Book Review: Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall
Genre: Sci-Fi
Age: Adult
Format: Hardback
I didn’t expect this book to be quite so heavy! Don’t get me wrong – it’s good at what it does, and Kempshall has done a brilliant job in writing a Star Wars history book, but if you are, like me, on the casual side of Star Wars fandom, a ‘watch the films and shows but not every single thing’ kind of fan, this is a bit of a slog. If you live and breathe Star Wars, have seen everything from Andor to Clone Wars, Phantom Menace to Rebels to Bad Batch and read a chunk of the books to boot, you will get so much out of this.
With The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, Kempshall explores the Star Wars universe and pulls from every inch of the galaxy to create a history book that reads as, well, a history book. It’s a clever tome that reflects the ways the Galactic Empire can be compared to real life fascist governments, as well as showing, quite cleverly, the early signs of fascism, the ways in which they gain power and hold onto it. You can see where he’s used both the first world wars to inform the book (likely helped by the fact George Lucas leaned on WWII for elements of inspiration), but there are still quite a lot of more modern-day parallels.
It was an excellent choice to select a historian to write this – it gives the book a strong sense of authenticity. There are even parts of the book where Kempshall diverges slightly from the ‘history’ to note his own ‘role’ in the Galactic Civil War (on the side of the rebels, of course), or to express his own feelings towards the events depicted. It works really well. And yes, although there were a lot of names and events I didn’t recognise (but occasionally feel like they’re included to be recognised, so not fully explained) I think the same would happen if I picked up any book that deals with the rise and fall of a real-world empire.
If you’re not a die-hard Star Wars fan but a loved one is, I strongly recommend you pick this up for them. If you adore Star Wars and know all there is to know about it, there is a lot you’ll get out of this.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I purchased this book (for my Star Wars loving partner, who enjoyed it so, so much more than I did).
