Lit Books Revenge of the Sith - Deluxe, annotated edition October 2025

Yes. It is actual concept art from ROTS which we decided to use for a lot of the packaging and details (all of which you can see in that book)

Using concept art let us convey the mythic / quality of the prose in the packaging. The way it's a retelling but not quite a direct one. Concept art emphasizes that in a way that movie stills or actor likenesses on the cover would not

 

I’m so excited for this. I still have my original copy back in my hometown but had been wanting to have one where I live now for a while, so this the perfect excuse to buy it. Plus I’m dying to read those annotations. Stover got to talk to Lucas while writing this, so I’m hoping we a glimpse into that collaboration in some of these annotations.

 

Perfect! It'll fit in with the other reference-type material (Timeline, Rise and Fall...) on my shelf.

Not for nothing, but The Unifying Force would be an absolute baller of a next deluxe annotated edition (really, all 5 NJO hardcovers would be insanely interesting). And in a few years, Soule's High Republic novels that bookend that era. And . . . (I know I'm not your supervisor, I swear)

 

Oh wow, I'm very familiar with the Episode III concept art and still didn't remember ever seeing this one.

Love the choices for the endpapers, especially the Anakin/Padme one.

 

Mr. Stover's interactions with and work with Mr. Lucas are absolutely a part of some of the material in this book.

 

Love the Anakin/Padme one. And having it frame the opening endpaper and putting Vader at the end was just the perfect symmetry. Gorgeous piece of art. Captures their relationship, and the ideal dream of a happily ever after just brilliantly.

All of them come from that "Art of ROTS" book. Some of them only appear in there as VERY tiny little call out pieces of art.

The cover itself is an alt version of the more notable image that IS the cover of Art of ROTS. We briefly discussed using that one, which actually worked really cool in that the duel ended up being framed in Vader's helmet, directly on his head. But, if you look at the wide shot of that image, its less visually interesting. Mostly just a big cliff and a bit of lava. Since we knew this art would be pulling the trick of covering the entire case, we opted for the other image, which though it moved the duel down out of the head, was just more visually striking for this purpose. Add to that, its the lesser viewed piece, and isn't already the cover of another book and it made sense to capitalize on here.

 

high republic is essentially NJO but with the Vong mystified and more fantastical

 

If only they had done annotated versions of Dark Force Rising and The Last Command to go with the annotated Heir to the Empire. I enjoy annotated books in general, I've got The Annotated Hobbit and The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, and I'd like to get The Annotated Dracula at some point.

 

Darth Internous posted a couple sample annotationshttps://bsky.app/profile/darthinternous.bsky.social/post/3lmkmoagzjc24

 

This is going to be worth it.

 

Yeah, those pages really sell it.

Now, where's the damn UK listing? They've hsd days to update it! Days, I tell you.

 

Nice to see how well Mr Stover's voice carries through in those.

 

We achieved that through a neat little set up. I annotated the book first. Because Matt asked me to. (an honor words cannot possibly describe)

I went through every single word and page and scene and annotated the book with questions. Questions about scenes, dialogue choices, places where he stuck faithfully to the script, places where he skipped the script. Places that line up with the final movie. Stuff that's missing "why isn't x famous line of dialogue in here?", Word choice, tone, writing style shifts, POV shifts. Easter Eggs. "Why x and not y?". "What inspired this?" "for non-writers, explain what this tool or trick is and why it matters" Big questions, small questions, simple prompts "tell me about this..." "how the hell did you come up with this?", "what do you remember..." "how did writing this feel then? How does it feel now". Basically I poured two decades of reader questions into a full on annotated "interview" version of the book. About everything.

Sourced from EVERYWHERE. My own questions I've always had a reader; questions Stover answered 20 years ago in interviews in print or radio that I found but haven't really been repeated elsewhere, or never much recorded for easy posterity; Old con appearances; Even ridiculous places...like an AOL.com "online author journal" that Stover kept from late April/May 2005 while he was on the initial book tour (I swear, I tracked this thing down).

Then I went back through the editorial archive/record. I found editorial notes and email correspondence about the drafts from Matt, from the various editorial teams at Del Rey and Lucasfilm. I found the original correspondence from when he was hired, and drafts came in and feedback over big and small items. I went and asked folks who worked there then (and some founds still around) to contextualize things for me so I could ask more informed questions. I even compared drafts and changes to jog Matts memory about editorial direction / feedback / and more. And I got my hands on stuff I don't think anyone outside of Matt and Sue and Shelly have probably ever seen. And used that to help inform certain lines of questions or prompts for Matt.

But that wasn't good enough.

Lastly, I used the dear readership itself. Questions I learned from folks I've talked to over the years. Little reader tidbits I collected from fans at cons, online, in discords, this board, everywhere, who thought we were just having a fun reminiscing chat about this book (we were!) Secretly I "crowdsourced" the collected queries and wants of as much of the ROTS readership as possible over a scant few months.

And then turned all those wonders / questions / theories / etc. into the framework of the stuff to ask Matt.

And then Matt came right behind me and answered every single one. And did so, as if he and I were sitting in a room together, just talking. As if he were watching me read this book and I was asking the questions in real time. And from there we worked on honing / combining / editing / adjusting and tweaking to dial it all in.

The result - footnotes as conversation. Your own private hangout session with Mr. Stover for 400+ pages. So hopefully his voice comes through.

 

Holy moly. Is it October yet?

 

Wow, this is going to be a feast for the geek historian in me.

 

Oh yeah, this is gonna sell.

 

Yep. I will be buying it (will we get an audio book too haha)

 

No audiobook planned at this time. There is an audiobook already but it doesn't and won't have the annotation and special material.

 

@DarthInternous will there be a note to explain the Tellanroaeog mention in the Order 66 scene and where it originated? I've been wondering about who was the Jedi on the planet for almost twenty years since I first saw the name of the world.

 

Fair enough. Guess I will only be buying the new book once then haha

 

I just bought a Hardcover copy of Revenge of the Sith and I will definitely be buying this too!

 

Amazon UK has it up for pre-order for £45.35.

 

Thanks, but that'll be the last resort for me.