Category: Star Wars Resources

Star Wars Books: Youtini Academy

If you love Star Wars books like I do, you may have heard of Youtini, a website that makes it a little easier to understand the world of Star Wars books, both Legends and Canon. It has timelines for both, descriptions of books, articles, podcasts–everything you might need if you want to explore the world of Star Wars books, which can be, let’s face it, a little confusing sometimes. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.

Recently, I learned that Youtini was going to start an online course about the books, both Legends and Canon, starting on May the 4th (for a fee of $57, which I eagerly forked over, lol). This course would talk about Star Wars publishing, the difference between Legends and Canon and the best books of each to start with, best stand-alones and series, and a special unit on The High Republic. Excuse me, what kind of bliss is this???

While I feel fairly confident in the world of Canon (and prefer it, for the most part), I don’t want to exclude Legends and would like to learn more about it. Legends seems like this huge beast that I can’t quite wrap my mind around, lol. That doesn’t mean I haven’t read some Legends books: Kenobi, in particular, is a favorite; Razor’s Edge, Rogue Planet, and some Clone Wars-era books. Everything up to Return of the Jedi seems “safe” to me; but it’s after ROTJ that the two timelines diverge greatly, and I’m afraid of getting the two timelines tangled in my mind, lol.

I’ve read the quintessential book Heir to the Empire, which is a classic and kicked off the golden age of Legends; it introduces Thrawn as the new villain after the defeat of the Empire. I read it way back when it first came out in 1991, and probably its two sequels, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. There was no other Star Wars out there, and I was thirsty! And the books were fine, but they didn’t really snare me like they did a lot of people, I don’t know why. Dozens of other Star Wars books came out after that over the years, and maybe I read a few, I really can’t remember, but I lost interest. Maybe I had other things going on in my life, maybe I was obsessed with other things at the time, who knows.

Thrawn is a common thread between Legends and Canon.

Anyway, I recently re-read Heir to the Empire, and it was rather fun, but found it difficult to get into the second book. Or maybe I was just distracted by Canon books coming out at the time. But I do want to re-read them all, and possibly more Legends books that take place after ROTJ. With Thrawn making his live-action debut in Ahsoka, I’d like to get to know “Book Thrawn” a bit better. That includes the Legends books and the new Canon Thrawn books. I tried to get through the first Canon book, titled simply “Thrawn,” but couldn’t finish it. It’s weird, because I love the character in Rebels!

But I want to give all these books another chance. As we’ve seen with Thrawn, and plenty of other examples, characters and ideas in Legends haven’t simply been thrown away–they’ve been making their way into Canon in many ways. The Legends books are important. For me, I tend to view the Legends books as an alternate universe of Star Wars–kind of like the Marvel alternate universes in “What If…” It’s not that it didn’t happen that way, it just happened on a different timeline, a different parallel universe. That’s how it makes sense to me. Han and Leia had three kids named Jacen, Jaina and Anakin; Luke married Mara Jade and had a son named Ben. Just in an alternate universe.

Anyway, that’s my Legends story, and I’m very excited to learn more about it in this course. I’m about halfway done with the lessons (little 5-10 minute videos) and am enjoying it immensely. You can also chat with other members about the course or the books or just all things Star Wars. If you’re a big Star Wars book fan, you may not want to miss it! Click the link at the beginning of this post and you’ll see it at the top of their website.

Are you a Star Wars reader? Are you a Legends fan or a Canon fan? Or love both? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

5 Favorite Star Wars Links and Channels (Right Now)

Since my obsession with Star Wars was reignited in the past year or so, I’ve been busy trying to catch up with everything that’s been going on in the universe in the past twenty years while I’d been doing other things. That means many hours watching Youtube videos and scrolling through a ton of other social media, and more importantly, separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. I’ve found some great channels and sites that I love, and others that, well, aren’t so great. I like to focus on the positive, so here are my top five Star Wars-related social media channels and sites:

  • Wookiepedia. This is a vast, extremely comprehensive archive of everything Star Wars, including characters, the movies and shows, vessels, books, video games, you name it. I use it a lot when I’m looking for a bit more information on something I’m blogging about, or if I don’t know a thing about a character or planet, etc. I haven’t really begun to plumb its depths, but it’s a great resource when you want information about something specific.
  • At-At Chat. I discovered this Youtube channel early on, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of Star Wars Youtubers who are fond of using clickbait, outrageous headlines and rumors, hateful and/or just plain dumb stuff to get people to their channel and to make money off of it. It’s really annoying. AT-AT Chat is NOT one of those channels. He presents his opinions and ideas on the Star Wars universe in an engaging, yet intelligent and rational manner. No hype, just fun stuff that is remarkably well-thought out and thought-provoking. I especially love his lightsaber-duel analyses and his takes on Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.
  • Star Wars Reading Club. This Youtube channel discusses many intriguing or burning questions about Star Wars in the context of what happened in books and comics, both Legends and Canon. It’s a great resource for me, as I’m still catching up on Legends lore; I’m also not a big comic book reader (though I’m seriously thinking about becoming one) and a lot of great stuff happens in comics that I don’t know about but would love to. The only criticism I have of the channel is the narrator’s monotone style of speaking; I also twitch a bit when he says, “Obi-One.” He knows his Star Wars lore, though!
  • Youtini. I’ve talked a bit about Youtini on my other blog, The Star Wars Reader, but feel it should be mentioned here, too. I just discovered this great resource for Star Wars books and comics, both Legends and Canon. Here you can check out the latest releases, book reviews, and excerpts. There’s also a great timeline page that lists the books chronologically (a separate one for Legends, and one for Canon) based on the BBY marker (Before the Battle of Yavin). I’ve come here quite a bit to make sure my own timeline listings are correct, and to add any books I’ve missed. There’s also a cool application where you can make lists of your own Star Wars library, as well as chat boards to talk about the books. I love this webpage!
  • James Arnold Taylor. In case you don’t know, James Arnold Taylor is the voice-actor who voices Obi-Wan Kenobi on The Clone Wars. Since I’m a big Obi-Wan fan, I was curious about the man who gives him his voice in Clone Wars, and guess what? He’s a pretty awesome dude! Very down-to-earth and likable. He’s got his own Youtube channel where he talks about the voice-over profession in general, and his own projects in particular, which is all very fascinating to me; but what I’ve been especially loving is his series Clone Wars Conversations, where he interviews his fellow co-stars from the animated series. I’ve watched his two-part interview with Matt Lanter, who voices Anakin Skywalker, and it was just so wonderful to listen to them reminisce about their Clone Wars experiences (it was recorded before Season Seven was announced, however), and also surreal to hear the character’s voices coming out of these people’s mouths! He also interviews others from the show, like Sam Witwer who played Maul, Anna Graves who played the Duchess Satine Kryze, and others. If you want more Obitine, you must watch Taylor and Graves recite Romeo and Juliet in Obi-Wan’s and Satine’s voices. Be still my sentimental little heart!

These are the sources I’ve been going to and enjoying over and over lately. I’m sure as I continue to explore the galaxy far, far away I’ll discover some more great channels, and I’ll certainly share them here when I do. They’re almost as limitless as the stars themselves, and I’m so grateful for all the wonderful Star Wars content out there.

What are some of your favorite Star Wars channels and websites? Comment below and we’ll talk about it!

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Like to read Star Wars? Check out my sister blog The Star Wars Reader. I regularly review Star Wars books, both Legends and Canon.