It's Lit: Star Wars Book Starters, Mark Oshiro's Ewok Obsession, and Cataclysmic Events

The best Star Wars book entry points, interview highlights, and non-spoiler The High Republic: Cataclysm thoughts.

Another week has come and gone, and it seems the excitement for Star Wars books will never wind down. (This is not a complaint.)

From another Cataclysm excerpt to an extra push to read Battle Scars thanks to a new Star Wars video game trailer, the nonstop book hype continues!

I’ve been busy finishing the former book mentioned above (I have a few separate versions of a review to write and there are only so many hours in the day), recording our spoiler discussion for the latter (due mid-April), and desperately scrambling to get episodes scheduled ahead for a little trip I’m taking at the beginning of May.

(The trip is my May 4th Star Wars wedding and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.)

But let’s be honest—I’ve also been busy writing Twitter Star Wars book threads, because people like them and I like doing them (most of the time).

Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about this week.

Why Thrawn Is a Great Star Wars Book to Start With, Actually

When I tweeted (yeah, I still do that for some reason) earlier this week about Star Wars book entry points, I did something apparently quite controversial: I didn’t include any Legends books in the list.

Here are the Star Wars book “starters” I recommended:

• Light of the Jedi

• Brotherhood

• Phasma

• Thrawn (2017)

• Lost Stars

The reason the first Canon Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn makes the list and Heir to the Empire doesn’t is simple: I do not tend to recommend Legends to new Star Wars readers. I love Legends. I grew up reading Legends. Some of my favorite Star Wars books are Legends books.

What I refuse to try to explain to Twitter trolls is that Star Wars fans who have seen the sequel trilogy and Star Wars TV shows might find it easier and less confusing to start with books that follow the same “timeline,” if you will. If you throw Heir to the Empire at someone who knows what happens after Return of the Jedi in Canon, they are going to be confused.

The whole point of helping people start their Star Wars reading journey is to make it as easy as possible. Just because you grew up reading about Mara Jade doesn’t mean everyone has to or should.

I recommend books like Thrawn because they feature characters that might be somewhat familiar to fans who are new to the books while easing them into the expanded universe.

Everyone can and should read Legends! I personally don’t like recommending Legends as a starting point. But that’s just me.

Mark Oshiro Is Obsessed With Ewoks

Who isn’t obsessed with murder bears? When I asked Mark Oshiro about their dream Star Wars project, they didn’t even have to think about it.

A middle-grade story all about Ewoks? Sign me up.

“I want to write a [middle-grade book] … from the point of view of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. I want the whole story, but only from them. I am obsessed with the Ewoks. I love their culture. I love their place in the movies. I love how much detail George Lucas gave to them and the development of them. And I feel like the Ewoks are severely underrated, and I'm like, what a great vehicle to tell a story about resistance to empires.”

You can listen to the full interview on Episode 22 of the podcast—the written version is still in progress because transcribing interviews is a TASK, okay? It’s important to me and I promise it will be up soon.

My Spoiler-Free Cataclysm Thoughts

Even though Lydia Kang’s Cataclysm doesn’t release until April 4—and my full spoiler-free review doesn’t release until next week—sometimes the immediate, raw reaction to finishing a book is the one that matters almost more than a polished, fully-formed review.

Without spoiling anything about the book (I firmly believe in letting people make discoveries about stories on their own terms), I’ll say a few things that hopefully either convince you to read it (if you weren’t planning to) or skyrocket your hype for it (if you were already going to devour it).

First—it continues to amaze me how in sync the Luminous authors are with one another. When you go from one High Republic book to another, you don’t just know it’s by a different author; you feel it. Every author brings their own voice and style into the story they’re telling even though it’s part of a larger series of books.

And yet, when you start reading a High Republic book—no matter whose name is on the cover—you KNOW it’s a High Republic book. There’s a certain cohesiveness to the narrative, the tone, the way characters interact with one another and how the themes are laid out in each story.

Lydia Kang is brand-new to The High Republic. Yet it feels like she’s been here all along. Some might say she “gets it.” She fits right in. This book feels like a High Republic, yet it drives the story forward in such a unique way thanks to Kang’s beautiful prose.

Second—I’ve never felt as attached to High Republic characters as I did reading Cataclysm. And that’s largely due to Kang’s brilliant character work.

It does make … certain things hurt a little bit more.

But I think I have to stop there, or I’ll end up writing my whole review in this text box and I really shouldn’t do that.

My full spoiler-free review of the book comes out this Tuesday, March 28 on Now This Is Lit. Keep in mind that Quest for Planet X also releases on April 4, but a review will have to come for that book a little later since review copies weren’t sent out for that one.

That’s all for this week, fellow readers! Stay lit.