Star Wars: Bloodline
by Claudia Gray (Del Rey, 2016)
With much of the Star Wars expanded universe now rendered non-canonical, Claudia Gray’s novel — a serious backstory to The Force Awakens, focussing on Leia’s political struggles within an ailing New Republic — subtly apprises readers of what is, and is no longer, recognised.
Star Wars: Kenobi
by John Jackson Miller (Del Rey, 2013)
Better known as a graphic novelist, Miller on this occasion does it all with words, drawing us into the deserts of Tatooine where unfolds both an absorbing standalone western and a bridging story between Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan and Alec Guinness’ Ben Kenobi.
Star Wars – Fate of the Jedi: Backlash
by Aaron Allston (Ballantine, 2010)
Aaron Allston was always one of the more competent Star Wars novelists, and makes a fair job of balancing action adventure and political intrigue (albeit sometimes in skittishly small sections) forty-plus years after A New Hope. Han, Leia and Luke all feature.
Star Wars – Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void
by Tim Lebbon (Del Rey, 2013)
A surprisingly engaging two-for-one intertwined quest set in Star Wars prehistory: trainee Je’daii Lanoree (present tense) tries to save her brother from falling to the evil clutches of Forcelessness, while Je’daii Ranger Lanoree (past tense) must then deal with what he’s become.
Star Wars and History
ed. Nancy R. Reagin & Janice Liedl (Wiley, 2012)
This collection of academic articles, ostensibly undertaken in close collaboration with George Lucas, purports to show the manner and extent to which Star Wars draws on real history. In truth it clutches at loose parallels, showing little or no evidence of causation.
Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi
by Kevin Hearne (Del Rey, 2015)
Disney presents a first-person narrative by a distinctly uninteresting Luke Skywalker in his wide-eyed Jedi novice days, wandering through a plot less gripping than old velcro. Sad to say, this feels amateurish. (Did Mark Hamill narrate the audiobook? That would be fitting.)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
dir. J J Abrams (2015)
Visually spectacular without being gratuitously effects-driven; introducing new characters played by relative unknowns; stirringly scored; epic but with humour: Star Wars Episode VII is a true spiritual sequel to Episode IV (although not as self-contained and perhaps rehashing too many plot elements).
Star Wars: Red Harvest
by Joe Schreiber (Arrow, 2012)
Zombies and Star Wars might not seem a natural mix, but Joe Schreiber makes it work with a fast-moving, gory yet matter-of-fact horror story where Sith Lord Darth Scabrous seeks immortality through a Force-sensitive black orchid… and the dead start to rise.
Return of the Jedi
dir. Richard Marquand (1983)
As the denouement to a full-fledged trilogy (not merely the second of two opportunistic sequels), Return of the Jedi first built on the foundations of its ground-breaking predecessors, then brought the Star Wars saga to a towering conclusion, dazzling in cinematic force.
Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye
by Alan Dean Foster (Del Rey, 1978)
Set and first published between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Foster’s hurriedly written, workmanlike tie-in novel sends Luke and Leia on a meandering, curiously pointless quest, before pitting them (belatedly) against an ineffectual and always-likely-to-be canonically suspect Darth Vader.