The Star Wars saga has inspired us to explore questions of metaphysics, morality, politics, and the seven forms of lightsaber combat, from our earliest years as younglings, through our apprenticeship as padawan philosophers, to becoming Socratic Knights and, perhaps one day, Masters of Reason – and hopefully not Dark Lords of any sort! For this tremendous influence on our intellectual formation, we owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to Grand Master George Lucas and all of his creative collaborators, as well as the authors and artists who've expanded the saga from the Dawn of the Jedi more than 36,000 years before the Battle of Yavin (BBY) through the continuing Legacy of the Skywalker family over 130 years after the Battle of Yavin (ABY).
They say it takes an Ewok village to destroy a Death Star, but it takes much more to assemble a book like this. First of all, this book wouldn't exist without the contributions of the authors, and we recommend that their wisdom should be preserved in a Holocron for future generations. Tackling a Death Star also requires leadership of the likes of Admiral Ackbar or General Crix Madine. In our case, we benefited extensively from the experience of editorial Grand Moff Bill Irwin. It's also essential to have some Bothan spies who can smuggle out the Death Star plans. For this project, we depended on the “insiders” at John Wiley & Sons, Liam Cooper and Allison Kostka, to guide us to our target.
Our widows to Star Wars, Suzanne and Jennifer, have patiently endured years of our debating the taxation of trade routes in the Outer Rim territories, the romantic wooing skills of future Sith Lords, what sort of crystal powers a purple lightsaber, why AT-ATs don't explode when they're standing but do after they're brought down, and whether the Sarlaac looks better with or without its beak. Finally, passing on the Star Wars legacy to our children, Kennedy, Ethan, Jack, and August, has been a source of tremendous joy for us as we engaged in mock lightsaber duels and taught them the crucial importance of remembering that HAN SHOT FIRST!