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PRESS RELEASE

DEL REY ANNOUNCES TRANSFORMERS ORIGINS STORY NOVEL

NEW YORK, NY – April 27, 2010 – Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that Del Rey Books will publish TRANSFORMERS: EXODUS. Telling one of the most important stories in the TRANSFORMERS canon, this novel explores and expands upon the origins of the supervillain MEGATRON, leader of the evil DECEPTICONS, and the rise of OPTIMUS PRIME to leadership of the heroic AUTOBOTS. TRANSFORMERS: EXODUS will be written by Alex Irvine and will release in Summer 2010.

In an exciting year for the telling of this important origins moment in the TRANSFORMERS story, TRANSFORMERS: EXODUS takes fans deep into the secret lore of the TRANSFORMERS universe, charting the creation of the DECEPTICONS and the AUTOBOTS—and chronicling the civil war that divided them. At the center of this thrilling history are OPTIMUS PRIME and MEGATRON, the ultimate hero and the ultimate villain, whose destinies are entwined with that of their home planet, CYBERTRON. Developed in close partnership with Hasbro, this is a canonical TRANSFORMERS tale that also relates to, and expands on, the story being told in the upcoming video game, TRANSFORMERS: War for Cybertron, from Activision. Fans will not want to miss all of the details, that can only be told in novel form, the moment OPTIMUS gains “PRIME” status, MEGATRON becomes his arch enemy and leader of the DECEPTICONS and their great civil war begins.



About the Author:
Alex Irvine’s first novel, A Scattering of Jades (Tor 7/02), won the Crawford Award for best new writer, which is given by The International Association for Fantastic in the Arts. He also won awards for best new novel from Locus Magazine and The International Horror Guild, and he was a finalist for the Campbell Award for best new writer. His short fiction has appeared in the Vestal Review, Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, Alchemy, and Year's Best Science Fiction, among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Award for his short story "Snapdragons." The Narrows, his third novel, was an Amazon.com Best Top 10 selection for Science Fiction and Fantasy.

About Del Rey:
Del Rey Books (http://www.delreybooks.com) was founded in 1977 as an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history. In 2004 it expanded by launching Del Rey Manga, which has grown to be a major force in the U.S. graphic-novel field.

About Hasbro:
Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS) is a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services with a rich portfolio of brands and entertainment properties that provides some of the highest quality and most recognizable play and recreational experiences in the world. As a brand-driven, consumer-focused global company, Hasbro brings to market a range of toys, games and licensed products, from traditional to high-tech and digital, under such powerful brand names as TRANSFORMERS, PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, CRANIUM and WIZARDS OF THE COAST. Come see how we inspire play through our brands at http://www.hasbro.com <http://www.hasbro.com> <http://www.hasbro.com/ <http://www.hasbro.com/> > . © 2010 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SICK! gettin this for sure

I personally feel a bit on the fence about this, but I do think DEL REY could be a decent fit for getting decent writing and editing for the subject matter.

I'll likely pick it up, and on that basis will judge if I buy anymore if they do additional titles.

Alright! Another author who knows nothing of Transformers, a recipe for awesomeness if I ever heard one! Woo!

Ok, it can't be any worse than Dean Foster, can it? "I'll just grab afew Transformer names and paste them onto a vague story devoid of any original ideas or creativity, yep, that's what I'll do."

Meh. :-\

Alan Dean Foster was taking directly from the screenplay for the Movies. Did you actually even read any of those books before dismissing his work or did you just crap on him based on here-say?

While Ghosts of Yesterday (prequel book to Transformers) did stray slightly on part of the timeline in regards to Megatrons movement to the Hoover Dam complex as opposed to the comic prequel adaptation, it was still a well written book. It was not meant to be a difficult or truly in-depth read like oh say, a Grisham novel, but I felt that all of the TF novels so far are great for TF fans just looking for something light to expand the Transformers lore. The Veiled Threat was a great prequel to Revenge of the Fallen and I would have actually been happier if that had been what they turned into the movie we got for #2 instead of what they gave us. Of course, if RotF had been more like the book I would have been a lot happier with it also.
I'm excited for this new novel. I don't think we will have anything to worry about history wise so long as we realize going in that it will not be exactly like G1 or War Within but rather a new, hybrid take on stuff to make the video game fit more seamlessly into the general continuity.

If they have this at Del Rey's booth at SDComic-con I'm getting it. If it comes with bonuses, then that will be a cherry on top.

Btw - ryan, u suck. They'll eventually spent more time filming TF3 in other cities all over, including Chi, than shooting in LA. Did i mention u suck?

T-Macksimus wrote:Alan Dean Foster was taking directly from the screenplay for the Movies. Did you actually even read any of those books before dismissing his work or did you just crap on him based on here-say?

Ghost of Yesterday is sitting on my shelf right now. Alan Foster read the screenplay you say? I was under the impression he was handed a list of names and just slapped them in onto a prefab story. The book isn't horrid, no. But there isn't an original TF idea in the entire thing, or even anything that's distinctly transformers. You probably could have swapped the names and the book could have been about something else entirely, no one would have known the difference. It's just typical movie-license slop where the writer dosn't care. He read the screenplay, oh wow. Did that take him all of an hour? TF have been around 25 years and there's endless information resources at his fingertips, so would it have hurt him to spend a little time learning about the subject he was getting paid to write about? Personally I would be ashamed to write about something I know absolutely nothing about and was too lazy to learn.

I don't even recall them transforming in the book, sooo... yeah.

I cant wait to read this! My life is almost complete!

Liftgate wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:Alan Dean Foster was taking directly from the screenplay for the Movies. Did you actually even read any of those books before dismissing his work or did you just crap on him based on here-say?

Ghost of Yesterday is sitting on my shelf right now. Alan Foster read the screenplay you say? I was under the impression he was handed a list of names and just slapped them in onto a prefab story. The book isn't horrid, no. But there isn't an original TF idea in the entire thing, or even anything that's distinctly transformers. You probably could have swapped the names and the book could have been about something else entirely, no one would have known the difference. It's just typical movie-license slop where the writer dosn't care. He read the screenplay, oh wow. Did that take him all of an hour? TF have been around 25 years and there's endless information resources at his fingertips, so would it have hurt him to spend a little time learning about the subject he was getting paid to write about? Personally I would be ashamed to write about something I know absolutely nothing about and was too lazy to learn.

I don't even recall them transforming in the book, sooo... yeah.

1st off, sorry about my initial response being so, well, blunt and abrasive. It really wasn't called for. I got a bit overly defensive when I was probably too tired to be on here doing posts to begin with.

Obviously there was no screenplay for "Ghosts of Yesterday" or "Veiled Threat" and the only ones who really had any idea of backstory on the movie-verse were the 2 writers responsible for perpetrating the crime and Michael Bay. So yes, Foster was given squat to work with. I don't think he was too lazy too learn about it, there just wasn't much to learn without totally screwing up the newly hatched continuity of it all.
I guess what I was trying to get across before is that, in my own opinion, I felt he did well in presenting a prequel to the Movie-verse if you look at it in the same terms as you approach the movies. Something new, different and not to be taken for a serious or ground-breaking piece of work but rather as entertainment.

Oh and if memory serves correctly, both Starscream and Bumblebee transformed for their battle on the planets surface. I know, not impressive considering the number of TF's in the book.

Having more time and research materials available, I'm sure Alex Irvine will create something superior to all of the movie related books combined. That's not a reflection on Fosters work, he did what he could with what he had, it's a criticism of Bays interpretation of TF lore.

T-Macksimus wrote:1st off, sorry about my initial response being so, well, blunt and abrasive. It really wasn't called for. I got a bit overly defensive when I was probably too tired to be on here doing posts to begin with.

Same thing happens to me. Bad part is I don't realize it until after I've had some sleep.


I don't think there was anything stopping Foster from hitting the wiki, youtube, or just spending a half hour googling to see what transformers were all about. I also believe he would have had free reign to use many other characters since the movie toyline, comic books and other forms of media clearly already had the rights and green light to do so. It's called not giving a crap. He just collected the check and didn't care what he was doing.

I'd love to read a decent TF novel that's intricately and meaningfully tied to the films or some other TF fiction, something that can truly be considered cannon, but that's too much to ask. Not just with TF, but just about every other franchise too, especially novels that are movie related. There's always excuses too - "oh, it stands alone, it's in it's own universe, I had little to work with, yadayadayada". What it really boils down to is they didn't wanna take the time for a little research to get the facts in order. People still buy the junk anyway and they still get paid, so why would they care I guess.

i wonder if this writer will have any Quint material or operate from the idea that they created the TFs

vectorA3 wrote:i wonder if this writer will have any Quint material or operate from the idea that they created the TFs

Most likely not. This will simply be the umpteenth "re-imagining" of the TF origin story. We're at, what, almost 10 now? I fear we are slipping ever closer to Power Rangers status. Every couple of years a toyline/continuity reboot until eventually the franchise becomes irrelevant.