I love Star Wars. Or to be precise, I like the original trilogy, I don’t care much for the prequels and the new ones are too much of a déjà vu for me. I came to love Star Wars mostly for the books.
It was about 2010 or 2011 when I was studying in Tallinn and happened to frequently visit second-hand stores near my school and stumbled upon some very big Star Wars books in one of them. So I bought one, read it, went back, and bought all they had. The books were great. All the ones I found were published in the 90s and were part of the Expanded Universe of Star Wars. They featured familiar characters and a lot of original creations by various authors. Some of the new characters also travelled between books and authors and so a whole wonderful world was created. Luke married and had kids, for example. And I was so looking forward to seeing his wife – one of my all-time favourite characters – in the new movies when they were announced. But no such luck.
After the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, they rebranded the Expanded Universe material as Star Wars Legends and declared it non-canon to the franchise. The company’s focus would be shifted towards a restructured Star Wars canon based on new material. The first new canon adult novel was published in September 2014.
So all my favourite characters vanished. Yes, yes, I know that there are 156 adult novels in the Legends series (published between 1976 and 2014), but still, sad.
Anyways, this is my Star Wars Legends collection + a few newer ones.
My absolute favourites in the Legends series are The Thrawn Trilogy books by Timothy Zahn and The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I have to confess though, that I loved the Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View book as well. It is a part of the new universe, published in 2017, but tells the stories of background characters in A New Hope. So technically it is still part of the old world of Star Wars.
*And I do feel like cranky old Luke alone on an island right now, shaking my fist at how everything used to be better in ye old times.
What I am trying to say with all of that is: go discover some Star Wars stories. They are worth it, I promise. And I just discovered that I have completely missed that there is a new From a Certain Point of View book telling the background stories from The Empire Strikes Back. So I am off to buy it now.
But you can start with our selection of Star Wars books 😉
May the Force be with you!