Enjoyed Ahsoka? Then Do I Have the Star Wars Book Recs For You
I was one of those hugely privileged Star Wars fans who were in the room for the opening ceremony at Star Wars Celebration 2023 and got to see the first trailer for Ahsoka way back in April, so I have been waiting a long time for this show to finally hit our screens. Now we’re at the end of the season, I wanted to recommend some books to everyone who has enjoyed it and I’ve decided to do so by recommending a Star Wars book (or maybe more than just one) for each of the show’s main characters so no matter who’s been grabbing your attention so far, I hopefully, have just the book for you.
Ahsoka Tano
Where else could I begin than with the show’s lead character? You'll learn most of Ahsoka’s history from watching The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, but she’s also held her own on the publishing side of things with her very own book. Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston covers the period between Ahsoka’s involvement at the Siege of Mandalore and her joining up with the fledgeling Rebellion and taking on the pseudonym Fulcrum. It’s a YA story with a hint of LGBTQ representation so it’s an easier read than many Star Wars novels, but it also covers a lot of important and interesting ground regarding the formation of the rebellion and how Ahsoka herself processed the end of the Republic. While not a vital read, it does add some new depth to this well-loved character.
Sabine Wren (and Shin Hati)
Sabine ended up being the most challenging person on this list to think of a book for. She has appeared in dozens of comics and been mentioned in several books, but nothing felt like the right fit so instead, I’m going to approach her choice from a different angle and recommend Padawan by Kiersten White. Padawan is actually an Obi-Wan Kenobi book that follows him on an unsanctioned mission when he is around 16 years old, but it’s the themes that reminded me of Sabine. In Padawan, Obi-Wan is doubting his abilities as a Jedi and even his connection to the Force. He feels misunderstood and even abandoned by his master and worries about his place in the galaxy at large and how he will do good for others. Sound familiar? In fact, this book would also be my recommendation for Shin Hati which leads me on to…
Baylan Skoll
Baylon is a brand new character for the Ahsoka show which makes choosing a book for him a little bit more complicated than with some other characters on this list. For Baylan, I’m choosing to recommend Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott, an audio drama that has since had its script published in book form. Dooku and Baylon both have something in common in that they left the Jedi Order and turned to the dark side, but both appear to have some sympathy left for the Jedi. Baylon admits to missing “the idea” of the Order and states that it would be “a shame” to kill Ahsoka given how few Jedi remain. Dooku meanwhile is welcomed back to the Temple multiple times after leaving the Order through disillusionment (he is one of the Lost Twenty) and even met with the Council at times after walking away. He was a believer in the Separatist cause due to his political idealism and fell to the Dark Side for what could be argued to be a more noble reason than most.
Hera Syndulla
For Hera, I’m going with a slightly more obvious choice. In A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller (incidentally, the first book written in the new canon) we witness the first meeting between Hera and the former Jedi Kanen Jarrus who will later become Hera’s romantic partner and the father of her son Jacen. Here, we get to see Hera working in the earliest form of the rebellion that will one day become the New Republic, recruiting on backwater planets harbouring fugitives and resentment and sometimes more as well. The connection between the two main characters is obvious from the get-go although this is no love-at-first-sight romance story, but rather a complex tale of terrorism vs. freedom fighting perfect for those early days of the fight against the Empire.
Jacen Syndulla
Jacen is another relatively new character for the Ahsoka series having only previously appeared for a few seconds at the very end of Star Wars Rebels. For this very young addition to the Star Wars universe, I’m going to recommend the Star Wars Adventures comic series. These comics are aimed at young readers and are aptly titled as every issue is filled with action and adventure but also a lot of fun and humour. The stories come from all different parts of the Star Wars timeline and feature dozens of different characters getting into scrapes. Some of the earliest stories include Finn chasing a mysterious fuzzy creature around a Star Destroyer, Leia rescuing Luke after he’s captured by the Empire, and some porgs causing chaos on the Falcon. Oh yeah, and some of the stories are written by Alan Tudyk too.
Morgan Elsbeth
Morgan is another fairly new character for Ahsoka, having only previously appeared in a small role in The Mandalorian. She is one of the Nightsisters, a race of women who use a form of dark magick and come from the planet Dathomir which is rich in dark energy. The Nightsisters have been around in the Star Wars canon for many years but remarkably little is known about them. For Morgan, I’m actually going to briefly step away from the premise of this list and suggest not a book, but a game. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order spends a lot of time on Dathomir and it’s here that we really got to know a lot about this once-powerful race of women. However, if video games aren’t your thing then don’t worry, you can watch the game’s cut scenes edited together in movie form on YouTube, although I’d recommend getting the popcorn ready because the video comes in at just over 3 hours and 40 minutes long!
Mon Mothma
Unlike many of the characters in this list, Mon Mothma is one who has stood the test of time. She first appeared in Return of the Jedi way back in 1989 but has recently had something of a resurgence becoming a main character in Andor and now appearing again in Ahsoka. For Mon, I’m going to recommend Bloodline by Claudia Grey. This book really gets into the politics of the New Republic through the eyes of Leia. Set during the earliest days of the First Order it allows us to see how the early bickering seen in Ahsoka has led to a fracturing of the New Republic Senate and rampant distrust. For anyone who enjoyed the more political scenes in both Ahsoka and Andor, this is a must-read.
Chopper
I’m going to play a bit of a wild card here so I hope you’ll stick with me. Chopper has appeared in print plenty of times across the many Star Wars comic series, but if you love this cantankerous and somewhat sociopathic old droid, I’m going to recommend you a book that doesn’t even feature him. In fact, I’m going to recommend three: The Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig. Why? Two words: Mister Bones. Mister Bones is a reprogrammed and heavily modified B1 battle droid owned by Temmin Wexley (later known as Snap) but he never lost that sadistic streak and his appearances in the trilogy are littered with quotes such as "I PERFORMED VIOLENCE. ROGER-ROGER" and “I WILL BEAT THEM TO A GREASY TREACLE-PASTE. DO NOT WORRY, MASTER TEMMIN.” He is constantly hilarious, terrifying, and oddly endearing in his devotion to his human team, much as Chopper is with the Spectre crew, so if you love Chopper then please give Mister Bones some love too.
As a bonus option for Chopper, try out the Doctor Aphra audio drama/script book by Sarah Kuhn which stars protocol-doid and extremely polite torturer Triple-Zero, as well as BT-1, an astromech loaded with more firepower than Chopper could ever dream of getting his grubby grabbers on.
Ezra Bridger
Ezra is another character with a whole raft of comic book appearances and another with whom I’m going to take a slightly left-field approach here. For Ezra, I recommend the Adventures in Wild Space series. Adventures in Wild Space is a young readers series (somewhere between chapter books and middle grade) written by Tom Huddleston and Cavan Scott. The six-book series - plus a prelude which was given away for free - follows two siblings, Milo and Lina Graf (yes High Republic readers that is the same Graf family just some generations later) whose parents are abducted by the Empire and their efforts to be reunited with them. In one of the books, however, the kids follow a transmission to Lothal where they meet the Bridger family including the infant Ezra. Although only a minor character here, this series allows us to explore the very beginnings of Ezra’s story and hints as to how he’ll become the young man we meet in Rebels.
Professor Huyang
Professor Huyang is Ahsoka’s droid companion who has been training Jedi in lightsaber construction for a thousand generations, making him easily the oldest character in Ahsoka - that we know of anyway. For that reason, I’m going to recommend Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule for Professor Huyang. Light of the Jedi is the first book - in publishing order, not chronologically - in the High Republic Era which covers the years 500BBY - 100BBY (for those unfamiliar with the Star Wars timeline, BBY stands for Before the Battle of Yavin in which the first Death Star was destroyed, ie, A New Hope). These are therefore the oldest books, chronologically speaking, in the current Star Wars universe and show the Jedi Order at the height of its power, when Huyang would have been working with younglings at the Temple. All the High Republic books and comics will give you an insight into his earlier life, but Light of the Jedi is a great place to start.
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Of course, I didn’t forget Grand Admiral Thrawn, how could I? Thrawn’s legacy in the world of Star Wars publishing is so all-encompassing that it could use a post of its own, so I’ll try to be brief here. The character of Thrawn was first introduced way back in 1991 in Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire book trilogy (now part of Legends) which is widely considered to be some of the best Star Wars publishing of all time. The character was brought back for the new canon as the primary villain of Star Wars Rebels and Zahn also returned to pen two new trilogies featuring him, which is where I’ll get into the recommendations, I’ll admit having never read Heir as I stick with the new canon.
The Ascendancy Trilogy (beginning with Chaos Rising - my first recommendation for Thrawn) follows Thrawn’s early years living in his home culture out in what is usually referred to as the Unknown Regions and his rise through the ranks of the Chiss Ascendancy. This trilogy is set almost entirely out in the Unknown Regions so it feels very different from any other Star Wars books so far with completely different politics, planets, military, and much more - the whole thing feels closer to traditional hard sci-fi than the typical space opera fantasy we’re accustomed to. Here Thrawn is much more of a hero than the villain he’ll later become but we really get to see him shine using all his infamous battle strategies to win against seemingly impossible odds, although we also watch the threads fall into place that will lead to his eventually leaving for more (to us) familiar ground.
My second recommendation is the simply titled Thrawn, the first of the also simply titled Thrawn trilogy. Here we follow Thrawn from his arrival in the familiar galaxy far, far away through his rise through the Empire alongside his aide Eli Vanto as he excels at the Imperial Academy and reaches the rank of Admiral. This is a more familiar Thrawn in more familiar surroundings and arguably adds more to the character we’ve seen on screen, it’s also an easier read overall. Both trilogies add a lot of depth to this beloved character and it’s entirely open where to begin.