Christie Golden

A veteran of the Star Trek and World of Warcraft franchises among others, Christie Golden was no stranger to telling stories within the sandboxes of intellectual properties when she came out of hyperspace into the Star Wars universe in 2009.

Her first works appeared as part of the Fate of the Jedi series, nine novels written cyclically by three authors: Golden, Aaron Allston, and Troy Denning. This Legends series, set more than 30 years after Return of the Jedi, follows the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa Solo and their surviving children in the years after yet another disastrous galactic civil war. Golden’s first entry in the series, 2009’s Omen, reached #4 on the New York Times Best Seller list and #3 on the Publisher’s Weekly list—and introduces the Lost Tribe of the Sith whose backstory we learn about in John Jackson Miller’s series of novellas.

After writing the series’ fifth and eighth books, Allies and Ascension, Golden was set to write her own trilogy of Star Wars novels—the Sword of the Jedi series. However, this series was an unfortunate casualty of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, and the subsequent decision to “reset” the canon. While we here at Youtini love and celebrate all of Star Wars—including all of the new books—sometimes it’s hard not to wonder what this trilogy might have been like!

Fortunately, the momentous acquisition didn’t mean the end of Christie Golden’s Star Wars writing. In 2015, she published Dark Disciple, in which she adapted scripts for the Clone Wars television show that went unproduced due to its cancellation (but, hey, #clonewarssaved!). The book, featuring a forward by Katie Lucas (yes, relation), follows the fascinatingly complex former Sith assassin Asajj Ventress and enigmatic Jedi Quinlan Vos - and if you haven’t read it already, it pairs nicely with the recently-released Dooku: Jedi Lost.

‍In her most recent Star Wars novel, 2017’s Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, Golden gives us the story of Iden Versio and her companions starting with the aftermath of the Battle of Yavin, painting the backstory for the Battlefront II video game. Later that same year, she contributed a short story to From a Certain Point of View. Appropriately titled “The Bucket,” it shows us Princess Leia Organa’s apprehension aboard the Tantive IV from the perspective of one of the stormtroopers (who, as you might expect, is none too sympathetic after having seen her shoot one of his comrades dead).

Does the future of Star Wars publishing hold more work from Christie Golden? If it does, you can count on Youtini to tell you all about it!