The series follows the efforts of the New Republic as it takes on the Empire in the years after Return of the Jedi, and if you like military science fiction, there’s plenty to love here: there’s lots of X-Wing fighter dogfights, espionage, and a whole cast of great new characters. Based on the old PC games, this series takes an interesting direction: Stackpole only sparingly uses the franchise’s lead characters, and introduces a whole host of his own. If you only ever read a couple of extra novels, make it these. They’re smart they introduce some amazing figures such as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade, a former Imperial assassin who eventually becomes Luke Skywalker’s wife and they hold up extremely well years after they were published. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command kicked off the Expanded Universe, written as the third trilogy decades before The Force Awakens arrived.
Ask any Star Wars reader what book to start with, and nine times out of 10, you’ll get the same answer: Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy. Dozens of authors wrote hundreds of novels that explored the spaces around the films. Since Disney decided to wipe the slate clean and label these stories Legends, you can think of it as a sort of alternate Star Wars universe. In 1991, Del Rey Books launched a new novel from author Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire, kicking off the enormous Expanded Universe publishing experiment.
But where to get started? This isn’t a comprehensive set of book recommendations, but it should serve as a good starting point. Since The Force Awakens, that question has gotten a little more difficult to answer, because the books are split into two continuities: the non-canon Star Wars Legends (otherwise known as the Expanded Universe) and a new series of books that fall in the official canon. Since that book hit stores, a lot of people have asked about how to start in on the mountain of material that is Star Wars, canon or not. That doesn’t mean those books aren’t worth reading: recently, Timothy Zahn returned to the Star Wars universe to tell the origins of his most famous character, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was recently brought back into the canon via Star Wars Rebels.
The tie-in novels are still being published, but they’re not part of the official canon. With the new series of films from Disney, Lucasfilm decided give filmmakers a clean slate. The sheer volume of material is a double-edged sword: it provides dedicated fans plenty of new material to immerse themselves in, but it can also deter newcomers who just want to dip their toes in the water.
The Star Wars universe is more than just a handful of blockbuster films and animated television shows.
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