The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire is to Star Wars, what Fire and Blood is to Game of Thrones. An in-universe look back at the events that shaped the galaxy, from the long-standing Republic to the takeover of the Galactic Empire and everything that brought with it. The book, written in our world by Dr. Chris Kempshall and in-universe by Beaumont Kin (an archeologist that joined the resistance and is played by Dominic Monaghan in The Rise of Skywalker) follows the history of the galaxy from the onset of the Clone Wars, until the destruction and death of the revived Emperor and The First Order at the Battle of Exegol.
Rise and Fall is an absolutely phenomenal piece of work and a real crowning achievement in academic writing in the world of Star Wars. The book brings together many thought-provoking essays and points across several chapters, using great critical thinking from the point of view of a historian decades later. All whilst also providing readers with thoughts about how the points raised from studying an Empire in a galaxy far, far away can help people look a lot closer to home for the signs of oppression and complacency.
[Note: While I am reviewing this book independently and honestly, a copy was provided to me by DK books for the purpose of this review.]
The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire enriches the canon of Star Wars
The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire is set a few months after The Rise of Skywalker. Archaeologist and historian Beaumont Kin has spent a while excavating what the Resistance have found on the ancient Sith world of Exegol. In that time, as the galaxy tries to find its feet again, he’s inspired to write about just how the Emperor was able to return and how the New Republic managed to fall so easily to the First Order. This leads him to investigate even further back about how it all started with the rise of Palpatine, and subsequently his Empire.
The premise of the book allows readers to gain new perspectives on this era of Star Wars history, utilizing the shows, films, books and comics that all enrich the history of the era to allow for a detailed analysis of the rise and fall of the Empire.
As the book is set in-universe this means that Beaumont Kin is not privy to exactly all the history of the galaxy and what happens just as we are in the real world. Dr. Kempshall deals with this brilliantly, allowing Beaumont that level of educated guesswork, mixed sources and flexibility that allows readers to fill in the gaps and also understand the points the book is trying to make. Rise and Fall stretches across a lot of canon to really help dig into the psyche of the Empire, the book is laid out into chapters surrounding different aspects of the Empire, The New Republic and The First Order allowing readers to gain a fuller sense of the military and political aspects of these eras.
Utilizing Legends and incorporating canon into the book
One thing Dr. Kempshall does brilliantly in Rise and Fall is how he incorporates elements of canon alongside bringing things from Legends back into canon in the book. I especially enjoy how he manages to use ‘BBY’ and ‘ABY’ in the book, making it now a canon way to date the timeline in the Star Wars galaxy. (BBY and ABY mean before and after the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope, this is often used as the dating system for Star Wars similar to our BC and AD) This helps both readers and the in-universe readers understand the eras and history he is talking about.
Other elements include the sheer amount of canon characters, ships, locations and stories Dr. Kempshall manages to include in The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. The great thing about modern Star Wars is just how connected everything is, and managing to use all the information they can to make a point or explain a policy of the Empire just adds to the richness of the galaxy.
Dr. Kempshall also incorporates bringing back characters, planets and locations from Legends across the novel, helping to give the book something extra. I really enjoy when authors bring back things from the old Expanded Universe of Star Wars (now known as Legends) as more often than not, these authors grew up with that era.
Academic writing about the Star Wars universe
Whilst Rise and Fall is obviously a science-fiction novel, the beauty of it, to me, is just how it is treated as if it isn’t. Both in the sense of how it is written and laid out, but also in the real-world aspects and thoughts the book can give to the audience. In-universe Beaumont Kin uses sources for many of his points, leading to very interesting footnotes; some are from characters in the shows or movies, but some are made up for this book and exist in a very interesting way, furthering the academia of the book and making it that more authentic.
Dr. Kempshall in the real world does a great job of making sure Beaumont is a little unreliable in his narration. He doesn’t fully have access to all the information the audience does, but with the many sources used and created for this book, it makes for a very interesting read.
Another great aspect of the book comes in one of its only negatives. As with many sourcebooks, the sheer amount of Star Wars content released in a year means these source or guidebooks are often out of date incredibly quickly. Rise and Fall is no exception, but the great thing about how they tackle that issue in the book stems from, simply, the lack of information in-universe.
A great example is how they deal with Thrawn’s return at the end of Ahsoka season 1. In-universe, the audience would know what happens to Thrawn in the New Republic era, but as of yet, we, the readers, do not. To rectify this, Beaumont explains how a historian went to the New Republic senate to try and get them to release his work on Thrawn, so it could be read by peers and scholars, unfortunately this was the day that Starkiller base destroyed the New Republic. So, for now at least, all copies of his work have been destroyed. I feel Dr. Kempshall has managed to solve gaps in the timeline in such a fun, unique way whilst also allowing for expanded editions of this book to happen years down the line.
My conclusions on The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire
The Rise and Fall of The Galactic Empire is an absolutely astounding piece of work. Not only for a book set in the Star Wars universe, but also for academic writing around Star Wars. This book is designed to make you think, and it truly gives you a lot of thought-provoking insights into the ruthlessness of the Empire and how it can never happen again.
It does such a great job of relaying history while examining it and picking it apart. Dr. Kempshall is a brilliant writer. Channelling through him, it has given Beaumont Kin a lot more characterization in-universe. I cannot recommend this book enough for any level of Star Wars fan and also any level of historian out there. It will leave you thinking both about the history of a galaxy far, far away alongside the history of Earth for a long time.
My Rating 9.5/10
The Rise and Fall of The Galactic Empire by Dr. Chris Kempshall is now available to purchase most places books are sold. Have you checked out this book? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus what you think of it!
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