Book Review: Skywalker - A Family At War by Kristin Baver

I've read plenty of Star Wars books in the past few years, to various levels of enjoyment. One thought that pops up from time to time is, what are books (or stories or holos or whatever) like INSIDE the Star Wars universe? What did the people of the Republic/Empire/New Republic/First Order (I guess? Feel like they took over the galaxy between The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker but it's unclear)/New New Republic (although a Lando dictatorship would be fine by me) actually know about the main characters of the story? This has been hinted at in other stories - I remember a Prequel-era book that I think is still canon noting that Anakin was renown Republic-wide for his Jedi skills - but has never been truly explored. What would a book in the Star Wars universe say about the Skywalker family?

Well, keep dreaming about it, because this book isn't it.

While it was billed as the story of the Skywalkers from the perspective of the Star Wars universe, it's more a retelling of every canon story (movies, books, TV episodes, comics, etc.) that involved any of the Skywalkers. While you could tell the book was going off the rails as soon as it included in-depth reporting on Anakin's life as a slave on Tatooine (who would have reported this? Where would it have been sourced?), it's painfully apparent when it arrives at Anakin's time on Mortus from "The Clone Wars" TV show. The book says that after Anakin spent time on that planet he had no memory of his actions...and then tells us EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED while he was on that planet. Groan.

The most useful thing about this book is if you don't follow all forms of Star Wars media, you might not know everything that is considered canon - this book covers EVERYTHING that involved the Skywalkers. Some things I didn't know added a bit of context to the overall story - for example, Princess Leia's mother on Alderaan was part android (think less Darth Vader - although that's what it's clearly paralleling against - and more the Mods from "The Book of Boba Fett").

But, while this book includes everything canon, it also does so to a certain date - it is already out of date since when mentioning Luke setting up his Jedi academy it failed to mention Grogu or Ahsoka. Also, it doesn't add anything new - Kylo Ren's childhood is painfully yada yada'd away (since there's not much canon material to work with there).

This was...disappointing. Three out of ten hot dogs.