Looking to go to Fanfest 2009 for free? Want to take your best friend along with you? This summer you may get a chance to achieve both of these goals. Starting July, 01 2009 and running until Sept, 01, 2009, every buddy invite you send out that signs up for an EVE Online subscription will get you one ticket to a special prize draw. One lucky winner and their best friend will then be taken to Fanfest on us! Check out our EVElopedia contest page for more information and contest rules.

Sign ups for Alliance Tournament VII, scheduled for September have now opened, and Alliances can apply to enter from downtime on Friday, 03, July until downtime on Friday, 17, July. Full details and signup procedure can be found on the Alliance Tournament web site here. Please note that, unlike previous Tournaments the process is no longer first come first serve, and everyone will have a chance to sign up over the next two weeks. The final teams will be decided by a random draw and announced. Make sure you take the time to fully read the sign up guidelines so as not to jeopardise your entry.

Hjalti Daníelsson (AKA CCP Abraxas) noted writer of a cargohold full of EVE Chronicles and various other forms of EVE Online fiction, has birthed EVE's next big novel, EVE: The Burning Life.  It's set for cross-oceanic release in November by Tor Books and Orion Books. If Abraxas' dark SciFi moodiness was ever in question, this summary of the novel should quell all doubt:

"A vicious attack on a deep space mining colony results in its destruction and the death of nearly all its inhabitants. Of the handful of tattered survivors, a lone young man swears revenge upon the forces that cost him everything but his breath.

In another part of the universe, an agent of death loses her tenuous grip on sanity, leaves her profession and everything of her past life, and goes on a journey of redemption.

Their respective paths will take them through galactic empires built on faith, hedonism, discipline and rebellion, and plunge them into the darkest parts of space where they encounter denizens of the chaotic and dangerous pirate kingdoms. And all the while, as they draw closer to what they seek, they begin to realize that the only stakes worth playing for are the ones that bring danger and change..."

You can read more about the novel's publication in this press release.

EVE Online Senior Producer CCP t0rfifrans has announced the upcoming release of Apocrypha 1.5 in August 2009. This release will bridge the gap between our Spring and Winter expansions and will feature some exciting new content. Rigs will now come in small, medium and large versions, allowing pilots to equip cost-scaled improvements to their favorite ships. It will also feature new and challenging level 4 Epic Mission Arcs for all four Empire factions. Factional Warfare will see loyalty points awarded for kills and captures as well as new loyalty point stores to use them in. Specialized cargo holds and fuel bays on Black Ops Battleships will add a new dimension to how items and fuel are transported in New Eden.

This expansion will also focus heavily on addressing current features and balancing and fixing bugs. Full details can be found at Apocrypha 1.5 this August.