More of this, please.

Look, I get it. Some might be tempted to dismiss Star Wars: Dark Legends as a “gimmick book.” It’s intended to be an in-world collection of spooky stories that would’ve been told around a Tatooine or Naboo campfire to scare kids. It doesn’t expand the “canon” in any meaningful way, and it doesn’t even mention any major character we’ve seen across the films or TV series.

But like its companion book – Star Wars: Myths and Fables – also written by George Mann and with illustrations by Grant Griffin, it explores an aspect of Star Wars far too few other books have even attempted: its in-universe lore.

What are the ghost stories Luke and Leia would’ve heard as kids? What stories do parents on Batuu tell their children to scare them out of their bad behavior? What stories might Poe have heard to explain away the monsters under the bed?

Dark Legends includes seven such stories set in nearly as many eras of the Star Wars timeline – from The Clone Wars to the Empire to the First Order. And Mann treats us to creepy, scary stories that feature – in some way – ghosts, werewolves, Inquisitors, Nightsisters, Sith, and the unnamed evil that lurks within us all.

But most importantly, they’re about the lure of the Dark Side.

Let me just go on record as saying I’d like to see WAY MORE books like this. More short stories. More stories that explore random, unfamiliar corners of the Star Wars galaxy. More quick, enjoyable reads that aren’t dependent on thousands of pages of backstory. More independent stories that can stand alone and don’t require an encyclopedia knowledge of the franchise.

Because honestly, if there’s room for six novels about Thrawn from one author (in just the “new canon” alone), then there’s certainly room for short story collections that expand the horizon and are – gasp! – fun to read.

What I’d like to see next? A collection of Sith legends – as in, the stories they tell one another. Stories that aren’t meant to scare or be cautionary but where the Sith are the heroes and come out on top against the meddling Jedi.

Let’s make it happen.