Hello friends! I just finished reading two Star Wars books that are set up as “non-fiction” in the galaxy far, far away, and I have to say they are both excellent. The first is The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall, and the other is Star Wars Propaganda by Pablo Hidalgo.
I started reading this sometime last year, but put it down after a few chapters for some reason; I was probably distracted by other books at the time. But I recently watched an interview with the author by Star Wars Explained and I was enthralled (I’ll link to the interview below; I highly recommend watching it). So I went back to the book and began reading it from the beginning again, and loved it.
The book is set up as an examination of the Galactic Empire, its rise, fall, and repercussions into the New Republic and the Rise of the First Order, written by Beaumont Kin, who you may or may not remember from the Sequel Trilogy. He was played by Dominic Monaghan, and his most important line was probably, “Cloning, dark magic, secrets only the Sith knew!” when confronted by Palpatine’s return. It wasn’t directly stated in the movies, but in comics and books (like Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher–another excellent book, check it out) he’s presented as an historian. He studied the history of the Sith in particular, and taught history until he joined the Resistance after the destruction of Hosnian Prime by the First Order. He’s writing the book in the ruins of Exogol, of all places, after that great battle. What a gloomy place to be working! But there are troves of files there that he can access, about the Sith, the Final Order, as well as the Empire.
Kin begins with Palpatine, of course, what is known about him, how he rose to power, his Sith origins. We, the audience to the story, know a lot about him and the events that took place, but we have to remember that most of the galaxy in this fictional world did not. Palpatine was just a man who gained enormous power and built a juggernaut of an Empire. Only later does the galaxy get an idea of the dark, mystical powers that contributed to his ascent. But Kin’s point here is that yes, he was a Sith, but he was also a man–a greedy, selfish, narcissistic, but patient and cunning human being who pulled the wool over the galaxy’s eyes. And that is what scares him the most: you don’t need to be a Sith to become a tyrannical despot. It can happen again. And again, and again. He hopes that his history of the Empire–and later, the First Order–is a lesson the galaxy can learn about preventing such a thing from happening again.
It’s a big book–432 pages–and he goes into details about the organization of the Empire, their ideology, the ISB, Compnor, the military, the Imperial Senate, the role of Darth Vader, the Moffs (Tarkin in particular), and how they eventually responded to the rising threat of the Rebellion, their successes and their ultimate failures.
Many of the characters we are familiar with are referenced in the book, characters and events not only from the movies, but from comics, books, TV shows, and any number of other media. There are a ton of footnotes, referencing the various Imperial or Alliance files and documents that he’s sourced, and occasional commentary. Towards the end of the book, when he discusses the rise of the First Order and his participation in the Resistance, he shares his personal feelings about his terror, his despair, his hope for the future. Mostly, he urges his readers, and the galaxy at large, to support each other, to stand up for each other when the next challenge arises.
I loved that this book was written by an actual historian, who understands the patterns of history, and how to go about making some sense of them. This fictional “nonfiction” book is a great read, and I highly recommend it.
Here’s the interview with the author on Star Wars Explained:
As I was getting close to finishing up Rise and Fall, I got this beauty (with credits from selling books on Pango Books, woohoo!). It’s also presented as a “nonfiction” book in the Star Wars galaxy, examining propaganda art by both the Republic and the Separatists during the Clone Wars, and the Imperials and the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War (and a few from the First Order and the Resistance). It comes in a slip case, with the Rebellion symbol in silver on the black front cover, and the symbol of the Empire on the back. It was supposed to come with ten posters, but because it’s a used book, I didn’t get those. 😦 Oh well. The art inside is enough, though, and is awesome.
Each poster is accompanied by a paragraph about it, who in the galaxy created it and why, and what the poster was trying to accomplish with it. Sabine Wren, the only artist I’m familiar with, is mentioned in the Rebellion section. There’s a foreward at the beginning of the book by a famous Bith artist who did early propaganda work for the Empire, but came to regret his work later in life. At the end of the book is a list of all the in-universe artists and where they were now, if known.
In the real world, Pablo Hidalgo is the author of the book, who has become a kind of archivist of Star Wars lore, and he did a great job on this beautiful book, as well as the real world artists who created the posters.
Check out these books if you can, they’re a fantastic addition to any Star Wars library.
Star Wars and Other Obsessions 