Gears of War prequel novel gets new name, author, release date

We hope you used pencil when you marked up the August 26 quadrant of your Burly Men of Sera calendar with the following info: "Gears of War: The Pendulum Wars by Steven L. Kent today!" Turns out the preorder info on Amazon.ca – even the cover image! – was a tad premature; Epic and Del Ray Books announced that the Gears of War prequel trilogy of books will be written by sci-fi veteran Karen Traviss, and the first installment will be called Gears of War: The Battle of Aspho Fields (there's a joke here ... what's an Aspho?). No word on why Kent's out – an Epic representative tols us, "While we think very highly of Steven L. Kent's work, we are not working with him at this time."

Here's a snippet from the presser: "Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them – but will their friendship survive the truth about Dom's brother Carlos?" Well, will it? We just don't know, but you can find out when it roadie runs into your neighborhood bookstore on October 28, just in time for the sequel's November 7 Re-mergence Day.