Best Expanded Universe Fiction

For the sake of convenience, Expanded Universe is here defined as fiction (be it a full novel or an anthology of short stories) that is based on a franchise that started in a different medium like film, television, or video games and contain original stories set in that franchise's universe.

EU books are usually dismissed, either by the general public, who think of them as nothing more but cheap cash ins, or by fans of the franchise since their status as canon can be dubious and their overall quality can be mediocre at best. There is also the problem that writers are usually restricted by what they can and can't do.

However, there is plenty of EU fiction out there that can stand on their own as good literature or just good enough that fans can considered them canon in their own minds even if it isn't official. Examples can be seen in the EU of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who to name a few.

Can you name any examples?

I started the SWEU with a Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, then started the Thrawn Trilogy by Tymothy Zhan. Right now I could go broke buying SWEU books. Also started the Doctor Who New Adventures recently, and can guarantee that, after Paul Cornell comes on board, there's some of the best stuff you'll ever read among these books.

I like The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley as the best Star Wars expanded universe stuff. There's no Jedi or Force in them, but I think they capture the "Star Wars feel" very well. The Thrawn Trilogy would probably be my second choice for good Star Wars EU stuff. I also thought the Revenge of the Sith novelization was better than the movie.

I liked Yesterday's Son back in the day for Star Trek, and the Romulan "Rihannsu" books by Diane Duane. Her Doctor's Orders is pretty good too. Vonda M. McIntyre's Star Trek stuff is all pretty good too, including the movie novelizations.

Do RPG tie-ins count as "expanded universe"? I thought 2XS was a pretty good Shadowrun novel. And I enjoyed the second trilogy of Dragonlance - much more than the first one, actually.

edited 11th Sep '17 1:53:01 PM by Bense

Darth Plagueis was what introduced me to the Star Wars EU and as such holds a special place on my shelf (insert prequel meme here).

Good Good let the memes flow through you

No contest, The Thrawn Trilogy.

There's a reason Thrawn was so popular, to the point he got shoehorned into almost every EU spinoff work (even post-death), and now got re-canonized.

Just about everything Timothy Zahn touches in the EU turns to gold. I'm listening to the audiobook of Vision of the Future right now. Marc Thompson does great voice work with Zahn's characters.

I also have a special place in my heart and bookshelf for the X-Wing Series. Not coincidentally, Zahn and Michael Stackpole collaborated closely on their later stories.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Dec 4th 2018 at 1:58:55 PM

I agree. The Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn Duology, and the X-Wing books are easily the best of the Star Wars EU. I'm also partial to The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers.

In the Clone Wars era, Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover is excellent.

Edited by Galadriel on Dec 4th 2018 at 7:06:04 AM

Agreed, and so is his Revenge of the Sith novelization. I'm one of those who considers it better than the film itself. I haven't read Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor yet, but it's on my list.

James Luceno is another who has some good stuff, as alluded to above. Haven't read Darth Plagueis yet either, but I enjoyed Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader.

And I wrote the TV Tropes page on Star Wars: Kenobi. Big fan there.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Dec 4th 2018 at 11:57:02 AM

Yes, Stover's ROTS novelization is better than the movie by a long shot, mainly because it's far better at illustrating the characters' internal emotional arcs that make up the core of the story.

Yep, totally putting the ROTS novel for the Star Wars fandom.

And... that's all I can put at the moment.

I mean, I can suggest comics from other movies or cartoons, but I don't want to use loopholes to add to this discussion.

EU writers really are caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side, there's not enough readers who appreciate the time and effort it takes to add a new entry into an established universe. And on the other hand, the executives are the ones who authorize everything that an author can or can't do for a work, at the possible detriment to public reception.

Edited by BrightLight on Mar 25th 2019 at 12:05:18 AM

There are a lot of fiction that is available during the university study. Unfortunately, not every book is worth reading.

I dunno about there not being enough of an audience; after all the Star Wars EU has been going on for years, Disney is greenlighting new books for the new continuity, and the Star Trek Relaunch thing has been going fairly steady for years. Someone is buying these books often enough for the bigwigs to keep wanting to do it, and the authors seem to enjoy despite the restrictions.

But Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who seem to be the only franchises with good EU fiction - and some might even disagree with me on that.

Anyhow, this may be loophole abuse, but here's some more additions.

"Love Potion 8" - a short story from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's a children's book. Not a novel.

"Transformers Animated: The Arrival" - a comic from the universe of Transformers: Animated. A comic, a very great one at that, which does a lot of worldbuilding and setting up for the show. But otherwise not a novel.

They're also fairly famous franchises with a lot of fans that attracts writers. And publishers with enough clout to search out those talented writers. It's kind of a networking thing.

They're also big enough franchises to have A LOT of books out there. Although, doesn't D&D have tons of books as an EU out there as well? I think I've read one or two. It may be your sampling bias at work.

That may be true (regarding your last point).

I'm gonna add comics and storybooks based off of Pixar movies in general.

Edited by BrightLight on Apr 1st 2019 at 4:28:35 AM

I'd say that Games Workshop's entire publishing wing (Black Library) counts as EU, since the original media comes under Tabletop Games. And there's a lot of absolutely stellar novels and series under that banner (a lot of absolute turds too, to be fair) but Gotrek and Felix, Ciaphas Cain, Malus Darkblade, anything Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden write, the monstrous juggernaut that is the Horus Heresy series...

It seems to me that to get really good Expanded Universe work you need a lapse in the official universe. Star Trek had the first notable EU, and it was the result of no new official material between the classic TV series and the first movie - a gap of 11 years if you don't count the Animated series (5 if you do). Same story with Star Wars and the gap between Episodes VI and I (16 years if you don't count things like the animated Droids and Ewoks, 12 if you do). Perhaps to attract talented authors to an intellectual property you have to have the EU be the place to go for that property. If you have an ongoing official series then the people interested in working on the property will be working on the official ongoing series.

Believe it or not (I hardly can believe it myself), I've just discovered recent Disney novels are pretty good EU material.

The "Twisted Tale" series comes to mind.

And since I have a soft spot for The Little Mermaid (due to the film being my little sister's favorite when she was younger), I will proudly declare that a lot of its EU expansion storybooks provide great worldbuilding.

Edited by BrightLight on Jul 24th 2019 at 6:12:04 AM

I'm going with the ROTJ and ROTS novelizations, as well as the tie-in Lady Lovely Locks books and audio dramas.