Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion

934 Pages·2012·29.82 MB·English

by  Pablo Hidalgo

A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original Copyright © 2012 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York.
eISBN: 978-0-34554272-4
www.starwars.com
www.starwars.suvudu.com
v3.1

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
CHAPTER 1. TALES OF ANCIENT JEDI AND SITH
CHAPTER 2. HEIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC
CHAPTER 3. THE CLONE WARS
CHAPTER 4. THE DARK TIMES
CHAPTER 5. THE GALACTIC CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER 6. THE NEW REPUBLIC
CHAPTER 7. THE NEW JEDI ORDER
CHAPTER 8. LEGACY
APPENDIX A. Works in Publication Order
APPENDIX B. Works by Author
APPENDIX C. Illustration Credits
BEFORE Star Wars graced the silver screens of packed movie houses, its story
was presented to an eager public via the printed word. A tie-in novel based
on the screenplay of Star Wars arrived in bookstores over five months prior to
the film’s debut on May 25, 1977, helping to spread awareness of the movie to
come in a pre-digital, word-of-mouth age. As such, the very first Star Wars fans
were readers.
It was soon evident that Star Wars would surpass the bounds of summer
entertainment to become much more than just a movie. The faraway galaxy
became a setting for legends. As production promptly began on a sequel to the
first film, creator George Lucas opened up his universe to exploration by other
storytellers. Comic book tales came first and proved to be a medium that would
be integral to the genesis of the Star Wars universe. Within a year of the film’s
release, Alan Dean Foster’s follow-up novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, became
a bestseller.
Since that time, over 145 full-length novels have expanded the Star Wars
story. More than one hundred juvenile novels helped open the door for young
readers into a lifetime of reading. Over 170 short stories added to the saga. It can
be a very daunting task to navigate among these works. The Essential Reader’s
Companion hopes to guide you through these rich stories.
The Essential Reader’s Companion is a summary of Star Wars fiction for Star
Wars readers of any level. The novice reader, unsure of where to start, may find
guidance by browsing through the curated summaries. It is also meant for the
intermediate Star Wars reader who has sampled some works, but never realized
how immense the library is. And, for the experts, it’s a fresh look at what they
may already know, hopefully with some new surprises thrown in—not to
mention all-new illustrations of characters and scenes previously only imagined.
W N T B
HAT’S OT IN HIS OOK
The Essential Reader’s Companion focuses on prose fiction. Graphic novels,
every bit as essential to the Expanded Universe, are beyond the scope of this
book, though where relevant mentions of certain stories are given in the text.
The younger end of children’s literature—the illustrated storybooks, chapter
books, and beginner books—is also excluded, though works for young adults
(ages twelve and up) are included. Stories with variable plots—Solitaire
Adventures, Choose Your Own Adventure, Decide Your Destiny, and similar
works—are also not included.
Stories of videogames, which often form important chapters in the lives of Star
Wars characters, are not covered unless they’ve been adapted into a book.
Sometimes game books—such as roleplaying game supplements and videogame
strategy guides—include fictional sidebars or a fictional story that frames the
rules and game information. These, too, are not in the Companion.
W T B
HAT’S IN HIS OOK
Most of this book consists of summaries of novels, whether for adults or young
adults. In some cases, multibook stories that flow into one another are collected
in a single entry. Short stories published in official Star Wars periodicals or
online are afforded their own entries or are described in sidebars when they
directly connect to a larger story.
Each entry includes the cover art—in some cases, multiple examples if more
than one version of the cover exists. It is important to note that in the case of
multiple entries from the same source, the Companion will show the cover only
for the first entry from that source. An entry credits the author(s) and cover
artist(s), then lists the work’s publication history—format and release date. A
note about release dates: For consistency’s sake, the Companion uses the date as
recorded in the indicia of the publication, though the dates books were actually
available for purchase may vary by weeks.
Where the story fits into the Star Wars time line follows, with a year annotated
as BBY (for events before the Battle of Yavin, as seen in the movie Star Wars:
Episode IV A New Hope) and ABY (for events after the Battle of Yavin). For
those interested in galactic cartography, a roster of the planets visited in the story
is given, complete with grid coordinates for use with the maps found in Star
Wars: The Essential Atlas. The Companion next identifies the main characters in
a story, summarizes its events, and in some cases offers “behind-the-scenes”
information about a story’s creation or impact.
R O
EADING RDER
The Companion presents Star Wars fiction in a recommended reading order that
follows a chronological flow within the Expanded Universe. However, the order
presented prioritizes reading experience over rigid adherence to chronology. For
example, the Jedi Academy Trilogy and the novel I, Jedi occur at the same time,
often covering the same events. A rigid adherence to chronology would
recommend reading alternate parts of each work. Instead, the Companion
recommends reading the Jedi Academy Trilogy first; it was the first work
published, and I, Jedi was written with the expectation that it likely would be the
second work read. If a book covers large spans of time, it’s often where the story
ends that determines its chronological placement, not where it begins.
C C
ANON AND ONTINUITY
Common questions are: How “real” are these stories? Do they count? Did they
really happen?
The most definitive canon of the Star Wars universe is encompassed by the
feature films and television productions in which George Lucas is directly
involved. The movies and the Clone Wars television series are what he and his
handpicked writers reference when adding cinematic adventures to the Star Wars
oeuvre.
But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he
directly oversees. In many cases, the stewards of the Expanded Universe—
editors within the licensing division of Lucasfilm Ltd. who work with authors
and publishers—will ask for his input or blessing on projects. Though these
stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are
depicted cinematically in one of his projects.
That said, unless something occurs in a canon project to directly contradict a
published source, it can reliably be said to have occurred. Extensive records
track the growth of the Expanded Universe, cataloging planets, characters,
technology, and events, to allow for a sprawling, believable continuity
connecting the published works of the Star Wars universe. It’s not perfect—
when errors occur, the Companion does sometimes call them out. This is not to
diminish these tales in any way, but rather to illustrate that the Star Wars
Expanded Universe is a living document that grows and evolves over time.
The Reader’s Companion is not meant as a replacement for the experience of
reading these works firsthand. Those truly interested in the stories are strongly
encouraged to read them whole. No matter how detailed, a summary is no
substitute for experiencing a story as the author intended.