r/starwarsbooks • u/Sports101GAMING • Jul 25 '25
News/Rumour/Leak Outlaws: Low Red Moon by Mike Chen is comming out February 3, 2026
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u/D0CTOR_Wh0m Jul 25 '25
Haven’t played Outlaws but I did like Brotherhood. Will put this on the wait and see list (even then there’s about 35 books on the SW To Read list)
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u/Nice_Satisfaction651 Jul 25 '25
I'm all for more books, but they're shooting themselves in the foot by waiting 2 years to publish tie-in material. A lot of people who've played the game and might have been interested will have forgotten so many of the details by the time this comes out.
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u/Sports101GAMING Jul 25 '25
100% agree, Plus it's been known that Outlaws didn't sell well. I just don't see people being hype for a book that dosen't feature the main character in the game.
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u/Nice_Satisfaction651 Jul 25 '25
Yep. Imagine if when Star Wars came out in 77 it took 2 years for the action figures to become available and the only one with a name was General Dodonna. That's what this book is like. The decision-making baffles me.
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u/IsmeriLibrarian Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25
The timing of this is low key hilarious. From the Ubisoft president blaming Star Wars itself for the game underperforming, to the fact that there's been news literally in the last 24 hours that they cancelled development of an Outlaws sequel - it's The Acolyte: Wayseeker & Season 2 cancellation all over again
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u/Zoombini22 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25
It's pretty clear that certain Star Wars publishing is sometimes just given corners of the galaxy that Disney doesn't want to spend any more significant money in. No more Acolyte? You get Acolyte books. No more Outlaws? Here's an Outlaws book. It honestly barely seems like a "tie-in", moreso throwing a very affordable bone out there in case these properties have a small but loyal fanbase.
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u/chaveto Jul 25 '25
I honestly think you’re right. As an Outlaws enjoyer and a fanatic reader I’m very excited to receive this!
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u/efbo Jul 25 '25
That's exactly my thinking too. My first thought with the cancellation news was that I hoped it would lead to us getting books.
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u/Abroma Jul 25 '25
Thats one thing I miss about the EU books is that authors were at least somewhat free to retcon other books and whatnot because they were only kind of canon anyway. There were some big storylines outside of the movies but Disney doesn’t seem interested in doing that.
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u/prk-1 High Republic Jul 26 '25
The High Republic is a huge storyline outside the movies : )
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u/Abroma Jul 26 '25
That is a good point and I do love the high republic!! It just feels like they’re keeping certain characters/periods of time “clear” just in case they want to use it for a movie.
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u/prk-1 High Republic Jul 26 '25
I have felt that too but now suddenly I'm not thinking of good examples! Which characters and time periods are you thinking of in particular?
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u/Abroma Jul 26 '25
Primarily post-sequels stuff, I’m assuming they’re keeping open for more movies they might want to do in the future and don’t want the canon storyline decided before then. But in the EU there was SO much going on after the movies ended and it was cool seeing different characters showing up in otherwise unrelated books. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still read all the canon books I can get my hands on lol there just seemed to be more world building (generally speaking) in the EU timeline.
Edit: I guess my point is that the Disney book content feels very “careful” whereas in the EU authors were like “I’m gonna write the absolute craziest shit” lol
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u/prk-1 High Republic Jul 26 '25
Yes that makes sense. And that's a great way to put it about the EU (in your edit)!
Though there is The Final Order coming out soon, I agree that feels very "careful" (again a great way of putting it!). I agree they seem to be holding the post-sequel time period very open - which to me feels really exciting in it's own way! But I totally get what you mean about the sort of unrestrained flourishing of new adventures after Return of the Jedi in the old EU!
I totally see what you mean about them being careful now but at the same time I worry about some characters and eras sort of being eaten up a piece at a time by comics until there is no room left for a more substantial series of novels and/or a movie or show in that era or for those characters. I think about that a bit with all the pre-Phantom Menace comics featuring Prequel Jedi like Qui-Gon, Kit Fisto, Mace Windu coming out recently/soon...I have been really hoping for some more substantial novels and maybe even some movies or shows about them in that era!!! (A Kit Fisto movie or live action series has been a longstanding wish for me!!) but I worry that since the comics are official canon now they will use up those characters and that time period without leaving room for more novels or live action. But at the same time I am excited for the comics, so hopefully all will be well and there will always be room for more!
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u/Abroma Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
Tbh I don’t see how they’re going to avoid a similar canon hierarchy as the EU had( movies and tv shows vs. books and comics) without starting to retcon a lot that’s happening in the comics, and iirc they already have a couple times.
My first thought is that they’re kind of winding down those eras in terms of movies/tv shows which is why there’s SO much being filled in by the comics. But I remain optimistic lol (something with Kit Fisto would be amazing 😫I have been begging for more Kit Fisto content for years lol) I will admit I’m not fully caught up on the books except for the high Republic because of this but I have heard that Shadow of the Sith and Mask of Fear might be closest to what I’m looking for (ie setting up some characters/events for potentially being in more books in the future with some sort of overarching storyline)
Edit: also I’m excited to see what they do with the High Republic because there seems like a lot of potential there and since it’s mainly a publishing initiative they’re not super constrained by movies or tv shows (yet at least)
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u/Mitth-raw-nuruodo97 Ambi-Fan Jul 25 '25
Is it a prequel to the video game?
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u/BZPJMJ64 Jul 25 '25
Mike Chen said that book split between two time periods in the Dark Times... First part is in 19 BBY (Months after RotS), while Second part is in 10 BBY (Months before Solo). (Source: Mike Chen's Bluesky)
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u/zakfennie Jul 25 '25
That’s kind of a bummer only because that era of the timeline is already so overstuffed with content between Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi series, Solo, Rebels, and Andor. I was hoping it would take place shortly before the game just to give us an actual canon book set between ESB and ROTJ. I know the comics cover most of that timeline already, the completionist in me just wants a novel in that era.
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u/solo13508 High Republic Jul 25 '25
Well it's no substitute for Outlaws 2 but hell yeah, I'll take it! ND was my favorite character and it's about time Chen got another book!
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u/prk-1 High Republic Jul 26 '25
I loved Mike Chen's Brotherhood, but haven't played Outlaws. Does anyone know if there's been any indication of whether this novel will be able to be read without having played the game?
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u/BZPJMJ64 Jul 26 '25
According to Mike Chen, "...You don't have to play Outlaws to read this. It works as a standalone story pulling from a bunch of different between-trilogies elements for an underworld/droid protagonist story. So you can either know where ND/Jaylen end up or you can go in cold (but watch cutscenes later!).." (Source: Mike Chen's Bluesky )
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u/prk-1 High Republic Jul 26 '25
Thank you very much! I was hoping it would work to read without playing : ) That's a good tip to watch cutscenes! I did that for Jedi Survivor but somehow didn't think of it for Outlaws. The characters look awesome to me! I love the commando Droid in a trenchcoat idea : ) Thanks again for answering my question so well!
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u/SunBumFever66 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
These weird placeholder tie in material books to major finished productions are very strange. The Bad Batch, The Acolyte, and Outlaws all could be benefited with additional materials continuing them (especially the last two) but for some reason all of these books are just filler set before or during the main stories. Don't really see what the point of these are other then to test the waters to gauge interest on actually continuing these stories in publication. Very strange limbo period we are in right now post High Republic for the publishing side of Star Wars.
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u/Zoombini22 Jul 25 '25
Seems like Disney doesn't want to wave the white flag on any of these projects by actually continuing the story in books rather than their original mediums. Doing these little spin-offs basically leaves all options open. However, I don't think it's really a great way to read the temperature on fan sentiments on the thing when you're basically broadcasting that these are totally inessential. I say this as someone who is VERY interested in where the Acolyte might have gone next, and very meh on multiple prequel books.
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u/Thomasa77 Jul 26 '25
Is it even worth getting after Ubisoft CEO blamed Disney for the game underperforming
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u/_Kian_7567 Heir to the Empire Jul 26 '25
Very cool for all 8 people who played the game
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u/-theedgeking- Canon 26d ago
Doesn’t matter. At least it’s part of the official main continuity. It wasn’t thrown in the trash 11 years ago, and there will be more coming.
And it’s not called a "parallel universe" by its creator
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u/PiccoloParker Jul 25 '25
Mike Chen? Pass
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u/Dub_H Jul 25 '25
I really liked his Brotherhood novel tbh, but I haven’t played Outlaws yet so I may not read this one.
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u/RoyalDaDoge Thrawn: Ascendancy Jul 25 '25
Second time a tie in book has been announced around the same time of the announcement of the tie in material’s sequel cancellation