1. Revenge Of The Sith, By: Matthew Stover
2. Tatooine Ghost, By: Troy Denning 
3. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, By: James Luceno
4. Darth Plagueis, By: James Luceno 
5. Secrets of the Jedi, By: Jude Watson (YA)
6. The Force Awakens, By: Alan Dean Foster 
7. The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, By: Ryder Windham
8. Star Wars: The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (A New Hope) By: Alexandra Bracken
9. Star Wars: So You Want to be a Jedi (The Empire Strikes Back) By: Adam Giowitz
10. Star Wars: Beware the Power of the Dark Side (Return of the Jedi) By: Tom Angleberger
Why I like them:
Revenge of the Sith is my favorite of the prequels. I think the movie is quite good, despite the bad rap the prequels generally get. I like the way Stover wrote this, and I like that it had this “bed-time story gone awry” feel to it. Also, between the parts, there are these interludes where you have sort of a tonal piece which sums up the vibe of the following section. It’s really different and I love it. The way the characters are summarized is also nice.
Tatooine Ghost is one of those pieces I enjoy because it’s a journey, and story which connects the prequels to the original films. It may not be canon anymore, but I think it’s quite well done. In Return of the Jedi, we saw Luke and Vader connecting- and this piece is like Leia getting to know who he was before he was Vader.
Dark Lord is a book that I recently re-read, or well- listened to as an audio book… While I’m not all that interested in the plot of the other characters (not that it isn’t interesting, it’s just- if I haven’t met them in one of the movies, I’m sort of apathetic towards them)- the bits with Darth Vader are really good. And I love the whole thing with Bail Organa on Alderaan trying to keep Leia away from Vader because he’s figured out that Vader is Anakin… it’s just great.
Darth Plagueis is one of those nice pieces that sets up the idea that Palpatine had all these schemes set in motion years before they would ever come to fruition. It also makes Palpatine telling the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise even more compelling and sinister when you hear the back story. It was a nice read, and it actually made Episode 1 more interesting.
Secrets of the Jedi is actually a Young Adult/ Kid’s book from the Jedi Apprentice/ Jedi Quest series… it’s basically a crossover. And just like Star Wars in general, there are all kinds of intentional mirroring between the generations. I enjoyed it immensely. It was also a nice, easy read, which is nice sometimes.
The Force Awakens novelization helps bring some clarity to the movie, and I thought it was very well-written. I actually like the junior novelization too- and I love how they’re somewhat different- the way the perspective of the characters is demonstrated…
The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader- this one is a nice vignette of a character we all know and love. This is also a junior novel, but it’s all told from Anakin/ Vader’s point of view. It colors the scenes of the movies in a slightly different way, and brings out emotions you hadn’t noticed the first time… It provides context- which is always nice in such a vast galaxy. I also like that there is some explanation and shading of what happened to Vader when he became Anakin again and died. It tells us essentially how he became a Force Ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi if you ever wondered.
I’m going to talk about the new versions of the original set of films together in one paragraph because they are essentially a set. They’re written by different people, but the feel of them is cohesive. I liked that these are actually like the movies- whereas the original novels are almost like they’re taken from a different script… sure, it’s the same general story, but it’s dialogue is very different and there’s a bunch of explanations that we know to be false from seeing the prequels… for instance, in one scene, there was something about Luke’s mom running through the woods with a baby in her arms being hunted by someone (or something- it’s been a long time since I’ve read it)…
I like that these new versions explore the characters and their motivations. It also sums up how the characters grow and learn, and begin to band together to become a team.
Books and Literature
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