. They shared a lot of stories behind the concept art, much more so than The Art of Attack of the Clones book, although I recommend picking this up nonetheless. The last few hours were spent exploring, talking with Jeff (who introduced me to Sean Glenn, the art director for the Star Wars RPG), and spitting some game with Mackenzie, the hot one in the black leather pants at the Gentle Giant Studios booth. After exchanging digits we parted ways and I snapped back to reality, boarded my ship, and headed back to Louisville. Certainly an experience to remember! Only four days to go until Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones!

UPDATE: 5/11/02 (Coopra) - Interested in reading some fan speculation? Some really, really, out there fan speculation? Check out this page for a very, um...well thought out theory connecting the Vong and Zonama Sekot.

UPDATE: 5/11/02 (Coopra) - First we break the news of the cover thumbnail being online. Then we're the first ones to mention the full cover at TOS. And now, being the nifty site we are, the Gallery's been updated with not one but TWO Destiny's Way covers: the official TOS version, and a fan version by Jedi Freac, who just won't seem to leave me alone these days. =p

UPDATE: 5/10/02 (Nom Anor) Hot on the heels of the thumbnail cover comes the full-size version at the official site. View the First Look: Destiny's Way. I will update tomorrow about my experience at Celebration II, with pictures coming.... when they get developed.

UPDATE: 5/10/02 (Coopra) - Huge-o thanks to longtime UNJOHer Jedi Freac for pointing me to Del Rey's Destiny's Way order page, where a thumbnail of the front cover has appeared. It's not much to go by, but if it's there at all, chances are TOS' big front-and-back version should be along any day now.

Also, Celebration 2 attendee Beth told me she spoke to Sue Rostoni, who mentioned that neither of Tim Zahn's upcoming books will be out until 2006. The interesting part is that one of them will be in the "Classic Era". That term could theoretically mean anything from Rebellion-era to the NJO, but as we all know, the NJO will be over by '06. That makes this the first confirmation of a post-NJO Luke/Han/Leia novel. Its location in the timeline is still a mystery, but this might be where the aforementioned discovery of Luke and Leia's prequel origins takes place.

UPDATE: 5/5/02 (Coopra) - I've talked to Nom, and he's got a nice big follow-up report coming up soon, along with lots of photos. If any of you went to the Celebration and have anything of your own to report, send it on in. Nom also made about 50 UNJOH flyers for Jeff Carlisle to pass out at his booth, and he says they were all taken. Guess that means we'll have a bunch of new visitors soon, huh?

UPDATE: 5/5/02 (Nom Anor) - Well folks, I'm back from Celebration II and I had an amazing time. While TF.N may have reported a few bits about the NJO, I have a few lesser known points to let you in on. Some of this may be known already, but prepare yourself...

The fifth and final hardcover will be written by Jim Luceno and will be called The Unifying Force.

The standalone paperback between the Force Heretic trilogy and The Unifying Force will be written by Greg Keyes. It does not yet have a title or an outline. I had a chat with Sue Rostoni after the Continuity panel and she told me this.

In regards to the release date of Rebel Stand there is still some confusion. Sue Rostoni told me it would be out in August, while at the Del Rey booth I was told it would be out in May, followed by Traitor in August. I was also given an advance copy of a fantasy novel (I don't remember the title off the top of my head) to review. In return the paper said I will be sent a free copy of Traitor when the book is released in August.

Jim Luceno mentioned that Nen Yim will have a major role in the future.

When asked whether Boba Fett will be appearing, the panel responded "The series isn't over yet."

When asked whether the spirits of dead Jedi would return to offer advice the panel gave a "very strong no comment."

Another question was asked in regard to the fate of the captured and devastated planets. The responsse was "Wait and see."

The origin of the name "Yuuzhan Vong" relates the end of the series and will revealed in one of the later books.

Jim Luceno mentioned that Wraith Squadron will be returned after the Enemy Lines duology.

Ikrit's prophecy regarding Anakin and Tahiri was actually written after Anakin's death had been planned out. They are still deciding what, if anything, to do with the prophecy.

The finale of the New Jedi Order was replanned as recently as May 3rd. A new major plot point was developed that wasn't originally planned, and the ending is not yet set in stone.

The NJO Bible used by the authors is 500+ pages now. It is maintained by two editors. When asked if it would ever see print there was no definitive answer, although the panel believed it would be too technical to enjoy.

There are no definitive plans for post-NJO series books as of yet.

Tim Zahn will be writing two books in the future, but not the NJO.

I'll tell you all about the rest of my adventure in Indianapolis a little later. For now, enjoy the latest news.

UPDATE: 4/28/02 (Coopra) - Howdy. I'm officially putting out a call to anyone who knows how to set up and manage professional forums. We're looking to move ours to something like Snowball or XMB, but we haven't the first idea how to run those things. If anyone wants to lend a hand, or knows of any other reliable forum sites that would work, let me know.

UPDATE: 4/20/02 (Nom Anor) - Some semi-NJO related news for everyone today. Someone within the vast domain of LFL passed along a bit of info regarding The New Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels, which I'm going to guess will be out in May 2003 (but bear in mind that's just a guess). The new guide will be written by Haden Blackman, a big name from LucasArts and the brains behind the game Starfighter and the comic mini-series Starfighter: Crossbones, not to mention the content supervisor for the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies. The book will also feature color artwork.

UPDATE: 4/19/02 (Coopra) - Not to be outdone by alternative sources, TOS has posted its trademark "First Look" feature for Traitor. Nothing new really, but it's the first "official" appearance of the cover.

UPDATE: 4/18/02 (Coopra) - A veeeeery veeeeeery early excerpt from Traitor has shown up online. Go to TFN Books to get links to the original image files, or click here for a typed version, courtesy of Jacen.

UPDATE: 4/16/02 (Coopra) - I've been hearing a lot of people complain about Luceno doing the fifth hardcover, especially people that wanted Tim Zahn to do it. Well, early this morning, TFN reported that Zahn himself told a fan he's just signed on to do a TPM - AOTC bridge novel. To me, this is a hundred times cooler than anything he could've done in the NJO, and here's why. There are some mild AOTC spoilers toward the end, so reader beware.

The NJO is a pre-scripted storyline. Right now, somewhere deep within the Lucasfilm vaults or whatever, is a piece of paper or a disk that tells exactly how this story's gonna end. As I see it, this is beneficial for two reasons: one, we get a lengthy story that allows more much more consistency then the Bantam era did, and two, it gives LFL a chance to try out a bunch of new authors, while still keeping control over what stories they're telling, which prevents disasters like the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy. It's cautious experimentation. Even the handful of SW veterans that have written NJO books got to venture into new territory - Stackpole and Allston finally got to focus on the Skywalker/Solo family, and Tyers got to take Mara Jade and the three Solo young'ns for a spin.

Which brings us to Tim Zahn. He invented Mara and the Solo twins, for cryin' out loud. He's done Luke and Mara to death. Granted, he did them quite well (understand that this isn't criticism of Zahn's books in any way, shape, or form, just a reasoning of why he shouldn't be doing NJO), but the NJO is about trying new things. Until the NJO, he was also the only one to use the Chiss, and look at how well newbie Elaine Cunningham did with them.

So I've established why he shouldn't do NJO. But I'm absolutley hyper about him doing a prequel book. Why? Well, for starters, it'd give him a chance to address some of the dating inconsistencies from way back in the Thrawn Trilogy. And with that out of the way, just think about all the prequel-era goodies he left sitting around a decade ago that can now finally be fleshed out. Imagine the possibilities: Obi-Wan and Anakin sent to oversee the departure of the Outbound Flight Project. Jango Fett hired by a competitor of Rendili StarDrive to sabotage the Katana Fleet on its maiden voyage. A young Gilad Pellaeon, going into battle from the bridge of an Acclamator-class starship (the SSD-looking ships from the Clone War trailer). He could even throw in the origin of the Spaarti cloning cylinders, and tie it into what the Kaminoans are using. I drool just thinking about it. So what would you really rather see, a NJO Zahn novel, that's structurally exactly the same as if anyone else had written it, or a prequel Zahn novel, boldly going where no Zahn has gone before?

Oh yeah, I added a relevant poll to see just how many of you get where I'm coming from.

UPDATE: 4/14/02 (Coopra) - Almost forgot. A couple new summaries have been circulating since back when the site was down, and I'd been meaning to stick them up for anyone who hasn't encountered them yet. Here ya go:

Traitor

Deep in the bowels of the captured capital planet of Coruscant, a hunted Jedi is hidden with an unexpected mentor who teaches him new ways to understand the Force - and what it means to be a Jedi.

Destiny's Way

The time of reckoning is close at hand. Events in the New York Times bestselling Star Wars The New Jedi Order series take a decisive turn, as the heroes of the New Republic prepare for their most volatile clash yet with the enemy - from without and within.

In the war against the ruthless Yuuzhan Vong, the fall of Coruscant leaves the New Republic divided by internal strife, and on the verge of bowing to conquest. But those who steadfastly refuse to consider surrender - Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa Solo, and their children and comrades-in-arms - are determined to seize victory against overwhelming odds. And now, finally, there are signs that the tide may be turning in the New Republic?s favor.

After capturing crucial Yuuzhan Vong intelligence, Jedi fighter-pilot Jaina Solo prepares to lead a daring surprise strike against an enemy flagship. Meanwhile, Jaina?s brother Jacen - liberated from the hands of the enemy and newly schooled in an even greater mastery of the Force by the Jedi Knight Vergere - is eagerly poised to bring his unique skills to bear against the invaders. And on Mon Calamari, the New Republic?s provisional capital, the retired, ailing hero Admiral Ackbar has conceived a major tactical plan that could spell the beginning of a swift end for the Yuuzhan Vong.

Always knew Ackbar'd be the one to save us all. =)

UPDATE: 4/14/02 (Coopra) - Big news today, kids. GhentZ has popped back into his old role of guy-who-makes-my-news and given the net two beauties to start out the week with: the cover for Traitor, and the long-awaited revelation of the Hardcover 5 author - James Luceno!

As far as that cover goes, I definitely like the symmetry with it and Dark Journey (even if DJ wasn't the greatest cover to begin with), But I don't know why they'd put a decent-looking Coruscant scene on it when there's no way in hell any part of it still looks like that. It'd be much more interesting to have seen a couple smashed buildings covered in that green stuff. Maybe a Golan shooting out of orbit in the background... *achem* Anyway, I couldn't be happier with the picking of Luceno for HC5. The only person I might have been happier with is Stackpole, and even I have to admit, he's written plenty already.

UPDATE: 4/12/02 (Nom Anor) - It's finally finished (well almost anyways). The 4th edition of The Essential Guide to the Yuuzhan Vong has now been uploaded to the Yuuzhan Vong Database. With the exception of Part II: The History of the Yuuzhan Vong and Part IV: The Yuuzhan Vong Bestiary, the Database is complete. I have reformated the finished sections and they are now much easier to read - each entry can now be clearly dilineated. The other two sections will be updated very soon, but since the majority was finished I wanted to go ahead and get in online. Although there is a link to the downloadble version, it has not been uploaded yet. I will do so when I have finished the last two sections. After finishing them I plan to get started right away on a major update to the 4th edition, which will include all of Rebel Dream and at least one new appendix. I hope you enjoy the new version, and let me apologize for taking so long with it!

UPDATE: 4/8/02 (Nom Anor) - Well, it appears as though most of my updates were swallowed by the endless void that is the internet. If memory serves me correctly, I previously confirmed that the Action Fleet worldship rumor was indeed false, I posted a preview of Knights of the Old Republic, and I started to bring the Yuuzhan Vong Database up to 4th edition status (which was all deleted). I've recovered rather quickly, and the full guide should be ready to go in the near future (I mean it this time).

UPDATE: 3/31/02 (Coopra) - I just brought the Release Schedule up to date. If anyone out there has a copy of Rebel Dream with a clean spine (i.e., not bent and scratched) and wants to scan it for me, I'd be much abliged.

UPDATE: 3/31/02 (Coopra) - Well, that sucked. Briefly put, the people who run my server performed an upgrade in early March, and as a result, my IP address changed. Unfortunately, they didn't feel this was information I needed, and so I wasn't able to beat my new server location out of them until late last night. In any event, things are back to normal once again, and hopefully they'll stay that way this time. It'll take more than a lost server to keep me down, folks. Somewhere along the line a couple updates were lost, but hopefully Nom'll be sticking those back up soon.

In related news, I'm setting up e-mail redirect account thingies for the domain, so I can now be reached at coopra@unjoh.com. I'm working on Nom's as we speak.

UPDATE: 2/21/02 (Nom Anor) - Well it seems your infidel computers aren't quite as great as you think they are. I've managed to seize control using my superior organic technology. Your cheap defenses mean nothing to me! Cough Gotta get back on track here. Coop's pretty busy with school and he decided he could use a hand with the updates, so here I am! Not much to report tonight, except for a rumor that Galoob may be giving a worldship the Action Fleet treatment. Now take this rumor with a grain of salt, cuz it hasn't been confirmed yet. If it turns out to be true it will mean great things for NJO merchandising! If it's not true, then start asking Galoob why they haven't thought of it yet! In other news, The New Jedi Order Sourcebook is out in stores. What are you waiting for? Go grab a copy (and by grab, I do suggest you pay for it first. We here at UNJOH don't support the five-finger discount). I'll be back soon with some more news.

UPDATE: 2/3/02 - Ahhhh-HA! You didn't think it was gonna happen, did you?? Admit it, I can see it in your eyes! You thought UNJOH was finished! You thought I'd never get back to my former glory! So there!! We're back to normal, folks. Everything's been updated to maximum efficiency - the Gallery's got some new stuff from Craig Mullan, some RPG art, and a neat little SBS Jaina Solo piece (whoever sent me "Lightning Strikes", I lost your name - give me a shout so I can credit ya); the Excerpts page's been updated with clips from Star By Star and Dark Journey, and the TOS Troy Denning story's been added to the Interviews page. Oh yeah; the Schedule and Links pages are now up to par, too.

UPDATE: 1/29/02 - Dark Journey officially comes out tomorrow, and as usual, I've got a summary for ya. Well, at least part of a summary. Acky, webmaster of the site with which I'm currently hitching a ride, found the book early and typed up a nice thorough summary of the first half or so. As for the rest of the story, I guess we'll have to read the book or something. =p Highlight to yada, yada, yada...

First off, the Dramatis Personae is extremely short compared to those in other books: 15 characters. And you have to remember as you start the book that this takes place immediately – literally – after SBS and that the Jedi team doesn’t know about Coruscant’s fall.

The book opens over Myrkr with Harrar and Khalee Lah, Tsavong Lah’s son, watching the sun rise. They have something which some people might call a philosophical discussion before noticing what they think is Nom Anor’s cruiser the Ksstarr which is under the Jedi command. Nom Anor soon calls via villip to tell that the voxyn queen and spawn were destroyed and that the Jedi had escaped. He uses phrase that they would capture the Ksstarr, which clues Harrar in to which Jedi it was that had escaped: Jaina (with the rest of the surviving team). Nom Anor informs Harrar and Khalee that Anakin was killed and Jacen captured alive.

Jaina is at the guns console of the Ksstarr when she reflects on what had happened. They had retrieved Anakin’s body and only nine of them having survived. She has only a faint memory of her slip into the dark side and remembers Zekk not letting her pilot. Jaina tells herself that she will go back to get Jacen. After a while, Tenel Ka convinces Zekk that Jaina needs to pilot the Ksstar and not him and Ganner takes over the gun station. After a short battle, Jaina sets course for Coruscant.

Kyp Durron is in his X-Wing with his squadron talking to his astromech droid (who seems to have just as much of an attitude as Kyp does) when they drop from hyperspace over Coruscant. Members of his squad are disturbed by all the Yuuzhan Vong ships drifting down onto Coruscant – apparently shutting off the lights. Soon, Danni Quee and her Jedi Science arrives and is able to block the yammosk, but not before all but Kyp and one other pilot are the only ones who live through their battle. Kyp, squadron less, becomes the Falcon’s wingmate as she dives into the firefight.

As the Ksstarr drops from hyperspace (or dark space as it is referred to by the Vong), and to Coruscant, Jaina enters the ship into a warzone and immediately comes under fire by New Republic weapons. Leia suspects that the Ksstarr is under command by Jaina and reaches out to her, only to feel anger. Leia also is able to discover that Jacen isn’t with the Jedi team onboard the Ksstarr.

The Jedi team is deep in frustration of where to go, when they decide that they should head to Hapes – given Tenel Ka’s standing there. The plan is to send Tenel Ka in secretly in the Ksstarr’s escape pod and get her to a command center so she can tell the orbiting ships to stop firing on the Jedi team.

To sum up the next few chapters, the Falcon, Kyp, two Chiss scouts, and the Ksstarr all head towards Hapes. Jaina and Lowbacca are able to trick their dovin basal and are able to effectively hide from the Yuuzhan Vong – but not before Jaina insults the Vong by “renaming” the Ksstarr the Trickster – after the hated goddess of the Vong.

The most important event in this time is that a sudden wave of “Jacen” washes over all the Jedi everywhere – including Kyp who hated Jacen – before suddenly dropping off. It appears obvious to most Jedi except for Leia that Jacen is dead. Jaina realizes it when she is hugging her mother and her father can see it in her face that his other son is dead now as well. This is when Jaina first notices that Han looks “old.”

UPDATE: 1/25/02 - Well, we're closing in on Dark Journey's *cough* release date, and info's begun to trickle out. Fettster came up with the quite unique idea of listing a bunch of out-of-order quotes from the book and shooting them at me. Some are slight spoilers, so highlight to read. Enjoy!

"No woman finds an equal in a man her own age."

"Tenel Ka told me that you will be training under Kyp Durron."

"How many times can the Falcon be pulled out like that before she falls apart?

"Jaina Solo will be found, and she will be sacrificed."

"The sacrifice has been completed?"

"The Jeedai, this Jaina Solo, flies upon a living ship. That offends me. She escaped a worldship. That should not have been possible. She is a twin, which is rightly reserved as the province of the gods, or a portent of greatness. That is blasphemy. I would pursue her to the most wretched corner of this galaxy if it meant adhering myself to a pair of molting grutchins."

"Do me a favor--make sure this 'discussion' takes place in an open space, with no flammable materials around."

"Is every third human is this galaxy named Solo?"

"A lot of people wonder why you're still alive."

"A Yuuzhan Vong frigate analog requires an escort to Hapes."

"I wouldn't follow you out of an ocean if I were drowning."

That should be enough to tide everyone over until Tuesday. If anyone else has the book and finishes it in time to send me a summary before Monday night, I'd appreciate it!

UPDATE: 1/7/02 - Man, I'm sure doing a lot of updates all of a sudden. Thanks to the prompt and informative EDDunar, I once again have a poll. And a much nicer one at that, far as I'm concerned.

UPDATE: 1/6/02 - Whoops, forgot to mention a couple things. Jeedainet has gotten two recent scoops (what can I say, I'm still getting back on the ball): a summary of Rebel Dream, and the typical month-early audiobook excerpt for Dark Journey. Check it out here while you still can. SOP is for me to type it up tonight, but seeing as I don't have an Excerpts page at the moment, I'll give myself some time. Don't worry though; if for one reason or another RealPlayer doesn't work for you, I'll have it up in text soon. In the meantime, register for my forums and maybe someone there will type it up and post it themselves.

UPDATE: 1/6/02 - Sadly, freetools.com has made some adjustments to their policy which conflict with my own. As soon as I find a new place, the poll will be back up. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know.

UPDATE: 1/2/02 - Happy New Year, kids! Just wanted to tell everyone about a site I discovered recently, called the New Jedi Order Project. They're designing a NJO mission campaign, new ships and all, for the game X-wing Alliance. They've got a little bit done so far, but things have been moving along slowly and they're desperately in need of some staff. I'm a huge XWA fan, and I would really like to see this thing happen, so if anyone out there is experienced at XWA mission building and/or OPT editing, I beg you to contact them and offer your services; I'm sure they can put you to good use.

Oh yeah; new poll's up, just like I promised.

UPDATE: 12/30/01 - Remember me? Suffice it to say, the triple-whammy of holiday activities, a lost server, and forum problems have *cough* stunted my news posting as of late. Most of you are prolly aware by now of the few developments there've been since I visited you last, but here's a rundown for old time's sake: Go here for the cover of Rebel Stand, Aaron Allston's second upcoming NJO book, and an announcement that Hardcover 4 has been changed (whew!) from Destiny's Road to Destiny's Way. Don't ask me why the new one's better, it just is. Hmm....you know what? That's basically it.

Not really NJO-related, but Mike Stackpole recently put out a call for people who're fans of his SW work to go out and give his own stuff a read; lest he wind up at McDonald's in 2002.

On the UNJOH front: I hate giving estimates, but I've finally decided to take the problem into my own hands, and barring any MAJOR problems, I should have things back to normal in a fortnight (two weeks). Man, I always wanted to use that word. At the very least, I swear I'll have a new poll up by then. Maybe if things stay slow for now, I can be back just in time for my 200,000th hit!

UPDATE: 11/28/01 - Well, we're back. Sort of. The splendiferous being known as Acky has granted me a chunk of his server space for the time being, so news updates will continue as usual (aside from a slight posting delay), even though most of the other stuff won't (see above note if you haven't already). I will still be updating the other sections of the site with new material to keep up-to-date, so feel free to send contributions to the Gallery and stuff. They just won't be up for a bit. May I suggest you take this semi-down-time to sign up for the Forums or the YVD mailing list if you haven't already.

UPDATE: 11/13/01 - Really quick update...TOS just put up a big 3-page interview with Troy Denning, available here. Also, if you're not subscribed to SW Insider but are itching for the Who's Who feature in the latest issue, scour this thread at the JC forums for the whole scoop, and some scans.

UPDATE: 11/7/01 - Two new additions to the Gallery; a Jaina drawing and a UNJOH-themed PowerPoint presentation. Sometime over the weekend I'll be putting up all three VP excerpts.

UPDATE: 10/26/01 - JeedaiNet's really been throwing info out lately; GhentZ posted a few days ago (spoilers)to confirm that Coruscant DOES fall after all, and alludes that it might not have been made clear in the audiobook that caused all the fuss at TFN. Now it looks like JN correpondent Parabola got his hands on an early copy, and it dishing out bits of info as he goes along. There's a bunch of interesting stuff up now, with more to follow.

Not to be outdone, TFN Books has also entered the cryptic spoiler game with a list of words that tie into the plot of Dark Journey. Some are pretty obvious, some aren't.

THIS JUST IN!! (always wanted to say that) Just as I was about to post this, Nom Anor alerted me to the first text SBS excerpt. ::adopts his Shwartzenegger impression:: Go here if you want to live.

UPDATE: 10/21/01 - Added some new NJO character sketches by Ingrid to the Gallery.

UPDATE: 10/21/01 - Just like I promised, YVD v3.0 is now up in its entirety! Took me 6 hours, though I suppose that's nothing compared to what it took Nom. =)

Also, the WotC has put up some artwork from the recent Alien Anthology reference book including a new Vong pic (which actually was taken out of the anthology, since the Vong are getting their own book soon), and a pic of something called a Slivilith. These creatures haven't actually appeared in the NJO, but the book says the Vong used them prior to the invasion. Thanks to Dan "I got my letter in Gamer" Krouse for alerting me first.

UPDATE: 10/19/01 - Thought it'd be fun to utilize my (and my friend Mike's) newfound 3DS Max skill to spiff up the logo a bit. What do you think?

Also, be sure to stop by late tomorrow, when I'll (hopefully) be uploading the entire YV Database v3.0.

UPDATE: 10/9/01 - Early as usual, Del Rey's put up an excerpt from the Star By Star audiobook. Go here to get it straight from the source, but these things usually get taken down after a little while so I've taken the liberty of hosting it myself, right here. Props to JeedaiNet for finding it before me. Back in the good ol' days, I'd be spending the next hour or two typing it up, but alas; I have class in 8 hours. Hopefully, someone else (hint, hint) will take the time to send me a transcription, and I can have it up for you tomorrow.

Oh yeah; go here to check out the *cough* cover for the Recovery eBook.

UPDATE: 10/8/01 - A comment I made regarding one possible SBS edit made in light of the WTC attack seems to have confused some people. If you think you might be one of these people, read my post here.

UPDATE: 10/5/01 - New poll!

UPDATE: 10/4/01 - Just wanna take a moment to address the hubbub surrounding the recently revealed big-ass SBS spoiler. First, a notice regarding another recent bit of info that's kinda been drowned out by the other one (which I'm not gonna mention just now, since anyone reading this much either already knows it or is probably avoiding it): I was mistaken last April when I posted that Coruscant would be falling; from a certain point of view. There IS a big attack there, with undoubtedly lots of carnage, but apparently, the Vong don't actually succeed in taking the planet. The reason I said "a certain point of view" is that GhentZ said at least one story element had been changed in light of the recent tragedy (the entire concept of which sickens me, but let's not get into that here), and for the sake of my professional reputation, I'm gonna go ahead and presume that to be the change.

Getting back to the big(ger) news, all's I have to say is, calm the hell down. You have no more right to judge the NJO creative team for this particular plot twist than you do Lucas for Jar Jar. Regardless of emotional attachment, it's their story, not ours. If anything, the NJO's been built more on a foundation of fan desires than any other SW project to date, so one thing not sitting well doesn't mean you can start a guerilla movement against Del Rey. If the story the professionals have chosen to tell upsets you that much, simply STOP READING IT. Random anger won't fix anything, and even if it did, we all know where anger ultimately leads.

UPDATE: 9/30/01 - Really concise update tonight, cuz I'm tired, impatient, and dealing with a crappy comp. I just got back from a 5-day vacation in AZ, and naturally, a couple interesting things happened during my absence. Firstly, Del Rey/TOS finally confirmed Troy Denning's upcoming eBook, which has been renamed Recovery, and, it turns out, is not a prequel to SBS, but a sequel to BP; taking place right after the confrontation on Duro and dealing with Leia's injuries. GhentZ says it comes out either the first Tuesday in October or the last (which would be concurrent with SBS' release). Secondly, Good ol' Nom "YVD" Anor did some digging and found out that, or should I say confirmed, that the upcoming second edition of the Essential Guide to Characters will include entries dealing with not only the NJO, but surprisingly, Attack of the Clones. Not to mention full color images, a first for ANY Essential Guide. Thirdly, speaking of Mister Anor, he's just completed the full third edition of the YVD, and it's sitting in my inbox as we speak. Depending on how much time classes occupy when I start back up on Monday, the full update will be completed and uploaded sometime during (hopefully) the next two weeks. In the meantime,you can see it already if you're a member of the YVD's official Yahoo!Group, whose URL I can't remember offhand (but you could probably find it with minimal digging at groups.yahoo.com).

.....I call that "concise"?

UPDATE: 9/15/01 - The latest issue of SW Insider contains an article/interview with Troy Denning, author of Star By Star. Most interesting is the revelation that (spoilers) Raynar Thul, Tenel ka, and ZEKK will be on the mission with the Solo kids. We all know how close Jaina and Zekk are, right? Hmm... Anyway, the article's been added to the Interviews page. Thanks to all the people who alerted me, and to Acky for typing the whole thing up.

UPDATE: 9/12/01 - Just a quick note to say that everything's okay on my end, aside from extreme shock. My condolences go out to everyone whose life was affected by yesterday's unthinkable tragedy. However, the world must move on. For those who weren't directly affected, I strongly encourage you to get out and donate blood if you're able.

UPDATE: 9/8/01 - The Gallery has been updated yet again, with the Dark Journey and Rebel Dream covers. Note that the words "Enemy Lines" are conspicuously absent on the Rebel Dream cover. Hopefully this is just the result of an early mockup glitch, and Mr. Allston's contract hasn't been cut short. And speaking of conspicuously asbent, (possible SBS spoilers) Corran, Kyp, Jacen, and Anakin are not mentioned anywhere in the update. Let's run some stuff down, shall we? The most recent Star Wars Gamer has an ad for SBS, which declares: ...young Anakin Solo --son of Han & Leia-- leads a Jedi strike force on a desperate mission. Cut to Dark Journey, and Jaina Solo's escape from the Yuuzhan Vong forces. Between that and his mug on the SBS cover, I'm moving ol' Annie up to number 2 on my most-likely-death list, after Corran.

Most likely Jedi death, that is; I've definitely got my eye on a couple others...

Oh yeah...I also added Han & Leia to the Schedule, and made a new poll. No rest for the righteous, huh?

UPDATE: 9/8/01 - First off, Shelly Shapiro confirmed at Dragon*Con that Han & Leia is indeed an official eBook. I assume it's gonna tie in to Star By Star, so expect an announcement on TOS sometime soon. Anyone remember when we got the announcement about Saboteur, in regard to Shadow Hunter's release?

On with the updates! Gallery - we've got a whole revamp of Craig Mullan's section, including some new additions. From Hix, we've got some interesting renditions of Elegos A'Kla and Borsk Fey'lya. From Jason Lewis, we've got a Vong wallpaper collage. Commentaries - I've added a lengthy guest commentary/Star By Star speculatory scenario by Garin Sketch. Please remember that it IS just speculation on Garin's part, and not based on anything other than what's already known to the general public. Finally, Interviews - I've added a transcription of the James Luceno article that appeared in SW Insider a while back. It's mainly about Cloak of Deception (great book by the way, but not for the action-dependant), but it does delve into Agents of Chaos as well. To be perfectly honest, I forgot to take note of who sent this to me; but whoever you are, thanks.

UPDATE: 9/4/01 - BIG news from TOS, folks. Head here for covers and plot summaries of Dark Journey and Rebel Dream! Very heavy stuff. Thanks to Rich for alerting me first.

UPDATE: 9/3/01 - I've got a whole bunch of updates coming soon (hopefully tomorrow), but in the meantime, here's a little treat from Nom "I've got way too much time on my hands" Anor of th YVD: a handmade packet of Yuuzhan Vong creature sounds. Word is the brave soul had to sneak onto at least three different worldships with a tape recorder to get 'em.

UPDATE: 8/24/01 - Here's something even more interesting...a one-sentence summary of Dark Journey has been circulating at the JCs today, and with the help of Nom "YVD" Anor, I tracked it down to the Publishers Weekly website. The page with the summary is located here, but I'm pretty sure you need to have an account and be signed in to see it. Anyway, highlight below to read the summary, and my thoughts.

"Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Dark Journey (Feb., $6.99) by Elaine Cunningham. After a deep personal loss, Jaina Solo is determined to take her revenge on the Yuuzhan Vong."

Well, that sheds some light on the inevitable SBS death. The funny thing is that Corran's been the front-runner in this category for a while now, yet he doesn't seem close enough to Jaina to inspire a book-long crusade of vengeance. My first reaction was either Jacen or Anakin (speaking of which, GhentZ has confirmed that that is definitely Anakin of the back cover), but Nom brought up a rumor that Jaina might be getting engaged in SBS (presumably to Jag Fel, with whom she was galavanting around the warfront from Dark Tide to Balance Point), and that maybe Jag's the one to bite it, shortly after he pops the question to Jaina. I hadn't heard anything about this engagement until today, so keep in mind that there's plenty of room for this to all be wrong. But hey, it gives us plenty to talk about for the next two months.

UPDATE: 8/23/01 - Here's something interesting...Aaron sent me this link to the Del Rey site; it's an eBook called Han and Leia, by Troy Denning, scheduled for release in October. Last I heard, no one knew for sure what the story was, but my best guess is that it's a prologue of some sort for Star By Star, like Saboteur was for Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. If I'm right (keep in mind there's a very small chance this is just a SBS mix-up and that H&L is not an actual story), we should be seeing an announcment on TOS soon. In any event, it's nice to finally have something worthwhile to report on.

UPDATE: 8/21/01 - Whoo, it's been almost two weeks. GhentZ put up yet another long, dragged-out, pointless commentary on the SBS cover. If you've got nothing better to do, read it here. Apparently, (spoiler?) Yoda's gonna be in the book...

UPDATE: 8/10/01 - Almost forgot to mention! There'll be another chat with Greg Keyes tomorrow night, I believe at 9pm EST. I'm in a hurry, so check out the details over at JeedaiNet; it shouldn't be more than 3 or 4 updates down.

UPDATE: 8/6/01 - Hey, TFN put my editorial up. Go figure.

UPDATE: 8/6/01 - Well, I'm gonna do something that I try never to do with this site. I'm gonna go off-topic. We've all heard about the new Episode II title, and the controversy it's causing. I'm not gonna monopolize site space with prequel commentary, but I've prepared an editorial, which is available here for anyone interested.

Getting back to normal business, I've made one more addition to the Gallery; a Rebirth Wallpaper by C.S. Crowley. Enjoy.

UPDATE: 8/6/01 - Okies, here we go with the updates:

New to the Gallery are: Gamer #5 Clawcraft pic (thanks Dan), a bunch of new custom figs by Craig Mullan (including Kenth Hamner, Elegos A'Kla, and my new favorite, Borsk Fey'lya), two sketches by Ingrid, and two retouched EGtAS Vong pics (thanks Hix, sorry it took me so long to put 'em up).

Also, Parts I, X, and the Appendices of the YVD have been updated with Conquest info! Expect more soon.

UPDATE: 8/5/01 - New Poll! Coming soon - a bunch of Gallery additions, and the first of many Conquest updates to the YVD!

UPDATE: 7/30/01 - The ever-reliable Ganner has once again secured an early book, and here's his complete summary of Rebirth, right on schedule:

Luke and Mara are on the beach yacht that is on Coruscant when Kenth Hamner arrives and tells them that Borsk Fey'lya has a warrant for Luke's arrest.

On the Errant Venture, Anakin is training with some droids that he made that fight like Yuuzhan Vong when Corran comes in and asks him if he would like to go get some supplies for the Venture because the Venture is just jumping around systems randomly.

In the Millennium Falcon, Jacen awakens, and realizes that a Yuuzhan Vong Interdictor Cruiser has pulled them out of hyperspace. He runs to the bridge and finds Han and Leia(who is okay, not crippled) unconcious. He wakes them up just in time, because two coralskippers have docked with the Falcon. Han goes off to try and boot up the back-up back-up shield generator while Leia and her two Noghri bodyguards go off to meet one Yuuzhan Vong warrior and Jacen goes off to fight another. They each beat the Vong (awesome action scene) and Jacen tells Han he is going to find some way to get the Skips off of the Falcon without opening it (Falcon) to space.

On the dying worldship Baanu Miir, Nen Yim has just arrived and learns that the previous Master Shaper used his Trainees as servants and taught them nothing. When she realizes that Baanu Miir is dying, she decides that she will be a heretic and find a newer, faster way to revive it.

Back on Coruscant, Mara is shocked that Fey'lya would try to arrest Luke and tells Luke that they should leave the planet. Right then, she collapses and Luke tells the droid to go and get a Medical Droid fast.

On Errant Venture, Tahiri finds Anakin working on the Lucre, a small freighter that he and Corran are taking to Eriadu to get supplies. She tells him that she is going and he argues, but in the end, says okay.

In the Falcon, Jacen tells C-3PO that he is to hang out of the hole in the back and drop concussion missle out the back, with coralskippers in pursuit! Han gets the shields up and they finally get moving. Threepio gets the last missle out, but gets sucked out himself.

By the time the MD-10 droid arrived, Mara was unconscious. The MD tells Luke that the tears that she has been taking---which are synthesised tears, she ran out of the real ones months before--- and Mara gets feeling better so she gets up and [again] tells Luke that they have to leave, so the make haste to the Jade Shadow.

On the Falcon, R2-D2 rescues Threepio and pulls him back in while Jacen is in the gun turret, holding back coralskippers. After beating them off, the Millennium Falcon jumps to hyperspace, and the secret base the Luke has set up in the Maw. When they get there they meet Lando and start to come up with ways to get money for this 'resistance' and Lando tells them that the Hutt and two other people, who are going to try and help fund the resistance, are there to talk to them.

Back on Baanu Miir, Prefect Ona Shai tells Nen Yim that one fourth of the Baanu Miir's people are dead. So Nen Yim and Shai go to check it out and find that the brain of the worldship is dying and has lost all control of one of the arms of the ship. Nen Yim goes to her villip and calls Master Tjulan Kwaad and they argue and he yells then leaves but returns and tells her that he will send a master.

On Coruscant, Luke and Mara engage some Coruscant security forces until Rogue Squadron shows up, and tells the security forces to leave. It turns out that the Rogues want to try a coup and kick out Fey'lya. But Luke tells them to stay on Coruscant and he calls Jaina and tells her to follow Kyp Durron, who is at Sernpidal. After that, Darklighter tells her that she is back in Rogue Squadron and she is on leave right now. So she heads off to Sernpidal.

On Eriadu, Corran tells Anakin and Tahiri to stay and watch the ship while Corran goes to get he supplies. When he leaves, Anakin and Tahiri get a feeling in the Force that there is another Jedi around somewhere. They find the Rodian Jedi being attacked by Peace Brigaders. When they try to help, the Brigaders shoot Kelbis Nu (the Jedi) and Anakin and Tahiri chase them off. Right before he dies, Nu says "Yag'Dhul" and then dies. Then the 'police' show up and arrest them.

In the Sernpidal system Jaina finds Kyp. And he tells her that the Vong are building a superweapon that is bigger than the Death Star. So Jaina and Kyp go to Gavin and Wedge and they go to Kre'fey and plan a strike.

Meanwhile, Anakin and Tahiri escaped the Eriaduan police and whenthey found Corran at the Lucre, they all hyperspaced to Yag'Dhul, but were pulled out of hyperspace by a Vong assaul fleet.

After hijacking the Vong ship, Anakin, Tahiri and Corran take it to Yag'Dhul and attract the attention of the Givin, who are the natives. The trio tells the Givin commander that the Vong are planning an assault, so the Givin, after locking them in their quarters, mobilize their fleet to protect the shipyards. When the trio escapes, they run into Nom Anor and some Vong warriors. Anakin duels one and beats him and they take off running. Before they can get to their new ship to leave, the Givin let all of the atmosphere out of the space station. So Corran puts Anakin and Tahiri in a locker with an oxygen tank and runs off to find the backup generator. In the locker, Anakin kisses Tahiri and then Corran shows up and they escape back to the Errant Venture.

At Sernpidal, the Rogues, Kyp's Dozen, the Ralroost, two corvettes and a heavy cruiser attack the massive superweapon and destroy it. At the end of the battle, Jaina gets hit and loses her engines. After the superweapon is destroyed, Jaina finds out that it wasn't a superweapon, but it was a string or dovin basals that pulled energy from the sun and made oxygen for the massive shipwomb at Sernpidal. The problem is, Kyp knew what these were and still lied to Jaina, Wedge, Gavin, and Kre'fey. So Jaina goes on leave and heads back to the Errant Venture.

Back at Yag'Dhul, the Vong fleet retreats before engaging the Givin, because Quarang Lag (the Vong commander) learns of the Rogue's attack and pulls his ships back.

After the Master Shaper, Kae Kwaad comes, he puts Nen Yim through a rigourous test of making the perfect Grutchin. But really, he is Onimi, Shimrra's personal gester. After he finds out about Yim's heresy, he takes her straight to Shimrra. Shimrra tells her that she is now a master and she is to stay with him and make new things.

While all this is happening, Han, Leia, and Jacen have been acting like privateers, attacking and taking weapons and freeing slaves. The attack any ships between Kessel and Hutt Space. So they follow a lead to Tatooine and Han meets up with a slaver named Shalo. When Han asks who is shipping the slaves from Kuat, Shalo's guys jump him, but Talon Karrde's people take them out and then MORE of Shalo's people try to kill them, and again, Han and Jacen and Karrde's people take them out, too. After Han learns that more ships are coming, he takes Karrde and Karrde's big ships and the Falcon and they jump a convoy, but the Sunuulok is there. Sunuulok is Tsavong Lah's personal ship. Lah demands the Jacen be handed over, and Han says okay, but instead he jettisons both escape pods with no one in them. Right after that, he shoots up one of the Peace Brigade's freighters with Liquid Nitrogen in it. The Dovin Basals suck that up and Han shoots a missile and then the liquid nitrogen explodes and knocks Sunuulok out of action. Han and the group escape back to Errant Venture.

On the Errant Venture, Mara is slowly dying. Luke then gets so mad that he attacks the disease with the Force, but Mara tells him not to. So Luke and Mara and Ben join their minds together and totally destroy the disease. Then Mara has the baby and everything is good.

I was hoping to get a bit more info on that last part, but oh, well. He also mentioned that Vergere makes an appearance, but neglected to put that into the summary. Sleep well, folks; Rebirth will be awaiting us in the morning!

Oh yeah; TOS has an excerpt up. =)

UPDATE: 7/24/01 - New poll! It's been a while since I updated, but I've got a bunch of material coming up soon.

UPDATE: 7/17/01 - The proverbial beans have been spilled, my friends. TFN (very) unexpectedly put up a buttload of spoilers a minute ago, including THE BABY'S NAME, and here they are! Normally I wouldn't just paste them all straight in, but I don't think they'll mind. Highlight to read.

* There are some noticeable homages to Episode I and the prequal era; a statue of Governor Tarkin on Eriadu, wood flooring from Naboo in Lando's new digs, and a Toydarian shopkeeper on Tatooine.

* Luke and Mara's SON is born, and his name is BEN! (This also happened to be the favorite potential name chosen by TFN readers in our poll.)

* To Leia's chagrin, Han nicknames the Falcon the "Princess of Blood".

* Kyp appears to flirt with Jaina.

* Anakin and Tahiri Kiss.

* The Yuuzhan Vong attack the planet Yag'dhul.

* Nen Yim is another highlight: she is banished to a dying worldship and tries heresy again, with more illumination into the Vong methods, but this time she catches the attention of someone higher up who is willing to accept her heresy in order to defeat the Jedi.

Rebirth looks to be one heck of a book...we finally get to see Lando again, plus Yag'Dhul (not seen since the early X-wing books) and Eriadu! And the baby's name? I've got no qualms with Ben, but the nonconformist in me was hoping to see something unexpected, not just the fan favorite. Ah, well; at least they didn't name him Gizmo or Scrappy. =)

UPDATE: 7/13/01 - Congratulations to the winners of the TOS Rebirth Contest!

D. Court, Australia S. Myhre, Canada
B. Dishon, KY R. Bethancourt, AZ
S. Schmidt, OR M. O'Connell, CA
K. Finley, MD S. Visser, GA
J. Brueske, MN M. Klober, AZ

Are you one of these lucky people? Drop me a line!

UPDATE: 7/13/01 - GhentZ updated yesterday with over 10 paragraphs of, naturally, the most vague and useless information he could possibly have come up with. Of course, he's undoubtedly giving away more than we'll realize until it's too late. I know for a fact that the Skycrawler's name is even "encoded" into the update somewhere. Feel free to report in if you find anything.

UPDATE: 7/4/01 - Happy Independence Day! Balance Point is now out in paperback.

TOS updated today with an interesting piece: they're giving away 10 advance copies of Rebirth, in exchange for reviews to post the day it's officially released. Sign up here! I did, but even if I won, I dunno if I could read the whole thing fast enough to review it by the 31st...

UPDATE: 7/1/01 - Ugh, the updates just won't quit tonight. I was fiddling around on the Randomhouse site, and I found entries for Aaron Allston's first NJO book under the title Rebel Dreams. The order sites frequently get info messed up, so it's probably nothing to worry about, but I wanted to mention it. Anyway, the Links page has been updated again with Dark Journey and Rebel Dream(s) pages.

UPDATE: 7/1/01 - Whoo...I got the site back up just in time. TFN Books scooped today that the fourth NJO Hardcover is called (at least currently) Destiny's Road. They also say it'll feature the turning point of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. I'm glad to hear that; for a while it was looking like there'd be one big War of the Worlds-style, last-minute resolution, and that would've sucked. This is the way wars really work, folks. Cheers!

Oh yeah; the Links and Release Schedule pages have been updated.

UPDATE: 7/1/01 - Both Rebirth excerpts are up (thanks to Jedi Freac for typing up the audiobook one). Also, I forgot to mention before that Elaine Cunningham will have a small Jaina story in SW Gamer #5 called The Crystal. It's a prelude to her upcoming NJO novel Dark Journey, and follows Jaina sometime between the YJK and the NJO.

UPDATE: 6/25/01 - To quote the great Letterman, wait until you hear what happened to me.

I had the domain forwarding visitors to a forum message explaining the situation, but in case you missed it, I basically had to upgrade the site's bandwidth allowance. You people had been visiting me so darn much that now I have to pay more to accomodate all the hits. But hey, that's the whole point, isn't it? Luckily, there hasn't been much going on, expect for two Rebirth excerpts showing up. One, from the audiobook, came along a couple weeks ago, and can be found here. A couple forumers already typed it up, and I'll be adding it to the excerpts page soon. The other, from just a day or two ago, is a regular text excerpt, and can be found here. It'll also be up on the Excerpts page ASAP. As usual, neither really contributed much to our knowledge of the book's plotline, but the newer one is quite interesting to read, as it features our first glimpse of Luke and Mara discussing the baby's name, and it ends with (spoilers) Kenth Hamner alerting Luke that a warrant's been issued for his arrest, thanks to good ol' Borskie. Damned if I know what the charges are, but our fave Bothan knows better than to let something like just cause get in his way, right?

There's also a long-overdue new poll up. I suppose I had to do something like this sooner or later, huh?

UPDATE: 6/2/01 - TOS put up a Databank feature on alien species the other day, and it includes an entry for the Vong! Check out the Behind-the-Scenes section; pretty interesting. EU-wise, there's also a Noghri section and a Bothan section.

ALso, I've put up yet another Craig Mullan fig, this one of Tahiri.

UPDATE: 5/28/01 - Added Craig Mullan's first-ever Vua Rapuung custom figure to the Gallery!

Also, GhentZ is right back into the swing of things with his SBS cover commentary, and for the most part, he's as vague as always. There have been tiny info slips here and there, most notably (spoilers) that Corran will definitely be in the book, and not to count out the possibility of his death. I still doubt he knows for sure either way, but it's something to keep an eye on.

UPDATE: 5/22/01 - Shattered Knight Forums has a great new interview up, this time with EoV author Greg Keyes. There are a whole bunch of Rebirth tidbits to be found; I'll share one particular response below, which gives a nice summation of what's going on in the next book. Spoilers abound, so get that mouse ready.

SKF: Which of your two books do you prefer?

GK: That's hard to say at this point -they're very different. Rebirth has so many subplots going at once - Luke, Mara, and the baby, Han Leia and Jacen trying to build a sort of underground railroad, Jaina and Kyp confronting that thing Corran saw growing at Sernpidal, Nen Yim trying to save a dying worldship, and more. Lot's of points of focus, rather than one. It was nice being able to concentrate on a single character, but it's also nice getting to do the whole gang.

Go figure; all this time I'd thought the Sernpidal thing was destroyed at Ithor...

UPDATE: 5/21/01 - JeedaiNet is finally back up! GhentZ has yet to post anything, though; be sure to e-mail him here and bug him about getting back to business.

UPDATE: 5/18/01 - Good ol' Mastadge just notified me that sfsite.com, host of a Matthew "Traitor" Stover interview a while back, has expanded the article a bit, including a bunch of NJO-related questions. Here's a snippet:

Working in the Star Wars mythos is quite a departure for someone who's known for hard-hitting, gritty writing. Do you feel at all limited by what you can write? How have you adapted to telling a Star Wars tale?

Anybody who thinks Star Wars can't be hard-hitting hasn't been reading The New Jedi Order. My novel, Traitor, is going to be just about as gritty as it gets. It's in no way as graphic as Heroes Die or Blade, of course, but you can do a lot with understatement and suggestion, and the central conflict is as intense as anything I've ever written.

Frankly, I'm expecting Traitor to blow some fans' minds.

UPDATE: 5/12/01 - Update on the JeedaiNet situation. If you go to jedinet.com, there's a notice that they'll be BACK UP the week of May 14th! Thanks to Jacen Solo for alerting me.

UPDATE: 5/8/01 - Added a bunch of stuff to the gallery: the Star By Star cover, some new Vong fan art, and two new custom figures, including Ikrit!

UPDATE: 5/1/01 - Lots of developments lately. No sooner had GhentZ put up the long-awaited second part of his SBS cover analysis, then the entire JeedaiNet server went down. That means no JeedaiNet, no JeedaiNetwork (the host of all those nifty chats), no Rebelpilots.com, and no Starwarz.com. Figures, too; Legacy finally finishes after umpteen months, and the site caves in. You can still catch GhentZ at Newsdroid.com, but the future of the server itself doesn't look good.

Anyway, Looks like Terese Nielsen's revamped the Rebirth cover a bit, and a nice big scan of the latest version is up at her page here. I'll hopefully be back with more later.

UPDATE: 4/24/01 - New poll!

UPDATE: 4/22/01 - Added a couple pics to the Gallery. Also, tomorrow night is Jedi Talk's 100th episode! They wanna make it a big event, so be sure and listen in. There'll be guests, prizes, and lots of other good stuff.

UPDATE: 4/19/01 - Here I am again. I was planning on holding onto this another couple months, but the cover's got enough people guessing that I might as well spill, so here goes: I hereby confirm that, in Star By Star, (pause for dramatic emphasis) Coruscant will fall to the Vong. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

PS - This was the "effectively cancelled" item I mentioned right before I went on Spring break. The redo was the other.

UPDATE: 4/19/01 - Shattered Knight Forums has nabbed another interview, this time with author of the upcoming Enemy Lines duology, the mighty Aaron Allston. Read 'er here.

UPDATE: 4/18/01 - Man, as if I hadn't already updated enough today. TOS has finally put up their "first look" feature for Star By Star. Both halves of what appears to be a very rough (but cool) version of the cover are here and here, and we also get this summary:

The Yuuzhan Vong campaign of terror and violence escalates to deadly new heights. They have unleashed a fearsome creature, capable of hunting and killing the galaxy's last hope -- Luke Skywalker's order of Jedi Knights. Leia Organa Solo has been given a terrible ultimatum -- reveal the location of the hidden Jedi base, or watch helplessly as millions of refugee ships are destroyed.

The Jedi strike back with a daring plan crafted by young Anakin Solo -- an elite team of Jedi Knights will allow themselves to be taken into the Yuuzhan Vong fold as prisoners, and from there, they hope to sabotage the invader's plans of conquest. The Solo children -- Anakin, Jacen, and Jaina -- spearhead this dangerous mission, filled with unspeakable risk. Is the vanquishing of a murderous foe worth the temptation of the dark side?

UPDATE: 4/17/01 - BAM!!! Betcha didn't expect this, did you?! I'd hoped to have this (complete) redo done in time for 100k hits, but you people just wouldn't stop visiting. I've been working on this for the past month or so (especially in the past week), and envisioning it for a month before that. Many thanks go to my friend Mike, who helped with some of the basic html, and generally springboarded all the rest of the work. I wasn't really able to test everything optimally without uploading it, so there are bound to be some screw-ups here and there. In fact, I'm sure there are. I'd be greatly indebted to anyone who notices an error as they're going along (or who's willing to search for them) and alerts me ASAP (forumers, I'm looking in your direction). Speaking of which, I apologize to anyone who's using a lower resolution and has to scroll across to read the whole page. I'm working on getting the text to wrap, and I'd appreciate any HTML help in that department as well. Above all else, be patient; things'll be up to code soon.

Anyway, AOL wreaked havoc during the Greg Keyes chat (on both Keyes and myself), but otherwise, things went pretty good. I must say, Keyes seems to be one of the most likeable (and hilarious) SW authors I've ever run across. Hopefully he'll grace the 'net with his presence again when Rebirth comes out, if not before.

UPDATE: 4/13/00 - Quick reminder; JeedaiNet's first-ever Greg Keyes chat begins on IRC in half an hour!

UPDATE: 4/12/01 - My good pal Mastadge just alerted me to a quite funny interview with Matthew Woodring Stover, author of the forthcoming Traitor. It only mentions Star Wars briefly (to say that he's halfway through writing it), but he seems like a very interesting guy. And he likes killing characters off...

UPDATE: 4/10/01 - Shattered Knight, of the Forums bearing the same name, writes in to let us know he's gotten the chance to interview Mike Stackpole (Dark Tide author) and Terese Nielsen (Edge of Victory cover artist). You can see them here.

UPDATE: 4/9/01 - The great helpful Neil has done us a favor and converted the YV Database into an Adobe Acrobat file for the Mac users out there. It's up on the site now; along with the original Zip file.

UPDATE: 4/8/01 - The scans are up on the Gallery, and there's a new poll!

UPDATE: 4/8/01 - Having trouble finding the new Essential Guide (or affording it)? Lunatic from sithclan.qc.ca send me some more NJO-related scans:

Bloodcarver (okay, not that NJO-related)

Caamasi (looks like a gerbil)

Yammosk (dude, awesome 'shrooms, man)

I'm also adding the latter one (plus the other three Vong pics) to the Gallery sometime tonight.

UPDATE: 4/7/01 - Another chat already?? JeedaiNet's got newbie (but goodie, from what I'm seeing so far) Greg Keyes lined up this time:

Friday, April 13; irc.jedinetwork.com; #literature; 8 pm EST. Be there and find out who gets voted off the island this time!

UPDATE: 4/2/01 - Well, Conquest and the EGtAS come out tomorrow. All the usual stuff's up: sample chapter of the Guide at the Del Rey site here, interview with Keyes/sample chapter (the one from Gamer #3) at TOS here. There's also a transcript of Saturday's Stackpole chat up at RebelPilots.com here. While you're there, check out Sarah Kauthen's excellent Rebel Pilots comic strip. Finally, here's a nice little Con plot summary, written by Gandolf the Grey at the JC Forums.

"Anakin and Jacen figure out that the Vong are going to attack Yavin 4. Anakin disobeys his uncle and hops in his X-Wing, coming to the rescue (in this case, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt- for once he actually seemed to be listening to the Force). Finds Peace Brigade people there. Makes his way to the Academy, helps Kam and Tionne evacuate the kids. He stays behind to buy some time, along with Tahiri, Ikrit, Valin Horn, and Sannah. Ikrit dies, and though Anakin gets away, Tahiri is captured by the Vong. Anakin leaves the other kids with Qorl, and heads back to rescue Tahiri. Along the way he breaks his lightsaber and meets a Vong warrior who is willing to lend a hand. Meanwhile, the Vong have torn down the Academy and built their organic buildings. Tahiri is slowly being shaped and tortured and brainwashed, as they assimilate her. Anakin and his new Vong pal arrive and go undercover for a few days, Anakin posing as a slave. Eventually he repairs his lightsaber, and gain the ability to sense the Vong, to a limited degree. I’ll have to go back and reread all of that section… At the last moment before Tahiri is put on a ship, he arrives. Things turn ugly, but Tahiri breaks through her brainwashing and saves him. She’s still seriously screwed up though. Escaping the planet, the cavalry arrives in the form of Corran Horn, Jaina and Jacen (all in X-Wings) and Booster Terrik (in his ~red~ Star Destroyer). There’s a short epilogue where Jacen and Anakin argue philosophy, and then Anakin goes to Tahiri. And in the last scene, we find that some Vong are perhaps abandoning belief in their gods for the belief in the Jedi."

Normally I post summaries given directly to me, but this time I was desperate. Gandolf, hope ya don't mind.

UPDATE: 3/31/01 - I'm back! Other than the recent Conquest appearances at Wal-Marts aplenty, it doesn't seem like there's been a lot of news. A few EBRs (early book recipients) have been popping up with info in various unnamed forums, so the stuff's out there if you want it. I'm still saving everything I come across for Monday night, as usual.

JediNet and Rebelpilots.com will be talking with Mike Stackpole himself tonight! The chat is on IRC: irc.jedinetwork.com in #pilotchat. It starts at 9 pm EST.

UPDATE: 3/23/01 - Well, here I am again. I had a couple big things (and I mean BIG) planned for the big 100k, and unfortunately, one's been effectively cancelled. The other's been postponed for a few weeks at least, but is definitely coming. Speaking of postponement, I'm going on spring break, and I won't have access to a computer at all for the next week. Just go to JediNet Literature that much more often; you'll never know I'm gone. Aloha, y'all.

UPDATE: 3/23/01 - 100,000 hits!!! Expect an update related to that later tonight. TOS’ updated their "New Jedi Order in Order" list with a bunch of new titles: Elaine Cunningham’s (final) title is Dark Journey, the bridge title of Allston’s duology is Enemy Lines (Enemy Lines, I like that one! Gives us a good idea of what the "Rebel" book titles might mean), the bridge title of the Williams/Dix trilogy is - get this - Force Heretic (sounds like someone’s leaving the order!). The individual books are Remnant, Refugee, and Reunion. Everything’s been added to the Release Schedule.

UPDATE: 3/22/01 - New poll!

UPDATE: 3/21/01 - Williams and Dix's NJO trilogy has been confirmed, and I got the placement right. Not that there'd been many choices. GhentZ says the male Vong on the EoVC cover is a "Shamed One". It also turns out, as lots of people have been saying, that the female is a shaper, presumably the one who's planning to work on Tahiri. I guess that's what the finger gadgets are for. TFN's got another confirmation of Wraith Squadron's involvement in Allston's duology, but it turns out he meant the squadron itself, not necessarily the people we associate with it. It also appears Jag Fel will be showing up in the books, but hopefully we won't have to wait until then to see him again. Thank you, come again soon. Happy Spring!

UPDATE: 3/17/01 - Two down! Thechrono.com just got a transcription of the Gamer excerpt from a visitor. It's on the Excerpts page now, too.

UPDATE: 3/17/01 - One down, one to go. Thanks to Wedge 88 for typing up the SWI Keyes Interview; it's been added to the Interviews page.

UPDATE: 3/16/01 - Okay, lots to get in here. There are spoilers, so highlight when necessary. First:

  • Chapter 1 of EoVC. This book is gonna ROCK! I'm loving Keyes' dialogue; I was all but reading it aloud by the end. The excerpt mentions that three Jeedai, including Dorsk 82, are already dead as a result of Lah's decree.

  • The new issue of SW Insider (#53, the one with the Essential Guide preview) also has an interview with JG Keyes. In the interview, he lets out three interesting bits: the birth of Mara's baby will take place in Rebirth, the Vong are trying to breed a Jedi (Tahiri, like I mentioned earlier), and Jacen will have his own book later on in the series. Anyone who owns this issue and wants to type out the interview for me will get full credit (and a link if they're so inclined).

  • The new issue (#3) of the fabulous SW Gamer includes another chapter-long EoVC excerpt, entailing (according to GhentZ) "several familiar merc/smuggler characters, and some wonderful continuity threads". The transcription offer applies here as well (emphatically so; otherwise I'll have to type it out eventually).

From GhentZ:

  • Corran will be back in EoVC. Seems appropriate; people are bound to be after his head, too.

  • The immediately post-BP EoVC prelude GhentZ mentioned a while ago will feature the aforementioned demise of Dorsk 82.

Finally, there are a couple new additions to the Links page, and a few custom figure pics by Michael Lupton added to the Gallery.

UPDATE: 3/14/01 - Forumer Bub Ki Wan recently got to interview Terese Nielsen, Edge of Victory cover artist. You can see it on his website here; it's small, but pretty interesting. Turns out the small thing on Rebirth is a Coralskipper, not a worldship. Looks like it's pretty much in tune with what's in the EGtAS. Now I'd just like to know that the heck these are:

UPDATE: 3/14/01 - Couple newsbits today. First, Del Rey has Chapter 1 of EoVC up, much earlier than usual. You can see it here, or at the Excerpts page. Also, the latest issue of SW Insider (#53, I believe) has a preview of the Essential Guide to Alien Species, including a couple Vong-related pics. Thanks to forumer Stikkei for sending me scans, check 'em out:

  • Finally, a Coralskipper. Nothing like I'd pictured based on the VP cover, but still pretty decent.

  • A Vong Warrior, basically the same as the RPG one we saw a while back. Looks better in black and white, I think.

  • A Gnullith; the creatures Vong use for underwater breathing. It's a star over a Vong's mouth; pretty self-descriptive.

Once the EG is out and all the pics are available, I might make a section of the Gallery just for them.

UPDATE: 3/13/01 - New poll!

UPDATE: 3/10/01 - I'm this month's TFN Cool Site! How awesome is that?

Annway, I'm holding something of a contest to design a new logo for the UNJOH main page. This doesn't include all the links that surround the current one, though, just the basic part:

The bigger, the better; and it doesn't have to look exactly like that, but don't go too crazy. Just include the traditional Star Wars logo and "The Unofficial New Jedi Order (or just 'NJO') Homepage".

Keep in mind that I'm working of this myself, and I might just go with a logo of my own. This is just in case there are any Photoshop phenoms out there itching to get recognized, and are much better at this stuff than I am. There's no real deadline, but I definitely won't be taking anything past the end of March.

Send entries to Coopra6000@aol.com.

UPDATE: 3/9/01 - Just wanted to post a little rumor confirmation; lots of people are speculating that (spoilers, highlight to read) the Vong want to capture Tahiri so they can try making her one of them; both mentally and physically (ya know; implants and everything). I can say with certainty that that's the case.

UPDATE: 3/2/01 - If I could get my arms around my enormous computer screen, I'd hug it. Literally 10 minutes after me and GhentZ were wondering when we'd see a summary of Rebirth, TOS decides to be wonderful and gives us this bitchin' cover, AND a mini-summary. It gives away very little, but it's definitely a start:

"Decades ago, the Jedi protected the Galactic Republic; now, in the darkness of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the Jedi have no protection from the slaughter of their ranks. Abandoned by the New Republic Senate, Luke Skywalker's Jedi order stands defiant against the deadly alien menace. They are not entirely alone, however, as Han and Leia Organa Solo risk deadly consequences to bolster the Jedi resistance.

Meanwhile, Anakin Solo and Tahiri have uncovered new Yuuzhan Vong secrets. The two young Jedi are wanted for murder by the forces of the Peace Brigade. To escape, they flee into hyperspace - and into far greater peril..."

Aside from Luke's slightly scrunchy face, the cover is absolutely spectacular. That's definitely an interesting take on worldships. Both new items have been added to their respective pages here.

UPDATE: 2/28/01 - Everyone's favorite GhentZ just notified me that the official site of Williams and Dix (the two mystery Aussies) has put up an announcement of their SW contract, and they are in fact doing NJO novels. I suppose that make their placement on my Schedule the most likely situation.

UPDATE: 2/27/01 - Whew! There's been some serious stuff going on today. First of all, the Official Site just updated with a chronological list of all the NJO books from Vector Prime up to Hardcover 4, including three new titles and the name of HC4's author: Walter Jon Williams. The three new titles are: Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand, Aaron Allston's two books, and Traitor, Nichael Woodring Stover's book. This is all up on the Release Schedule page, it's easier to take in there.

Secondly, TFN Books came up with some very interesting news. Two Australian authors, Sean Williams and Shane Dix, have apparently been contracted to write 3 upcoming Star Wars books. The article announcing this says that they are "most likely to write Episodes Eight, Nine and Ten of the sprawling Star Wars epic." If this is right, it's HUGE news; Lucas has said repeatedly that the third trilogy will never be produced on film. Has he decided to let them be told as novels, instead? It seems this way at first, but for one thing, the third trilogy would be Episodes SEVEN, EIGHT, and NINE; not Eight, Nine, and Ten as the article says. TFN Books seems to agree; they say that the books written by Williams and Dix will probably just be part of the NJO. If this is the case, they will most likely be the three paperbacks coming out right after HC4. I've added this to the Schedule as well, although it might take a while to get the details straightened out.

Man; to think I was just worrying about how little news there's been lately...

UPDATE: 2/26/01 - New poll!

UPDATE: 2/25/01 - Just a quick note: Nom "YVD" Anor has started up a mailing list for people interested on staying in the loop regarding the status of new editions of the YVD. To sign up, go here; Nom and I are already members.

UPDATE: 2/24/01 - Issue #52 of SW Insider had an article about Kathy Tyers and Balance Point. Thanks go to Acky of the NJO *cough* Encyclopedia for typing it us and sending it my way; it's now up on the Interviews page. Oh yeah...Happy 90,000!

UPDATE: 2/22/01 - Randomhouse.com has updated with a longer summary of Conquest, presumably the final back cover text. I've added it to the Excerpts page here. Thanks to good ol' GhentZ for pointing it out to me!

UPDATE: 2/12/01 - Added a zip file to the Gallery with tons more awesome NJO figures by Donald Maue. Also, The second Bane Commentary has finally arrived, and is up as well.

UPDATE: 2/4/01 - Added a bunch more figures to the Gallery! One by Donald Maue, plus a bunch of NJO-era Jedi by Craig Mullan.

UPDATE: 1/31/01 - Added a bunch of custom Yuuzhan Vong figure pics by Craig Mullan to the Gallery. You can see more of his figures here.

UPDATE: 1/27/01 - GhentZ's finally given us a nice chunk of good 'ol NJO info:

  • 3 big events in Star by Star. Some positive, some negative.
  • Ultra-cool development for EoVC; it'll open with a small prelude that immediately follows the events in Balance Point.
  • "Rebirth will have a surprise". That could mean a million things, although he does mention that the cover may hint at it. Incidentally, a little birdy told me earlier today that the cover'll include a nice, detailed worldship (apparently different from the one on Onslaught). Damned if that has anything to do with the surprise or not...
  • Side note; RAS is getting to put some original scenes into the Episode II novelization; more than Brooks could. Maybe he'll sneak in a NJO tidbit for us!

In other news, expect a new Bane Commentary sometime next week!

UPDATE: 1/17/01 - Happy belated 80,000! Well...hmm...nothing to report about.............bye.

UPDATE: 1/13/01 - Inspired by a TFN posting of a foreign Shadow Hunter cover, their forumers have been digging up lots of other SW pieces from 'round the world; especially at www.swbooklist.com. The awesome Japanese NJO covers are linked below, but be sure to check out all the other covers the site showcases!

Vector Prime A | Vector Prime B

Onslaught A | Onslaught B

Ruin A | Ruin B

Hero's Trial A | Hero's Trial B

Jedi Eclipse A | Jedi Eclipse B

UPDATE: 1/9/01 - New Poll! Also, I promised something cool for the winner of the last poll (Jedi Knight is the game you'd most like to see a NJO version of), and here it is:

Click here for the (FAKE) Lucasarts press release all about the (FAKE) upcoming game Jedi Knight: The New Jedi Order Companion Missions. The (FAKE) game works just like Mysteries of the Sith; install the (FAKE) campaign/media files, and it runs with your current copy of Jedi Knight. Sounds fun, can't wait for it to (NOT) come out!

UPDATE: 1/4/01 - Big-arse scoop from this month's DRIN: the 3rd NJO hardcover, (written by Mr. Troy Denning) will be called STAR BY STAR. This is definitely the official title at the moment, but seeing as the book doesn't come out for almost a year, keep in mind that there's a slim chance it may change. I hope not, though; I like it. Fitting for a book about an invasion. Thanks to Kristie for bringing that to my attention!

UPDATE: 12/25/00 - Merry Christmas, and Happy 75,000!

UPDATE: 12/18/00 - Added a Chewie piece by SW Gamer artist Joe Corroney to the Gallery! Hey Joe; If you read this, and ever wanna do something exclusive for this site, just say the word!

UPDATE: 12/13/00 - Starwars.com has put up an awesome interview with Shelly Shapiro, Del Rey editor extraordinaire. Look for lots of insight (finally) into the previsualization of the NJO, and some answers to the question of Lucas' involvement in the arc. I'll put it up on the site eventually, but for now, it can be read here.

UPDATE: 12/12/00 - Lightsabre UK has interviewed Aaron Allston, and the NJO came up. Follow the link to read the interview, but I'll give you this much: the Wraiths AND Wedge WILL be back! Woohoo!

UPDATE: 12/10/00 - New Poll! I might do something special with the winner of this one...

UPDATE: 12/9/00 - Good ol' Terese Nielsen has put up a new version of the EoVC cover here; basically the same as the Official Site's scan, except the Vong now have more accurate skin colors. This is probably the one we'll end up seeing on shelves next spring, but I'm gonna wait to add it to the Gallery until GhentZ or someone else puts up a version with the logo, title, etc.

UPDATE: 12/8/00 - Version 2.0 of the YVD is now up in it's entirety! If you notice any errors, please contact me.

UPDATE: 12/3/00 - Added the RPG Vong pic to the Gallery.

UPDATE: 12/2/00 - Dang, that's my longest update-less period in a while. Anyway, GhentZ has posted a scan from the Core Rulebook for the new SW RPG by WotC. It's a good, ol' fashioned Vong warrior. He says this was done by the same guy that's doing the art for the next Essential Guide, so it should be a good peek at what we'll be seeing in April.

Also, a lot of people have been mailing me lately asking if they could add me to their own Links pages, and as such, I took the liberty of patching together an official banner for the page. It can be downloaded here.

UPDATE: 11/18/00 - New poll! Also:

  • Shelly Shapiro herself contacted GhentZ with an official explanation-to-end-all-explanations for Knightfall's cancellation: "It was decided, after much dialog back and forth about ongoing story development, to shift a portion of the NJO's focus. We also felt that reducing the number of NJO books next year would allow us to better spotlight the 'prequel' novels, which constitute another exciting new direction for Star Wars fiction. Mike Friedman had completed only JEDI STORM, and believe me, none of us felt good discarding even that much work. But on the whole, it was agreed that this was the best thing for the overall Star Wars publishing program."
  • The Kathy Tyers chat went off without a hitch; you can get transcripts here.
  • I've updated the Links, Schedule, and Gallery pages with all the recent EoVC goodies.

UPDATE: 11/17/00 - Lots of stuff going on, considering the next NJO book doesn't come out for 5 months. The Official Site has upstaged GhentZ with a plot summary and cover scan for EoV: Conquest. I'll be updating the Gallery and Excerpts pages later tonight, but for now, check it out here.

Also, The Kathy Tyers chat I mentioned a while back has been scheduled: tonight at 8:30 EST, irc.jedinetwork.com, #literature. That's in 2 1/2 hours, people!

UPDATE: 11/15/00 - An uncharacteristically succinct GhentZ has revealed the (current, subject to change) titles for the upcoming Keyes books: Edge of Victory is the duology title, the individual books are Conquest and Rebirth. Neato! Thanks to C Reed for notifying me.

UPDATE: 11/11/00 - Updated the Gallery with a USA Today graph featuring this year' top five best-seling sci-fi books, 3 of which are NJO. Also, the Official Site has put up a feature about Cliff Nielsen, cover artist for both the NJO hardcovers and the Jedi Apprentice series.

UPDATE: 11/5/00 - Updated the Creatures section of the YVD with Agents of Chaos info!

UPDATE: 11/4/00 - Updated the Bio-ships and Bio-vehicles sections of the YVD with Agents of Chaos info!

UPDATE: 11/2/00 - Terese Nielsen's updated her page with a blurb about Knightfall's cancellation, and the would-be finished cover art. Looks like she's gonna do Keyes' duology instead. I've updated the Gallery accordingly; man, that Knightfall cover looks awesome! Is that woman in the middle a Vong? She's selling it for $1,900, by the way, so if anyone wants to buy it for me, I'd appreciate it. =) Here's the full blurb from her page; might provide a bit of insight into the trilogy's cancellation:

"My other favorite is the first one I did for Del Rey, called Knightfall. This was going to be the first of a 3-part series for the "New Jedi Order." Lucas said they weren't happy with the way the story was going, so rather than salvaging what had been done, they canned it. This painting has marbled paper in the background. I enjoyed playing with the colors and fluidity of textures within the illustration.

Currently, I'm finishing up another Star Wars cover for Del Rey that is being written by Gregory Keyes. This duology fills in for the one they canned. It's been interesting to observe how Lucas will commission a painting before a manuscript is even started. It's up to the writer to make sure the painting is incorporated into the story."

Thanks to DP for the heads-up!

UPDATE: 10/31/00 - Geez; so many updates lately, I'm almost looking forward to 5 1/2 months of relative downtime. Go here for the aforementioned thread at the TFN Forums; started and maintained by Kathy Tyers herself, for the sole purpose of BP discussion. One of the things she's mentioned thus far is that she's doing a chat with JediNet on November 17th. GhentZ'll be pissed that she beat him to the announcement...

UPDATE: 10/31/00 - It's out! Go get it! Hurry!

UPDATE: 10/31/00 - ANOTHER quick note; the Official Site has put up an excerpt, of course, go here to read it.

UPDATE: 10/31/00 - Quick note; TFN's put up their review of BP here.

UPDATE: 10/30/00 - The night-before tradition has resumed! Many, many, many thanks go to Jedi Ben, who wrote up a huge summary of BP, including a couple small excerpts. Enjoy!

Spoilers, highlight to read: Jaina is flying with Rogue Squadron at Kalarba which has its moon dropped on it a la Sernpidal, the cruiser the NR has in the area explodes and the explosion takes Jaina's ship with it. Jacen, now on Duro, senses Jaina's injury and has the vision that has been doing the rounds for a while now. Elsewhere, Tsavong Lah intends to take Duro and eventually sacrifice Coruscant to the gods of the Yuzzhan Vong. Nom Anor has been sent to Duro. On Coruscant Luke and Mara hold council with a number of Jedi in regard to the war with the Vong. One of them has heard of two Rodians claiming a human is fake, suspecting a Vong agent, Mara and Anakin check it out, Anakin having become a hero figure for many by now. Meanwhile on Duro, Randa is increasingly concerned about Nal Hutta, now under attack by the Vong. On Coruscant, the Vong is captured alive and is restrained but breaks free by elongating its claws and slitting its own throat.

¸Jaina is sent to Duro to recuperate and is angry and frustrated at being so. Randa attempts to get her to help him but she rebuffs him. Meanwhile Jacen finds a load of supplies have been nicked by the Duros. Nom Anor is working under Tsavong Lah's supervision, he has to report regularly and obey. On Coruscant, a meeting of the NR Advisory Council turns nasty with members talking of persecuting the Jedi, it is clear that none of them care about anything other than their own worlds and interests. Luke states the Jedi are answerable to the NR "as long as [the council] represents peace and justice." Following the meeting Luke is told of a missing Jedi apprentice on Duro and he and Mara and Anakin resolve to follow it up. Before they can leave Mara detects a Force presence within her that she concludes to be that she is pregnant, though how remains a mystery.

On Duro Jacen and Jaina attempt to find Leia without success, they briefly talk to Viqi Shesh but Randa ruins the communication; Jacen has a bad feeling about Shesh, she remins him of Palpatine on his way up. A few days later the settlement has an infestation and has to be evacuated to the adjacent one, Han, Droma, Jacen and Jaina lead the way and are greeted at the other settlement by the administrator, Leia. She and Han embrace, then Droma and the twins leg it setting up the reconciliation of the pair. Time is scarce and they have to return to work following their making up and Jaina attacks Leia accusing of her not caring; Jaina is being a classic teenager who wants her agents around when she wants them and be independent.

Randa finds a Vong villip and talks to Lah, offering to capture him Jacen, Lah rebuffs him but makes him an alternative offer which Randa dislikes so he contacts Shesh., who tells Lah of the communication. Luke and company arrive at Duro to find a firebrand speaker at work that reminds them of Rhoomamool. Projecting the guise of a Kubaz Luke talks to the director of CorDuro shipping, who have a guest arriving, Jacen, who has followed up the stolen supplies and decided to try negotiation, these are left unconcluded though Brarun is intrigued b the offer Jacen makes. Mara finds that someone on Duro is using the same codes as someone at Rhoomamool and goes to follow it up, as Jaina finds Randa's treachery out. Mara goes to Leia and they discuss the revelation. One researcher, Dr Cree'Ar is suspicous by his avoidance of Leia so Mara and Jaina pay him a visit. They find their way to his private research area, Jaina suspects Cree'Ar to be a Vong so she probes the face of the Duro with the force, however, it is an improved masquer but Jaina keeps prodding and finds the release on her third attempt. Both her and Mara recognise the voice of the Vong, Nom Anor! Mara recalls a meeting at Monor II where she first met Nom Anor, where a hundred were infected with her disease and later died. Anor threatens to release more coomb spores and uses the stand off to retreat down a booby trapped tunnel. The chamber collapses on top of them anyway, despite Mara not taking the bait and holding Jaina back.

Elsewhere, Luke confronts Jacen over his run of decisions and uncovers a succession of errors that cause Jacen to rethink his entire view of the Force and the Jedi. Anor reports to Lah, claiming Jacen is detained and Mara and Jaina are dead, Lah is sceptical. Anor reports his agents can deal with the planetary shields and the Hutt Randa, Lah says not to bother, scheduling Randa to be a banquet item, literally, for when he arrives. Linking together, Mara and Jaina create a Force bubble that gives them ar and movement that allows them to move back through the tunnel and the debris. Mara briefly talks to Leia before getting cut off and Jaina reacts petulantly to Leia not asking after her, despite her being unhurt. Later, Mara tells Luke of her confrontation and Luke now knows Anor is directly responsible for Mara's condition, Anor had better start running.

The group of Jedi decide to get Jacen away from Brarun, at the same time they suspect the Vong are planning a mass sacrifice, either the Duros in their cities or the refugees. Luke finds out the fate of the missing Jedi apprentice, who has been killed. Mara talks to Admiral Wuht, in charge of the battle group at Duro and advises him to put them on alert. Luke confronts the firebrand, Ducilla, Brarun's sister, and he and Anakin engage in a lightsaber duel to distract the crowd, while Jaina gets Jacen out of the place he is being held, though he is unaware of the fact. Despite the efforts of Luke and Anakin the riots that were prearranged begin anyway, all of the Jedi are able to get away though they have to split up into two groups.

Jacen and Jaina head for a shuttle at a private dock, with Jaina force-blurring their identity to make them appear as Duros. They take the shuttle and get to Leia who tells them to take off and escape, they dispute this but before it can erupt into a family brawl the system is announced to be under attack. All shields on the Duro cities are up except three that have been sabotaged, including Gateway. Han is found herding people into a tunnel the Ryn have been working on while Jaina co-ordinates ship lift-offs. As the battle begins the Vong transmit over NR frequencies that all who attack or flee will be killed, those who stay will be offered peace. Leia tells any evac ship that can make hyperspace to do so. Lah addresses everyone and claims to be only interested in the planet itself, at the same time Mara, Luke and Anakin launch their ships and join the fray.

The Vong place a great space snake in orbit to destroy any ship that tries to leave, it also starts chewing on the Duro city of Orr-Om. At the same time Wuht stads down the NR forces, buying the Vong offer of a stalemate. Luke had communicated with Kenth Hamner, a Jedi strategist who represents the Jedi in Luke's absence, to get reinforcements sent to Duro but the chances of him succeeding are known to be slim. They are in fact denied out right to Duro and Hamner utters what may be the council's epithet: "If Coruscant falls to Yuzzhan Vong forces based on Duro, you will regret this decision." On the surface Han and Leia are tunnelling into the mine complex to hide refugees from the Vong. Leia tels Han there is a camouflaged mass freighter outside the settlement, able to hold two thousand people at least. The Ryn offer to sneak to it and do the repairs, Han takes charge of the group and Leia claims she has to go back t the admin building. Lah is now on Duro with Nom Anor, who is bac in his master's good books and they begin sacrificing Anor's unwitting co-workers.

In the city Han and Droma behold two Vong monstrosities that seem to consume metal and concrete. Meanwhile Mara goes to confront Wuht over his order to the NR forces to stand down. Leia , Jaina, Jacen and Olmahk creep back to the admin building, avoiding Vong all over the place. They first, however, force link and lift a huge chunk of machinery out of the pit and onto the Vong, in the chaos that follows they get to the building. In a room they are caught by a Vong warrior, Leia tells her children to run and is knocked unconscious. As they flee Jacen decides to go back, acting on pure intuition. Leia revives to the voice of Nom Anor, then Lah enters the room. He tells Leia he will destroy the Duro cities, killing millions, in a mass sacrifice to the gods, the refugess will be slave labour to prepare the strike to the core and Coruscant, Leia will be sacrificed too, as will all the Jedi.

Leia is surprised to find that Randa is also held prisoner. He tels her he plotted to capture Jacen, she isn't impressed or happy to her it. Jacen is being guided by a mysterous voice, of which the identity is a mystery, I'm hoping it's Anakin Skywalker, deciding he has to atone somehow so this might as well be the start. On the surface Han and Droma load up the boxy feighter and part company, Droma intends to head to the Senex-Juvex sector. Jaina communicates with Leia by blink code and is told to pass on Lah's plans to Mara, who at that moment is confronting Wuht. With him are two Peace Brigadiers, who advocate collaboration with the Vong. Jaina tells her of the plans of the Vong and Wuht also hears them, the peace brigadiers are placed under arrest after a quick fight. Wuht scrambles his forces and tells them to head for the city of Urrdorf that has engines ready to fire, so they can escape. In space Anakin takes out the Vong's space snake the Yncha by shving a reactor-active freighter and a proton torp down its throat, the snake is eft a headless corpse.

On Duro Lah shows Leia a mass sacrifice of helpless refugees before telling her it is her time to die; Randa intervenes fighting in a frenzy, before being garrotted by a Vong priestess' sacrificial cord. Leia fights Anor and draws her lightsaber but is unable to do much with her hands bound. She is then slashed twice across the knees with a sharp blade. Meanwhile Jacen en route to where Leia is takes on a Vong and defeats him as a second Vong retreats to where Leia is. Jacen enters the room and finds Leia severely wounded and he is face to face with Lah, knowing if he does not act his mother is dead Jacen gives himself utterly to the force for the first time in months. Mara rejoins the space battle despite Duros attempting to stop her by not releasing the docking cable, Anakin tries to shoot it off but fails; which shows if you need sharp shooting, there is only one man to bring in, Luke who shoots it off in one shot. Jacen finds himself fighting Lah and moves out of range of Lah's venom weapon, or so he thinks as a stream of poison shoots at him, which he parries with the saber. Jacen is still being guided and is told to stand firm, he raises his hands and conjures a telekinetic storm to match anything his grandfather did: sconces, huge equipment lockers and a big desk all take off and spin around the room, smashing all the Vong and sending Lah through the window and over a balcony! He then grabs the creature the priestess was going to se to throttle Leia and uses it as a tourniquet to staunch Leia's blood loss. Jaina enters the room only to be shocked at the scene she finds, they both leave with Jacen carrying Leia. Elsewhere, Han fires up the falcon and tells 3PO to monitor the comlink. Out in space more and more groups of Vong ships jump in threatening to overwhelm the NR forces absolutely. Jaina contacts Han and the falcon lands near a hillside tunnel where the twins board with a seriously injured Leia.

Out in space the fight is now to save Urrdorf as hundreds of skips converge upon it. On the falcon Jaina tends to Leia before manning the guns with Jacen. Luke, flying cover for the hauler takes out a number of skips and in a brief but good sequence finds out what Joe Public thinks of him, as Mara listens in:

"'Cargo hauler, is that your maximum acceleration?'

She didn't recognise the voice that answered, but she knew awe when she heard it. 'Skywalker? That's you, in the X-wing?'

'Right with you. Pour it on, hauler.'

'Yes, sir.'"

Out in orbit the Duros cities are wrecked and the Vong are using dovin basals to bring them crashing down to Duro. In the middle of the melee, Mara detects a sensation and knows her baby's gender, it's a he. Escorted out, though unable to make hyperspace, Urrdorf is the sole city to escape. Han tells Luke, Mara and Anakin they are the last forces in the system and it is time to go, the falcon hits hyperspace and Jacen, having found resolution to his crisis of conscience, goes to attend to his mother's wounds.

On Duro an infuriated Lah broadcasts to the New Republic, the Yuzzhan Vong will suspend hostilities at Duro if the New Republic does as he demands:

"'Give us your Jeedai,' he demanded, brandishing the light-cleaver in front of him, pointing its blade at the dirt. 'All of them, without exception. Any species, any age, any stage of training. Hold them back, hide them, and see how your worlds will be treated. But I will reward-with special gifts!-the person who brings me the Jeedai with whom I especially wish to speak.'

He poured hate and pain into his voice. He closed both hands on the light-cleaver and plunged it into the dirt. It sank to its pommel.

'Give me Jacen Solo,' he roared, 'alive. So that I may give him to the gods.'

He nodded to Seef, who covered the villip. He wrenched the foul weapon out of the dirt. The blade still glimmered, unsullied. Trembling with pain and anger, he flung it into the burning pit."

UPDATE: 10/29/00 - Let the spoilers begin! Early BP recipients have begun leaking stuff onto the TFN Lit Forum, mostly in this thread. Not too much big stuff has come out yet, but if you're spoiler-wary, you should stay away. The most interesting thing mentioned thus far, IMHO, is that "the Vong's ultimate plan is revealed". You mean, besides taking over the galaxy? Hmm...

UPDATE: 10/28/00 - Kathy Tyers herself has put up a notice on the TFN Lit Forum that she will be starting an official "Discuss BP With the Author" thread there first thing on Tuesday. Be sure to look for it; I know we'll all have lots to talk about!

Also, GhentZ updates thrice this evening; once to an update on Aaron Allston's page that confirms he is writing 2 NJO books; once to point us to Jordan Drew's completed interview with James Luceno, and once to mention that "The rift between Han and Leia plays a major role in Balance Point, and will come to a startling, even devastating conclusion." Uh-oh.

UPDATE: 10/26/00 - Too...many...updates... Turns out my first guess was half-right after all. Take the face I posted about last night and turn it upside-down, ad you get Vader's mask:

Hmm...interesting.

UPDATE: 10/26/00 - TFN Books has confirmed it. HUGE SPOILER: Mara's pregnant. The face under the Bacta tank is that of their unborn child. It gave me a huge scare; the first time I saw the face, I thought it was Chewbacca. Rest assured, this is a much better turn of events.

UPDATE: 10/26/00 - Well, the TFN Lit forum seems to have figured out what it is. If they're right, the actual face is underneath the Bacta Tank, and rotated 90 degrees to the left. Go here to see for yourself and make your own conclusions.

UPDATE: 10/26/00 - GhentZ gives us a little something to chew on: there's a face hidden on the BP cover that gives away a huge spoiler. He doesn't say much more than that, but insinuates that his first post on the full cover gives a clue on where to look. People are going crazy trying to find this face, and here's what I think. At the very end of the old post, he mentions what looks like the president's face reflected near the Bacta tank. Obviously that's not who the spoiler is about, but I think I found what he was talking about (possible spoilers, highlight when necessary):

It's to the upper right of the tank, and appears to be a person wearing a cloak; very reminiscent of Palpatine. I'm sure the Emperor isn't coming back again, but it could easily mean that we'll see a Darksider in some capacity. Oh, well, only 6 days left before we find out for sure...

Oh yeah; he also said the capital of Duro is called Bburru, and we'll be seeing big action there.

UPDATE: 10/24/00 - Wow, 3 updates in under an hour. That's gotta be a record. I've added both BP maps (the front one is way different from the VP one, contrary to popular belief) to the Gallery. Once I get the book, I'll have better quality scans available.

UPDATE: 10/24/00 - TFN BOOKS! GALACTIC MAP SCAN! GO!!! INVASION ROUTE, BABY!

UPDATE: 10/24/00 - Thanks to Night Traveler for the following: Kathy Tyers' (new?) web site has a page about Balance Point, including the excerpt from Jedi Eclipse, and for the first time, what I'm assuming to be the full flap text (the "Poisoned by centuries of technological excess..." thing). Even if it's not, it's still a nice little summary. You can view Tyers' BP page here, or read the Flap Text on the Excerpts page here.

UPDATE: 10/22/00 - Updated the Release Schedule based on the recent Knightfall cancellation news, but I left two extra spaces open, just in case there still ends up being a book or two between Keyes and Denning.

UPDATE: 10/20/00 - New Poll! Also, head to JediNet Literature and check out the "Friedman + Knightfall = Keyes" update. There's been a lot of talk about Knightfall becoming only one book, and J. Gregory Keyes possibly doing two books instead of one. It's all a bit complicated (and uncertain), so I'm not gonna mess with my current release schedule for now, but you should be aware of it. It's bad enough we have to wait until April for the next NJO books after Balance Point, now there's a chance there'll only be 2 or 3 altogether before HC3...

Finally, the cover of the Essential Guide to Alien Species has been posted at Amazon - NO VONG! It's an okay cover, anyway, but I'm still disappointed.

UPDATE: 10/14/00 - Reading JE? Dying to ask Luceno why he did so-and-so to what's-his-face? Or do you just want to praise him for a wonderful job? Forumer Jordan Drew will be interviewing James Luceno near the end of the month, and he wants you to tell him what questions to ask. Send questions to Jordan_Drew@hotmail.com, but please remember; Luceno probably doesn't know much about the future plot of the NJO, and even if he did, he wouldn't tell you anything. The interview will be posted on Jedinet (as well as various other sites) after completion.

UPDATE: 10/9/00 - I've added the BP excerpt (thanks to Vong Master for typing it up) and the latest JE excerpt to the site. Guess which page they're on!

UPDATE: 10/7/00 - 50,000 hits! I dunno what to say...I want to thank my family.....my manager.....Nom Anor.....all the little people.....you like me! You really like me! Well, I don't have anything to actually update about, so I'll leave it at that. Later. 

UPDATE: 10/6/00 - I've added the first commentary by Lord Bane to the site! It's a comparison of Thrawn and Hitler, and how Thrawn would've handled the Vong if he'd survived long enough.

UPDATE: 10/4/00 - Mesa back! Just completed my first week of classes (5 4-hour classes over 3 days), and I have some spare time ahead. JE is out, I have a copy of course. It's a shame that I wasn't able to update the night before it came out like I always do, but I shouldn't miss that deadline again anytime soon. I got one or two small spoiler reports from early book recipients, and I thank them, but it's after the fact now, so I'm not gonna bother posting them. Go out and get the book if you haven't already! The JE Random House excerpt and the Balance Point excerpt (from the back of JE) should be up here by Sunday at the latest.

UPDATE: 9/28/00 - To quote a young Obi-Wan, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" GhentZ and TFN are both reporting that the release date for Jedi Storm, the first book after Balance Point, has been moved all the way to April, instead of the original February. This is to account for the Feb. release of Shadow Hunter, Michael Reaves' Darth Maul novel. That book will be a nice interjection, but this means 5 1/2 months of NO NJO; i.e., a very slow news period. All the better, I suppose, seeing as I leave for college first thing tomorrow morning. There'll definitely be a bit of a transition phase, so don't be surprised if I'm not quite at the top of my game for the next month or so. Sure enough, I'll be getting JE and BP right when they come out, and I definitely won't let the page rot, but don't expect anything too spectacular. On a brighter note, Lord Bane (the Hannibal guy) has agreed to do some commentaries for the page in the future. He's also got his own page, which includes an awesome NJO fanfic-in-progress called Eyes of the Empire. I've added it to the Links page; be sure to check it out if you've got that between-book NJO withdrawl thing going. I know I sure do.

UPDATE: 9/26/00 - Updated the Creatures section of the YVD with Hero's Trial info!

UPDATE: 9/24/00 - GhentZ finally woke up and gave us some juicy JE stuff to toss around for the next 2 weeks. Highlight to read:

  • NO Vergere. Fine with me. I liked her, but let's not resolve that too quickly.

  • Planets in JE: Yavin IV (no surprise), Ryloth (awesome!), Gyndine (obscure planet from Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the Adventure Journals, mentioned in HT as a refuge from the Vong), Sacorria (we may finally get the Tendra Risant thing resolved), Tynna (home of them beaver dudes from the HSAs, I mentioned the possibility of seeing this planet way way back), Coruscant (again, so surprise), Nal Hutta (cool, but...eew. That planet needs a goos scrubbing), and hold onto your britches for this one: HAPES! Awesome and a half.  I'm dying to see how well a worldship fares against a battle dragon.

  • The Falcon gets painted black. Wonder if that was Han's idea or Droma's...

  • Important characters: Randa Besadii Diori (relative of Durga's), Chine-Kal (never heard of 'em), Nas Choka (overlord of the Vong fleet, mentioned in HT), Crev Bombassa (crimelord from Vision of the Future, encountered by Karrde in his search for Jorj Car'das), Gardulla the Hutt (junior, not the original. But still cool!), Belindi Kalenda (no surprise), Thrackan Sal-Solo (this should be interesting), Jenica Sonsen (administrator of Centerpoint Station, if that doesn't prove what the "weapon only Anakin can operate" is, nothing will), and Arcon Beed Thane (I'm as stumped as you).

UPDATE: 9/23/00 - Finally, an addition to the Gallery! I added a tribute to Chewbacca that appeared in the comic strip "Liberty Meadows" shortly after VP came out.

UPDATE: 9/21/00 - Got bored, so I made a little addition to the Schedule page; the "Bookshelf." It's just a graphical representation of what's out so far. Not a big deal, but it makes that page just a little more interesting. =)

UPDATE: 9/21/00 - Added last night's rant to the Commentaries page.

UPDATE: 9/21/00 - I wanna point out a really cool thread at the TFN Lit forum. Member Lord Bane, a quite scholarly fellow, has theorized that the Vong invasion route is (deliberately?) mimicking that of Hannibal (the elephant guy) and the Carthaginians when they invaded Rome. I won't quote directly since the link is there, but basically, Hannibal's trek went like this (some possible spoilers below, highlight to read if necessary):

Any Roman invasion from Carthage was expected to come by sea, from the southwest. Instead, Hannibal circled around the northwest through Spain, and entered enemy territory from the scarcely-populated north (the Vong came in on the Tingel Arm in the Outer Rim). When the Romans heard of the approaching army, they scattered troops along the southern Rhone river, near the Mediterranean coast. Hannibal duped them by crossing the river much farther north, which meant he would have to lead his army through the unthinkable: the Alps (the Vong came in smack in between the Outer Rim and the Imperial Remnant). As they exited the Alps and proceeded south, Hannibal recruited numerous (but small) local groups of warriors that were unhappy with Roman leadership (the Vong have been working closely with smugglers and the Hutts).  This is about where the NJO is now; the enemy beyond the more remote areas and moving near the seat of power. What did Hannibal do from there? As he progressed, he managed to avoid all-out confrontation with the Roman armies whenever possible, as they had far more men than he did. But whenever a large battle was unavoidable, he always had a trick up his sleeve to surprise the Romans. By now, Hannibal had a clear shot at Rome, but knew better then to confront it directly as of yet. He continued to circle Rome, taking over ports and industrial centers as he went, all the while cutting off the capital from its territory. Rome finally summoned up the courage to try and take Hannibal out once and for all. They gathered a force of about 70,000, an army over twice as large as Hannibal's, and charged south after him. Knowing there was no way to hide from the approaching army, Hannibal had almost all of his forces meet the Roman army in Cannae (spread out in a line to keep Hannibal from maneuvering his way out of a fight), at the dead center of their formation. The outward Romans then swept around to encircle Hannibal, and as they did so, Hannibal's secondary force (mostly those recruited during the trek, as opposed to the Carthaginians themselves) came from behind and surprised the now spread-out Romans, Hannibal's men did their best to wipe the army out, and only 10,000 or so Romans returned from the battle. Unfortunately, Roman unity did not crack as Hannibal had hoped. While their military had been routed, Rome was winning on the diplomatic side. They started using their armies to protect Roman settlements along the warfront, rather than making risky offensive moves. It appeared there was a stalemate; Hannibal was safe in southern Italy, but was unable to move against Rome; and Rome was anxious to take the fight to Carthage (Hannibal's home), but sending a force there would leave the capital open to attack. At one point, Hannibal even sent for his brother, Hasdrubal. Hasdrubal's force went around the long way as well, but was eliminated soon after entering Italy. Finally, the new Roman consul Scipio (a highly acclaimed leader from earlier wars) rallied a large force of volunteers, and headed across the Mediterranean to Carthage. Once there, he made very clear his intent to attack, if only to force Hannibal out into the open. After 2 years, however, Hannibal managed to get his army out of Italy without facing the Romans there. He replenished his army, and finally met Scipio's in Zama, 50 miles west of Carthage. This time, however, Hannibal was out-strategized. Taking a cue from his enemy's own actions at Cannae, Scipio managed to scatter Hannibal's forces, and dealt them a brutal defeat.

So what does this mean for the future of the NJO? Well, IF the guys in charge really are doing this on purpose (and that's a hell of an "if") my take is this: The Vong will proceed as they are now, attacking key points to cut off the Core from the Expansion Region and the Mid Rim (Sluis Van, Bilbringi, Commenor, Bothawui, maybe even Kuat). Expecct a huge naval victory (Corellia? Hapes? Sullust?) for the Vong (Hardcover 3?), possibly followed by a feint at Coruscant (shortly after the battle of Cannae, Hannibal took his force right up to the outskirts of a now poorly-defended Rome and scared the bejeezes out of the Roman citizenry, just to show that he could). At this point, the NR will use its remaining forces to fortify the core as well as possible, leaving the Mid and Outer Rims to the Vong, but isolating them there at the same time. Not sure where to proceed from there, the Vong will send for the remainder of their fleet (led by Tsavong Lah?) to enter the galaxy and meet up with them, but the second wave is blocked off from the first by the NR, and summarily decimated (Hardcover 4?). The two forces are deadlocked for a time, and the war enters a somewhat slow period. Finally, the NR gov't wakes up (ditches Fey'lya?) and puts someone with brains in charge of the war (Pellaeon? Bel Iblis? Kre'fey?). Around this time, they (Luke? Leia? Han?) find a way to enter the Vong galaxy, and after a few paperbacks' worth of scouting missions, sends a huge fleet out to hit the Vong where it hurts. They succeed in drawing the Vong away from the GFFA, and confront them as a whole (Hardcover 5?), possibly with the surprise aid of the Chiss. The Vong are routed, their homeworld devastated by an attack from NR ground forces and the Jedi. Shimrra is captured alive, and, knowing how the Vong embrace death and physical torture, is sentenced to rot away on a prison world somewhere, rather than be executed. At the end, the whole ordeal does more to solidify the NR than anything since Endor.

KEEP IN MIND that I'm doing some serious speculation here (definitely took some creative license toward the end there), and the NJO could end up containing any or none of these scenarios. But it's still a fun read for the time being, isn't it? =)

Wow, that might be my biggest post ever. I'll add all this to the Commentaries page tomorrow, but now I need to sleep.....

UPDATE: 9/20/00 - I looked around the Books Online Affiliate site a bit, and I finally found a more, shall we say, relevant banner. My apologies to any Oprah fans out there. =) Also, GhentZ update the other day with another list of possible scenarios, this time for Jedi Eclipse:

- Han runs into Bollux and Blue Max. Severely bruises knee.

- Kyp comes to his senses and does something smart. Like not dressing à la Calrissian.

- Talon Karrde makes three big speeches: One on the state of the NewRep economy, one on YV psychology, and one on how to get ahead in industrial espionage without a degree in physics, chemistry, or engineering.

- In a surprise move, Jaina leaves the Rogues and joins Kyp's reformed squadron, prompting them to change their name to Kyp's Baker's Dozen. The identity of Kyp's baker won't be revealed until we find out what Jedi apprentice walks in darkness in Kathy Tyers' Balance Point. It won't be that guy who made Gantoris extra-crispy.

Well, the last two seem to be jokes, but with GhentZ, you never know. My choice for most likely is the Bollux/Blue Max one, but I'd be thrilled to see either them or Karrde make an appearance in the NJO. Too bad I just changed my poll, or I'd make this the new one.

UPDATE: 9/14/00 - Updated the Bioweapons & Armor page of the YVD with Hero's Trial info! Also, I've become an affiliate of the sci-fi division of www.booksonline.com, hence the banner above. I wouldn't sell out for just anyone, mind you, so you know it's a good site. If you're looking for a place to get NJO (or any other) books on the web, do me a favor & check it out!

UPDATE: 9/13/00 - New poll!

UPDATE: 9/9/00 - Updated the Personae & Associates page of the YVD with Hero's Trial info!

UPDATE: 9/8/00 - As you've probably noticed, I removed the frames from the page. While I admittedly liked the old way better, there were a number of reasons I wanted to do it this way; one, seeing as how one-fourth of the people who took part in my current poll didn't know the site had forums, it occurred to me that many people only had the bottom part of the page bookmarked (i.e., the part with the news), and now the nav image in all its splendor will be at the top of the page no matter what. Boy, am I evil. Two, there are people out there with very dinky monitors, and having the banner always on top meant that they didn't have very much space to view the text page in. Now, the nav image is still there, but it won't obstruct the rest of the page while you're absorbing my most recent bits of wisdom. One related note; I just copy/pasted the html for the nav stuff into the top of each page, and so the links may be acting a bit funky for a while. If you want to access a particular page and can't get to it, just e-mail me and I'll point you in the right direction. I'll also mention here when I've (hopefully) fixed all the links, so if anyone finds something wrong past that point they can let me know I screwed up.

ONE more thing, and then I'll let you go; I'm leaving for college in 3 weeks, and once I do, my e-mail address for UNJOH-related stuff will be changing to Coopra6000@hotmail.com. The AOL one will always be there, though, but if you have my e-mail saved on your computer (sounds weird, but I know a few people who probably do have it stored somewhere), just make a note to change it at some point. Okay, as you were.

UPDATE: 9/7/00 - This isn't really news, but it's pretty amusing anyway, so I'm sticking it up. Darth Ludicrous, moderator of the TFN Lit Forun and webmaster of his very own fake Star Wars news site, has posted this little bit about the question on everybody's mind, "Who will be on the NJO Jedi Council?" Check it out, it's good for a chuckle.

UPDATE: 9/5/00 - The September DRIN (Del Rey Internet Newsletter) came today. There was a very small mention of the Essential Guide to Alien Species (cooming out in April, not May), and they said that the cover art as on display at GenCon. I know a lot of you people were there, but none of the reports I got mention this at all. If anyone who was there remembers seeing the cover, I'd love for you to drop me a line with a description, especially if there's loads of Vong stuff on it.

UPDATE: Ta-da!! It's almost 2 months past the site's 1-year anniversary, and a few days past the 40K hit mark, but better late than never! One of the first things you're bound to notice is an addition to the nav image (not to mention the font change). I'm happy to say that I've been in contact with Director Scaur of New Republic Intelligence for a while now, and he's agreed to provide us with a copy of their current repository of Yuuzhan Vong information, in the form of a convenient little database. We're hoping the best defense against the invaders is an educated public. Study up; you never know where the Vong will stike next!

I also want to thank my aunt & uncle for paying for this domain (my HS graduation present). One more thing...a lot of the domain work was done in the wee hours of the morning, when my abilities of concentration were somewhat below their peak. Let me know ASAP if you find any typos, missing links, etc.

UPDATE: 8/27/00 - Great news from Nom Anor of the YV Homeworld today; he e-mailed an insider with connections to the Essential Guide to Alien Species, coming out in May. Here's a snippet of her reply:

"Well, I'm pretty much under a gag order. But I will tell you the Yuzzies are in there in a big way--with illustrations and everything. =)"

It's about dang time.

UPDATE: 8/24/00 - GalaxyFarAway.com has a neat little article up about the current course of Star Wars literature. It's mostly a recap of everything we know already, but it does a great job of summarizing both the NJO stuff and the prequel stuff and bringing it together. I recommend that you check it out; if only to see what's at the very bottom of the page. =)

UPDATE: 8/19/00 - The Official Site put up a neat little article the other day about past events in the EU that were related to (apparent) extragalactic invaders. Comparisons were made to the Vong throughout, and while there wasn't any real NJO info, it's a cool read anyway, especially cuz it fills people in on some of what happened in the old Star Wars Marvel comics. GhentZ also reports today that Balance Point will have a different take on the NJO map(s). I'm in a hurry, so I'm just gonna quote him. It's not like he ever comes here, anyway.

"Besides sporting some planets not shown on the previous maps, the cutout will focus on the region surrounding the planet Duro. Oh, and there'll be a *second* map, showing the invasion route being followed by the good ol' Yuuzhan Vong."

Rock. I know a lot of people have been antsy for an invasion route map.

UPDATE: 8/14/00 - Got another report from GenCon, courtesy of ADH. It's half old news and half non-NJO, but I wanted to put it up anyway.

"I just got back from Gen Con and had a good talk with Aaron Allston and Mike Stackpole concerning a piece of fiction I will be writing for the Star Wars Gamer mag. They confirmed that Aaron Allstons books will follow Troy Denning's HC and next year and will be considered the middle of the series or so. Aaron Allston also confirmed that he is in talks to do short stories for the Star Wars Gamer which premiers this November as a tie in to the new RPG. Mike Stackpole noted that he is VERY interested in working more for Del Rey and Dark Horse. Just thought Id let you know."

I gotta try to get to that next year...

UPDATE: 8/11/00 - 5 days until my birthday!!! Anyway, Ed2D2 of the Forums sent me a small report of stuff he saw at GenCon; here's the best stuff (S,HTR):

"-Troy Denning said that his book had a lot of cutting through doors with lightsabers, inspired by the scene in Episode 1.

-Troy Denning mentioned how hard it was to chose a character to kill. He said that he felt bad about killing off a main character, so introduced new characters, but fell in love with these characters as well.

-While Mike Stakepole and K.W. Jeter were autographing my books, they mentioned that much of what is in the New Jedi Order is being molded into what the fans would like, including which authors to chose. They encouraged me to give the Del Rey booth suggestions about the series. The Del Rey booth indicated that suggestions from fans were welcome, and told me to contact LucasFilm and Del Rey through mail or email.

Overall, it was a very fun day. I'd encourage anyone interested to attend next year. Milwaukee is a great city to visit anyway :)"

He also mentioned that Aaron Allston is a dotted line away from writing a duology for the NJO which, GhentZ reports, will bridge the gap between Elaine Cunningham's and Michael Woodring Stover's one-shots.

I'll leave the commentary on this stuff up to you guys. Very cool.

UPDATE: 8/7/00 - Updated the poll, finally. The Bossk scenario was the real one, BTW.

UPDATE: 8/7/00 - It's been a while, but I've got lots of good news to report. For starters, the Official Site has posted a mini-feature on Jedi Eclipse, including the first official copy of the cover (though kind of a crummy scan), and a brief but intriguing summary. S,HTR:

"The Yuuzhan Vong continue their inexorable invasion, securing a tenuous alliance with the Hutts. Han Solo embarks on a personal quest to rescue an old friend and reunite a family. Leia Organa Solo departs on a diplomatic mission to recruit the aid of a formidable fighting force. Elsewhere in the galaxy, an old weapon has been resurrected, one which Anakin Solo has the power to wield. And in the heart of the galaxy, not even the upper echelons of the New Republic government is safe from the Yuuzhan Vong menace."

Han's personal quest? I imagine he's off after Roa (plus Droma's family). Leia's formidable fighting force? Hard to say for sure, but based on what i've read of HT so far, I'm leaning toward the Chiss. Anakin's old weapon? My first reaction (as was many of yours, I imagine) was backed up by a very reliable source. One word for you: Centerpoint. Hell, yeah. The last sentence is obviously referring to a high-up source the Vong mention having in HT. There's already some discussion on this in the UNJOH forums; here's the HT mention, from forum regular Acky: "...What's more, we may have found a potential ally on Coruscant. Someone as yet unknown-though highly placed in the New Republic military or intelligence divisions-reached out to us through my agents." I have to admit; I'm drawing a huge blank here. Besides, there's a good chance it's a brand new character, which would make all speculaton pointless.

On to the site-related news. I finally have access to www.unjoh.com; if you go there now you'll see my personal Coming Soon page; spectacular in its simplicity. I just got a brand new computer, and I'm in the process of moving all the old site stuff here. Once that's taken care of, work on the domain will go into full swing. Except the move in two weeks, tops.

Speaking of the domain, I'm happy to announce that along with the move, the UNJOH will be taking on the Yuuzhan Vong Homeworld (currently located here), a very well-done database of all known Vong info, run by a dude known as, appropriately, Nom Anor. The new version of the site will be formatted in concurrence with his new Essential Guide to the Yuuzhan Vong; the layout should be similar to that of the Completely Unofficial SW Encyclopedia. There's a very cool quirk involved here, though, whch you'll discover once the move is complete.

That's all for now (whoo, big update). Sit Potentia Tecum!

UPDATE: 7/31/00 - Mucho thanks to Ganner, without whom I'd have anothing for you guys tonight. And now, on Hero's Trial Eve, I give you a complete (albeit succinct) summary of HT (S,HTR):

Yuzzie Priest Harrar arrives at the newly captured Vong world Obroa-skai. Tells Priestess Elan and her "pet" Vergere (from Rouge Planet?) to poison Jedi w/coomb spores. Spores kill instantly. To do this Elan and Vergere must "defect" to NR. They do and NRI tries to take them to the Queen of Empire, a HUGE starliner [filled w/refugees] docked at Anobis. Han, who has been helping his friend Roa (Han Solo Trilogy) try to track down Reck Desh (working for the vong) at a space station above Ord Mantell. NR fleet engages Vong fleet at station. Vong are almost defeated, but the biggest warship uses a vacuumy thing to suck people out of staiton, Roa gets sucked up. A Ryn, (little known, from CORE) latches onto Han's leg. He and Han save the station...Han finds out about Reck being at Anobis. Han and the Ryn split up. A while later on the Queen of Empire Han and the Ryn, his name's Droma, meet w/NRI agent who thinks that Han is his backup and gives Elan and Vergere over to Han. Then Reck's corvette captures the Queen and Reck (that idiot) thinks the Vong really want Elan and Vergere back. So he captures them and his shuttle leaves the Queen. Elan lets the Coomb spores out of her belly (she breaths them out, she only has 4 breaths) and kills Reck. Han gets her over to the Falcon (brought by Leia, Luke, and Mara) then finds out that Elan is a traitor, Elan lets out coomb spores but Han uses a rebreather (given to him by Anakin) and Elan dies from breathing the spores. Han looks for Vergere but she escaped into an escape pod, but before she launches it, she uses her tears (from her eyes) and gives them to Han. Han takes it back to Coruscant and Mara gets healed (for awhile, not forever). Han and Droma take the Falcon and go looking for Roa.

Take that, Time Tales. And yes, Elan is the woman on the cover. Addendum: Quick note; go to www.starwars.com! They have a feature/excerpt of HT themselves.

UPDATE: 7/31/00 - Two reviews of HT are up at TFN. They don't really spoil much plot-wise, but don't go if you don't wanna hear anything. Good news for a lot of fans: there are cameos by a bunch of Jedi Academy kids, as well as chars from the Black Fleet Crisis and the Corellian Trilogy. It's nice to see stuff like that, but I hope it isn't too forced. By the way, today's the last day to vote in the current poll, so be sure to do so if you haven't already.

UPDATE: 7/30/00 - Why must I keep updating??? TFN Books is determined to drive me mad...go here for a transcription of the little preview on the first page on HT. Two more days!

UPDATE: 7/30/00 - All done! Head to the Excerpts page to read, but listen to the excerpt if you can; if only to hear Tony Heald's Vong accent. I didn't know they were from Latveria...

UPDATE: 7/29/00 - Damn, I'm good. Go here, and if you're lucky, you'll find an excerpt from the Hero's Trial audiobook. There's a good chance it won't be up for long, so I'll type it up post haste.

UPDATE: 7/28/00 - Look out GhentZ, the competition's heating up! TFN Books updates today with ALL 3 titles for the Friedman trilogy. Sure enough, the trilogy title is Knightfall, and the first book is indeed Jedi Storm. The other two? Jedi Fire and Jedi Blood. Way cool.

UPDATE: 7/27/00 - Surprise, surprise. TFN Books got a hold of an early copy of Hero's Trial, and stuck up the back cover text. Semi-spoilers, highlight to read:

Merciless attacks by an invincible alien foe have left the New Republic reeling. Dozens of worlds have succumbed to occupation or annihilation, and even the Jedi Knights have tasted defeat. In these darkest of times, the noble Chewbacca is laid to rest, having died as heroically as he lived - and a grief-stricken Han Solo is left to fit the pieces of his shattered life back together before he loses everything: friends, family, and faith.

Refusing help from Leia or Luke, Han becomes the loner he once was, seeking to escape the pain of his partner's death in adventure...and revenge. When he learns that an old friend from his smuggling days is operating as a mercenary for the enemy, he sets out to expose the traitor. But Han's investigation uncovers an even greater evil: a sinister conspiracy aimed at the very heart of the New Republic's will and ability to fight - the Jedi.

Now Han must face down his inner demons and, with the help of a new and unexpected ally, honor Chewbacca's sacrifice in the only way that matters - by being worthy of it.

Very cool! I wonder who the traitor is. Anyway, now that they've got a copy, their review shouldn't be far behind. Keep an eye out here if you're so inclined. That URL is just a guess, though.

UPDATE: 7/25/00 - Turns out that Knightfall is the title of MJF's whole trilogy, not the first book. What's the first book called, then? GhentZ is saying Jedi Storm, but it's not definite. Also, here are the current (and hopefully final) release dates for the next few books:

Hero's Trial: August 1st

Jedi Eclipse: October 1st

Balance Point: October 31st

I've also starting using the full dates on the Release Schedule page.

UPDATE: 7/18/00 - GhentZ must be doing a theme week. Go here for the ass-kickin' final Balance Point cover, front AND back. Commentary coming later, once my heart resumes beating.

UPDATE: 7/17/00 - Just got back from a long weekend in NYC! Well, I got back last night, but same difference. Anyway, the (apparent) final cover of Hero's Trial has begun popping up on book order pages. Oodles of little changes, but the only big thing, is the positioning of the mystery woman's face. Now we can see almost all of her. Kinda creepy looking, isn't she? The only version of the new cover available  is  forthe audiobook, which has "Read by Anthony Heald" at the bottom. I "edited" that out, and updated the Gallery accordingly.

UPDATE: 7/11/00 - I must thoroughly express my gratitude to "The Hand of Thrawn", one of the regulars at the forum. He responded to my plea and typed up the Hero's Trial excerpt from the VP paperback. Go here to see his post, or here for its entry on the Excerpts page. Thanks also to TJ, who jsut sent me the excerpt a little while ago. Also, GhentZ, after linking to the excerpt, described 5 different Han-related scenarios, one of which is actually in HT. I might make my next poll about this...

UPDATE: 7/8/00 - First off, today is the site's one year anniversary! I was hoping that the domain name would be the celebration of that, but I'm having some difficulty connecting, so it'll be at least a day or two before we move. Anyway, GhentZ reports that the paperback version of VP has an EXCERPT OF HERO'S TRIAL in the back! I'll hopefully get to a book store soon to read it, but there's no way I'm spending 7 bucks on a book I already have. If anyone out there has this, I'd be forever in their debt if they typed it up and sent it on over - they'd get full credit & stuff, plus any other reward I can come up with.

UPDATE: 7/5/00 - Almost forgot; the paperback version of Vector Prime is out today! Now you have no excuse whatsoever for not having bought it. No that you really did before.

UPDATE: 7/5/00 - 30,000 hits! When we hit 20k, I celebrated with the new logo, but this celebration will put that to shame. Very soon now, by the end of the month at the latest, the site will be moving to www.unjoh.com! I'll keep this one up as is for a week or so after the move, and ultimately, this address will just have a link to the new location on it. Can't wait!

UPDATE: 6/28/00 - Two in a day, how about that? I tweaked the Release Schedule page a bit; the top part was a little old. The schedule itself is now also completely fresh.

UPDATE: 6/28/00 - HUGE Gallery update. Finally got to a scanner, and i've added (in addition to the preview of the Knightfall cover) three pics of Nom Anor from CE2, and all the Sernpidal-related stuff from Chewbacca #4. That's right; ALL of it. They're a little fuzzy, though...

UPDATE: 6/26/00 - First update since HS graduation! Yay! Just when I was starting to think GhentZ had forgotten all about the NJO, he unloads a bombshell. The first book of the Michael Jan Friedman trilogy to follow BP is apparently gonna be called Knightfall. Taking a cue from Admiral Daala, maybe? =) Following the NJO theme of transferring the focus from Han, Leia, and Luke to the new kids on the block, this tril will be all about Danni Quee and Ganner Rhysode. Fascinating, huh? The cover art will be done by Terese Nielsen, whose webpage offers this small glimpse of Knightfall's cover. Ganner, I presume?

UPDATE: 6/19/00 - I've been really busy the past few days, but I gotta take a minute to congratulate R.A. Salvatore on getting the Episode 2 novelization. He's a great choice to do it, and he really deserves it after all the crap he got from fans after VP. He was on Jedi Talk tonight, and the NJO was heavily discussed. While no new info was brought forth, it was a great interview; RAS is a very funny and eloquent guy.

The Gallery update I've been talking about is finally under way; I've added the Jedi Eclipse cover and the galactic map, and I HOPE to get Chewbacca #4 scans up very soon, plus some other goodies.

UPDATE: 6/15/00 - I finished Ruin on Monday! If you have an ounce of brains, you'll hop-skip into IRC on July 7 so you can barrage Commander Michael Domain Stackpole with questions about Ruin, Onslaught, Union, whatever. Details:

irc.jedinetwork.com - #pilotchat - Friday, July 7 at 8 pm EST

Head to the Links page to see a bunch of updates and additions. The updates to the Gallery page should be up by Friday night. Also, I'm starting to make up an all-encompassing NJO FAQ for the Commentaries page. I'd appreciate it if you'd all send me any series-related questions you think I should address.

UPDATE: Just picked it up! I'll be slipping into a Ruin-induced coma for a few days, but expect a bunch of updates to the Gallery soon. In the meantime, get away from your stinkin' computer and go get this book! Oh yeah; if you're too lazy to get Ruin today, at least head over to TFN Books and read the latest excerpt, coutesy of Del Rey.

UPDATE: Just happened to swing by the Official Site, and they've updated with a big feature on Ruin (tomorrow, baby!), PLUS an excerpt. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? GO!!!

UPDATE: I'm seriously straining my plagiarism ethics here, but I can't help myself. NightTraveler has informed me that Time Tales has put up their summary of the Ruin plot, and it's BIG. This is a complete summary. I should at least be waiting until the night before for this, but a lot is known already, so what the hell. Go here for the page itself, or just read below (and prepare to wet your pants). S,HTR:

The Jedi Knights gather on Coruscant for what Kyp Durron calls a council of war. Luke warns him it’s a mere meeting, nothing more. But it’s clear he and several other Jedi are itching to take the fight to the Vong, and hard. Meanwhile, the Solo children are summoned by a ragged Han, who seems to be coming out of his stupor and is trying to reconcile with his kids. At the NR government, both Leia and Wedge are looking at the catastrophe on Sernpidal in a new light – why did it happen at all? What did the Vong have to gain by smashing a moon into a planet? Also, the military is frantically shipping refugees through Agamar to the Core, as well as bolstering the defenses of planets lying on the Vong’s warpath. Fey’yla surprises everyone when he makes it clear he will send no more Jedi out on any missions against the Vong – thanks to recent events, galactic trust in the Jedi is at an all-time low. If Luke wants to send them anyway, fine – but they’re on their own. Elegos AK’la decides to go on a suicide mission to Dubrillion as a diplomat, to learn just what it is the Yuuzhan Vong want. If he succeeds, galactic holocaust may be averted. If he dies… ”my fate will matter little, given the gravity of what is to come.” The Jedi meeting begins, with the various Knights squabbling over just how they should deal with the Vong – defensively or offensively? And when does one become the other? Where do they draw the line? They are also stunned at the news of the Republic abandoning them. Luke actually applauds the decision – the Jedi can use their own best judgment in the field. But Corran will have an active role with the NR – reactivated into the military, he will be leading a mission to Garqi. A week later, Corran sets out with Jacen, Ganner, and some Noghri. Leia, along with Danni and some Noghri, undertakes a top-secret mission to Bastion, capitol of the Imperial remnants. Leia hopes to talk Grand Admiral Pellaeon into joining forces with the Republic against the Vong threat. Pellaeon knows a little of what’s been going on, and Leia fills him in on the rest. Anakin brings a disturbing discovery to Luke and Mara – the Jedi have been studying superweapons in the data library. Lots of superweapons, from the Death Star on down. The prime suspect is Octa Ramis – Miko’s ex-lover and part of Kyp’s faction. And her hotheaded Twi’lek female partner, Daeshara’cor, has vanished. He picks up a “stray,” Chalco, who spotted Daeshara’cor get on a tramp freighter for Vortex. Chalco agrees to take him and Mara there. Meanwhile, on the Vong headquarters on Dubrillion, Shedao Shai is also growing curious as to just what his foe – the Republic – wants. At that moment, AK’la arrives and meets him. Shai is intrigued, and agrees to both teach Elegos about his people and learn about the Republic’s people. First lesson for AK’la: “The Embrace of Pain.” With Jaina and the Rogues providing cover, Corran’s team crash-lands (as intended) on Garqi in a decrepit old freighter (the Lost Hope). Flying through the shell of the disintegrating Lost Hope, the scout ship Best Chance safely lands. Anakin, Mirax Horn and Whistler join Luke, Mara and Chalco on their journey to Vortex. When they arrive, Luke and Mara meets with Qui Xux. The Twi’lek was there, but Qui had nothing to tell her – even though she has most of her knowledge back, she will never use it for destructive purposes ever again. It occurs to Luke – the Eye of Palpatine. Wouldn’t the Emperor have had two ‘eyes’? Pellaeon calls a Council of Moffs to consider Leia’s request. After tabling their opinions, he agrees to send their forces to help the Republic. Gavin and the Rogues fly to the shattered debris field that used to be Sernpidal. What they see there is horrifying – giant snail-like creatures are taking the shattered pieces of the planet and are rebuilding them into a planet-sized starship. On Garqi, Corran meets with NR agent Rade Dromath. He shows them what the Vong have been doing with their slaves – using the coral growths and brainwashing to turn the slaves into an army. The Vong are beginning to question the time Shai is spending with Elegos. There are those who believe Shai has tainted himself, and are plotting against him. Elegos for his part is learning his lessons well – learning to embrace pain as the Vong do. Luke’s group next heads to Garos IV, where Anakin and Chalco sneak off on their own to find Daeshara’cor. Going into a cantina, Chalco is led into another room on false information – and the rogue Jedi jumps Anakin and takes him hostage. With Chalco’s help, though, Anakin turns the tables and knocks Daeshara’cor out. Corran’s group attacks the Vong, capturing several of the slave-soldiers. Corran, Jacen and Ganner run interference as the Noghri rush the prisoners to the Best Chance. As they fight, they make a crucial discovery – the Vong’s organic armor is fatally allergic to bafforr tree pollen. Ganner has been humbled by being badly wounded during the fight, and no longer thinks himself superior to the Vong in any way. He willingly accepts a permanent scar on his face as a reminder. Gavin and the Rogues arrive in Garqi orbit, to find the Vong waiting for them. In force. Kre’fey came prepared – with reinforcements and a remote feed to Coruscant of all the action. And a few moments later, even more help comes – Pellaeon with an Imperial strike force. With the new TIE “Spike” fighters, the Imperials clean house on the Vong. And the leader of the Spike squadron (a squadron of Chiss, no less) is a surprise to all the NR heroes – Jagged Fel, the adult son of Baron Soontir Fel and Syal Antilles. Shai storms to Garqi upon hearing of the defeat. He is incensed at this ruin – especially when he learns that Corran Horn, the “jeedai,” was the one responsible. Having learned all he can from Elegos – and vice versa – he decides to send a message to the Jedi via Elegos – a message they’ll have no problem understanding… Pellaeon, Corran, Kre’fey and Luke meet and compare notes. Fey’yla and several politicians are coming to Ithor, the next planet in the Vong’s sights – and perhaps a crucial indicator of how this war will go. Kre’fey puts Corran in charge of the planet’s defense. All forces meet at Ithor, on the Tafanda Bay. Fel introduces himself to Jaina, and viciously cuts off Fey’yla accusing him of racism. The heroes must respect Ithorian customs, undergoing a purification ceremony by renouncing their sins. Luke surprises everybody by renouncing his own responsibility as sole leader of the Jedi. Anakin renounces his self-assuredness. Daeshara’cor, her hatred. Corran, fear. Ganner, pride. Jacen – and it’s a realization for him as he says it – the need to know what he will be in the future. The ceremony is, for all involved, a way of coming to terms with their lives in the face of looming death. The Vong realize what Corran was looking for and found – an organic weapon to use against them. Shai realizes Ithor is the key to all this, and he has a plan. Ithor will be attacked, as will nearby Agamar – in a month. As for the pollen, the Vong will fight without armor if they have to. His subordinate, Deign Lian, leaks all this info to his “master.” A Vong shuttle arrives at Ithor with Elegos inside. It only opens when Corran places his bare hand on it, allowing it to draw his blood. They find a message of hope from Elegos, and a gift for Corran – the gold-plated and jeweled skeleton of Elegos AK’la!!! And with it another message – from Shai to Corran. He killed Elegos with his bare hands, then sent the corpse to show the NR the proper way to venerate their dead. He wants Corran to bring the bones of his kinsmen and ancestor (the mummified Vong from Bimmiel) to Ithor – or consider the death of Elegos, a death he says Corran caused, meaningless. The ‘message’ sends the heroes into a panic. Ithor frantically evacuates, with refugees sent to colonies in the Unknown Regions. The end of the month comes, and the Vong fleet arrives. Corran comes up with a desperate plan – challenge Shai to a duel, one-on-one. He wins, he gets the bones. Corran wins, Ithor is safe. Luke is worried – this is aggressive, very close to the Dark Side. Corran understands, but won’t change his mind – he feels he has to do this. Fey’yla tries to have Pellaeon replaced with Kre’fey as head of Ithor’s defense, but Pellaeon makes it clear he’ll go home for good in that case. And Kre’fey backs Pellaeon up all the way. Fey’yla orders Kre’fey arrested, but none will move against him. At that moment, the Vong attacks with the rebuilt Sernpidal at the head of their fleet. Rogue Anni Capstan is killed in the first minute of fighting, along with several other Rogues. The Vong boards the Tafanda Bay, where Anakin and Draesha’cor face off against them. The Twi’lek Jedi is poisoned in the process of protecting Anakin. Shai lands an invasion force on the planet’s surface, to find the cities defended by droids – abominations. He is horrified to find the droids aren’t droids – they’re droid shells, and they’re defending, not real buildings, but fabricated buildings – a distraction!! At that moment, NR forces led by Corran and Jacen attack the Vong forces. Corran issues his challenge to Shai. He accepts, and sets the duel for a week from now. “Come prepared to die.” The uneasy truce gives both sides a chance to heal and shore up their forces. Fed up with Fey’yla forbidding him to do this, Corran resigns – for the second time – from the military. Draesha’cor dies from the poison, but not before making it clear to Anakin that her death was no more his fault than Chewbacca’s. “We are so proud of you, so proud…” And with those words, her body disappears from existence. Corran and Luke meet Shai and Lian at the top of a mountain on Ithor with the bones. The duel begins and rages for several minutes. Shai stabs Corran through the chest, then licks the blood-covered amphistaff. The fight resumes, and Corran deactivates his blade as Shai stabs downward – then reactivates it for a killing blow when Shai stumbles as a result. Lian refuses to take the bones – those bones, along with Shai’s, are Corran’s now. Corran does take Shai’s mask, as a signal that the Vong are not invincible and Ithor is safe. Lian takes charge of the Vong fleet – and his first act is to send bioweapons smashing into Ithor. Within minutes, all plant life on the planet is dead. The NR/Imperial forces strike back with a fury, destroying Lian’s ship. But the damage is done – one of the beautiful planets in the galaxy is dead. The Imperial Remnant orders Pellaeon home in a panic. A holojournal of Elegos’s visit (real or fake?) makes it clear that Corran’s killing of Shai ensured the doom of the planet. The New Republic loudly and bitterly blames the Jedi Knights – especially Corran Horn -- for the destruction of Ithor. Jagged Fel decides to stay and work with Rogue Squadron. And Corran is haunted – he said he had did what he did for Ithor, but he knows – he knew all along -- it was for revenge. He feels he has betrayed everyone and fallen to the Dark Side. He asks Luke to excommunicate him from the Jedi, put as much distance between him and the Knights as possible. It’s the only way to save the Jedi from the Republic’s wrath. Luke reluctantly agrees – there is nothing else to do. Corran will return to Corellia a pariah. He asks Jacen and Ganner to support Luke – keep Kyp’s faction from gaining any more ground. He is stoic about the situation, and muses that if a time comes “when people look forward to the return of the man who killed Ithor, well, we knows that means the invasion is completely out of hand and things are truly beyond saving.”

As speechless as this whole thing makes me, I just have to say that when Helen said this was the closest we've come to a perfect Star Wars novel, she knew what she was talking about. 3 more days... ::passes out from overstimulation::

UPDATE: I'd tell you to keep an eye out here for an excerpt from Ruin, but it won't be up until the 12th, and by then I expect each and every one of you to have bought and finished it. TFN has also added a second review of Ruin here. No plot info at all, just lots more gushing about what a rockin' book this is. 4 more days! Oh yeah, it turns out GhentZ does know what planet gets it in Ruin; we had a bit of a miscommunication. S,HTR: The Vong use some chemical to wipe out all of the life on Ithor. So it's not actually destroyed, just really really messed up. Poor Momaw Nadon.

UPDATE: Just like I promised, Ghentz has put up the Jedi Eclipse cover; or as I'll call it, Han Bon Jovi with the Yuzzy and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I don't wanna say that I don't like it, there are just some odd bits. For one, this couldn't take place that long after Hero's Trial, but Han's hair has grown back half again as long since his appearance on the HT cover. Oh, well. As far as the Vong goes, it's not exactly like the other ones I've seen, but close enough to not bother me. Wicked grin that fella's got. And I LOVE the amphistaff; imagine someone in a dark alley coming at you with that sucker!

UPDATE: Another li'l teaser excerpt from GhentZ:

"I'll do it." Ganner smiled. "Thanks for providing me an example to follow."

"Don't follow it too closely, Ganner. Be yourself. Set an example for others."

Doesn't really give much away, except that Corran and Ganner are getting much friendlier with each other. He also threw in a tiny little one; Mara to Luke: "Picking up strays?" Very familiar, huh? My guess is she's talking about S,HTR: the new Twi'lek Jedi, Daeshara'cor, who dies before the book is over (and DISAPPEARS afterward!). This whole Jedi vanishing thing is really starting to confuse me. Just another note; if ANYONE out there has seen Ruin and knows which planet gets destroyed, please let me know! This is the one thing the whole net seems to be baffled over; even GhentZ doesn't know for sure.

Oh yeah, I thought of something else. =) Wandering around the TFN forums yesterday, I stumbled upon a link here: The NJO Death Tally. At first I thought it was gonna mock the whole thing, but it's really tastefully done. Everyone's there, too; Chewie, Bolpuhr, even Miko Reglia's astromech.

UPDATE: It's up! And at that address, too; damn I'm good. Unfortunately, they spoiled my fun of posting all the spoilers the night before. Well, go and take a look if you wanna get spoiled, or just read on... (S,HTR:)

Elegos is the one sent as an emissary to the Vong, and (sigh) he is summarily murdered by Shedao Shai. To be honest, this one has me more upset than Chewbacca; I really think Elegos could've had a bright future. Anyway, his death pisses Corran off and he fights Shai. Shai is killed, but Corran taps into the Dark Side big-time. No planets are mentioned in the review, but I guess this must all happen on Garqi. Sure enough, another planet gets toasted (somehow) by the Vong, and blame falls on Corran. Physically, he's okay, but the scandal causes him and Mirax to go into exile. BTW, look for much more of the Jagged "Jag for short" Fel/Jaina Solo storyline in Elaine Cunningham's all-Jaina-all-the-time novel, coming up sometime around Hardcover 3.

UPDATE: New poll up, plus good news from the TFN forums. Helen of TFN Books, apparently the only big site person to have received an early copy of Ruin, will be posting her review, spoilers and all, sometime tonight. Don't know when exactly, but it SHOULD (don't hold me to it) appear at this URL. Only a matter of time...

UPDATE: I tell ya, folks; this book is looking better all the time. Recently, we found out that Leia will be visiting the Remnant, making lots of Imp fans very happy. And now, to really please people, take a look at the following mini-excerpt (that's Col. Jagged Fel talking). S,HTR:

"Don't worry, Rogues, we have you now. We'll get you home safely."

The patronizing tone in Spike Leader's voice made Jaina grit her teeth. "Who are you?"

"We're simply the best combat pilots in the galaxy." A momentary spark of static burst through the comm channel. "We are a Chiss House phalanx, on loan to the New Republic by my father, General Baron Soontir Fel."

GhentZ prolly won't be too thrilled that I put this up, but luckily, he doesn't come here too often. =)

UPDATE: Buttload of stuff up at JediNet. First, here's that full Ruin cover I mentioned. New info:

He's Colonel Jagged Fel, and he's not what he seems. Hmm.

The book's 292 pages, which kinda sucks, but it's gonna be a killer 292 pages. Especially look for cool stuff from Ganner in this one.

He gave a phony news headline for the book; I'll break it down.

  • "Politician chokes..." - I think I have a very good idea of who this is, and if I'm right, it's not who you think. I'm gonna hold off until the night before for that one, though.

  • "...Planet Destroyed..." - Well, this is definitely a surprise. I'm gonna have to go with Garqi. For one thing, it's the only planet that's even been mentioned as having a specific part in Ruin so far, plus it's always been Stackpole's planet (visited or mentioned in all of his books so far, I believe), and GhentZ says it's very creepy how Stackpole ends his run in the EU, so I'd bet on him wiping the planet out, rather than let anyone else have it. =)

  • "...Jedi Takes Blame." - I'm not sure what the Jedi takes the blame for exactly. If it's for the planet, than I have no clue. Jacen and Corran are the ones sent to Garqi, so I guess it may have something to do with one of them. If it's for the dead politician, well, I ain't going there.

UPDATE: The third and final segment of the TFN/Mike Stackpole interview is finally up. No plot info at all, just stuff about his career and what he got out of the SW experience. Also, stay tuned to JediNet Lit later tonight for the entire Ruin cover (they went back to the old one! Ack!), and sometime next week for the Jedi Eclipse cover (!!!).

UPDATE: GhentZ reports with something of a mini-review of Ruin, from the B&N Newsletter. Nothing terribly new, but here's the relevant stuff:

"Because the Yuuzhan Vong are resistant to the Jedi's powers, the New Republic had decided to fight the battle at the front without them. Luke attempts to convince the Jedi Order not to look at violence and force as the only option (remember Darth Vader?). Leia tries the diplomatic approach by sending an emissary to the Yuuzhan Vong commander, while also visiting the head of the Remnant government personally."

Good news for everyone aching for some action on the Imperial front; It'll be interesting to see who's running things these days. I'm definitely curious about the Vong emissary mission...

UPDATE: NightTraveler chimes in with a report from CA today. He attended a Greg Bear book signing, and got a bunch of interesting stuff in. His report's now up on the Interviews page. Sit Potentia Tecum!

UPDATE: Second part of the TF.N Stackpole interview is up here. Definitely lots of interesting stuff goin' down in the next couple years...

UPDATE: New addition to the Excerpts page today; a couple NJO-related snippets from the Essential Chronology. Nothin' big. Just chillin'. =)

UPDATE: Go here to read the first part of a TF.N interview with Mike Stackpole. The Dark Tide series is heavily discussed, but I haven't seen any real spoiler material yet (only being on the second page or so).

UPDATE: Rogue Planet is released (officially) today! Be sure to run out and get it so you can mill over the mysterious scattered Vong appearances with the rest of us!

UPDATE: I've added both an E-mail link and a link for the forums to the navbar image above, as you can presumably see. GhentZ was pretty busy last night; he's got up some info/spec based on the two new book summaries, plus the meatier half of a summary of Rogue Planet by a lucky Amazon.com customer who got his copy a week early.

From the RP summary:

The Vong are very carefully woven into the plotline. While it's never verified that they are, in fact, the Vong, I can't see any other way around it. They're described as "Far Outworlders," who used "living ships" and "had no knowledge of the Force and the Force had no knowledge of them." They stumble upon the soon-to-vanish (gee, I wonder what happens to him...) Jedi Knight Vergere, and are fascinated. GhentZ also hints of a strong possibility that Vergere will turn up somewhere in James Luceno's duology.

From JE and BP:

The Jedi off on the "bold but reckless undercover mission" is someone we're very much familiar with already (I'm leaning toward Kyp, but who can tell?). There are two planets involved in the Vong's main attack in JE; one, the fake target, is only said to bring "an 'oldster' or two" into the storyline. The identity of this planet is anyone's guess as far as I'm concerned. The other planet, the Vong's true target, is a very old one, in the sense that it has not been seen (or at least was created) ages ago during the original Del Rey era (i.e. the Han Solo/Lando Calrission Adventures, the Marvel comic series, etc.). My slightly educated guess for this one is Tynna, the home planet of the seal/beaver-like species of which HSA character Odumin the skip-tracer is a member. For one thing, it's the only HS/LCA locale I can find on the VP map aside from the Corporate Sector, which is a little out of the Vong's way so far. And I can't think of any other reason it'd be on the map at all, seeing as it's never even visited in the HSAs, only mentioned in passing a couple times...

UPDATE: Well, Random House has done it again. Now up are plot summaries for both Jedi Eclipse and Balance Point. Read below or follow the links to join in on the info-fest...

Jedi Eclipse

A string of smashing victories by the forces of the sinister aliens known as the Yuuzhan Vong has left New Republic resources and morale stretched to the breaking point. Leia Organa Solo, estranged from her husband, Han, oversees the evacuation of planets in the path of the merciless invaders. Luke Skywalker struggles to hold the fractious Jedi Knights together, even while one of them undertakes a bold but reckless undercover mission.

Manipulating their alliance with the amoral Hutts, the Yuuzhan Vong leave a cunning trail of false information where New Republic agents are sure to find it--information the desperate defenders cannot afford to ignore: the location of the aliens' next target.

Then Han Solo stumbles upon the true target, thus beginning a furious race against time that he will need every skill and trick in his arsenal to win. The odds are stacked against him. But Han has never been able to resist a gamble, whether in a game of sabacc or in the void of space . . .

Balance Point

Now veteran Star Wars author Kathy Tyers continues the epic struggle between good and evil as the New Republic, led by the battered but still unbroken Jedi, braces for the next onslaught of its merciless alien foe.

Poisoned by centuries of technological excess, the planet Duro is an unlivable hell, long abandoned by its own inhabitants, who dwell above their polluted world in orbital habitats. But there is no place else to channel the flood of refugees fleeing the murderous Yuuzhan Vong. So a deal is struck: In exchange for a new home, the refugees will work to restore the planet to health, under the watchful eye of Leia Organa Solo.

What can I say, but WOW. =)

UPDATE: TF.N Books is reporting that author Elaine Cunningham's web site says she'll be writing the 12th book in the NJO series. According to GhentZ, Matthew Woodring Stover is signed up to do that one (a standalone right after Hardcover 3), so I stuck her up on the Release Schedule after that one for now. Get this - her novel will focus solely on Jaina. Sounds like the closest we may get to an X-wing series novel...

UPDATE: My scoop on a Rogue Planet excerpt last night definitely boosted hits a bit, but unfortunately someone screwed with the poll (unless 200 people actually came and voted for Gavin Darklighter in the last couple hours). It was about time for a new one anyway, so there it is.

UPDATE: Well, I just passed 20 thousand hits, and I thought something new and spiffy was in order. Head here or go through the Links page to visit the brand-spanking-new UNJOH Discussion Forums. The overall layout it done, but I've never run one of these things before, so there's always a chance I'll be making little changes here and there in the near future. E-mail me if you find anything wrong; or you can just post about it. =)

UPDATE: I didn't get to scan the VP stuff from Chewbacca #4 as I'd hoped, but I did fix all the Gallery stuff. All the full pics and movies are now up.

UPDATE: Lots of li'l tidbits: Firstly, GhentZ received a description (at least) of the cover of Jedi Eclipse. Good news; it'll feature a Vong! Not only that, but Chewbacca #4 came out today, the first half of which was a summary of the Sernpidal incident, a la Luke. Lots of neat little pics there, including (finally) a Vong. Lord knows if it's someone in particular, or just any ol' YV. I hopefully will have some scans from this up in the gallery sometime this weekend. Lastly, Starwars.com updated tonight (although it was taken down shortly thereafter - keep looking for it to pop back up soon) with a feature on Expanded Universe characters. The first three highlighted were Mara Jade Skywalker, Grand Admiral Thrawn (of course), and Baron Soontir Fel. Mike Stackpole mentioned way back that Ruin will introduce us to Fel's son, and thanks to SW.com, we have a name: Jagged Fel, named after Wedge's and Wnyssa's (or Syal's, or whatever) father, Jagged Antilles. Can't wait to see this guy! - 4/19/00

UPDATE: New poll up tonight. Also, go here (or link thru the Commentaries page) for a little Balance Point scenario I've put together.

UPDATE: From the TF.N Lit Forum, from Kathy Tyers' lips to your ears:

"Oh my oh my oh my.

THANK YOU JUNIO.

This is the first I have seen it.

Still vacillating between hysterical laughter and . . . stunned? Is that a good word?

NO I will NOT tell you who it is in the shadow!!!!!!! But putting THAT person in THAT pose is absolutely perfect. Oh my oh my oh my.

And so finally the title has been announced and I don't have to pretend to be cagey about THAT. (small sigh of relief)

<irrelevant text removed>

Oh my. Hm. Oh my. I printed it in black and white. Now I'm going to go stare at in color a while more.

THANK YOU AGAIN, JUNIO --

KT"

I'll have that commentary up by tomorrow. By the way, I think the silhouette's Jacen. At least for now I do. =)

UPDATE: WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! *achem* Starwars.com has put up a news bit about Balance Point, including THE COVER and the following:

"April 9, 2000 -- The Yuuzhan Vong invasion continues in Balance Point, the second hardcover novel in The New Jedi Order series. Balance Point, by Kathy Tyers, follows James Luceno's Agents of Chaos paperback duology. Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo work to help refugees fleeing the dreaded Vong forces, only to find there is no refuge from this terrible alien threat. Long-time Star Wars readers will recognize Kathy Tyers from her first Star Wars novel, The Truce at Bakura. Balance Point, featuring cover art by Cliff Nielsen, is scheduled for release in November 2000 by Del Rey Books."

Rock! Well, GhentZ prolly won't be reporting about this until late tonight, but keep an eye on his site for the next few days; he's bound to be full of the usual long-winded commentary, speculation, etc. I might be back tonight with a bit of that myself; stay tuned. ::passes out::

UPDATE: Whoops! Well, the navbar link works now, so the Gallery page is accessible. However, my uploader thingie's still giving me trouble with some of the bigger files, so the gallery links may not all work for a few days. Sorry!

UPDATE: Well, I'd been meaning to to it for some time now, and I finally have. The Covers page is now the Gallery; a page with not only the covers but any and all other visual media pertaining to the NJO. Take a look!

UPDATE: I think GhentZ must've sprung a leak this week. He're a rundown of all the info he's put up:

  • Most interesting of all; the Essential Chronology has a mention of the prequel-era novel Rogue Planet in it, including the following: "...Obi-Wan Kenobi and his new Padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, explored Zonama Sekot and learned that Vergere might have been captured by an unknown alien species." After more or less knowing about this for two months or so, I'm glad to finally report that the "unknown alien species" IS the Vong. Remember Onslaught? The Vong explorers that had been to the SW galaxy 50 years earlier? Do the math; Rogue Planet is just about 50 years before Onslaught. Also, the Jedi that the EC mentioned, Vergere, is apparently a creation of James Luceno's, so who knows if he or a descendant of his may appear in the Agents of Chaos duology. Cool, huh? Truly a tangled web worthy of Thrawn himself. I just can't wait to find out the connection between Zonoma Sekot and the Vong...
  • Speaking of Agents of Chaos, GhentZ has not only posted the (supposedly) final back cover text, but also a scan of the entire cover, inccluding the aforementioned text. Don't get too excited, though, because there are still some changes to be made to the final front cover.
  • Ruin-wise, a new (and eventually important) Jedi will be introduced, plus some well-known character will be receiving a "Yuuzhan Vong noogie." Now GhentZ, there's cryptic, and then there's downright obscure. I guess he's referring to a death. It would certainly follow the pattern so far; Chewie in Vector Prime, Bolpuhr in Onslaught.

Also, I plan to edit the banner soon; instead of the Covers page it'll be tthe Gallery, so I can include all NJO-related images, like the Vong fan art TF.N posted, the Matt Busch Chewie tribute, etc.

UPDATE: Well, it's a little past the 31st, but here I am. =) But before I get to that Ruin stuff, here's a clip from the epilogue of the Essential Chronology, pretty much the only part pertaining to the NJO:

"Even now, historic events are in motion. Borsk Fey'lya, a member of the Rebellion since its early years, has overcome several dark scandals in his past and finally ascended to the coveted office of chief of state. Master Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Knights have become the galaxy's patrol officers, but Skywalker sees a need to oversee Jedi. Consequently, he is seeking approval to reestablish the Jedi Council, which would unite twelve leading Jedi into a governing body not seen since the days of the Old Republic.

Of course trouble spots remain. A few interspecies rivalries have been simmering ever since the Hand of Thrawn incident, and professional firebrand Nom Anor-the mysterious figure involved with Carnor Jax's Interim Council-has resurfaced to stir up trouble on the planets of Rhommamool and Osarian. But these are localized controversies, representing no imminent danger. With the remnants of the Empire content to rule their pocket of the Outer Rim, there seem to be no corners from which a new threat can arise. Historians can only hope that the galaxy will at last settle into an era of peace and stability."

While I was disappointed to hear that the EC didn't give us any YV pics or anything, it's nice to see a little nod to the future. Thanks to NightTraveler for the clip!

Anyway, here's what I've pieced together with bits from the TF.N forums, also with NightTraveler's help. This is all SPECULATION. It's interesting, though. =) Highlight to read, just in case. The Ruin female Jedi is the pinkish Twi'lek seen very briefly in Union #2 (looking up at the Jedi ceremony). She is also the Jedi Apprentice Kathy Tyers has mentioned as having a grim future in Balance Point. Now, remember Oola's Tale, in the Jabba's Palace set (also conveniently written by Kathy Tyers)? Oola and another young Twi'lek dancer, Sienn, meet up with Luke Skywalker on Tatooine shortly before the events of RotJ. Sienn ends up escaping Jabba's men, and apparently ends up at the Jedi Academy, where we see her in Union 15 years later. I scanned through the story and can't find anything about Sienn being Force-sensitive, but people really seem to be going with this. Only time will tell...

UPDATE: Updated some stuff tonight: book order page links are all current, and I replaced the original Ruin cover with the second, and apparently final, version. Come back tomorrow (the 31st) for some interesting Ruin plot speculation!

UPDATE: Ack! Turns out TF.N forgot to mention the title of Mr. Reaves' SW book. It's called "The Third Neimoidian." This almost definitely rules out the possibility of it being a NJO hardcover. Oh, well; it was a fun hour. =)

UPDATE: Interesting tidbit from TF.N Books this evening. Emmy award-winning author Michael Reaves reported on his site recently that he's signed a contract to do a Star Wars hardcover. This could be a prequel-era book, or maybe not even true; but it's definitely worth mention; there are still 2 NJO HCs without offical authors. I imagine we'll be hearing more about this guy soon, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: The latest question to the Jedi Council at Starwars.com was "Is there a map of the Star Wars galaxy?" Of course, they linked to (as far as I know) the first official scan of the VP map. It's an actual print, of course; so no crease in the middle!

UPDATE: A while back I posted about TF.N putting out a call for Yuuzhan Vong fan art, to satisfy our cravings for YV pics until the Essential Chronology comes out next month. SW fan and amazing artist Jeff Carlisle has sent in a fantastic pic with a close of of a YV face, and a full body shot (w/armor). The only thing that bothered me is the warrior's staff; it's supposed to have a reptile-ish head on one end. It still looks really great; check it out!

Oh yeah; and Chewbacca #3 comes out tomorrow. This ish features Leia's, Lando's, and Wedge's stories.

UPDATE: I've just put up a link to a page called the Yuuzhan Vong Homeworld. It's sort of a database of all info on the YV, with history, a list of all their creatures, etc. I like it a lot, and it looks very promising, just as long as the webmaster keeps up with it...

UPDATE: I participated in a semi-private chat with MAS again last night. Almost nothing of any real substance was discussed, but there was one little part...

..."in the next Onslaught book [Ruins, I believe], are we gonna see the Xuong Voong (wrong name, sorry) go on the offensive, or more scouting incursions like they've been doing?

<Stackpole> The title is RUIN.

<Stackpole> RUIN is bad.

<Stackpole> VERY bad.

<Stackpole> I think you will see the Vong do some serious damage there..."

This goes along with a quote from one of the other chats of the past few weeks; something to the effect of "lots of death in Ruin." Considering how people reacted to certain other character passings as of late, I'd say that we'd all better brace ourselves for Ruin. And according to GhentZ, the YVs' next target is Ithor. Those poor Hammerheads...

UPDATE: The Official Site has put up an enormous preview of the upcoming Essential Chronology. There's a big excerpt and a whole lot of pictures. Here's the part that got me to post this here: "In the last segment - Part X: Generations of Jedi Knights - the Chronology sets up the events of The New Jedi Order series of novels." The art I've seen so far rocks, so I'm looking forward to some sweet Yuuzhan Vong pics.

UPDATE: Oh, man. I'm happy to report (especially because I'm doing so before GhentZ) that the COVER for Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial has been posted at Starwars.com. I dunno, what to tell y'all...this one's a real piece of work. Undoubtedly one of the best cover's I've seen. That's Han on the far left, although you might not recognize him at first. Looks like he finally got a haircut, and is now lookin' very close to the way Harrison Ford does these days. I have no idea who the chick in the middle is, but I'll bet that the alien on the right is the new partner that was mentioned in the old Del Rey plot summary a while back. Thanks to NightTraveler for the alert!

UPDATE: Buttload of stuff from Randomhouse's site yesterday. They're put up a spiffy Novel Timeline, a mailing list for all SW book news, and they've finally put up the R.A. Salvatore Interview on the NJO/Vector Prime page. That can also now be found on the Interviews page here.

UPDATE: Chewbacca #2 is out. I wanted to update yesterday, but i was having WWW trouble.

UPDATE: Transcripts of the MS chat are up at various locations. Go to Outer-Rim.net for text and rebelpilots.com for html. OR also has a summary of all new info revealed at the chat.

UPDATE: Boy, I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks. Well, I still haven't finished Onslaught (but I'm close), but what I've read so far rocks heavy. The chat with Mike Stackpole last night went swimmingly, and he was his usual not-giving-stuff-away self. We did get a couple things squeezed out, though; he says Ruin will give clues about the location of a couple old favorites, including Wedge's sister, Syal Antilles/Wnyssa Starflare. The spoiler highlight of the evening was this, though (and I quote loosely)...

"If you liked Baron Fel, wait till you see his son."

Son??? Even GhentZ did a double take there. Or at least the IRC equivalent. =) He's doing another chat in March; I'll have more details in a couple weeks.

UPDATE: NightTraveler checks in again with a second Onslaught excerpt that was sent out with the last Del Rey Newsletter. Now excuse me while I go sign up. =)

UPDATE: ::takes a deep breath:: Here we go, folks.

1. This is the final reminder; Book 2 of the NJO saga, Dark Tide: Onslaught, by Michael A. Stackpole, is released nationwide (and maybe Canada; I'm not sure) tomorrow (Tuesday). Go get it or I'm comin' after ya.

2. Starwars.com had posted a notice of Onslaught's release, along with the first and (so far) only excerpt to be released. Go here to read Chapter 11 of Dark Tide: Onslaught.

3. The night before Vector Prime came out, I posted the big spoiler. In keeping with this night-before tradition, here's a huge bounty of info I've received from early-copy-recipient NightTraveler, whose home page you can see here.

"Leia presents the info from VP to the senate and they pretty much laugh her out of the building. Elegos A'Kla (the Caamasi who befriends Corran in I, Jedi) sides with Leia and they get "permission" to go on a "fact finding mission" together.

Jedi-wise, Luke sends everyone out on separate, but related missions.

Han's drunk and looking for a cantina in which to release the pain/guilt he's feeling and that's the last you see of him.

Leia, Elegos, Danni, and Jaina go to Adumar and ask them for help.

Mara goes with Anakin to Dantooine to "recover."

Luke and Jacen go to Belkadan to see what they can discover. They discover something very interesting...

Corran and the Union cameo-ed Ganner go to some (cooler than Tatooine) desert planet where some student-researchers were sent but not heard from. They discover Vong stuff, too...

Gavin is in charge of Rogue Squadron and is reluctant to let Jaina join, but she does...

Lando's around because they have to evacuate Dubrillion, but they end up at Dantooine, as does everyone else... even the Vong!

All heck breaks loose at Dantooine. Luke does some very cool Jedi Master thingy, and then they escape to "convince" stupid-head Borsk Fey'lya to "help."

Oh, and some "old guys" show up at the end to lend a hand in this new conflict...

BTW, many come very near to dying, but no major characters do... yet...

Luke gets to kick arse! In this Luke gets to pull off some very cool stuff.

Example: Anyone remember Exar Kun's double lightsabers trick? Recently duplicated by A'Sharad Hett? Guess who gets to do it with 2 lightsabers

Couple of surprises;

One, a noble Bothan, no crap, this guy is dead good.

Two, The NR military are serious about the YV and get real vicious in tactics. Something I was wanting to happen. Let's be honest, war is v. nasty, it is NOT civilized. War is decking the enemy by any means necesssary before they do the same to you.

Big spoiler:

Too late, YV have been to the Republic space 50 years previously!"

He's also told me a couple other things. Wedge is in the book, but only for 2 pages near the end; no clue what he's up to, though (retired, etc.). A character does die, just not a major one. I swear I don't know who it is, though. That noble Bothan he mentioned is most likely Traest Kre'fey; a Bothan Admiral GhentZ posted about a week or so ago. Some of this stuff may be in the SW.com excerpt, though; I haven't read it yet. Oh, and about that 50 years previous thing, I did the math, and that means perfect timing for a possible tie-in in the upcoming prequel-era novel Rogue Planet. I don't have anything confirmed yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if something was there! Rogue Planet, Dark Tide: Ruin, and the Essential Chronology all come out in April; it looks to be one heck of a month!

UPDATE: Just a note; TF.N has been getting reports of people finding copies of Onslaught already for sale. If anyone finds a premature copy, lemme know! The officiaal release date is this Tuesday, Feb. 1.

UPDATE: I fixed both links in the last update; the JediNet link brought up the site in my frame (shudder), and the pic link only loaded part of the painting. It would seem I also touched one of GhentZ's nerves, because he quite rudely (=p) informed me that the information & sketches linked to below are exclusive to JediNet, and not from Insider. In the words of the Church Lady, isn't that special?

UPDATE: It seems like everything's coming up Chewie lately. GhentZ finally got a copy on the new Insider (still no luck on my end; not that I'd be able to afford it right now, anyway), and not only scanned the Matt Busch painting we've all been waiting for, but did up a little thing with the whole article: preliminary sketches, commentary from Busch, etc. I try not to take everything from other sites if I can avoid it, so I'm only swiping the big scan of the final product (be warned, it's pretty large). I like this one, fellas. And speaking of theft, here's Star Wars Insi - *achem* I mean JediNet Literature's special section on the making of this fabulous piece.

Note: I also decided that the blue links could be a bit hard to read, so I'm giving red a try.

UPDATE: Starwars.com has put up a "tribute" to Chewbacca, really just a blurb about the new series (first ish is out today!). It does have a scan of a page from #1 that we have yet to see; part of Mallatobuck's story. Also, TF.N books has a report from a fan who talked to Mike Stackpole recently, and squeezed a bit of Dark Tide info out of him. Here's the part I like the most: "Bob Salvatore's Yuuzhan Vong are like the paramilitary. It's nothing compared to what's coming up. Dark Tide is going to have lots of blood--it'll be fun." Hoo-yeah.

UPDATE: Head to your local comic shop tomorrow, folks, because Chewbacca #1 hits the shelves! This is the only non-novel lit material I'm considering part of the NJO thus far, so watch for updates with info from the issue as soon as I scrape together some cash.

UPDATE: The fourth and final (for sure, this time) part of TF.N's RAS interview is up.

UPDATE: Okay, apparently I misinterpreted previous posts, because now TF.N has put up Part 3 of their interview with R.A. Salvatore. Geez, and I haven't even read Part 2 yet...

Also, GhentZ must've gotten ahold of the new SW Insider, because he put up a rundown of everything that's in the ish, including an interview with Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) concerning the events of Vector Prime. There's also a  highly-anticipated (by me, anyway) piece of Matt Busch art that's called "Vector Trasit" (though I think it's probably Transit and GhentZ typoed). The pic has something to do with Vector Prime, and I'll try to get a scan ASAP, either from GhentZ or from a copy of my own.

UPDATE: TF.N has put up the second half of its interview with R.A. Salvatore, which I have yet to read, so I don't know if it talks about anything new.

UPDATE: The stand-alone novel after Troy Denning's HC will be written by Matthew Woodring Stover. It maay or may not have some connection to Union. I'm in a hurry. Go to GhentZ for more stuff. Goodbye. Thank you, come again.

UPDATE: GhentZ proves today that B&N is not without a sense of humor; whether they realize it or not. Go here to see their entry for Dark Tide: Siege by Mike Stackpole. Yep, the one that got cancelled. And for a measly $125.82! Where do I sign up?? This probably won't be up for long, but it's too great to forget about, so I put up a screenshot on the covers page as well.

UPDATE: Dark Horse has posted the cover for Chewbacca #4. It's pretty cool.

UPDATE: Ten thousand hits! Woohoo! *achem* TheForce.net has put up the transcript of a phone interview with R.A. Salvatore. It's pretty long, and is only Part 1; 2 will be up shortly. While checking this out, I noticed that they also have an interview with Mike Stackpole from last November. Nothing really new in either, especially if you've ever been to a chat with these fellows, but interesting reads nevertheless.

UPDATE: I'm back! Please, please; stop cheering. Well, looks like the Yuuzhan Vong are gonna be busy during the new year. Happy Y2K everyone, BTW. According to GhentZ, (S,HTR) the YVs' next two stops on the yellow-brick road to galactic dominaton are Ithor and Dantooine. "Dantooine! They're on Dantooine!" The operation on Ithor is a piece of cake, not surprisingly (it'll be cool to see Momaw Nadon's twin clones all grown up), and I can't imagine the locals on Dantooine putting up much trouble, either. This is looking pretty cool so far, folks; the closest we've ever seen to an actual SW war of conquest, IMHO, since the Rebellion was more of an insurrection.

Randomhouse's Hero's Trial audio cassette page also put up a plot summary, which I suppose should be blacked out, too:

After Chewbacca's death at the hand of the alien Yuuzhan Vong, Han Solo is full of grief and despair--and out for revenge. Turning his back on his family, he heads out in search of an old crony who may be working as a traitor, and finds more adventure than he bargained for. Along the way, he foils a Yuuzhan Vong plot aimed at the Jedi, gets ahead of something that may just be a cure for Mara Skywalker's terrible illness, and acquires a new sidekick whom he just can't seem to get rid of.

I can't wait to see more post-Sernpidal Han! The way he freaked on Jacen in VP was gold. The only iffy thing was the mention of him getting a new sidekick. Sounds a bit too Jar Jar-ish for my taste, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

UPDATE: GhentZ unloaded a YT-1300-full of Onslaught info today; mostly concerning the YV and their continuing invasion of the galaxy ("Onslaught"; what'd you expect?). I'm in a hurry, so go here to read for yourself. I'll break it down more tomorrow.

UPDATE: I've updated the excerpts and links pages with Dark Tide and Agents of Chaos stuff.

UNJOH: Like the new navigation image? Think of it as an early celebration for my ten-thousandth hit. The UNJOH's "Golden" era, so to speak. =) This was done by Chris Barnaby, who'll probably be doing imagery for the site again sometime.

One side note: I'm looking for Rob, the B&N employee who mailed me a while back about Vector Prime. I lost your address; please mail me if/when you read this.

UPDATE: Strap in, folks, we're going into overdrive. Starwars.com, determined to make a name for itself among the SW news sites, has (already!) put up the Dark Tide: Ruin cover. You read right, Ruin. There's also a little news bit, including the plot summary below.

The alien Yuuzhan Vong have launched an attack on the worlds of the Outer Rim. They are merciless, without regard for life - and they stand utterly outside the Force. In the face of this impervious foe, the Jedi - once the greatest guardians of peace in the galaxy - have been rendered helpless... and their solidarity has begun to unravel. Now a rogue group of Knights have split off to deal with the Yuuzhan Vong on their own. And Luke Skywalker must stop them - any way he can - before they fall to the dark side.

The cover depicts 3 XJs racng away from a ship of some sort, presumably a YV Worldship, except that some of it looks a little non-organic. The mystery ship looks suspiciously similar to the Trade Federation's droid control ships in TPM.

UPDATE: Finally, something to update about! Go here to see the Dark Horse Chewbacca preview, now with word balloons. This is some powerful stuff, folks. =)

UPDATE: Well GhentZ did it, so I guess I can finally tell y'all the title of hardcover #2. I can, but I won't.

Gotcha! It's Balance Point. GZ didn't like it, but I think it's cool. He also put up a lot of updated release info, which I'm adding to my schedule. Another BP (get used to that, folks) related note: Kathy Tyers, author of HC2, has started up a thread at the TF.N literature forum (she's Shmi52). She's been very friendly and quick to reply to any questions and comments people have had, but wouldn't tell me anything about BP. It was worth a shot. =) Here's a bit from her about the MS and JL paperbacks:

"Re outlines for the books between Bob's and mine, -- yes, of course. I've read them for continuity's sake. Mike and Jim are writing very different duologies, each one beautifully addressing a whole set of concerns in the NJO story arc (and coincidentally [?] addressing many of the concerns posted on this thread). You are all in for a treat."

UPDATE: The Onslaught cover is up in mini-format on the book's profile page at BN.com.

UPDATE: A little bit of Onslaught trivia: here's the release info, etc., straight from the newest Del Rey NL:

STAR WARS: THE NEW JEDI ORDER: DARK TIDE: ONSLAUGHT by Michael A. Stackpole (SF) 345-42854-4 Paperback, 304 pp; cover art courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.; SS, editor

Only 304 pages? Interesting.

UPDATE: Dark Horse's web site has put up the cover for Chewbacca #3, and has added color to their 4-page preview of #1. I must say, it's looking beautiful! Itchy sure is pale, though, I wonder is he's eating right...

UPDATE: The SW Homepage has updated with a news bit about The NJO, mostly just old information, but it includes a scan of the cover of Onslaught. It's the same one GhentZ had a while back, but it's nice to see it up officially. The other interesting thing is that the site mentions 22 planned NJO books instead of the 21 reported earlier (5 hardcovers, with 4 paperbacks in between each). I guess we'll have to see what develops. Here's what the news bit says about the plot of Onslaught: "In Onslaught, while the galaxy believes that the Yuuzhan Vong threat has been defeated, Luke, his friends and the Jedi Knights search for the unpleasant secrets behind the attack." Pretty generalized, but it's something.

UPDATE: Go here for a nifty cartoon honoring Chewie's passing, courtesy of TFN Books.

UPDATE: Whoo, it's been a while. GhentZ says that the final paperback between Hardcovers 2 and 3 (Michael Jan Friedman is doing a trilogy right after Kathy Tyers' HC) will be written by J. Gregory Keyes, who has done some Babylon 5 books, among other things. Go to Jedinet Lit for (a lot) more info.

UPDATE: Outer Rim has the latest chat up in the usual assortment of formats. Go here.

UPDATE: The second RAS chat is tonight! Be there or be square: irc.holonet.org, #moseisley.

UPDATE: Union #1 is in stores today! Not exactly NJO, but close enough. Also, Chrono has the RAS chat up in a couple different formats, available here. Happy Vet's Day!

UPDATE: I shoulda figured...GhentZ has put up a transcript here.

UPDATE: Well, the first RAS chat just got out. Normally, in situations like this, I would post NJO-related clips from the chat; but pretty much the whole thing was NJO-related, so I'm just gonna hold off until Outer Rim puts a log up.

UPDATE: Another chat has been arranged with R.A. Salvatore, this one with JediNet and Starwarz.com. This Friday, November 5th at 7 pm EST, set IRC to irc.jedinetwork.com and go to #literature, or go to the JediNetwork homepage.

UPDATE: Happy Halloween! Go here to get your All Hallow's Eve treat: a feature at the Dark Horse web site with loads of stuff about the upcoming Chewbacca tribute series. I'm generally considering the series an honorary NJO book, since it's all about that climactic event in Vector Prime.

UPDATE: I didn't think it'd be happening so soon after the tragedy in his family, but R.A. Salvatore is doing a chat with moseisley.com on Monday, November 15th at 9 pm EST. The chat will be on IRC; log on to irc.holonet.org and go to #MOSEISLEY. You can also mail questions ahead of time to MosQuestions@moseisley.com.

UPDATE: This isn't really NJO-related, but close enough. The official SW website has a scan of the cover of Insider #47, which features the first flesh & blood photo of Mara Jade (well, of the actress that's been designated to portray her on an upcoming Decipher card). Go here for an article about the issue and a cover scan.

As a side note, I'm no longer treating a certain character's demise as a spoiler, *coughchewiecough* since the book has been out for a couple weeks, and there have been many articles in various mainstream newspapers, etc. about said demise. We'll all miss the great walking carpet. Go here for some info on the upcoming Chewbacca tribute mini-series. And please refrain from sending R.A. Salvatore death threats (it's been happening, honest); that's the last thing he needs right now.

UPDATE: Head here if you want a smaller (1 MB) copy of the commercial.

UPDATE: So soon after the Onslaught cover scan, the net proves itself yet again. It's my happy duty to report that TF.N Books has put up the VP commercial in MPEG format. It's about 6.2 megs, and is great quality; definitely worth it!

UPDATE: Isn't the internet wonderful? Onslaught doesn't come out for 3 months, and we already have a scan of the entire (front, back, binding) cover, a la GhentZ. Go here for an insanely large (2.4 megs) copy, here for a large (660 kb), here for a medium, and here for a small.

UPDATE: TF.N (someday I'll have a post that doesn't begin with a reference to another site...) has a blurb on their books page about George Lucas' involvement in the NJO. He definitely had a hand in the overall plot, and made many changes himself. We also know that he approved the demise of SPOILER: Chewbacca, though it's anyone's guess whether or not it was actually his idea.

I've been pretty sure for a while that he was involved in this; looks like now it's definite. I'm counting the days until a RAS chat is set up so I can find out exactly how much the great flanneled one had to do with it. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Once again, head to the interview page to read a USA Today article about Vector Prime. Beware, it gives away the death. I also updated some release dates.

UPDATE: The JediNet Lit Forum has its own spoiler thread going, with not only lots of well thought-out opinions about various...aspects...of Vector Prime, but some commentary straight from RAS on the death of you-know-who and why it was necessary. Go to my interview page to read his thoughts. And speaking of RAS, stay tuned to JediNet Literature for news of a chat in the near future!

UPDATE: Random House's site has just stuck up a REALLY nice page dedicated to the NJO. It has the Chapter 1 excerpt, a RAS bio, and should soon have an interview! Check it out now, this looks like it's gonna be the closest we get to an official NJO homepage.

UPDATE: It's a Vector Prime Bonanza! We've got big scans, little scans, fat scans, skinny sca - well, you get the idea. The following are links to scans from my copy of VP.

Full cover (back & front)

Galactic Map

An example of the cover art cutout things at the beginning of each chapter

Now, back to the book. Only 68 pages to go! =)

UPDATE: It's mine, all mine! Muahahaha! Achem. I got my copy, a little while ago, and I've just started it. As many times as I've seen that cover, it's incredibly beautiful in person. I hope to have some scans up this Thursday, but other than that, I probably won't be posting a whole lot this week. Oh yeah, now that it's out, I'm gonna link to a little tribute I made in honor of the recently deceased. Go here to see it, but if you don't wanna know, be careful not to see the address it's linked to; the page name will give it away.

UPDATE: Well, we've moved here permanently, and now, on the eve of the New Jedi Order, I will be the first (non-forum) site to say who dies. I'll keep it as a spoiler for a month or so, just so no one sees it too early.

SPOILER: Chewbacca. He is trapped on a planet that is about to be destroyed by its own moon (courtesy of the Yuuzhan Vong), and is last seen shaking his fists furiously at the "great, unbeatable enemy." I have scans of the two pages depicting his noble end, but I'm at least gonna hold off on that until tomorrow. To the beginning of the end!

UPDATE: It just keeps coming. I should have known this wouldn't stay bottled up, what with copies already out, but anyway, a thread of the TF.N Literature Forum has popped up and is filled with info. I warn you now, this spoils pretty much EVERYTHING. Well, here it is.

UPDATE: Well, here it is! My source, Rob, got back to me about the title, and here's what he told me. S,HTR: The New Republic has a listening post in the Outer Rim, and one of the scientists there is a spy for the Yuuzhan Vong, wearing a masquer like the one Nom Anor uses to hide his species. He is apparently monitoring the sector that will be the entry point for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion force, and he gets a signal; I assume indicating the fleet's arrival on their, you guessed it, primary vector. =) You heard it here first!

UPDATE: GhentZ ain't the only one with an informant! A reader who for now I'm not gonna name told me he works at a Barnes & Noble and has been reading a stock copy of VP during his breaks, and has been sharing some tidbits with me lately. One thing you will only see here, cuz GhentZ feels it's too much of a spoiler to let out yet. Oh, well. HIGHLIGHT: Borsk Fey'lya is the Chief of State of the New Republic. This is a very strange bit of news, considering his past actions. It provides an easy way to free Leia up, though. =) I also found out who dies (not from the B&N person, though), but I feel it's not a good idea to stick this one up just yet, so come back around 11 EST the night before it comes out. Aside from what I mentioned above, I also got some stuff that, while not really new, fleshes out the Yuuzhan Vong a bit more. They regard tatooes and intentional body disfiguration as very important things, and they use them to show their loyalty to their race, plus to show rank, status, things like that. While not too shocking in itself, it almost definitely confirms that Nom Anor is a Yuuzhan Vong himself. I also hope to get an explanation of the title soon.

UPDATE: We've got map, folks! GhentZ got himself an informant, and, not surprisingly, a galactic map scan. Say it! Say it! SHOW ME THE MAP!

UPDATE: Just catching up on some old news: some changes in the overall structure of the NJO series have been reported, presumably by the lucky few with copies of Vector Prime. Nothing big, just that the number of NJO books has been cut down to 21, meaning 4 paperbacks between each hardcover. These 4 books could be arranged in many different ways, but for organization's sake, I'm gonna fix the release schedule so that each set of 4 books is composed of 2 duologies, the way the books are arranged after VP (Dark Tide Duology, Agents of Chaos Duology).

Also, I am officially moving the site to Xoom.com, for two reasons: one, the ad on top of the page is much less obtrusive and tacky-looking, and two, I get unlimited space. Not too shabby. The page is up at both locations already, and I will take this one down for good in a week or so. The new URL is http://members.xoom.com/unjoh. Check it out, it looks much nicer!

UPDATE: It's finally happening, folks! Ghentz says that this whole early book delivery thing has happened before, which means it's definitely the real thing. He also stuck up a whole barrelful of info that's apparently been confirmed by actual copies of Vector Prime. Posting all the stuff here directly is just a little closer to stealing thaan I'd like to get, so go to JediNet to see what has been revealed. And get to Barnes & Noble!

UPDATE: Hooyeah. TF.N Books says that Vector Prime is shipping. Reader Geri wrote in to tell them that she ordered it from Barnes & Noble a week ago, and it appeared at her door today, almost two weeks early. It's just one report, and it does seem a bit unlikely, but just in case, if anyone hasn't ordered it yet (god, this is a long sentence), I recommend they hop on over to bn.com and do it now. I know I am.

UPDATE: Well, well, well. GhentZ, or couse, had an interesting little tidbit to share with us today. The newsgroup alt.fan.starwars had a post regarding the Chapter 4 excerpt in SW Insider. One thing the person mentions is that POSSIBLE SPOILERS, you know the drill: Jaina is "to be infected" with the same disease that Mara has. Incidentally, Jaina is not mentioned in the Random House summary of Onslaught. This, obviously, could mean that she's the one who bites the dust, but I doubt it. After reading the whole post, it seems to have been made by someone who read the same stuff everyone else did and just jumped to some conclusions. They also mention that Han and Lando have a falling out, which doesn't happen, but Luke does reflect that they tend to act like they can't stand each other, just as Nom Anor thinks about infecting Jaina, but decides against it. My opinion: Jaina's death is a possibility, of course, but I wouldn't go trusting these things just yet.

UPDATE: Remember these?? Well anyway, Taseldor, a pal who had a NJO page up a while back, is at it again. Go here to see his Nom Anor page. It's a nice bio-type thing with Nom's history, including all the stuff in Crimson Empire. It's also got a couple pics from CE and the VP cover.

UPDATE: Having pretty much memorized the new excerpt by this point, I put up my commentary.

UPDATE: I did it. It's 3:33 in the morning, I'm about to keel over and die, but I did it. Go to the excerpts page to see the the newly typed out Excerpt D (Chapter 4). Do it quickly, before LEC opens up a can of whupass on my...ass...

UPDATE: GhentZ decided to jump the gun and put up scans (about 300k each) of the 6-page Chapter 4 excerpt from the latest Star Wars Insider on his page. I wouldn't be surprised if he got a Cease & Desist sometime soon, so go here to see them while you still can. One of us will have it typed up soon, also, so check back here soon for a written version.

UPDATE: JediNet's back up. I had a lengthy discussion with GhentZ  (that's capital Z, folks) after a chat with Aaron Allston yesterday (8/29), and he plans on putting up a link to this site! I'm honored. Oh yeah, and I made a couple little changes to the site, perhaps you've noticed them. =) If anyone notices anything that was available on the site before that they can't find now, please tell me so I can fix the problem.

UPDATE: Barnes and Noble put up a nice summary of Vector Prime (supposedly the flap text of the book), which I'm putting up here. It's mostly the same old stuff, but it goes into detail a bit more, naming one new bad guy, Nom Anor. You can see a pic of him from his debut in Crimson Empire here. Also, JediNet had big news on the picture on VP's cover. I don't really want to make a whole new html file for it, but since it's a spoiler, highlight to read: It's been confirmed that the face on the cover is in fact a decaying skull (gross), just not Chewie's. Apparently he's on the back cover somewhere. Ghentz says he knows who it is, and thus, who Han is thinking of in Excerpt A, but he ain't telling. All he said is that his guess (Chewie) couldn't have been further from the truth. I admit that the skull doesn't really look human, but until more info is released, I still think Lando dies. Fascinating stuff. Thanks to Valeek for sending me that summary, by the way.

UPDATE: Michael A. Stackpole participated in a chat hosted by moseisley.com on Saturday evening. I was present for the entire thing, and the NJO was mentioned several times, mainly by me. =) Here are a few NJO-related tidbits I saved:

<Stackpole> The first is a Star Wars book, the second in the New Jedi Order series. Its title is ONSLAUGHT. It will be out in January from Del Rey.

<Stackpole> I'm also writing my second Del Rey Sw novel: RUIN. Because of some changes in the story arc, this will be my final book right now.

<ravskel> he asked " I hear you're doing a trilogy for the upcoming New Jedi Order series. What can you tell us about it, and about the NJO in general (that we haven't already heard, that is)?

<Stackpole> Actually, Lucasfilm prohibits me from commenting about ongoing work in any specifics.

<Stackpole> As I noted above, my trilogy has become a duology (with a draft choice to be named later...) because of changes we're making in the storyline, fine tuning it, etc.

<Stackpole> But, it's a big epic and, given what I know about the writers involved and the plots unfolding, I think you'll find it it very exciting and fun.

<Stackpole> But there is something very cool about lightsabers and TPM's fight was very inspiring for scenes in Onslaught.

<ravskel> TheRiddler asks: Are you being considered for any more NJO novels (did we answer this already?)

<Stackpole> Riddler: I'm doing two NJO books now and I've talked with Del Rey editors about others in the future of the line, but nothing is solid at this point.

<ravskel> Mik wants to know: will your NJO books be "mainstream" novels or similar to the X-wing Series

<ravskel> no clue what he means by mainstream....

<Stackpole> The NJO order books will be mainstream, since we have no sidelines going on with Del Rey. That being said, though, you'll see plenty of the characters that I've used from the past showing up.

<ravskel> TheRiddler asks: Will NJO Duology still keep the dark tide series title?

<Stackpole> according to the cover sample I have, yes, but that's mutable right up to the last moment.

<Urza> <Slayer> corran wants to know : is there going to be more of corran horn!?

<Stackpole> From the back cover copy of Onslaught I quote, "...and Jedi Knight Corran Horn...". I'd say that's a yes.

<Urza> <Slayer> ask him is he going to proceed on with more books like I,jedi where they feature a jedi in training and development

<Stackpole> There are no plans, to my knowledge, for that sort of book per se in the NJO line. That said, though, lots of Jedi get training and insidght in the course ofthe saga.

A summary of what we've learned from all this can be found here. I'll also put up a link to the entire transcript when and if one becomes available.

In other news (I've always wanted to say that), I've added a couple things to the links  page, plus eliminated Siege from the NJO release schedule.

UPDATE: Well, I've been away for a while, and I have a lot to catch up on. First of all, a large scan of the VP cover was finally put up on Amazon.com. You can see it here, plus i've linked the small scans on the cover pages to it. Second, GhentZ, in an unforseen revelation, told us all that the skull is none other than SPOILER, highlight to read: Nom Anor. This provides a very interesting twist to the story behind the skull as we know it. Nomie is definitely a main character in Vector Prime, so I doubt he dies. Even if he does, there's no way he's the one Han is thinking of. Most likely, this is Nom's actual face, which has thus far remained unseen. There is also a possibility that it is just a mask, similar to what Kueller wore in The New Rebellion. Ultimately, though, we're now thrust completely back into the dark as far as who Han is thinking of. I still stand by my belief that it's Lando.

GhentZ also posted enormous scans of the entire VP dust jacket, which he obtained at the San Diego Comic Con. Just for once, ya think they'd have one of those on the east coast so the rest of us can participate. Anyway, you can see them here (front) and here (back). Be warned, they're pretty big. On the back cover scan, we can easily see SEMI-SPOILERS: a large rendition of Chewbacca to the left of the Falcon. As I said before, I still think Lando dies, but Chewbacca is definitely a high possiblility, given such a large, almost ghostly-looking, rendition..

Ghentz also noted that author Troy Denning, of Dungeons and Dragons & SW RPG fame, has been officially signed on to do the third NJO hardcover.

UPDATE: Just a quick site-related note. I was notified of some trouble with the navbar links. It should be all set now. My apologies to anyone whose delightful UNJOH experience was otherwise marred by the problem. I'm also in the process of making a new navbar thing now that I have the official NJO logo to work with. Oh, and by the way, as of today (8/21), JediNet appears to be down. If it's just my computer, or if anyone knows what's going on, please let me know.