Books have served an integral role in Star Wars film series and keeping fans engaged even during periods when few movies are released. The best Star Wars books either provide additional context to events occurring in the films or tell the stories of characters not fully developed in the major motion pictures. With so many Star Wars books published, what essential works should all Star Wars fans read?

How Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker Started It All

When collecting Star Wars books in order of publication, casual fans of the franchise may not realize that the first Star Wars book actually was published 6 months before the release of the first film, A New Hope. George Lucas commissioned ghostwriter Alan Dean Foster to write a novel based on the original screenplay for the blockbuster movie released in 1977. Despite Foster agreeing to write the novel after meeting with George Lucas, it is Lucas himself credited as the author. Some notable differences from the first film include the book beginning with the lines "Another galaxy, another time" instead of the usual "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away". The book sold extremely well in the months following the debut of A New Hope, and landed on the New York Times bestsellers list. Foster would later be commissioned to write the Splinter of the Mind's Eye novel, which served as a sequel to A New Hope.

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy

Between 1983 and 1999, the world did not see a single Star Wars film hit movie theaters, the longest drought in the history of the motion pictures. Fortunately, Timothy Zahn, author of 14 Star Wars novels, stepped up to fill that gap with the Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy starting in 1991. The first novel, Heir To The Empire, is credited as one of the best Stars Wars books ever written, reaching number one on the New York Times bestsellers list. Heir To The Empire focuses on the original Grand iral Thrawn character and his assault on the New Republic in an attempt to help the Galactic Empire reclaim their role as the dominant force in the universe. Zahn would follow up the first book in the trilogy with Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, with the series of books going on to sell 15 million copies.

Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy

It should be no surprise that a 1994 trilogy of books focused on Luke Skywalker is considered essential in the Star Wars collection of novels. Taking place in the decade after the 1983 Return of the Jedi film, much of the Kevin J. Anderson trilogy centers on Exar Kun, a human Jedi Knight who fell to the dark side and now is determined to stop Luke from reconstructing the Jedi Order. Exar Kun focuses his efforts on turning several of Luke's Jedi apprentices to the dark side, foreshadowing some of the themes in the Star Wars Episode I-III movies released between 1999-2005.

The Han Solo Trilogy

Before there was Solo: A Star Wars Story, author A.C. Crispin released a series of novels in the late 1990s delving into the backstory of Han Solo. The books take place before A New Hope and chronicle Han Solo as a petty thief in his childhood, eventually becoming a racing pilot. The novels function as more of a biography than a dramatic story, but nevertheless, they cover everything from Hans Solo's betrayal of the Imperial Academy to his rescue of Chewbacca, as well as how he met Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett.

The Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy

Boba Fett was an increasingly popular Star Wars character even before the start of the Disney+ The Mandalorian series in 2019. The trilogy authored by K.W. Jeter in 1998-99, picks up on the events of Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi, after the siege on Jabba's palace and the rescue of Han Solo. Boba Fett, who of course refuses to take his helmet off, manages to escape the sarlacc pit, and the novels are filled with the tales of Fett and other Star Wars bounty hunters, including Zuckuss and 4-Lom.