Hi! I’m still new to the SW fandom and I’m starting to delve into the different books, but do you mind explaining the different types, like the difference between “legends” and “cannon?” does that refer to things published before the force awakens?? Or is there more to it; how many roughly are there?
Hello, and welcome to the fandom! 🎉 The universe of Star Wars content is huge and it can be as hard to navigate as an asteroid field, but I'll do my best to explain 🙂
The Legends vs Canon difference refers to content published before vs after Disney buying Star Wars (so we can call is BD/AD 😛).
Legends used to be known as the EU (Expanded Universe) before Disney bought Star Wars. It goes as far back as 1978 with the book Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which was a sort of unofficial sequel to ANH when they didn't know if ESB would get made! The EU was never sanctioned as canon by George Lucas, although he did offer his input and borrowed from what other authors had already done to maintain some consistency. It was re-labelled as Legends by Disney as a way to somewhat dilute the fandom regard of it as canon.
Canon, or Disney canon, refers to the continuity published by Disney. While it includes everything published after The Force Awakens, it also includes things that were published by Disney way before the movie's release, starting in 2014.
So you can think of it as two parallel universes. Both Legends and Disney canon have errors of consistency and, in my opinion, both are flawed.
As for how many books there are... oof, I don't think I can answer that question. Too many! But Wookieepedia thankfully has these amazing lists:
Full list of books (both Legends and Canon)
Timeline of Legends books
Timeline of Legends comics
Timeline of Canon books
Timeline of Canon comics
I hope that's useful!
~ @otterandterrier


















