A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2012 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or ™ where indicated.
All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
eISBN: 978-0-345-54272-4
www.starwars.com
www.star-wars.suvudu.com
v3.1
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
CHAPTER 1.
TALES OF ANCIENT JEDI AND SITH
CHAPTER 2.
HEIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC
CHAPTER 3.
THE CLONE WARS
CHAPTER 4.
THE DARK TIMES
CHAPTER 5.
THE GALACTIC CIVIL WAR
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
THE NEW REPUBLIC
THE NEW JEDI ORDER
CHAPTER 8.
APPENDIX A.
LEGACY
Works in Publication Order
APPENDIX B.
APPENDIX C.
Works by Author
Illustration Credits
Star Wars graced the silver screens of packed movie houses, its story was presented to an
B eager public
via the printed word. A tie-in novel based on the screenplay of Star Wars arrived in
EFORE
bookstores over five months prior to the film’s debut on May 25, 1977, helping to spread awareness of
the movie to come in a pre-digital, word-of-mouth age. As such, the very first Star Wars fans were
readers.
It was soon evident that Star Wars would surpass the bounds of summer entertainment to become
much more than just a movie. The faraway galaxy became a setting for legends. As production
promptly began on a sequel to the first film, creator George Lucas opened up his universe to
exploration by other storytellers. Comic book tales came first and proved to be a medium that would
be integral to the genesis of the Star Wars universe. Within a year of the film’s release, Alan Dean
Foster’s follow-up novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, became a bestseller.
Since that time, over 145 full-length novels have expanded the Star Wars story. More than one
hundred juvenile novels helped open the door for young readers into a lifetime of reading. Over 170
short stories added to the saga. It can be a very daunting task to navigate among these works. The
Essential Reader’s Companion hopes to guide you through these rich stories.
The Essential Reader’s Companion is a summary of Star Wars fiction for Star Wars readers of any
level. The novice reader, unsure of where to start, may find guidance by browsing through the curated
summaries. It is also meant for the intermediate Star Wars reader who has sampled some works, but
never realized how immense the library is. And, for the experts, it’s a fresh look at what they may
already know, hopefully with some new surprises thrown in—not to mention all-new illustrations of
characters and scenes previously only imagined.
WHAT’S NOT IN THIS BOOK
The Essential Reader’s Companion focuses on prose fiction. Graphic novels, every bit as essential to
the Expanded Universe, are beyond the scope of this book, though where relevant mentions of certain
stories are given in the text. The younger end of children’s literature—the illustrated storybooks,
chapter books, and beginner books—is also excluded, though works for young adults (ages twelve and
up) are included. Stories with variable plots—Solitaire Adventures, Choose Your Own Adventure,
Decide Your Destiny, and similar works—are also not included.
Stories of videogames, which often form important chapters in the lives of Star Wars characters, are
not covered unless they’ve been adapted into a book. Sometimes game books—such as roleplaying
game supplements and videogame strategy guides—include fictional sidebars or a fictional story that
frames the rules and game information. These, too, are not in the Companion.
WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK
Most of this book consists of summaries of novels, whether for adults or young adults. In some cases,
multibook stories that flow into one another are collected in a single entry. Short stories published in
official Star Wars periodicals or online are afforded their own entries or are described in sidebars
when they directly connect to a larger story.
Each entry includes the cover art—in some cases, multiple examples if more than one version of the
cover exists. It is important to note that in the case of multiple entries from the same source, the
Companion will show the cover only for the first entry from that source. An entry credits the author(s)
and cover artist(s), then lists the work’s publication history—format and release date. A note about
release dates: For consistency’s sake, the Companion uses the date as recorded in the indicia of the
publication, though the dates books were actually available for purchase may vary by weeks.
Where the story fits into the Star Wars time line follows, with a year annotated as BBY (for events
before the Battle of Yavin, as seen in the movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope) and ABY (for
events after the Battle of Yavin). For those interested in galactic cartography, a roster of the planets
visited in the story is given, complete with grid coordinates for use with the maps found in Star Wars:
The Essential Atlas. The Companion next identifies the main characters in a story, summarizes its
events, and in some cases offers “behind-the-scenes” information about a story’s creation or impact.
READING ORDER
The Companion presents Star Wars fiction in a recommended reading order that follows a
chronological flow within the Expanded Universe. However, the order presented prioritizes reading
experience over rigid adherence to chronology. For example, the Jedi Academy Trilogy and the novel
I, Jedi occur at the same time, often covering the same events. A rigid adherence to chronology would
recommend reading alternate parts of each work. Instead, the Companion recommends reading the
Jedi Academy Trilogy first; it was the first work published, and I, Jedi was written with the
expectation that it likely would be the second work read. If a book covers large spans of time, it’s
often where the story ends that determines its chronological placement, not where it begins.
CANON AND CONTINUITY
Common questions are: How “real” are these stories? Do they count? Did they really happen?
The most definitive canon of the Star Wars universe is encompassed by the feature films and
television productions in which George Lucas is directly involved. The movies and the Clone Wars
television series are what he and his handpicked writers reference when adding cinematic adventures
to the Star Wars oeuvre.
But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he directly oversees. In
many cases, the stewards of the Expanded Universe—editors within the licensing division of
Lucasfilm Ltd. who work with authors and publishers—will ask for his input or blessing on projects.
Though these stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are
depicted cinematically in one of his projects.
That said, unless something occurs in a canon project to directly contradict a published source, it can
reliably be said to have occurred. Extensive records track the growth of the Expanded Universe,
cataloging planets, characters, technology, and events, to allow for a sprawling, believable continuity
connecting the published works of the Star Wars universe. It’s not perfect—when errors occur, the
Companion does sometimes call them out. This is not to diminish these tales in any way, but rather to
illustrate that the Star Wars Expanded Universe is a living document that grows and evolves over
time.
The Reader’s Companion is not meant as a replacement for the experience of reading these works
firsthand. Those truly interested in the stories are strongly encouraged to read them whole. No matter
how detailed, a summary is no substitute for experiencing a story as the author intended.
C
Star Wars galaxy stretches back more than twenty-five thousand years, to an
ancient past where history and mythology are inextricably braided. There are legends of
enormously powerful alien cultures that were architects of some of the galaxy’s greatest wonders—the
unlikely conglomeration of black holes called the Maw, the peculiar alignment of the five worlds in
the Corellian system, and the remarkable spread of humanity across the stars in “prehistoric” times.
Star Wars storytelling has presented these fantastic origins as historical backstory, with most tales
beginning no earlier than five thousand years before the Battle of Yavin. An exception, the Dawn of
the Jedi comics series from Dark Horse Comics published in 2012, set 25,000 years in the past,
indicates that this frontier is open for narrative exploration.
Before the late 1990s, when George Lucas and his crew began work on Star Wars: Episode I The
Phantom Menace, Jedi lore was a precious rarity in the Expanded Universe. Lucasfilm kept a tight
guard on Jedi mythology, to give the stories Lucas wished to explore in Episodes I, II, and III as wide
a berth as possible. Enterprising authors found a way to tell Jedi stories by going far back in time,
millennia before the fall of the Republic. Thus, they afforded themselves considerable creative
freedom since differences of interpretation could be smoothed out by the passage of centuries.
IVILIZATION IN THE
Yaru Korsin
Orielle "Ori" Kitai
Zeerid "Z-man" Korr
Aryn Leneer
Darth Scabrous
Darth Zannah
Adari Vaal, atop her flying uvak, spots the half brothers Yaru and Devore Korsin fighting near the crash site of the Sith vessel Omen.
AUTHOR
· John Jackson Miller
COVER ARTIST
· David Stevenson and Scott Biel
P U B L I C AT I O N H I S T O RY
· Novel, Del Rey Books
· Trade paperback, July 2012
Originally serialized as eight eBook novellas:
· Precipice (May 2009), Skyborn (July 2009), Paragon (February 2010), Savior (April 2010),
Purgatory (October 2010), Sentinel (February 2011), Pantheon (July 2011), and Secrets (March
2012)
· 5000 BBY (Precipice, Skyborn), 4985 BBY (Paragon), 4975 BBY (Savior),
3960 BBY (Purgatory, Sentinel), 3000 BBY (Pantheon, Secrets), 2975 BBY (Pandemonium)
TIME LINE PLACEMENT
WORLD VISITED
· Kesh [U-10]
· Yaru Korsin, Grand Lord of the Skyborn (human male); Adari Vaal,
resistance leader (Keshiri female); Seelah, Sith crèche tender (human female); Jariad Korsin, Sith
High Lord (human male); Nida Korsin, Skyborn Ranger (human female); Orielle “Ori” Kitai, Sith
Saber (human female); Jelph Marrian, Jedi Covenant agent (human male); Varner Hilts, caretaker
(human male); Quarra Thayn, wardmaster (Keshiri female); Edell Vrai, Sith High Lord (human male);
Jogan Halder, watchman (Keshiri male)
MAIN
CHARACTERS
· During the Great Hyperspace War, the Sith mining vessel Omen crashes into Kesh, a
world unknown to either Republic or Sith. The ship’s commander, an enslaved human named Yaru
Korsin, tries to keep his tempestuous crew in line. Kesh is a relatively primitive world with a
superstitious population contained on the continent of Keshtar. At the very apex of Keshiri mythology
are the Skyborn, gods from above. The Sith newcomers are venerated as the gods incarnate by the
S U MMA RY
Keshiri. Within fifteen years, the new arrivals rule unchallenged over their Keshiri subjects. Yaru
Korsin becomes Grand Lord of the Skyborn.
Years later, an underground movement of Keshiri rebels conspires to rid their world of these
offworld intruders. The wicked machinations of Seelah, Yaru Korsin’s wife, wipe out the pureblood
Sith from among the Omen survivors, allowing the humans alone to survive. Seelah’s son, Jariad,
mortally wounds the Grand Lord in a coup. Although Yaru dies, he is survived by his daughter, Nida,
who punishes Seelah for her treachery.
More than a thousand years later, the Omen crash site becomes sacred ground to the Keshiri,
concealed by a temple in the mountains. The Sith dynasty continues, no longer propagated by
bloodline, but rather as a meritocracy shaped by bold examples of power and skillful political
maneuvering.
A botched assassination attempt targets the reigning Grand Lord, a doddering crone named Lillia
Venn. Culpability for the assault is pegged on High Lord Candra Kitain. She and her daughter, Orielle
Kitain, are stripped of status and enslaved. Ori flees to the countryside, finding some peace with a
lowly gardener named Jelph. Jelph, in truth, is a secret Jedi agent who has recently and accidentally
arrived on Kesh. Ori uncovers Jelph’s secrets, finding his Republic starfighter hidden in his shed.
Venn and a retinue of Sith Lords arrive at Jelph’s, also discovering the spacecraft. When Venn boards
the starfighter, she unwittingly trips an antitheft device rigged by Jelph that destroys the ship and
Venn in an explosion. This leaves Jelph and Ori together as exiles, in the wilderness, where they begin
a new life together.
After another millennium of stagnation, the Sith dynasty has splintered into squabbling factions that
only begrudgingly unite to honor the traditions of Yaru Korsin. Varner Hilts, a caretaker of Sith
customs, plays a traditional holographic recording made by Korsin at the end of his reign and intended
for his daughter, Nida. Before the assembled Sith factions, Hilts allows the recording to play past its
conclusion, revealing fragments of an earlier transmission never meant for public display—an image
of Naga Sadow identifying the crew of the Omen as slaves. This sends the Sith factions into disarray
as their view of their ancestors as godly conquerors is turned upside down. As the disillusioned Sith
factions begin to self-destruct, Hilts realizes there is more to Korsin’s recording. He has hidden a
message to Nida, with the cryptic words that “the true power lies behind the throne.”
Hilts finds Korsin’s old command chair that he used as a throne in a secret chamber within the Omen
temple. Korsin has hidden a map of the entire world of Kesh, revealing an unexplored continent on the
far side of the planet, a landmass recorded by Omen’s sensors during the crash but left unrevealed to
Korsin’s crew. Hilts realizes the key to unifying the disintegrating Sith factions is to give them a
target of conquest.
After twenty-five years of planning and advancements, the Sith have constructed a fleet of airships
to travel across the ocean and invade the new world. A gifted engineer, Edell Vrai, leads a scouting
fleet to Alanciar, the new land. The Keshiri of Alanciar are prepared, though, for they have remained
vigilant since being warned centuries earlier by Adari Vaal, a Keshiri who first greeted the Sith and
fled their rule during the reign of Yaru Korsin. Enormous ballistae shoot down the Sith airships, and
Edell crashes onto the coast. He takes a pair of Keshiri watchers, Quarra Thayn and Jogan Halder,
prisoner. While Edell has his Sith lieutenants take Halder back to the Keshtar homeland via boat, he
forces Quarra to bring him into the Alanciar civilization.
Edell admires the advanced architecture and engineering exhibited by these Keshiri, advancements
made necessary by their long-held fear of Sith invasion from afar. Edell is shocked to see a Sith
invasion force, impulsively launched from Keshtar before his scouting expedition could return,
attempting conquest of Alanciar. Its leader, the Sith Lord Bentado, seeks to betray his tribe and
destroy any remaining airships so he can rule the new land unchallenged. Quarra and Edell work
together and defeat Bentado.
Caretaker Hilts, now Grand Lord of the Lost Tribe, arrives as a benevolent contrast to Bentado’s
force. He brings with him Jogan, who sings the praises of the distant Sith, alleviating the concerns of
the Alanciar. Hilts, a far more pragmatic and even-minded ruler than the Grand Lords past, sees the
unification of Kesh as the key to the continued survival of the Lost Tribe. He make sure Jogan sees
only the best of Keshtar. Hilts even welcomes Keshiri blood into their ranks to ensure their future. A
new era of Kesh begins.
Click to buy Lost Tribe of the Sith: Star Wars: The Collected Stories
T
LOST TRIBE SERIES is a tie-in to Del Rey’s Fate of the Jedi novels, which were published from
2009 through 2012 and set more than forty years after A New Hope. The Fate books featured a new,
previously undiscovered faction of Sith that had escaped notice for thousands of years, since being
marooned on a primitive world. Each Lost Tribe story told an important tale of their history and
debuted as a free eBook concurrent with the release of books two through nine of the Fate series.
Pandemonium was an original story written for the trade paperback collection.
The Lost Tribe series begins in the thick of the Great Hyperspace War, a conflict between the
ancient Republic and the Sith that was the subject of two series from Dark Horse Comics, Tales of the
Jedi: The Golden Age of the Sith (1996–97) and Tales of the Jedi: The Fall of the Sith Empire (1997).
The Lost Tribe story continued in Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral, a comic book mini-series published
by Dark Horse Comics in the Fall of 2012.
The novel Crosscurrent (2010) also begins in 5000 BBY. The opening chapters feature a cameo by
the ship Omen and occur just before the events of Precipice. However, because Crosscurrent occurs in
multiple eras, the Companion includes it much later in the time line, at 40 ABY.
HE
SPOTLIGHT
Ta l e s o f t h e J e d i C o m i c s
Dark Horse Comics first blazed into the uncharted history of the ancient Sith and Jedi in
their seminal series Tales of the Jedi (1993–94). Written by Tom Veitch, who would be
joined by Kevin J. Anderson in sequels, the various Tales of the Jedi titles introduced a
new cast of Jedi and Sith legends, such as Ulic Qel-Droma, Freedon Nadd, Nomi
Sunrider, Exar Kun, and Naga Sadow. These characters and their actions would impact
stories told in novels for years to come.
As groundwork for the comics, Veitch prepared a questionnaire about Jedi and Sith lore
that George Lucas answered. With this information, the Tales of the Jedi comics were the
first to identify the Sith as an order of ambitious dark siders built around a master-andapprentice relationship.
The Tales of the Jedi comics chronicle two major events in the Republic’s history: the
Great Hyperspace War (5000 BBY) that brought the expanding Sith Empire and the
Republic into violent collision, and the Great Sith War (4000 BBY) that saw the resurgence
of the Sith with the corruption of the mighty Jedi Exar Kun.
AUTHOR
· Drew Karpyshyn
COVER ARTIST
· LucasArts
P U B L I C AT I O N H I S T O RY
· Novel, Del Rey Books
· Hardcover, November 2011
· Paperback, September 2012
TIME LINE PLACEMENT
· 3954–3950 BBY; c. 3900 BBY (epilogue)
· Bosthirda [R-5]; Coruscant [L-9]; Dromund Kaas [R-5]; Hallion [R-5];
Nathema [S-4]; Rekkiad [S-4]
WORLDS
VISITED
· Revan, Jedi Knight (human male); Lord Scourge, Sith Lord (Sith male);
Meetra Surik, Jedi Knight (human female); Canderous Ordo, Mandalorian mercenary (human male);
T3-M4, astromech droid; Darth Nyris, Dark Councilor (Sith female); Darth Xedrix, Dark Councilor
(human male); Bastila Shan, Jedi Knight (human female); Emperor Vitiate, Sith Emperor (human
male)
MAIN CHARACTERS
· Years after having returned from the dark side to save the galaxy from the Star Forge
crisis, Revan is a rehabilitated Jedi Knight who has married Bastila Shan. He is plagued by his
fragmented memories of the events that led him to the dark side, as well as nightmares of a stormshrouded world. Revan enlists the aid of his friend and teammate Canderous Ordo and the astromech
droid T3-M4 to retrace his steps before his fall, to see if he can stir some recollection.
S U MMA RY
Meanwhile, in the Sith Empire, the Dark Councilor Darth Nyris summons Lord Scourge to find who
is responsible for the attempts on her life. Scourge’s investigations find proof that Lord Xedrix, also a
Dark Councilor, is conspiring against the Emperor with separatists on Bosthirda. Scourge kills Xedrix,
but not before the Councilor plants the seeds of doubt in his mind concerning Nyris’s motives.
Ordo, Revan, and T3 voyage to the icy planet Rekkiad aboard the freighter Ebon Hawk. The icy
planet is the current home of the nomadic Mandalorian clans. Visions of the past help Revan find
items he hid there years ago—Mandalore’s Mask and a datacron belonging to a Sith Lord exile,
Dramath. Revan recalls that Mandalore the Ultimate revealed to him that he had been corrupted and
betrayed by a Sith Lord, who promised a successful campaign of conquest against the Republic. Revan
returns the mask to the Mandalorians, allowing Canderous to adopt the mantle of Mandalore the
Protector and lead his people. Revan follows his trail of memories to Nathema, the planet that
Dramath fled.
Scourge confronts Nyris about her plans, and she reveals the truth to him. She did indeed manipulate
him to kill Xedrix, a co-conspirator and one of several Dark Councilors plotting to stop the Emperor
before the tyrant launches an ill-advised attack against the Republic. Xedrix was sacrificed to protect
the Dark Council. To impress upon Scourge the importance of the Council’s motives, Nyris brings
him to Nathema, former homeworld of the Emperor.
The Emperor is one thousand years old. In a dark side ritual, he drained the life of his home planet,
Nathema, to achieve immortality. The world is now a lifeless husk, devoid of the Force. Scourge
comes to understand that such power is madness, and the Emperor has lost all reason. While on
Nathema, Scourge and Nyris cross paths with Revan, who arrives aboard the Ebon Hawk. Nyris blasts
Revan’s ship out of the sky, and the Sith take Revan prisoner.
Years pass. T3-M4 returns to Bastila Shan on Coruscant, helped by a Jedi exile, Meetra Surik.
Meetra and Bastila learn from T3 that the Sith, long thought extinct, are somehow involved in Revan’s
disappearance. Meetra and T3 return to Nathema, where she finds the location of Dromund Kaas, the
Sith homeworld. There she meets with Scourge, the Sith Lord whose image T3-M4 managed to record
holographically at the time of Revan’s capture.
In the years since Revan’s imprisonment, Scourge has been meeting with the Jedi Knight and has
learned secrets of the Force from Revan. Scourge is still wary of the Emperor and has become
convinced that Revan holds the key to stopping the ruler’s plans. Scourge needs to rescue Revan from
Nyris’s prison and allies with Meetra to that end.
Scourge reveals to the Emperor Nyris’s plot against him, presenting him with evidence of her
treachery. The Emperor orders the Imperial Guard to strike against Nyris. Using the chaos of this
reprisal as cover, Scourge and Meetra free Revan but are nearly stopped by Nyris. Revan’s raw power
in the Force bends Nyris’s Sith lightning back at her, utterly destroying the Sith Lord. The trio of
Scourge, Meetra, and Revan escape into secret caves, where T3 projects an image for Revan of Bastila
and his now three-year-old son, Vaner. The Emperor, meanwhile, destroys all twelve Dark Councilors
to send a message against any who would plot against him.
Revan is determined to keep the galaxy safe for his child. Scourge, Meetra, and Revan enter the
Emperor’s citadel and challenge the supreme ruler. The Emperor’s power is too much for Revan.
Recognizing that the Emperor is undefeatable, Scourge kills Meetra and betrays Revan. Scourge tells
the Emperor that he had plotted to expose these assassins once he realized he alone would not be
powerful enough to stop them. The Emperor believes Scourge and rewards him with the title of
Emperor’s Wrath.
In truth, Scourge still thinks the Emperor must be stopped. His betrayal of the Jedi was a bid to buy
himself more time. Revan languishes in a Sith prison, mentally exhibiting subtle pressure against the
Emperor’s mind to keep the dark ruler from attacking the Republic. As it is, the Emperor is
preoccupied with securing the Sith Empire, rebuilding the Dark Council, and rooting out traitors.
In this way, peace lasts for another fifty years. Bastila and Revan’s child, Vaner, grows into an
influential man of politics with children of his own.
Click to buy The Old Republic: Revan
Revan looks upon a hologram of his wife, Bastila, and their child, Vaner.