Amid a galactic amount of exciting Star Wars news at San Diego Comic Con this year, Del Rey Books announced an exciting new project slated for 2015. During their various panels and events held at Comic Con, the Star Wars website provided fans with a live blog feed that covered the exciting content. One such feed covered the Star Wars: A New Dawn panel held on July 25th, 2014. A New Dawn is an upcoming Star Wars novel, penned by author John Jackson Miller, that will tie-in to the upcoming Star Wars Rebels television show.

The following post was added to the official Star Wars website at 2:33 PM PT, “New reveal! An Asajj Ventress novel (featuring Quinlan Vos) by Christie Golden!” Dave Filoni, Executive Producer of Star Wars Rebels commented on the project, “Ventress had become one of the most interesting characters…we had all this material, we had all these designs…This is based on scripts we had written with George Lucas…I’m super excited about this book.” Jennifer Heddle, Senior Editor of LucasBooks, also commented that the book will be targeted towards an adult audience. Pablo Hidalgo, a member of the famed “Story Group,” notes that this novel will be able to surpass some of the limitations presented by The Clone Wars (TCW) television show, effectively going “deeper” into the narrative. A beautifully crafted cover art was revealed as well that shows an enraged Ventress lunging at the silhouette of, presumably, Quinlan Vos.

Image via StarWars.com

There is actually a lot that we can pull from this cover image in regards to what we might see in the novel. The first noticeable changes lay in Ventress’ appearance. She is now sporting what appears to be a yellow lightsaber, differing from the her customary red lightsabers that featured a curved hilt. We also see a startling difference in her physical appearance. For five years on The Clone Wars, Ventress was portrayed with a somewhat sinister bald head. Now, for the first time, she is sporting hair!

Ventress during TCW and Ventress cover art for upcoming novel, via StarWars.com

Its an interesting change and one that might give some insight as to what Ventress has been through in the gap between TCW and this upcoming book. Lets take a quick refresher on where we saw Ventress last. Ventress was once a padawan to Count Dooku and frequently tangled with our Jedi heroes. When he betrayed and tried to killer her, she would go on to escape and become an outcast of the Sith. She then become a somewhat “grey” character, not aligned with either side during the Clone Wars, but simply trying to survive. Ventress is an exemplary female character, who is both strong and driven. As The Clone Wars started to come to a close, we saw the return of Darth Maul. Ventress actually aided Obi-Wan Kenobi in a dual against Maul and his brother, Opress. It was a move that showed the true complexity to her character and really made fans rethink her motives.

After aiding Kenobi, she dissapeared again, until she resurfaced in the Coruscant underworld during the last arc of Season 5. When Ahsoka was accused of blowing up the Jedi Temple, she fled to the underworld and ran into Ventress. The two realized that had a lot in common and worked together to clear Ahsoka of her alleged crimes. While Ventress claimed she was only helping Ahsoka so she could get a pardon from her past crimes, it was obvious that she did care (albeit, on a small level) for Ahsoka. This was an important sequence for Ventress because she ended up getting attacked by Barriss Offee and losing her signature red lightsabers. This might shed some light on why she is now sporting a yellow blade in the upcoming novel. It also marks a change in Ventress internally. Obviously after losing her twin blades she had to construct a new lightsaber, but she chose not create another Sith weapon. The yellow-colored lightsaber is actually a color typically used by Jedi Sentinels. While she most likely isn’t aligned with the Jedi, its obvious she is putting her Sith Apprenticeship behind her.

Temple Guards sporting yellow lightsabers, via The Clone Wars

While nothing is known about Ventress’ fate after helping to clear Ahsoka’s name, we do have some interesting concept art we can turn to. When Season 6 of TCW aired on Netflix earlier this year, Dave Filoni took to the Star Wars blog with some unused concept art. One piece in particular actually depicted Quinlan Vos and Ventress (you can see the rest, here).

Concept art by Dave Filoni from TCW via StarWars.com

The sketch above shows two panels. In the first panel, according to Filoni himself, we see Dooku recovering from a lightning blast from Quinlan Vos. The next panel depicts Quinlas carrying the limp form of Ventress. Since this novel will be a direct adaptation from what we would have seen in TCW, we can assume this concept will come into play. This will most likely be the last time we see both Ventress and Vos, and if the above concept art is any indication, not everyone might survive. The giant, red heavenly body behind Quinlan in this concept art is also depicted in the new cover art we looked at above. Thats about all we can infer about Ventress in the upcoming novel, but we can talk about another featured character, Quinlan Vos.

Jedi Quinlan Vos, via StarWars.com

Quinlan Vos first appeared in the Star Wars comics by Dark Horse, and would eventually become canon with his cameo in The Phantom Menace. He also would go on to star in an arc of The Clone Wars, when he partnered with Kenobi to hunt down Ziro the Hutt. A lot of what we know about Quinlan is not considered “Legends” so we really only have his appearance in The Clone Wars to go off of. Vos was a sarcastic Jedi that often bent the rules of the Jedi Order to get the job done. He was a bit eccentric, to the point that Kenobi referred to him as “crazy.” A good number of fans enjoyed how Vos was portrayed in the Dark Horse comics and this upcoming novel is an exciting way to explore his character further. Whether he is sent out to hunt down Ventress on behalf of the Jedi, or perhaps save her from Dooku’s clutches, its bound to be an exciting adventure. Which brings us to the talented people behind the project.

Christie Golden has been a part of the Star Wars community since she wrote the Fate of the Jedi series, alongside Troy Denning and Aaron Allston, back in 2009. Golden was set to author the now-cancelled Sword of the Jedi series, which was set to explore Jaina Solo. Golden is an extremely talented author who has shown a deep understanding of the Star Wars universe. In Fate of the Jedi, she portrayed a character similar to Ventress, Vestara Khai. Its obvious she has both the skill and dedication to portray a strong, female character. Fans on Twitter shared their excitement and Golden expressed that she had a hard time keeping this project secret.

via Twitter

With Golden at the helm, and Ventress and Vos to star, this is bound to be an exciting installment in the new line of adult fiction Star Wars stories. Fans can expect a release date of Summer 2015. As of right now, all we have is the working title, “Star Wars: The New Novel Starring Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos.” This Yoda’s News reporter reached out to Jennifer Heddle, Senior Editor of LucasBooks, for some clarification on the title. She responded that there isn’t currently a title at this time.

There is a long way to go between now and this book’s release, but luckily Star Wars fans have four other upcoming novels to quell their anticipation for this books. For the latest updates about this and other Star Wars books, you can follow Del Rey Books at @DelReyStarWars and Christie Golden at @ChristieGolden. You can also follow Alex Rybak at @arybak89 and Yoda’s News at @YodasNews.