SUBMITTED BY SARAH BRUBAKER
Many people are familiar with the timeline of the seven Star Wars movies, but most are probably unaware of the much larger timeline of Star Wars books. Tie-in books have been written taking place anywhere from 5,000 years before the movies to almost 50 years after A New Hope.
GCPL has over 300 Star Wars-related items in the catalog including children’s books, adult novels, graphic novels, and audiobooks. Once you’ve refined your catalog search by audience (kids or adults) and material type (graphic novel, book, audiobook), you’ll want to find out where the book takes place in the timeline of the Star Wars universe. Do you want to know what happened after the movies ended? Or do you want to know how the Jedi and the Sith got started in the first place? Almost all of the books have a timeline in the front that will let you know where that book takes place.
Some of the “tie-in” authors worked with LucasArts or LucasFilm before getting into novels, and Drew Karpyshyn was one such author. Karpyshyn was one of the main writers for the Star Wars: The Old Republic computer games. After working on the games, he wrote several Old Republic novels that are well worth the read. Since he worked closely with LucasArts, his writing is accepted as canonical and fits the well-loved style of the Star Wars universe. His Old Republic books include:
These books explore key characters in the ongoing battle between the Dark and the Light. The books are full of lightsaber and Force battles and explore the formation of the world we know in the films. Most of Karpyshyn’s books are available in physical form, and several also have audiobook adaptations.
If you’re not interested in the Old Republic–or you can’t get enough of it–continue to search the GCPL catalog for other Star Wars books, or ask at your local branch to see if they have a special Star Wars display. Happy reading, and may the Force be with you!