21 Star Wars Books You Should Read

Cover of Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno. Image via publisher Del Rey

19. The Dark Lord Trilogy

Say what you will about the prequel trilogy, but the fall of Anakin Skywalker can be made interesting. Just don’t talk about sand. Or how it gets everywhere. Instead, read these three books, originally meant as three standalones before getting collected into a Legends omnibus.

First up, we have Labyrinth of Evil, which comes from James Luceno. Ahead of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin and Obi-Wan are hot on the trail of Darth Sidious. In fact, the novel directly precedes RotS, and, indeed, your second read for this trilogy will be the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover.

Before you freak out, just remember that RotS is the best prequel movie (even if that doesn’t necessarily mean much). Also, the novelization includes the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance, which got cut from the movie. Some minor parts of the work contradict later things shown in The Clone Wars, but on the whole, you can likely consider this mostly canon, especially considering the fact that Stover has said George Lucas helped edit the book.

Finally, you’ll head back to Luceno for Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. Not every Jedi died during the execution of Order 66, and now, the newest Sith has been sent to hunt down three of the survivors….

Goodreads praises Luceno’s work in particular on both sides of the trilogy. That includes his work in Anakin/Vader’s thoughts and characterization.