DVD Corner's blog

Star Wars Timelines Book Review

“Star Wars Timelines” is the new gold standard for Star Wars reference books.

Since it is Star Wars Day (May The 4th Be With You all), what better way to celebrate the franchise than with a review of a new Star Wars book? And what a book it is. Writers Kristin Baver, Jason Fry, Cole Horton, Amy Richau, and Clayton Sandell have created a DK guide that covers all of the current eras in chronological order with Early History, The High Republic, The Fall Of The Jedi, The Reign Of The Empire, The Age Of Rebellion, The New Republic, and The Rise Of The First Order with the final page culminating with Rey on Tatooine in “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.” In terms of the content, readers can expect to see timelines of events, births and deaths of characters, disasters, battles, specific character timelines for key figures like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, and The Mandalorian, and evolutions of ships like the Star Destroyer. All 11 films are covered here along with canonical video games, books, TV series and comic books. Comic and book images and or film and TV stills accompany the pages. Each era is dated with BBY (Before The Battle Of Yavin) or ABY (After The Battle Of Yavin). The book concludes with a very handy index. 

For those that are interested in Star Wars mythology but are daunted by the deep history and lore, “Star Wars Timelines” is the perfect starting point. The amount of detailed information within these pages is staggering even for a devoted fan like myself. Virtually everything is here from events like the Rise Of Palpatine, the Clone Wars, the New Republic era, the Battle of Jakku, and Thrawn’s entire arc prior to “Ahsoka” to obscure details like Ric Olie’s death, Mika Grey from “Star Wars Resistance,” Darth Momin, the Knights of Ren backstory (which should have been in the films and not the comics), Darth Vader’s many victims, and Quarsh Panaka’s fate. As an added bonus, The High Republic era is touched upon here. If you don’t have the time to dig into all of the High Republic books, you can get a proper summary of events including the Drengir, The Path Of The Open Hand and the Nihil. For those wondering, the Old Republic material is not included here as it is not currently canon (although Darth Bane is referenced as he was in the Clone Wars series).

Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of the book is that it covers all mediums which is helpful for someone like me that is well versed in everything but the comics. Luckily, everything from Chewbacca fighting Krssantan to Qi’ra’s criminal empire post “Solo: A Star Wars Story” gets ink here. To say this book is exhaustive is an understatement. 

The only real downside to “Star Wars Timelines” is that it is instantly dated. Granted, it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be updated editions down the line, but already the third season of “The Mandalorian,” the “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” video game and “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” season 2 are absent here for example. 

There have been many Star Wars reference books over the years, but “Star Wars Timelines” is in a class of its own. Whether you know everything about the galaxy or are looking to expand your knowledge, this is THE reference guide to get. 

May 4, 2023 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Book review | Ahsoka, May The 4th Be With You, Star Wars Books, Star Wars Comics, Star Wars Day, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Star Wars Movies, Star Wars Reference Book, Star Wars Timelines Book Review, The High Republic, The Mandalorian