Guild Wars 2 Novel Preview, Wallpapers, and Interview

Thanks to an update on the Guild Wars 2 website (which includes a free PDF preview and wallpapers), we now know that the previously announced Ghosts of Ascalon novel will be released on July 27th. And if you'd like a better idea of what the book will include and how it will tie in to the game's lore, you can try this interview with co-author Jeff Grubb over at Ten Ton Hammer:
Ten Ton Hammer: Could you tell us a little about Ghosts of Ascalon?

Jeff Grubb: It is 250 years later and a greater danger is arising in Tyria, but the various races: the humans, charr, asura, the norn are all pursuing their own agendas and can't see the bigger picture. And one of the things that occur before the start of our game is that the humans and the charr come to a peace.

In Guild Wars, to the old players that were human, the charr were the enemy. But now the charr will be a playable race and the two sides will be able to interact and as a result there has to be some sort of resolution to the charr/human war that's been going on for so many centuries. And part of the story of the novel is the resolution of how they got to the cease fire that exists at the start of the game. That's the high level story.

This is also the story of Dougal Keane, who is one of the few humans that has gone into Ascalon City, which is in the heart of charr territory and is haunted by a humungous number of ghosts and got out alive and how he deals alone with the ghosts in Ascalon and also how he deals with his personal ghosts from that previous expedition.

It's a lot about adventuring, friends, alliances, and facing the failures of the past. Ghosts of Ascalon was written with both first-time explorers and long-time fans in mind, people who are coming to Tyria for the first time or have heard about Guild Wars or this book and thought it looked interesting. So we have to bring people in and let them understand the world. For long-term fans, which have been playing since Guild Wars Prophecies back on day one, the world has changed and we have to tell them how the world has changed and why it is the way it is. So it is complete in and of itself. No additional war or background is really necessary. And we're hoping that the story we're telling here will bring people back to find out more in other books.