Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 10 Great (Canon) Books To Read While You Wait
2. Lost Stars
Disney/Pilot Studio
Lost Stars is genuinely so good.
Claudia Gray's novel about a pair of star-crossed lovers in a divided galaxy is a story well worth investing in, especially since it happens to be something of an epic. The book takes place over the course of the entire original trilogy, and tells the story of Thane Kyrell and Cienna Ree, two ace pilots from the planet of Jelucan. Though both originally aspire to join the Imperial Navy and become ace fighter pilots in the Galactic Civil War, Thane defects to the Rebel Alliance, furious at having witnessed the brutality of the Imperial regime and having become increasingly dejected at the Imperial bureaucracy during his stay at the Imperial Academy, while Cienna stays, undeterred by the destruction of the Death Star.
It's a brilliant story, and delves further into the personal implications of the conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire in a way that no other Star Wars materials have managed to do. That's impressive, considering the sheer scale of the mythos, and Los Stars continues to impress two years after it first released.
It's a genuinely exciting take on the mythos, and something all fans of the Original Trilogy should read if they get the chance to do so.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
