EUCantina Preview: The Essential Reader’s Companion

For as long as we can remember, EUCantina staff have been asked one simple question many a times about the Star Wars Expanded Universe: Where do I begin?

This question, though we are delighted to try and answer, is truly not one we have the expertise and knowledge to truly answer. Instead, we EU fans often turn to the likes of Leland Chee, Pablo Hidalgo, Nathan Butler, and others with our questions about continuity and flow in the EU. Now, however, EU fans — old and new — will have a simple, efficient, and beautiful way to not only decide where to start, but what they will truly enjoy in the very large, ever-expanding Expanded Universe. This comes by way of the upcoming The Essential Reader’s Companion, by Pablo Hidalgo.

Meant as a primer for Star Wars novels, this guide should help people see which novels go where in the timeline, and then which ones they will likely enjoy the most based on the summary. But it isn’t only aimed at helping new readers interested in learning more; adding fresh images of old and new characters as well as scenes from the novels, the Companion hopes to help older and new fans imagine characters they’ve come to love and scenes they’ve only seen played in their head. Below are three spreads from the book to give you but a taste of The Essential Reader’s Companion; how the pages are set up, characters you can expect to see given their time to shine, and much more can be seen.

The Essential Reader’s Companion hits stores on October 2, 2012