Books I Love: The Star of the Guardians by Margaret Weis

Installment two of “Books I Love” is another throwback, one that helped cement my love for all things sci-fi and opened my eyes to the idea that you can take any idea, any story, and make it your own.

The Star of the Guardians is a three (or four, depending on how you look at it) book series by Margaret Weis. It is, in my opinion, an homage, a love letter if you will, to Star Wars mixed with a bit of a “lost prince” kind of trope. It’s a story of a failing empire overthrown by an upstart rebellion… which sounds familiar enough… but that’s just where the story starts. The “twist” in the Star of the Guardians is that, it turns out, sometimes people don’t realize what they had until its gone.

The Republic is corrupt, the various worlds stand on the brink of a new war, and Warlords wield near unlimited power by virtue of their military might. The promised wonderland of democratic rule has turned out to be nothing more than politics as usual, where money talks and the common citizen is crushed under the heel of power.

But there are those who will not stand for the corruption, and their is a boy, the lone survivor of the attack on the Palace that ended the Royal line. The Guardians – genetically altered humans with near-magical powers – have been protecting him, but the time has come for the would-be king to step into the light and try to reclaim his birthright.

Battles, bloodswords that totally aren’t lightsabers, I swear, aliens, magic, brave warriors, spaceships, and snarky droid sidekicks… basically, if you like Star Wars (original trilogy, thank you), you’re going to love this ride. The paperbacks are hard to come by, but e-books were put out not too long ago. They were buggy at first, but hopefully all of those issues have since been resolved.