Journey to 'The Force Awakens': Meet the Authors of the New 'Star Wars' Universe

Now that the Force Friday dust has settled, leaving a lucky few with remote-controlled BB-8s, Captain Phasma action figures, and Kylo Ren lightsabers, Star Wars fans find themselves in a quandary: how to kill three more months until Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrives.

Let us recommend a book — or six.

Aside from the legion of toys released on Friday, the Disney Lucasfilm machine also delivered its first wave of titles, collectively called “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which establishes new Star Wars canon. While each of the books offers a stand-alone adventure, the authors scatter clues and context to the new film throughout, providing an Easter egg-hunting expedition for fans in the leadup to the Dec. 18 movie release. However, as one of the writers, Jason Fry, assures us, “Nothing in [these books] is going to spoil the new movie.”

Three of books focus on the expanded adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, and Han Solo, and are set among the events of George Lucas’s original trilogy. Fry’s The Weapon of a Jedi takes place post-A New Hope and finds Luke, C-3PO, and R2-D2 on a strange planet with a sketchy alien named Sarco “The Scavenger” Plank — a character who, as revealed in production stills, plays a part in J.J. Abrams’s upcoming movie. Greg Rucka’s Smuggler’s Run follows Han and Chewbacca after the destruction of the original Death Star on a mission to rescue a Rebel Alliance officer named Ematt, who will ultimately serves under Leia in The Force Awakens. And Moving Target, co-written by Fry and Cecil Castellucci, is a Leia-centric adventure taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The story is recounted in flashback by now-General Organa on the cusp of The Force Awakens. The book teases Leia’s affinity for hot-shot pilot Poe Dameron (who is stationed on the planet Jakku) and reveals a few more details about the Resistance.

The other trio of books, all stretching beyond the events of Return of the Jedi, relegates the core ensemble to secondary roles, allowing new characters come to the fore.

Lost Stars, by Claudia Gray, tells the story of Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree, two star-crossed lovers who wind up on opposite sides of the Galactic Civil War through the major moments of Episodes IV-VI; again, Jakku factors in the plot, and fans are already theorizing about the relationship between Thane/Ciena and the heroes of the new movie.