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Star Wars Disney Canon Reference Books
Skywalker: A Family at War
Uncover the secrets of the Skywalkers: the family that shaped a galaxy far, far away...
The Skywalker story has everything: passion, intrigue, heroism, and dark deeds.
This revelatory biography explores every twist and turn of the Skywalker dynasty: the slow seduction to the dark side of Anakin; his doomed marriage to Padmé Amidala; the heroics of Luke and Leia; the fall and redemption of Han Solo and Princess Leia's son, Ben; and the struggles of his dyad in the Force, Rey.
Leaving no stone unturned in tracing the dynasty's trials and tribulations, this definitive biography of Star Wars' first family explores and explains the deeper, more personal story of the Skywalkers, their characters, motivations, and, against seemingly impossible odds, their ultimate triumph.
© AND TM 2021 LUCASFILM LTD.
The Skywalker story has everything: passion, intrigue, heroism, and dark deeds.
This revelatory biography explores every twist and turn of the Skywalker dynasty: the slow seduction to the dark side of Anakin; his doomed marriage to Padmé Amidala; the heroics of Luke and Leia; the fall and redemption of Han Solo and Princess Leia's son, Ben; and the struggles of his dyad in the Force, Rey.
Leaving no stone unturned in tracing the dynasty's trials and tribulations, this definitive biography of Star Wars' first family explores and explains the deeper, more personal story of the Skywalkers, their characters, motivations, and, against seemingly impossible odds, their ultimate triumph.
© AND TM 2021 LUCASFILM LTD.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 6, 2021
211 people are currently reading
1112 people want to read
About the author
Kristin Baver
10 books44 followersKristin Baver is the Associate Editor of StarWars.com, covering Star Wars news, writing interview features on George Lucas and other important figures in the Star Wars galaxy, as well as spotlighting the dedicated fan community and their impressive and imaginative creations. She is the host of This Week! in Star Wars and The Star Wars Show Book Club. She previously worked as an award-winning journalist covering crime and social issues in central Pennsylvania, but now lives with her cat, Hector Smidget, in San Francisco, California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
August 21, 2022
This book is a lot more then I was expecting it to be. I would have rated it 4.5 stars but I definitely think it deserves a round up instead of down. I can't hate the book for being what it is supposed to be. It is written a bit like a history/summary book of the Skywalker family, and that is exactly what it is supposed to be.
The reason the book is more that I expected is not only does it cover events of the movies (prequels, original, and sequel trilogies and Rouge One and Solo), the series (Clone Wars including the final season, Rebels), but not Bad Batch, aside from their appearance in the final season of Clone Wars, or The Mandolorin. It also does what I wish the sequel movie directors did an researches all the book and comics current releases in the Disney era of Star Wars. Any book with a mention of any Skywalker is in here.
This book is a great read to relive some of my favourite Star Wars moments. As well as some of my not so favourite ones but as the books says you have to take the good with the bad (in the form of light and dark sides). As I have not read all the Star Wars comics there were some extra bit of information in here as well as a confirmation of a under used character from the Rise of Skywalker in terms of their abilities. The book also has done great pictures from the movies. A very good summary of the Disney era.
The reason the book is more that I expected is not only does it cover events of the movies (prequels, original, and sequel trilogies and Rouge One and Solo), the series (Clone Wars including the final season, Rebels), but not Bad Batch, aside from their appearance in the final season of Clone Wars, or The Mandolorin. It also does what I wish the sequel movie directors did an researches all the book and comics current releases in the Disney era of Star Wars. Any book with a mention of any Skywalker is in here.
This book is a great read to relive some of my favourite Star Wars moments. As well as some of my not so favourite ones but as the books says you have to take the good with the bad (in the form of light and dark sides). As I have not read all the Star Wars comics there were some extra bit of information in here as well as a confirmation of a under used character from the Rise of Skywalker in terms of their abilities. The book also has done great pictures from the movies. A very good summary of the Disney era.
July 6, 2021
2.5/5, but bear in mind that I'm a heartless, nitpicking shrew so that impacts the rating.
This is marginally more interesting than reading Wookieepedia entries, but it's roughly the same experience. I picked this up hoping it would fill in the gaps of some of the comics/novels I haven't read, which to its credit it does do. That being said, I do have some critiques:
-The breakdown of this is tremendously skewed toward the prequels and Anakin specifically. Without actually doing the actual math to count out pages, I would say it's about 60% prequels, 30% original trilogy, and 10% sequels. I should've known better at this point, but I was hoping for a bit more coverage of stuff we haven't seen a million times before - like what Luke was doing between the ages of 30-60, but that's relegated to only a sentence. This also isn't a personal complaint but worth noting that the OT section heavily focuses on Leia instead of Luke - which I was fine with because there's plenty of other SW material that gives Luke a spotlight, but that is worth mentioning because it's not really a true balance. But Leia often gets relegated to the side so I was glad to see her getting more attention.
-The writing was really clunky and needed another edit. There were numerous times where sentences would just straight-up have the wrong word in them and be confusing as a result. Additionally, it's very clear this author is mostly versed in more straightforward, reporting-style writing. Which is perfectly fine, but this biography tries to get inside the characters' heads and describe their emotions, and it's very clear this author's forte is not writing emotional, lyrical, or evocative language. The end result is these sentences read a bit awkward. Just again - it needed another sweep of editing.
-This is to be expected, but just to confirm: a VAST majority of this is just summarizing events of the movies.
-This isn't really the author's fault, but this highlights how little sense Star Wars lore actually makes. It's full of contradictions and retcons, and the author tries to smooth out the wrinkles but they're still there. Some things are omitted entirely, which I can't say I blame them for trying to squash (notably, this book goes into painstaking detail recounting every event of the OT but we skip over the incestous Luke/Leia moments and kiss).
-There's a lot of...weirdness with how the male characters and female characters are written in relation to each other. A notable example is how Anakin's chapters repeatedly compare his love for Padme to his love for his mother. Less incestous, but Rey's sections also heavily focus on her ability to sooth/balance out Kylo Ren. Basically this book goes out of its way to highlight how "motherly" every female Star Wars character is whether or not that really fits that specific character.
This is marginally more interesting than reading Wookieepedia entries, but it's roughly the same experience. I picked this up hoping it would fill in the gaps of some of the comics/novels I haven't read, which to its credit it does do. That being said, I do have some critiques:
-The breakdown of this is tremendously skewed toward the prequels and Anakin specifically. Without actually doing the actual math to count out pages, I would say it's about 60% prequels, 30% original trilogy, and 10% sequels. I should've known better at this point, but I was hoping for a bit more coverage of stuff we haven't seen a million times before - like what Luke was doing between the ages of 30-60, but that's relegated to only a sentence. This also isn't a personal complaint but worth noting that the OT section heavily focuses on Leia instead of Luke - which I was fine with because there's plenty of other SW material that gives Luke a spotlight, but that is worth mentioning because it's not really a true balance. But Leia often gets relegated to the side so I was glad to see her getting more attention.
-The writing was really clunky and needed another edit. There were numerous times where sentences would just straight-up have the wrong word in them and be confusing as a result. Additionally, it's very clear this author is mostly versed in more straightforward, reporting-style writing. Which is perfectly fine, but this biography tries to get inside the characters' heads and describe their emotions, and it's very clear this author's forte is not writing emotional, lyrical, or evocative language. The end result is these sentences read a bit awkward. Just again - it needed another sweep of editing.
-This is to be expected, but just to confirm: a VAST majority of this is just summarizing events of the movies.
-This isn't really the author's fault, but this highlights how little sense Star Wars lore actually makes. It's full of contradictions and retcons, and the author tries to smooth out the wrinkles but they're still there. Some things are omitted entirely, which I can't say I blame them for trying to squash (notably, this book goes into painstaking detail recounting every event of the OT but we skip over the incestous Luke/Leia moments and kiss).
-There's a lot of...weirdness with how the male characters and female characters are written in relation to each other. A notable example is how Anakin's chapters repeatedly compare his love for Padme to his love for his mother. Less incestous, but Rey's sections also heavily focus on her ability to sooth/balance out Kylo Ren. Basically this book goes out of its way to highlight how "motherly" every female Star Wars character is whether or not that really fits that specific character.
May 6, 2021
My heart is so full, y'all. I don't even know where to start with this one. Perhaps along the lines of "Kristin Baver knocked this out of the damn park" because that is absolutely what happened here. I'm a fast reader but I usually like to take a couple of days to go through a book. I read this in a day.
[READ FULL REVIEW: https://arezoudeetoo.com/2021/05/05/b...]
When this book was first announced, I assumed it would be a coffee table, behind-the-scenes type deal. This may be on me for not reading the description. OK, fine, it's totally on me.
When reviews and more information about Skywalker: A Family At War started coming out, I was less surprised to find out what it wasn't - a behind-the-scenes coffee table book - and more surprised to find out what it was: an account of the Skywalker family written like a biography. Like an honest-to-goodness real life biography. There is nothing in the book that presents the information as fictional. As far as you, the reader, are concerned, everything here actually happened. The book even had two little clusters of glossy picture pages, captioned the way you'd see in a non-fiction book.
What Kristin Baver does in this book is take the story of the Skywalkers, both on screen and in all the canon ancillary material, and compile it in one place. She draws parallels across generations and provides context and motivation for every decision they make. As someone who has read a lot of the ancillary material, I never felt like she was retreading something I already knew. None of it was new information per se, but it was all presented in such a lovely, coherent well-woven family tapestry.
Do yourself a favour and read this. My heart is so damn full right now.
[READ FULL REVIEW: https://arezoudeetoo.com/2021/05/05/b...]
When this book was first announced, I assumed it would be a coffee table, behind-the-scenes type deal. This may be on me for not reading the description. OK, fine, it's totally on me.
When reviews and more information about Skywalker: A Family At War started coming out, I was less surprised to find out what it wasn't - a behind-the-scenes coffee table book - and more surprised to find out what it was: an account of the Skywalker family written like a biography. Like an honest-to-goodness real life biography. There is nothing in the book that presents the information as fictional. As far as you, the reader, are concerned, everything here actually happened. The book even had two little clusters of glossy picture pages, captioned the way you'd see in a non-fiction book.
What Kristin Baver does in this book is take the story of the Skywalkers, both on screen and in all the canon ancillary material, and compile it in one place. She draws parallels across generations and provides context and motivation for every decision they make. As someone who has read a lot of the ancillary material, I never felt like she was retreading something I already knew. None of it was new information per se, but it was all presented in such a lovely, coherent well-woven family tapestry.
Do yourself a favour and read this. My heart is so damn full right now.
August 18, 2021
This book is an exhaustive retelling of the entire Skywalker saga, pulling from not just the movies, but all "in canon" sources including novels, TV shows, and comics. The author, Kristin Baver, does an outstanding job weaving all of this content into a cohesive history. Unfortunately, that's also the book's fatal flaw.
Who is this book for? I couldn't get that one question out of my head the entire time I was reading it.
Is it for someone like me that has consumed most if not all of the reference material for this story? I found myself frequently impatient as familiar plot points were discussed at length. It's like listening to a kid tell you about this cool Star Wars A New Hope movie they just saw for the first time. Yes, that Darth Vader guy is scary and dangerous. Yes, lightsabers are pretty cool. Yes, the princess is awesome. Yes, it was exciting when Luke destroyed the Death Star.
Is it for a new fan or someone unfamiliar with the non-movie reference material? If so, the shear amount of detail must be both too little and too much. I can imagine such a reader wondering where all the extra story came from and why all this action seemed to happen off the movie screen.
I'm not thrilled about the less than favorable feeling I had after finishing the book. Baver really did put the entire Skywalker storyline into a very nice order, and I applaud the effort. It's just that there's nothing new in the book. There's little to no analysis of the plot points, and even when drawing connections between events, there is only minimal discussion of the most basic concepts.
It's worth a check-out from the library, but not a purchase. It's worth starting, but not feeling like you're missing something if you abandon the book before finishing.
Who is this book for? I couldn't get that one question out of my head the entire time I was reading it.
Is it for someone like me that has consumed most if not all of the reference material for this story? I found myself frequently impatient as familiar plot points were discussed at length. It's like listening to a kid tell you about this cool Star Wars A New Hope movie they just saw for the first time. Yes, that Darth Vader guy is scary and dangerous. Yes, lightsabers are pretty cool. Yes, the princess is awesome. Yes, it was exciting when Luke destroyed the Death Star.
Is it for a new fan or someone unfamiliar with the non-movie reference material? If so, the shear amount of detail must be both too little and too much. I can imagine such a reader wondering where all the extra story came from and why all this action seemed to happen off the movie screen.
I'm not thrilled about the less than favorable feeling I had after finishing the book. Baver really did put the entire Skywalker storyline into a very nice order, and I applaud the effort. It's just that there's nothing new in the book. There's little to no analysis of the plot points, and even when drawing connections between events, there is only minimal discussion of the most basic concepts.
It's worth a check-out from the library, but not a purchase. It's worth starting, but not feeling like you're missing something if you abandon the book before finishing.
April 24, 2021
Fascinating look into the history of the Skywalker family. Reading at times as an academic look into what made the Skywalker family progress from Anakin to Rey & Kylo Ren, this book covers everything in between. Covering all the movies, animated shows, and previous Canon novels , this book ultimately becomes a fascinating read for fans of the Star Wars saga.
What I really enjoyed about this book is that it really fills in the details that the movies omitted. Peering more into the psyche of those in the Skywalker family, the book delves into what made the family tick. This book provides a more personal and in-depth look into Anakin, Padme, Leia, Luke, Han, Rey, and Kylo Ren.
What I really enjoyed about this book is that it really fills in the details that the movies omitted. Peering more into the psyche of those in the Skywalker family, the book delves into what made the family tick. This book provides a more personal and in-depth look into Anakin, Padme, Leia, Luke, Han, Rey, and Kylo Ren.
March 3, 2024
This is a nice gift to give to an individual who would love to understand Star Wars or who would like to become a fan. A veteran Star Wars fan will feel the nostalgia between these pages.
This is 292 pages of all nine films (including the Clone Wars TV series) explaining the Skywalker dynasty.
The first meeting of the chosen one up until the redemption his grandson brought to the galaxy.
It shows indept of the turning of Anakin to the dark side by Sheev Palpatine. How he had been manipulated that he even doubted the love of his life. Padme was always his light.
I was intrigued and kept turning the pages, even in the light glimpse of the twins' lives between the original trilogy and how everything fitted in like puzzle pieces.
I was amazed at how little the sequel trilogy meant anything in this dynasty, or is it just me?
This is 292 pages of all nine films (including the Clone Wars TV series) explaining the Skywalker dynasty.
The first meeting of the chosen one up until the redemption his grandson brought to the galaxy.
It shows indept of the turning of Anakin to the dark side by Sheev Palpatine. How he had been manipulated that he even doubted the love of his life. Padme was always his light.
I was intrigued and kept turning the pages, even in the light glimpse of the twins' lives between the original trilogy and how everything fitted in like puzzle pieces.
I was amazed at how little the sequel trilogy meant anything in this dynasty, or is it just me?
October 2, 2021
Skywalker: A Family at War purports to be an in-universe biography of the Skywalker family. That conceit of course falls apart quickly, because the biographer has access to details that we see in the movies but would be impossible for a researcher within that world to discover. But then, given that the biographer has access to private details, why wouldn’t she know the answers to some questions that the movies raise but don’t answer? It’s awkward.
Basically, this book is Wookieepedia: The Novel, an attempt to draw together all the movies, TV series, books, and graphic novels into a single story. If you haven’t seen all the movies, many parts of the book won’t make sense. It’s hard to say how helpful the book would be if you haven’t read all the books and graphic novels. It might be an interesting, though perhaps confusing, way to fill in the gaps between the movies, and it’s certainly a lot quicker than reading all the canon SW books.
A biography of a real family would need to find a theme that unifies all the small details. In this book, however, Kristin Baver is so desperate to rush through the details from the movies that she doesn’t find a compelling theme that supports the whole story from start to finish. She occasionally steps in to give a moralizing “lesson”—“The problem with power is that no amount of authority and influence is ever enough” (108)—but nothing that makes sense of Rey and Ben in the sequel trilogy. She also has to ret-con liberally, which disrupts the original trilogy more than anything else.
The writing style throughout is poor. It seems neither the author nor the editor knows what a dangling modifier is. Danglers appear all over the place in the book, sometimes unintentionally comedic, other times just puzzling. The book also includes a large number of typos which should have been caught before publication. All of these technical errors, combined with the overall lack of unifying purpose, make Skywalker: A Family at War feel like an unnecessary exercise that will be quickly forgotten.
Basically, this book is Wookieepedia: The Novel, an attempt to draw together all the movies, TV series, books, and graphic novels into a single story. If you haven’t seen all the movies, many parts of the book won’t make sense. It’s hard to say how helpful the book would be if you haven’t read all the books and graphic novels. It might be an interesting, though perhaps confusing, way to fill in the gaps between the movies, and it’s certainly a lot quicker than reading all the canon SW books.
A biography of a real family would need to find a theme that unifies all the small details. In this book, however, Kristin Baver is so desperate to rush through the details from the movies that she doesn’t find a compelling theme that supports the whole story from start to finish. She occasionally steps in to give a moralizing “lesson”—“The problem with power is that no amount of authority and influence is ever enough” (108)—but nothing that makes sense of Rey and Ben in the sequel trilogy. She also has to ret-con liberally, which disrupts the original trilogy more than anything else.
The writing style throughout is poor. It seems neither the author nor the editor knows what a dangling modifier is. Danglers appear all over the place in the book, sometimes unintentionally comedic, other times just puzzling. The book also includes a large number of typos which should have been caught before publication. All of these technical errors, combined with the overall lack of unifying purpose, make Skywalker: A Family at War feel like an unnecessary exercise that will be quickly forgotten.
April 9, 2021
A book all fans of the Universe should own!
As a non-spolier... this is NOT a new story, or fictional tale. This is a sketch biography of thr Skywalker lineage and heritage.
I LOVED the concept of this... I mean, what other family... possibly in all of literature or pop-culture had as much of a bearing on the fate of an entire galaxy, if not the Skywalkers?
While, I will grant, at times it feel like this is a bit of a 'sum-up' of the action in the core movies, as you get further into the book you find that it ties in so much more. Multiple films, TV adaptations and expanded universe stories are all depicted chronologically, giving new insight into the psyche and inward/outward pressures effecting the Skywalkers.
Too, I found that it helped paint a more complete picture of the back third of the series of movies, showing the continuing legacy of the Skywalkers.
Love it or hate it, respect it. For this is the first deep look at the complexities around Pop-Culture's First Family at war.
As a non-spolier... this is NOT a new story, or fictional tale. This is a sketch biography of thr Skywalker lineage and heritage.
I LOVED the concept of this... I mean, what other family... possibly in all of literature or pop-culture had as much of a bearing on the fate of an entire galaxy, if not the Skywalkers?
While, I will grant, at times it feel like this is a bit of a 'sum-up' of the action in the core movies, as you get further into the book you find that it ties in so much more. Multiple films, TV adaptations and expanded universe stories are all depicted chronologically, giving new insight into the psyche and inward/outward pressures effecting the Skywalkers.
Too, I found that it helped paint a more complete picture of the back third of the series of movies, showing the continuing legacy of the Skywalkers.
Love it or hate it, respect it. For this is the first deep look at the complexities around Pop-Culture's First Family at war.
June 25, 2021
This was not as awesome as I hoped it would be.
In the beginning, I was excited. I was enjoying the beginning chapters, but soon my enjoyment was dwindling down the further into the story I got. Let's start with by addressing the flow of the book. At first, it was fine, more than fine. Everything was going smoothly until things started to become a little bumpy.
There were times where it contradicted itself. For instance, at the end of one chapter, it’s told how Anakin would willingly sacrifice, not only his own life, but the life of his child so long as it meant saving Padmé from death. But then two chapters later, it changes its tone by saying “… a sacrifice so that his child might survive” which was strange since literally two chapters ago he was on board to sacrifice his kid if it meant his wife would live.
A few other times I often thought it would have been better, flowed better, if the explanation of why something happened had been given after the thing had happened. Maybe that’s just me and how my brain works. Additionally, what also jarred me out of this reading experience were the grammatical errors. Each misused word, like how one sentence used “or” when it should have been “of”, each missing word to make the sentence flow, like “… then Luke had to believe would lay down his life…” took me out of the reading.
Perhaps I’m being too nitpicky, but those are just my thoughts and feelings about it. It’s an okay book, I guess, for those who don’t know anything about Star Wars, but other than summarizing and referencing what happened between the prequels to the sequels? It didn’t have anything new or insightful to offer.
In the beginning, I was excited. I was enjoying the beginning chapters, but soon my enjoyment was dwindling down the further into the story I got. Let's start with by addressing the flow of the book. At first, it was fine, more than fine. Everything was going smoothly until things started to become a little bumpy.
There were times where it contradicted itself. For instance, at the end of one chapter, it’s told how Anakin would willingly sacrifice, not only his own life, but the life of his child so long as it meant saving Padmé from death. But then two chapters later, it changes its tone by saying “… a sacrifice so that his child might survive” which was strange since literally two chapters ago he was on board to sacrifice his kid if it meant his wife would live.
A few other times I often thought it would have been better, flowed better, if the explanation of why something happened had been given after the thing had happened. Maybe that’s just me and how my brain works. Additionally, what also jarred me out of this reading experience were the grammatical errors. Each misused word, like how one sentence used “or” when it should have been “of”, each missing word to make the sentence flow, like “… then Luke had to believe would lay down his life…” took me out of the reading.
Perhaps I’m being too nitpicky, but those are just my thoughts and feelings about it. It’s an okay book, I guess, for those who don’t know anything about Star Wars, but other than summarizing and referencing what happened between the prequels to the sequels? It didn’t have anything new or insightful to offer.
May 14, 2021
Kristin Baver did an excellent job. Whoever proofread/edited it, did not.
April 21, 2021
The back of this book describes it as a "revelatory biography." In actuality it was a poorly written summary of the Skywalker movies, rife with grammatical and typographical errors. A few oblique references to non-theatrical, canonical adventures, such as Clone War-era battles or the life of Leia between "Jedi" and "Force Awakens," are weak and unsourced. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
May 6, 2021
It's a great biography! The chapter titled "the sacrifice of Luke Skywalker" had a positive effect on my mental health. Also, the chapters "and light to meet it" and "the last jedi" were exceptional, but of course I loved the whole thing. I enjoyed learning new things, and thinking about the saga in new ways.
May 24, 2022
I didn’t have super high expectations for this book; it being a biography of a family/synopsis of a story that I’m already really familiar with. I was hoping for some extraneous details from canon materials other than the movies and tv shows, and in that respect, the book did teach me some things.
However, (and I mean this in the kindest way possible) it read like a thesis project that the author was super excited about in the beginning until she realized just how long and intense a project she’d committed to, and then had to rush to finish it on a deadline. What I mean is the last half of this book seems extra rushed and “recappy.” The prequel sections of the book were pretty interesting and drawn out, but the OG trilogy and sequels are given little to no analysis.
Like I said, I knew going into this that I was reading a summary of an epic that I already love and know a lot about… but I feel like the author missed a lot of opportunities to dig deeper into analysis, and characters’ feelings and emotions, rather than simply say, “this happened, then this, and then this.”
That’s not to say that the author doesn’t sometimes make cool connections. She definitely knows her stuff, and truly there was a lot of content to address. But especially with some of the typos, sentence structure, and punctuation mistakes (could be easily fixed!) it just winds up making the project seemed half rushed, not entirely polished.
The very brief summary of the sequel trilogy really put into focus just how contradictory Luke’s decisions can be- from idolizing the Jedi, to condemning them for their mistakes. From anger at the truth of his parentage being kept from
him, to doing the same EXACT thing with Ben, leading to his descent to the dark side. The analysis on the sequel trilogy could have been the most interesting part of this book, since it’s the segment of the Skywalker story that could really use the most explanation… but perhaps the author did the best she could to make sense of what Disney did lol.
A good read, if you can get it from a library. Wouldn’t purchase.
However, (and I mean this in the kindest way possible) it read like a thesis project that the author was super excited about in the beginning until she realized just how long and intense a project she’d committed to, and then had to rush to finish it on a deadline. What I mean is the last half of this book seems extra rushed and “recappy.” The prequel sections of the book were pretty interesting and drawn out, but the OG trilogy and sequels are given little to no analysis.
Like I said, I knew going into this that I was reading a summary of an epic that I already love and know a lot about… but I feel like the author missed a lot of opportunities to dig deeper into analysis, and characters’ feelings and emotions, rather than simply say, “this happened, then this, and then this.”
That’s not to say that the author doesn’t sometimes make cool connections. She definitely knows her stuff, and truly there was a lot of content to address. But especially with some of the typos, sentence structure, and punctuation mistakes (could be easily fixed!) it just winds up making the project seemed half rushed, not entirely polished.
The very brief summary of the sequel trilogy really put into focus just how contradictory Luke’s decisions can be- from idolizing the Jedi, to condemning them for their mistakes. From anger at the truth of his parentage being kept from
him, to doing the same EXACT thing with Ben, leading to his descent to the dark side. The analysis on the sequel trilogy could have been the most interesting part of this book, since it’s the segment of the Skywalker story that could really use the most explanation… but perhaps the author did the best she could to make sense of what Disney did lol.
A good read, if you can get it from a library. Wouldn’t purchase.
August 30, 2021
This book took me a really long time to read because I had to stop several times until I’d finished another book since I didn’t want to read spoilers here, so I’m partially working off my memory. But:
Overall impression is that this is a good book to read if 1) you’re a Star Wars nerd (and you have to be a nerd, because this is *not* the most compelling writing you’ll ever read—it really does feel a tad like a biography; more straightforward than exciting) and 2) especially if you haven’t consumed every bit of content in existence, like if you love the movies but don’t read many of the books or comics or if you love the movies and books and shows but haven’t read the comics. I haven’t read any comics at all, and likely never will, so for me it was nice to get a summary of the extra content from those mixed in with the things I already knew. It’s stuff I would never learn about otherwise. I can’t speak to how this would feel for someone who HAS read absolutely everything, but I think the slightly boring writing style might feel more prominent then.
I highlighted quite a few tidbits while I was going through it though, things that I hadn’t heard before or that I liked the way it was presented or explained. My least favorite section was the first part covering the prequels, because those are my least favorite movies, so I didn’t enjoy the parts that basically just retold the events of the movies. But there were still enough good bits scattered throughout the whole book that I gave it 4 stars, even though it wasn’t consistently that level of enjoyment. It felt worth the read to me and I’ll probably refer back to it for the useful way it presented some content.
Overall impression is that this is a good book to read if 1) you’re a Star Wars nerd (and you have to be a nerd, because this is *not* the most compelling writing you’ll ever read—it really does feel a tad like a biography; more straightforward than exciting) and 2) especially if you haven’t consumed every bit of content in existence, like if you love the movies but don’t read many of the books or comics or if you love the movies and books and shows but haven’t read the comics. I haven’t read any comics at all, and likely never will, so for me it was nice to get a summary of the extra content from those mixed in with the things I already knew. It’s stuff I would never learn about otherwise. I can’t speak to how this would feel for someone who HAS read absolutely everything, but I think the slightly boring writing style might feel more prominent then.
I highlighted quite a few tidbits while I was going through it though, things that I hadn’t heard before or that I liked the way it was presented or explained. My least favorite section was the first part covering the prequels, because those are my least favorite movies, so I didn’t enjoy the parts that basically just retold the events of the movies. But there were still enough good bits scattered throughout the whole book that I gave it 4 stars, even though it wasn’t consistently that level of enjoyment. It felt worth the read to me and I’ll probably refer back to it for the useful way it presented some content.
March 20, 2022
A cool idea that was failed during execution. A book written in the biography style in the Star Wars Universe should of been a home run for me, but it never came close to reaching the potential of its premise. It was just boring. It could of done in universe interviews, behind the history style journalism or any of a dozen other biography tricks that really good ones do but instead it just gave you dry rote facts.
If you want this information just read the Wookiepedia articles it will be the same thing as reading this book and be much faster all the while losing little of the information gained in this book
A big disappointment.
If you want this information just read the Wookiepedia articles it will be the same thing as reading this book and be much faster all the while losing little of the information gained in this book
A big disappointment.
June 24, 2022
The history of the Skywalkers is of great interest to those who live in the post Empire period of a galaxy far, far away. From the shocking descent into darkness of General Anakin Skywalker to the rise of Rey Skywalker, the minutiae of this family will be studied for all time.
Baver's in universe biographical account of the Skywalkers is a useful touchstone in the 'Disneyverse' of 'Star Wars', bringing in details from the novels as well as the various films and television series.
Baver's in universe biographical account of the Skywalkers is a useful touchstone in the 'Disneyverse' of 'Star Wars', bringing in details from the novels as well as the various films and television series.
April 9, 2024
Kristin Baver needs to keep writing more books because this was amazing! Her chronicling and analysis of the Skywalker family made me look at it from new and refreshing perspectives to my great delight. It was also nice to zoom out and see this as one big story instead of pieces that were filled in out of order. One quibble I did have was that the last part of the book covering Rey and Ben felt rushed, speeding through the sequel trilogy with little analysis. There were also quite a few typos, but on the whole this is an amazing book for nerdy Star Wars fans like myself.
April 25, 2024
An interesting concept. This is a history book/biography written as if the Skywalkers were real? It's a great idea and an interesting way to take in the story as it weaves in lore from the books, comics, and tv shows. We appreciate that.
However it's written a little too straight with no pauses and just putters along with little to no reprieve. I prefer to take in the Star Wars timeline with a little deeper insight than this took but it's not a bad look at things
However it's written a little too straight with no pauses and just putters along with little to no reprieve. I prefer to take in the Star Wars timeline with a little deeper insight than this took but it's not a bad look at things
April 21, 2021
It was what i expected, a book explaining and going deeper into the thoughts of the characters and their stories that aren’t mentioned in the movies. This book made me appreciate Leia A LOT. I will say that in the first couple chapters nothing too interesting happened, but other than that it was super interesting. Loved the second part of the book!
June 20, 2021
I'm sorry to say that this book is probably the worst SW book I've read. It sounded so good in theory, but left so much to be desired. The book glossed over the last half of Skywalker saga, spending and inordinate and painstaking amount of time on the prequels.
January 22, 2022
a great read for big fat nerds
January 25, 2022
I really liked the book, and it was well-written. The editing left a lot to be desired, though. Lots of typos that could have been easily avoided.
April 9, 2024
Fun little read on the history of the Skywalkers. It especially made me respect Leia even more than I already did.
May 31, 2024
Basically a retelling of the lives of the Skywalkers in a historical format. It was pretty good. Still doesn't make me like the sequel storyline more though.
October 27, 2024
“Without regrets, Ben Solo, the last of the legendary Skywalker dynasty, faded away…” Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye you were bigger than the whole sky.
February 2, 2022
I didn’t know what I was expecting when I picked this book up. I’ve always wanted to psychoanalyze The Skywalker Family and this book did a pretty good job in doing so. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about The Skywalker legacy and the why’s then this book is a good start.
PS: there are typos (possibly needed another read through for editing) but overall 8/10.
PS: there are typos (possibly needed another read through for editing) but overall 8/10.
June 14, 2021
This fictional biography is generally excellent at finding the emotional throughlines of these characters, and makes some wonderful connections. However, another pass on editing is desperately needed to clear up typos and smooth out awkward sentence structure.
October 18, 2021
I will never doubt that an in-universe biography of the Skywalker dynasty would be a huge draw to both Star Wars fans and to the people of AGFFA. As one of the former, I was very excited to read this book, to get at the very least a summary of the era between the Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy, since I’m pretty selective of what I read of Disney’s canon (plus, not being all that big a fan of the ST doesn’t encourage me to read the a lot of the new material).
The overall results were mixed, however. The idea of this being an in-universe biography of the Skywalkers (that is, that it is written by someone within AGFFA) doesn’t hold water very long, since so much of what the book portrays would not have been recorded by history. Shmi Skywalker herself would be a very mysterious figure, perhaps known only in whatever stories were passed down by her family, mostly Owen and Beru Lars (since Anakin/Vader were hardly inclined to speak much of her). How well-known would it be that Shmi and Anakin were slaves? Where would it have been recorded, other than, again, passed down via the Lars family? What’s more, how would the author have known the characters’ personal feelings or what they witnessed since, again, such things would not have been recorded by history.
All the same, I did enjoy the Prequel-era information. Beyer does an excellent job portraying Anakin’s Fall, such as how his faith in the Jedi slowly eroded and then finally broke as events unfolded throughout the Clone Wars. Seeing how Palpatine wove his web around Anakin, encouraging certain character traits and essentially making a total mess of an already-messed-up kid. It is very easy to see that Anakin in no way ever received any kind of therapy for his time enslaved on Tatooine, not to mention that the Jedi seemed to have been oblivious to the signs of how shady Palpatine’s relationship to a young Anakin was. I mean, were they really that unaware of how skeevy things sound when one learns that Palpatine told Anakin to keep the contents of their meetings secret from Obi-Wan and the Jedi? This is a sure-fire sign of a pedophilic manipulation, and yet the Jedi are oblivious.
Then there is the ST era. While Beyer did her best, there’s really just very little she could do given what an utter shit show the ST era was, owing to the complete lack of a plan Disney had for the trilogy. The abundance of retcons and just plain weirdness did not make it easy to plot it out in biographical form.
And let’s not forget the myriad of grammatical errors. The book needed another round or two of editing before it went to publication.
Overall, I give this one 3 stars. A decent read, but it had quite a bit going against it, plus the concept of it being in-universe falls apart very fast.
The overall results were mixed, however. The idea of this being an in-universe biography of the Skywalkers (that is, that it is written by someone within AGFFA) doesn’t hold water very long, since so much of what the book portrays would not have been recorded by history. Shmi Skywalker herself would be a very mysterious figure, perhaps known only in whatever stories were passed down by her family, mostly Owen and Beru Lars (since Anakin/Vader were hardly inclined to speak much of her). How well-known would it be that Shmi and Anakin were slaves? Where would it have been recorded, other than, again, passed down via the Lars family? What’s more, how would the author have known the characters’ personal feelings or what they witnessed since, again, such things would not have been recorded by history.
All the same, I did enjoy the Prequel-era information. Beyer does an excellent job portraying Anakin’s Fall, such as how his faith in the Jedi slowly eroded and then finally broke as events unfolded throughout the Clone Wars. Seeing how Palpatine wove his web around Anakin, encouraging certain character traits and essentially making a total mess of an already-messed-up kid. It is very easy to see that Anakin in no way ever received any kind of therapy for his time enslaved on Tatooine, not to mention that the Jedi seemed to have been oblivious to the signs of how shady Palpatine’s relationship to a young Anakin was. I mean, were they really that unaware of how skeevy things sound when one learns that Palpatine told Anakin to keep the contents of their meetings secret from Obi-Wan and the Jedi? This is a sure-fire sign of a pedophilic manipulation, and yet the Jedi are oblivious.
Then there is the ST era. While Beyer did her best, there’s really just very little she could do given what an utter shit show the ST era was, owing to the complete lack of a plan Disney had for the trilogy. The abundance of retcons and just plain weirdness did not make it easy to plot it out in biographical form.
And let’s not forget the myriad of grammatical errors. The book needed another round or two of editing before it went to publication.
Overall, I give this one 3 stars. A decent read, but it had quite a bit going against it, plus the concept of it being in-universe falls apart very fast.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 29, 2021
meh… if you ever wondered what Star Wars the Textbook would be then look no further.
The premise behind the book is so cool. Someone within the Star Wars universe writing a biography on the Skywalkers. Cool! I’m here for it. What followed was a dry retelling of the nine films with zero sources. The author writes with the understanding that we know the stories of Star Wars. Would’ve been much more engaging if there were quotes from people across the galaxy or sources for the information. Make the book seem like it was inside the universe.
I was pleased with the inclusion of many of the recent comic stories though as this stories have been incredible and filled in some gaps in between the original trilogy films.
I recommend skipping this and just watch the movies again.
The premise behind the book is so cool. Someone within the Star Wars universe writing a biography on the Skywalkers. Cool! I’m here for it. What followed was a dry retelling of the nine films with zero sources. The author writes with the understanding that we know the stories of Star Wars. Would’ve been much more engaging if there were quotes from people across the galaxy or sources for the information. Make the book seem like it was inside the universe.
I was pleased with the inclusion of many of the recent comic stories though as this stories have been incredible and filled in some gaps in between the original trilogy films.
I recommend skipping this and just watch the movies again.
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