Del Rey Debuts Interactive Star Wars Books Timeline
By Elaine Tveit
Del Rey launched an online interactive Star Wars books timeline so you can see where the adult Star Wars books fall in relation to each other and the films.
Have you ever wanted to know exactly when a Star Wars novel takes place in relation to other novels and the films? Before today, the easiest way to find out with regard to the adult Star Wars books from Del Rey (who has recently released titles like Life Debt by Chuck Wendig and Bloodline by Claudia Gray) was by flipping to the front of one of the said books and studying the timeline there, which shows where a given adult Star Wars story falls chronologically in the saga.
Sadly, most of us don’t carry Star Wars books with us wherever we go, and living as we do in the age of high-speed internet and instant results, it’s time for an upgrade. With the new online timeline Del Rey debuted this morning, you can check where a book lies in the history of the canon Star Wars universe whenever you want or need to, as long as you have access to a mobile device and the internet.
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You might ask, “Why do I need a timeline? Why is it important I know when exactly any of these stories takes place?” The truth is, you don’t need to know, but it is helpful when developing speculative theories or discussing a character who crosses over different stories in the timeline. For example, Wilhuff Tarkin first appeared in A New Hope, then (canonically) in The Clone Wars series, then in a Del Rey Star Wars novel titled Tarkin by James Luceno, and finally in Star Wars Rebels. If the Grand Moff is your favorite character or if you’re discussing him for any particular reason, it may be useful to know when each of his separate stories take place.
Del Rey’s new timeline can also help you decide if you want to read a particular book or not. Let’s say you want to read a prequel era novel. Currently, the only canon prequel novels by Del Rey are the prequel trilogy novelizations and Dark Disciple, a Clone Wars-era story by Christie Golden. You can hover your mouse over Dark Disciple to read the synopsis and decide from there if you are interested. If you are, there’s also a link to buy the book, to make it even easier for you to just pick up the darn thing and read it (seriously, though, if you haven’t read Dark Disciple, pick it up because it’s a great story based off unused The Clone Wars scripts).
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Basically, the Del Rey timeline is a Star Wars book lover’s dream: a visual list of all the Star Wars books Del Rey currently has out, positioned accurately according to the space in in-universes history their events occupy relative to other stories. Bookmark the page as a quick resource for any and all of your Star Wars discussions.