Best Star Wars Books to Read After The High Republic

Next week, The High Republic: Trials of the Jedi will mark the final novel in The High Republic Initiative. The High Republic began four years ago, and it has dominated the Star Wars publishing space ever since.

But with every ending comes a new beginning. If you’ve been following The High Republic and want to keep reading Star Wars books, then you’re in luck! There are plenty of amazing stories waiting for you with more coming every single year.

Let’s take a look at a few possible reading journeys you can take after you’ve finished The High Republic.

The Mask of Fear: A New Trilogy

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One of the best parts about The High Republic was its mastery of sequential storytelling. For years, we got one story told across twenty-five novels and over a hundred comics. For some readers, that may have been a bit intimidating…but what if you still want an ongoing story told by a number of collaborators?

Just maybe a bit less labor intensive.

Alexander Freed’s The Mask of Fear came out this year as the first book in the Reign of the Empire trilogy. This series will bring together three different authors to write a trilogy together in the years following the rise of the Galactic Empire, and it couldn’t have started stronger.

Receiving our official Masterpiece rating, The Mask of Fear puts the tension and political strife of Andor onto the page and sets up the next two entries for success over the next two years.

Order The Mask of Fear Now!

The New Jedi Order: An Epic Saga

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Then again, maybe you want another tale of thousands of pages and nearly twenty books! Enter the New Jedi Order from Legends. This series follows the adventures of the Skywalker and Solo families during the Yuuzhan Vong War and represents the longest continuous series in Legends history.

Beginning with R.A. Salvatore’s Vector Prime, the series establishes itself as one of the most sprawling and cinematic stories in Star Wars publishing. Just like The High Republic, the series was published over 4 years and featured some of the most popular voices in Star Wars history including James Luceno, Troy Denning, Michael Stackpole, and more.

If you’re looking for a galaxy-spanning epic that introduces characters from every walk of life in the years after the Original Trilogy, this is the series for you. And lucky for you, our Legends Lookback crew is currently producing roundtables of the entire NJO, so there’s never been a better time to get started.

Order Vector Prime Now!

Legacy of Vader: Jumping Into Comics

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The High Republic accomplished a lot during its four years of publishing. It introduced fans to new characters, new planets, new ideas about the Force, and even new reading mediums altogether.

As we heard in a recent interview with the authors, plenty of fans started reading comics thanks to The High Republic, and if you’re one of those readers, then Legacy of Vader is the perfect next stop – it’s even written by a High Republic architect!

Charles Soule began Legacy of Vader a few months ago to tell the story of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. The series reunites Soule with longtime collaborator Luke Ross and has started incredibly strong in its opening issues.

If you’re looking to continue your comics journey with a series that promises a bit of Force lore, you’d be hard pressed to jump into a better series that’s putting out a new issue every month.

Pre-Order Legacy of Vader Vol. 1

Everything You Missed

Finally, there’s the easy answer when it comes to the desire to read more stories like The High Republic: never leaving in the first place.

Sure, it’s possible that you’ve consumed every piece of media in the entirety of The High Republic Initiative, and if you have, that’s fantastic! But when you’re looking at twenty-five novels, 139 comics, 22 short stories, six original manga graphic novels, and five audio originals…it’s likely that you may have missed a few.

But that’s the great thing about stories – they never go away. All of the High Republic is now waiting for you to consume it however you choose!

Did you miss out on the Battle of Eriadu in The High Republic Adventures?
Or the epic adventures of Lily Tora-Asi in The Edge of Balance manga?
How about the Middle Grade novels from Phase 2?
And how could we forget the stories of Joss and Pikka Adren from Star Wars Insider?

All of those stories are ripe for the taking, and you can check out our full High Republic Reading Order for easy ways to pick up everything you may have missed during the initial release.

After all, it’s never too late to go back home.

Looking Ahead

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The High Republic Initiative will go down as one of the most important events in the history of Star Wars publishing. For years, we got to see characters evolve, swap between mediums, learn to love, deal with loss, and every month, we knew that there was another chapter in the overarching story that was coming our way.

And now…it’s almost over.

But just as Luke told us, No one’s ever really gone. While this particular saga may be almost finished, Michael Siglain has already teased that there are plenty of stories on the way to expand the lore of our favorite era.

In the meantime, simply pick a direction, take a leap, grab a book, and continue on your grand adventure.