Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 10 Great (Canon) Books To Read While You Wait
6. Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel
Del Rey
Another Luceno work, Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel takes place in the years preceding the first Star Wars spin-off, examining the rise of Orson Krennic and the time Galen Erso and his family spent in the employ of the Empire.
Like Tarkin, Catalyst concerns itself mainly with exploring the characters that inhabit the Star Wars universe rather than any aspects of world building, although the novel does draw attention to certain details in the burgeoning canon of the Disney era. For fans of Rogue One, however, the main draw will most likely be seeing Mads Mikkelsen's character before the events of the film, as well as Krennic in the Republic era.
One of the best things about the book actually is its treatment of Lyra, whose relationship with Galen receives some much needed development, making her death in Rogue One all the more upsetting. If you were a massive fan of that film when it released last year, then Catalyst is definitely a book that'll tide you over until the next Star Wars Story.
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.
