It's Lit: A New Star Wars Book Announcement, Star Wars Book Q&A, and This Month's Star Wars Reads (So Far)
A book about Mace Windu is coming in 2024.
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten Star Wars book news — and I don’t mean new releases, since we got two this week (The High Republic Character Encyclopedia and Dawn of the Rebellion: The Visual Guide). In fact, the majority of this post was going to be about these new releases before someone (Random House Worlds) decided to make a big announcement.
New Star Wars book announcements are my absolute favorite times to be online. I love getting to post a photo of the book cover and seeing fellow fans’ reactions to the news. And of course, I’m always excited for more stories too. I am, first and foremost, a fan of Star Wars books deep in my soul.
So let’s get into the news — plus a recap of this week’s podcast episode, and an overview on what I’ve read so far this month. Enjoy!
A New Star Wars Book About Mace Windu Is Coming This Summer
You might remember the Legends book Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover — a rare instance in which we got to see Mace Windu star in a novel all his own. Now canon is giving us a Mace Windu-centered novel with Star Wars Mace Windu: The Glass Abyss by Steven Barnes (author of Legends novel The Cestus Deception).
The book takes place between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones — a time period we don’t have many books set in at this point, so this one will be a welcome addition to the timeline. Qui-Gon Jinn’s death have deeply unsettled the Jedi, and Master Windu has one final request from the fallen Knight to fulfill.
And this isn’t the only Phantom Menace-adjacent book coming out the year of the film’s 25th anniversary, either! John Jackson Miller’s The Living Force also releases in April. And these are just the books we know about so far.
The book comes out on August 6, 2024 — and it will be worth the wait.
Answering Your Star Wars Book Questions
This week’s episode of Now This Is Lit featured a Star Wars book Q&A — and I invited my producer back on for some extra fun.
I posted a call for questions on my Instagram page, and we got a lot of great responses. Here are some of the questions we answered during the episode:
If you could have a book on any minor character from the movies/shows who would it be?
What era of Star Wars do you think has the most potential for expansion in the books?
Where should I start to read Knights of the Old Republic?
And so many more!
We also briefly teased what’s coming up on the show over the next few weeks — the return of Star Wars Reading Resolutions and a few things we can’t tell you about yet. So check out the episode if you haven’t yet for everything that waits inside.
December Star Wars Reading (So Far)
Because not as many Star Wars novels are coming out in the next month or so, it’s a great time to go back in the timeline, so to speak, and catch up on some books you just haven’t gotten to yet. I’ve been on a big Legends kick this year, but believe it or not, there’s some canon I haven’t gotten to as well. Better late than never I suppose.
Here’s what I’ve gotten to so far in December:
A New Hope: The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy
Star Wars: Darksaber
The New Jedi Order: Hero’s Trial
The High Republic Adventures (2023) 1
And I’ll be listening to the new audiobooks for Survivor’s Quest and Outbound Flight very soon as well. With an upcoming break in my work schedule, I may find time for some more comics as well.
It turns out I may not be able to finish more of the NJO this year — I don’t own all of them, and my library only has so many copies of each (hey, I’m just glad people are still checking them out). But maybe I’ll make that a 2024 Star Wars Reading Resolution.
Maybe.
Now This Is Lit is a podcast (and newsletter!) about Star Wars books, the people who make them, and the readers who just can’t get enough of them. You can find the show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the Substack for more deep dives, guides, interview transcripts, and book love.