Oh -- and I forgot to address this:
even the novels and the comics, with few exceprions, are linked to the times between RotS and ANH or ANH and ESB.
Chronologically, to date we have (comics in italics)...
PREQUEL ERA
The Phantom Menace (32 BBY)
Darth Maul (somewhere in here) -- miniseries
Obi-Wan & Anakin (29 BBY) -- miniseries
Attack of the Clones (22 BBY)
Mace Windu: Jedi of the Republic (22 BBY) -- miniseries
Catalyst (21-17 BBY) -- Rogue One backstory
Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (20 BBY) -- miniseries, unproduced story arc for Clone Wars
Dark Disciple (19 BBY) -- what happened to Ventress, unproduced story arc for Clone Wars
Revenge of the Sith (19 BBY)
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith (19 BBY) -- miniseries
Kanan: The Last Padawan (19-4 BBY) -- miniseries
Ahsoka (18 BBY)
Lords of the Sith (14 BBY)
Tarkin (14 BBY)
Rebel Rising (13-0 BBY) -- Jyn backstory)
Thrawn (11-2 BBY)
A New Dawn (11 BBY)
Lost Stars (11-5 BBY)
Battlefront: Twilight Company (6 BBY-3 ABY)
ORIGINAL TRILOGY ERA
Leia: Princess of Alderaan (around here somewhere)
Cassian & K-2SO (around here somewhere) -- one-shot
Rogue One
A New Hope
Princess Leia -- miniseries
Chewbacca -- miniseries
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad
Heir to the Jedi
Star Wars -- ongoing series, some flashbacks to prior to ANH
Darth Vader -- ongoing series, ended at issue 25, continued as Doctor Aphra
Lando (somewhere in here) -- miniseries
Han Solo (somewhere in here) -- miniseries
The Empire Strikes Back (3 ABY)
Return of the Jedi (4 ABY)
Shattered Empire (4 ABY) -- miniseries
Aftermath (4 ABY)
Aftermath: Life Debt (5 ABY)
Aftermath: Empire's End (5 ABY)
SEQUEL ERA
Bloodline (28 ABY)
Phasma (somewhere in here)
C-3PO (34 ABY) -- one-shot
Poe Dameron (34 ABY) -- ongoing series
The Force Awakens (34 ABY)
Captain Phasma (34 ABY) -- miniseries
That's not counting the young-reader stuff. All this over the last three years. I agree they're filling in a lot of the stuff between earlier films. So far the span between the Battle of Jakku and The Force Awakens is largely unexplored, yes. I attribute this to the fact that the films are establishing this era right now. I can easily see them putting a moratorium on stories set there, as Lucas had for the Prequel Era -- because he still needed to develop that himself. But still, so far we've had a bit of exploration into how the Resistance started. We've had a lovely delve into Phasma's history (
she's a piece of work!). We've seen Poe's hunt for Luke's whereabouts. We've seen how Threepio got the red arm. We're currently seeing how Phasma escaped the trash compactor. As agonizing as it is, I'd rather they take their time filling in the gaps. Frankly, I'm hoping we get a new animated series after Rebels ends that picks up after the Battle of Jakku and fills in some of that big missing stuff. But overall I'm happy with things so far, and am looking forward to whatever's next.
--Jonah