Skip to main content

Star War Books, The Staggering Quantity Walter Kraatz

    Almost 43 years ago a space opera was released in theaters and quickly became one of the highest grossing films of all time. The success of Star Wars spawned eight additional films, ten television series, and a thriving fan-art community, but one of the most impressive results of Star Wars' success is the hundreds of books that have been published. The first publication of the Star Wars franchise predates the movie and was released as a novelization of the film over a six months before the film was in theaters.   

    Star Wars has both a Canon and an Extended Universe (Legends). Both Canon and Legends consist of many different forms of media, but for the sake of simplicity this post will focus on the print aspect of it. Legends consists mainly of pre2014 books that were released under license as well as a few books released after Star Wars was  purchased by Disney. The hundreds of legends novels that were published show not only merit the respect of Lucasfilm for allowing the publication of what is essentially fan-fiction but also the ability of the sequel and prequel trilogy to inspire such a massive quantity of stories. 

    After the purchase of Star Wars in 2014 almost all of the novels are considered part of the Canon and as such are more restrictive in their world building as many of them are published for the express purpose of accompanying a film, however I still believe that some of the books are incredibly well written and still show how after almost four and half decades Star Wars is still inspiring work that has all spawned from a story of a magic farm boy and a smuggler blowing up a planet killing space station.  

Comments

  1. TaehanJanuary 27, 2021 at 12:27 PM

    Wow, I have never really thought of Star Wars beyond the movies. This is definitely interesting. I've heard about the Canon and Legends thing but this was definitely a lot more detailed. I definitely would be interested in some Star Wars books as I am a fan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zhaoxin SunFebruary 1, 2021 at 2:42 PM

    I was always super confused when my friends who were Star Wars fans talked about Legend and stuff. Honestly I still don't really get it because I'm not really into Star Wars, but this was an interesting topic nonetheless. Nice post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gabe DavisFebruary 4, 2021 at 9:48 AM

    Strange that so much came out of star wars. I rewatched "A New Hope" last week, and it was a much different experience than I remembered. Even though the first movie is a classic, it really isn't that good of a movie.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yan LFebruary 4, 2021 at 6:22 PM

    Though my love for Star Wars has died down quite a bit, I'll always have a fond memory of watching some of the movies and reading the books. Also there's not just books. As one of the highest grossing films of all time, there was videogames, toys, statues, and even Jar-jar's tongue as a push-pop.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Marco L.February 7, 2021 at 11:37 AM

    It is my (entirely correct) opinion that the classic Legends books were the height of Star Wars media. The Clone Wars? Derivative tripe. The Mandalorian? I've heard it's good, but the people who told me it was good weren't me, so they were probably wrong. I feel that the old books captured the campy, old-school feeling of the original trilogy, and the sheer variety brings out the vastness of the Star Wars universe.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sequels vs. Series Ft. Parasite Pig

            Sequels especially movie sequels often get a bad rep for being boring money makers and they never seem to live up to the original content. Some examples of these sequels are the ones that Disney makes for many of their franchises. But there are also sequels that aren't so bad, such as a book I recently read, Parasite Pig. So I wondered, what makes a sequel good, and what makes them bad?     I think first we need to take into consideration the difference between sequels and series. Sequels usually come after a story that was already wrapped up. The main plot was resolved and usually, nothing needs to be added. In the original content, there's not just story telling, but world building and character development. These things are usually lost in sequels because they are simply not needed, but without them, the story turns out to be rather lackluster. Also, in most cases, sequels just do not need to exist. The original story is f...
12 comments
Read more

Interstellar Pig

Interstellar Pig is a sci-fi book written by William Sleator. A teenager named Barney is on vacation on a beach with his parents and 3 peculiar neighbors moved into the cottage next to their rented house. The neighbors are oddly obsessed with a board game called interstellar pig and the history of Barney’s rented house. Barney was intrigued by the neighbors and the board game, but his curiosity caused him to be dragged into a complicated mess holding multiple alien species at large risk. I’d say it’s an average read, not spectacular, but not terrible. You can read it pretty fast and it’s not hard at all. It’s like one of those books that you forget about after reading them and there isn’t much that sticks with you after you finish. There is just a mystery, a climax, and a resolution.  Despite its slight blandness, the premise of the story is pretty interesting and there is a lot of foreshadowing and clues written into the story in a way readers can pick up on them and think about w...
2 comments
Read more

Damsel by Elana K. Book Review (trigger warning)

By: Grace I started reading this book without knowing what it was about; the book cover was really cool, with flowers and vines and a nice orange glow to the title. I assumed it was going to be another cool fantasy novel. However, I was very very wrong. As a warning, the book includes / mentions sexually explicit scenes, rape, self-harm, mental and physical abuse, suicide, and animal harm. Despite the triggers, I think the book was really captivating and well written, and sends a clear point throughout the book.  The novel starts out in Prince Emory's point of view, where he is going to rescue the "damsel" in order to wed her and become the king. The rest of the novel is in Ama, the damsel's, point of view, who wakes up and doesn't remember anything about herself. She knows nothing except for the things Emory tells her; he gives her a name and tells her she will be his future bride. As the novel progresses, Emory, who seems to be represented as the hero who saved ...
1 comment
Read more