When I did start reading the books, the first one I read was Bloodline, which to this day, I think is the best Star Wars book. I chose it because Leia was the main character, and I wanted more of her thought processes. The Star Wars book world can be overwhelming and confusing. There are hundreds of books, and if you spend time in any SW social media group, you’ll see talk of Canon, Legends, and EU. If you aren’t familiar with the terms, it’s easy to get lost.
Legends vs. Canon
Star Wars Legends used to be known as the Expanded Universe (EU). It consists of all of the background and licensed stories of Star Wars, save the first six novelizations of the original Star Wars movies and The Clone Wars, before April 2014. In April 2014, Lucasfilm made the announcement that to prepare for the sequel trilogy, the EU would be retconned and made into Legends. The new timeline would consist of the original six movies, The Clone Wars (TV series and movie), and all material from that point on. Sometimes characters in Legends can become Canon, like Thrawn, but the stories are very different.
So where do I start?
If you ask ten people which books to start with in the SW galaxy, you’ll get ten different answers. That’s one of the things I love about the fandom — there are so many different things people fall in love with. Some people love the Sith, others love the droids, and yet others follow certain characters. That being said, you don’t necessarily want to accidentally start your SW book experience by picking a book that’s the third in a trilogy. So if you were to ask me where to start if you’ve never read a SW book before, these are the books I would suggest. I add a caveat, though: I would also recommend all of the novelizations, especially the prequels. They are immensely better than the movies, and all of them offer extra scenes, more backstory, and flesh out the story.
There are so many good ones that this is not meant to be a definitive list. I chose these to give a varied glimpse at the SW universe and the many areas to explore. My focus was Canon, not Legends — although I did include Legends books that I think are indispensable. If you’re looking for even more Star Wars book suggestions, check out this post and this post.
Note: For a long, long time, Star Wars authors were mostly white, and mostly cis men. That has been changing in recent years.
Have you read any Star Wars books?
