Every Legend is "Essential"

For the past couple of years, Del-Rey has been reprinting books from the Expanded Universe in what they've titled "The Essential Legends Collection" and there's certainly some essential stories within there.

From James Luceno's "Darth Plagueis" to Drew Karpshyn's Darth Bane Trilogy, there's plenty for fans old and new to enjoy.

However, also in this collection arer some I would tell newcomers to avoid. "Dawn of the Jedi" and "Knight Errant" were both included in my "Top 10 Worst EU Books" list and are generally panned by the fandom as a whole.

So are they essential too?

Not really. But we need to take a step back and look what the situation is really telling us.

Del-Rey's just throwing any book out there to see what will sell again. The use A.I. generated art that pays little attention to detail and, at times, is confusing to figure out what's going on. I haven't been impressed with a single cover but that's not a concern for me in the first place.

And it isn't "all bad" here, as a lot of these have recieved un-abridged audio books for the first time, which is great, since its been long overdue and the current popularity of audio books now makes these more accessible for fans wanting to hear the book in its entirety.

I also find it paints an ironic message, that ALL Legends stories are "essential" and people unfamiliar with them should know that if they plan to read anything "Star Wars" they should start with what the publishers deem "essential", which isn't the new canon.

There's power in words and I believe nothing makes a more powerful statement than that.