21 Star Wars Books You Should Read
Cover to the 20th anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. Image via publisher Del Rey
1. The Thrawn Trilogy
Before The Force Awakens relegated this series to Legends status, many fans considered Timothy Zahn’s The Thrawn Trilogy as Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. (Yours truly included, actually.)
Starting with Heir to the Empire, we witness the attempts of Grand Admiral Thrawn to defeat the New Republic five years after Return of the Jedi. Leia and Han are expecting twins. Luke has become a Jedi Knight.
But Thrawn has a brilliant mind and plenty of resources. There’s a reason Star Wars Rebels has brought him back into canon for Star Wars Rebels. He’s just that good of a villain.
This series also introduces Mara Jade, one of the other best Expanded Universe characters.
Like many novels that predate the prequel trilogy, the timeline is by no means perfectly plotted out here. However, Zahn actually named Coruscant as the Imperial capital here first.
In order, the novels are: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.
Goodreads advises that you believe the hype. So do I.
There is, in fact, a reason that the first book actually got a special 20th anniversary edition. It proved that not only could Star Wars produce good books, it showed that the universe had plenty of stories left to tell.
Next: Carrie Fisher May Figure More Heavily in Episode VIII
That concludes our list of 21 Star Wars books to read. For extra credit, Heir to the Jedi, a canon novel featuring Luke Skywalker, also deserves a look.
Did we miss your favorite Star Wars book? Feel free to sound off in the comments below.