Review: The Legends of Luke Skywalker – The Journey You’ve Been Missing

Legends of Luke Skywalker - book cover — By: **Ken Liu**

“As a cargo ship rockets across the galaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious Luke Skywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy to another? Is Skywalker really a famous Jedi hero, an elaborate charlatan, or even part droid? The deckhands will have to decide for themselves when they hear The Legends of Luke Skywalker.
A collection of myths and tall-tales about the legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker, written by Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy award-winning author Ken Liu.”
From the Publisher

The Legends of Luke Skywalker is an interlude between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: A New Hope. If you have been missing the classic Luke Skywalker from the original trilogy, this is the book for you. It highlights original characters, while drawing in the farm boy we fell in love with in Star Wars: A New Hope.

The book starts each story about Luke Skywalker with a quote from one of the movies. They all relate to the “legend” being told about the legendary Jedi Knight. It’s an anthology really, all linked together by a crew telling these tales. It’s a unique way to tell an overall story, but ultimately it provides the missing Luke Skywalker some more development between Revenge of the Sith and The Last Jedi.

The Legends of Luke Skywalker will draw you in over the many adventures of Luke Skywalker. Some are tall tales, some seem like they could be true. After each story comes, the question remains. Was it really Luke Skywalker? It’s up for interpretation in most, but it draws to the overall theme. We all have a piece of Luke Skywalker inside of us.

The stories of Luke vary time wise, so they don’t necessarily link up. There are some stories that are clear about where they are in the timeline, but others are not. There are some absolutely hysterical legends, and then others will quiet your soul, and really make you think about the story, and how it can apply to your life.

One quote that really speaks about Star Wars as a whole.

“Canto Bight is like nowhere else in the galaxy. It’s full of strange people and strange sights, all of them from somewhere else. But it’s also a place where anyone can find a nook to call home.”
-Teal, The Legends of Luke Skywalker

This book released before The Last Jedi did, and it’s part of a series called Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Canto Bight scene in the movie got so much backlash. Some considered the scene a waste of time, pointless to the overall plot of the movie. It’s almost like Disneywas predicting some sort of backlash, inserting this quote in this book. Canto Bight is a representation of the conglomeration of Star Wars fans across the world. There’s a nook for everyone in the universe, and I hope people recognize it. Star Wars has been around for 40 years now, and this book is just a great one to link all the many generations together.

We see a lot of character development in Luke. The crew telling the stories, we see them latch on to each story. They’re really a rag tag group of workers of all different species, and they represent the fandom of Star Wars so well. They all get united together and help someone because they are inspired by Luke Skywalker.

This is definitely a Star Wars book. Each story about Luke revolves around him helping someone, no matter who they are. The crews’ story also involves them helping someone because it’s the right thing to do. And that’s why we all got so attached to Luke right? Because he wanted to help Leia get out of The Death Star, and it was the right thing to do.

Definitely check this book out. Kevin Liu did a great job with it, and expressing the character of Luke Skywalker. It reminds me of the Legends era Luke Skywalker, and I hope we get more canon books like this from Disney.