Star Wars canon book timeline

From The High Republic and The Acolyte to the Reign of the Empire and The Rise of Skywalker.

Updated June 2025

The Star Wars timeline of books is vast and, as of now, unending. Since the first Star Wars books were published over 30 years ago, there have been hundreds of novels and novelizations of the films released. Many of those books were under the Expanded Universe — the moniker used for Star Wars stories outside of the films when George Lucas owned Lucasfilm.

Then Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and transformed the EU into Legends, effectively de-canonizing those stories to make room for a new era of Star Wars. Two years later, A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller was published — the first book set in the new canon.

Since then, more than 80 new canon books have been published. That’s not counting Visions novel Ronin or the novelizations of the original trilogy and the prequel films, which have had a bunch of different editions over the years.

Of course, there are even more new Star Wars books on the horizon.

If you’re like me — a Star Wars book reader and collector — you enjoy the art of organizing your shelves in some form of chronological order. That’s how my Star Wars shelves are organized — from Phase 2 of The High Republic all the way through The Rise of Skywalker novelization.

Updates to the official Star Wars book timeline in 'The Mask of Fear'

The timeline below includes information from various sources, including the official timelines published inside Star Wars books, the comprehensive Star Wars Timelines reference book, and the fan-run forum Wookieepedia. The Star Wars experts over at Youtini also have helpful, downloadable timelines and reading guides. To the best of my knowledge, this is where all the canon Star Wars books (adult, YA, middle-grade, and manga) fit on the timeline. (Latest update: Jan. 26, 2025)