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doctrainAUM White Hindu from New Jersey Since: Aug, 2010
White Hindu
#1: Aug 22nd 2011 at 11:47:31 AM

I've decided that I want to buy some of the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. I heard that there are a lot of hated works in this franchise, so I don't know where to start. Other than The Thrawn Trilogy (which I have) and Hand of Thrawn (which I plan to get) are there any particular novels that are generally regarded as the best? You could even just say your favorites and I'll judge for myself.

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
WarriorEowyn from Victoria Since: Oct, 2010
#2: Aug 26th 2011 at 3:58:04 PM

I'm fond of the X-Wing books (the ones by Aaron Allston are particularly funny) and and I, Jedi; the latter occurs during the same time as the Jedi Academy Trilogy. If you're going to buy books, buy these ones, as they're the most fun to reread due to the entertaining characters. I think they're generally accepted as some of the most consistently good ones. (BTW, don't buy the Jedi Academy Trilogy or anything else by Kevin J Anderson - he's a bad author who writes incredibly dumb villains.)

I enjoyed The Truce at Bakura, which is set immediately after Return of the Jedi, but I get the sense that one's a bit love-it-or-hate-it. Tatooine Ghost, by Troy Denning, is okay. In the Clone Wars era, Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover is very good.

I'm not a big fan of the Yuzzhan Vong arc, aka New Jedi Order (if you're not familiar with it - Scary Dogmatic Aliens who can't be sensed in the Force invade the galaxy and steamroller everyone), although it does have decent character development for the Solo kids. I gave up on the books that come after it, which are in my opinion terrible.

edited 26th Aug '11 4:01:43 PM by WarriorEowyn

doctrainAUM White Hindu from New Jersey Since: Aug, 2010
White Hindu
#3: Aug 27th 2011 at 4:04:41 PM

Thanks for the advice. I have preordered X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and I, Jedi through amazon. The EU sure has a lot of variety to it; though, from what I've heard I should ignore any book with "Kevin J. Anderson" or "Karen Traviss" on the cover.

edited 27th Aug '11 4:05:09 PM by doctrainAUM

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
WarriorEowyn from Victoria Since: Oct, 2010
#4: Aug 27th 2011 at 5:47:33 PM

You're welcome! Just a warning - if you read I, Jedi before finishing the first four X-Wing books (Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, The Bacta War), you'll get spoilers galore.

edited 27th Aug '11 5:47:51 PM by WarriorEowyn

TiggersAreGreat Since: Mar, 2011
#5: Sep 2nd 2011 at 11:22:10 AM

I would recommend any Star Wars book written by Timothy Zahn. The man truly gets Star Wars and he is a very good writer, to boot! grin

I also recommend this one Star Wars book titled The New Rebellion written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I don't know why I like it, but I find it very charming. smile

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!
CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#6: Sep 2nd 2011 at 1:55:21 PM

I'd like to second the recommendation for anything by Zahn. He gets Star Wars, but he's also able to craft darker and/or more interesting stories without losing maturity in the process. A lot of recent Star Wars EU has a tendency towards Squick, and Zahn avoids it.

Also, Shadows Of The Empire.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
BlueWolf Jedi Timelord from TARIDS Since: Sep, 2011
Jedi Timelord
#7: Sep 4th 2011 at 8:45:40 AM

I happen to like both the Legacy of the Force series, and Fate of the Jedi, which follows it, although to get the full impact of legacy, you do need to read The New Jedi order

doctrainAUM White Hindu from New Jersey Since: Aug, 2010
White Hindu
#8: Sep 4th 2011 at 5:09:14 PM

It seems Zahn and Stackpole are popular around these parts. They must be the anti-Traviss and Anderson (On that note, I was initially surprised at his unpopularity since I remember reading one of the Young Jedi Knights books and enjoying it. I guess he could write good things occasionally).

Nobody mentioned it, but this Han Solo Trilogy I heard of sounds interesting. Is it any good?

Despite all the hate the tropers here seem to have for those two previously mentioned authors, The Crystal Star is the only book I know of that is universally despised. I should ignore it completely.

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
WarriorEowyn from Victoria Since: Oct, 2010
#9: Sep 4th 2011 at 8:43:20 PM

The Han Solo trilogy is decent, but nothing special. I'd get it from the library or pick it up used if you're going to read it.

Young Jedi Knights is okay - I really enjoyed the series as a teenager - but it suffers from the same major flaw of all of Anderson's Star Wars works: incompetent villains. It feels like the only way he knows of to make the good guys win is through supreme incompetence on the part of the bad guys. This may be less glaring in the Young Jedi Knights novels because it's far for the course for young adult stuff - how else could you have teenagers repeatedly beating powerful, adult villains? However, YJK also has a fair bit of incompetence on the good guys' side.

Zahn's appreciated because he manages to write intelligent villains, and Stackpole pulls this off to a degree as well.

I actually didn't hate The Crystal Star, despite it not being objectively that great of a book. But it's probably even worse than Anderson in the incompetent-villains respect, as it has the main bad guy being outwitted by 5-year-old Jacen & Jaina.

edited 4th Sep '11 8:44:58 PM by WarriorEowyn

apeloverage Since: Aug, 2012
#10: Sep 5th 2011 at 5:19:14 PM

I really enjoyed Star Wars. I sometimes think it's a shame they didn't make any sequels LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU!

doctrainAUM White Hindu from New Jersey Since: Aug, 2010
White Hindu
#11: Sep 6th 2011 at 8:34:08 PM

Incidentally, I'd like to check out The Glove Of Darth Vader. Too bad I can't find it anywhere.

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
Moogi A Mediocre Khan from everywhy Since: Jan, 2001
A Mediocre Khan
#12: Sep 13th 2011 at 8:58:15 AM

Basically, New Jedi Order is very much Love It or Hate It. It's got some good entries and some crap ones, and I'm kind of indifferent to the series as a whole. Now, the post-NJO stuff is even more contentious. Legacy Of The Force is... good as sci-fantasy, but not as good when looked at as a part of the Star Wars saga. I consider the series to be on the higher end of So Okay, It's Average; good, but not hugely so. The series does have some really good points, though: Lumiya as portrayed in the series is hands-down one of my favourite Star Wars villains ever and, while there's a LOT of fan-hate towards them, I did enjoy the bits about Mandalorian culture (though that said, those bits would have been better off in their own series, since they ultimately distracted from the main arc of the series.).

Now, Fate Of The Jedi... that's where things get interesting. The series itself is excellent, but it has a crippling flaw nonetheless. This flaw has nothing to do with the story or writing. The problem is that they are trying to use 9 books to tell a 6 book story. Books 6-8 are phenomenal (or at least, the third of 8 that I've read thus far), while 1-5 could easily have been condensed into two volumes. This is mitigated, however, by the fact that all of the books are still quite good (I'd like to single out the fourth one, Backlash, which, despite being essentially filler, was one of the most entertaining Star Wars novels I have read in a long time) on their own terms.

So, yeah. I'm not sure whether to recommend Lot F or not, but I heartily recommend Fot J, despite its overly drawn-out nature.

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TiggersAreGreat Since: Mar, 2011
#13: Sep 17th 2011 at 9:43:08 AM

Well, don't worry. I've heard that once the writers finish up the last book Fate Of The Jedi: Apocalypse, they will go back to writing one-book, two-book, and three-book stories for Star Wars. I hope this qualifies as an And The Fandom Rejoiced moment. grin

Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!
Moogi A Mediocre Khan from everywhy Since: Jan, 2001
A Mediocre Khan
#14: Sep 19th 2011 at 9:29:14 AM

[up] It certainly made me rejoice, despite how much I love FOTJ. It'll be nice to see stories brought back into more manageable lengths.

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Willbyr Hi (Y2K) Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Hi
#15: Sep 21st 2011 at 9:17:53 AM

I'd recommend Shadows of the Empire, The Truce at Bakura, all of the X-Wing books, I, Jedi, and all of Tim Zahn's work prior to the New Jedi Order line (I read two or three of those, and then my interest in the EU and Star Wars in general kinda petered out). If you ever played the X Wing or TIE Fighter video games, you'll appreciate the X-Wing books that much more.

edited 21st Sep '11 9:18:12 AM by Willbyr

arcsquad12 The Inheritor from Monument of Sins Since: Feb, 2011
The Inheritor
#16: Sep 21st 2011 at 9:00:23 PM

Get Knight Errant. It is set in an unexplored time period of the Galaxy, making it a great jumping off point. Kerra Holt is a Badass rogue Jedi.

And, though I know people will complain, I'd recommend giving at least a few of the Karen Traviss novels a shot. Hard Contact, Triple Zero, and the first half of True Colors are very good reads, that focus more on the Clones, and less on the Jedi Bashing.

Order 66 goes off the deepend however, and following on from that depends on how many times you want to see Mandalorian oneupmanship.

Do not be so quick to make foolish offers, Daemon. Araghast too once thought I would be an asset to his cause. Look what has become of him.
LightningStorm93 Jack Finney from The Galactic Empire Since: Mar, 2011
Jack Finney
#17: Sep 26th 2011 at 4:01:19 PM

Crimson Empire vols. 1 and 2 (the third is finally on the way after a decade in Development Hell). Dark Empire as well (I'm aware it's quite flawed, but it's not horrible).

Well, I think that's everything, let's get up that X like a ferret up a trouser leg, eh?
SwiftStrike The from Perth, Australia, Earth Since: Apr, 2011
The
#18: Nov 20th 2011 at 4:27:05 PM

This area seems to be lacking in Clone Wars Era books! I recommend: -Shatterpoint -The Medstar Duology -Coruscant Nights (Make sure you read Medstar and Shatterpoint before this, as it contains some of the main characters thereof)

As for Post-Clone Wars stuff, I have to agree with the general consensus above. X-Wing is by far my favourite Star Wars EU series ^_^ Anything by Zahn, Stackpole or Allston; some of TNJ are excellent, while others are crap; and anything from that point onwards tends to be rather hit-and-miss in terms quality.

I would also recommend the Han Solo Trilogy - it's not amazing, but I did find it quite entertaining nonetheless :D

Oh, and, of course, Shadows of Mindor. It contains characters from Shatterpoint, one of my favourite books ever, but I've been told it falls into the dominion of [Love It or Hate It].

Does that make me crazy?
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#19: Nov 20th 2011 at 8:37:41 PM

To be frank about it, I really can't get into most EU books because it involves Luke, Han, and Leia saving the day (again) from a new and unexpected threat (again) with the fate of the galaxy at stake (again). And there will almost always be some new crazy ridiculous Force thing involved. I think the EU forgets that the most spectacular thing accomplished via the Force in the movies was Yoda lifting Luke's X-Wing out of a swamp. The EU gives us the Force doing things like spontaneously resurrecting someone, mind-control a large number of people from a great distance, pull a spaceship out of a gas giant from orbit, and allowing someone to survive an explosion that leveled an entire building. There's also, what, three mysterious extragalactic aliens that show up without warning and start busting shit up?

Anyway, there are a few exceptions to this, most notably the X Wing Series (which focuses on smaller goals than "save the galaxy from this week's threat" and keeps the presence of the movie characters to a bare minimum), or Shadows Of The Empire (which features most of the main movie characters, but doesn't have an epic save-the-galaxy plot and does a much better job of making them believably human characters rather than unstoppable juggernauts whose only flaw is that they can only be in one place at a time).

tl;dr, Star Wars has a very interesting setting, but most of the EU seems determined to avoid exploring it in favor of trying to rehash the movies except with ever-increasing stakes.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Deboss I see the Awesomeness. from Awesomeville Texas Since: Aug, 2009
I see the Awesomeness.
#20: Nov 20th 2011 at 10:54:32 PM

I think he was supposed to have force piloted the ship or something.

Fight smart, not fair.
Drakyndra Her with the hat from Somewhere Since: Jan, 2001
Her with the hat
#21: Nov 20th 2011 at 11:16:32 PM

[up][up]I actually agree with that. I loved Star Wars, and have enjoyed the books I've read of the EU, more or less, but what I've heard of a lot of the books just gives me no desire to read them.

You're right that I think the stories I enjoyed the most were the ones that kept things small scale, because they actually allow you to focus on interesting character stuff.

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ComicX6 (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#22: Nov 21st 2011 at 7:44:12 PM

I can empathize, certainly. I stopped reading the new EU books after Bloodlines since the plot turned me off cold, and the summaries that I've read since have further convinced me that that was the right choice. Del Ray's books just got so caught up in making things bigger, badder, Bloodier and Gorier and Darker and Edgier that they sacrificed the narrative quality for the sake of shock value. And this is coming from someone who actually didn't mind most of the New Jedi Order series (which I am in fact currently in the process of rereading, as now that I am Older and Wiser I will hopefully be able to pick up on things that I didn't the first time around, both good and bad). I mean, I know the older books have their fair share of problems too, but they didn't seem quite as glaring.

Though granted, I was younger back then.

As far as the general topic goes, I can't really do anything other than parrot what others have said about the X-Wing Series and most of the Zahn books. Despite not having read a new EU book since Bloodlines, I am interested in maybe checking out Death Star and Millenium Falcon sometime.

Also, I vastly prefer the illustrated covers of the Japanese editions of NJO compared to the "lookit what we can do with Photoshop!" ones that most of the English editions had.

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doctrainAUM White Hindu from New Jersey Since: Aug, 2010
White Hindu
#23: Nov 22nd 2011 at 9:30:11 PM

@22 Yeah, those covers are really generic and don't exactly tell you much of the plot. I remember reading on a defunct blog (by Bonsai Forest, I believe) about how adult books just have bad photoshop covers and that the covers of children books are far more creative. I'll have to agree with him on that one.

I also have a point in the EU that I refuse to read past (if I ever get to it). You see, Iread some things on Wookieepedia and was disheartened by what I saw. Death of Chewbacca? Fair enough, if that's what you want to do. Turning Jacen evil for no clear reason? Terrible idea, but still salvagable. Killing off Mara? That 'very' nearly crossed the line, but I could bear that.

No, the thing that makes me the most angry is the end of the New Republic. Specifically, how fast it happened. Seriously, just thirty years or so? I feel this way because I always saw the New Republic and the stability it would bring as a ...reward, you could call it, for the characters overthrowing a tyrant. To have it fall within the movie characters' lifetimes seems to insult their efforts and everything they went through. You couldn't wait at least a couple centuries, could you?

It would be bad enough if it was solely due to some unnecessary aliens from nowhere, but (if Wookieepedia is to be believed) it was also from corruption permeating the whole Republic. Wasn't the New Republic supposed to 'remove' the problems inherit in the Old Republic, not 'replicate' them, you fucking bastards?! Yet... thirty years... it just...

Sorry. It's very hard for me to put into words how much this enrages me. Still, I will continue to find good Star Wars books. I'll just try to avoid the ones people mentioned here.

"What's out there? What's waiting for me?"
Liisiko Just a teapot Since: Jan, 2010
Just a teapot
#24: Nov 23rd 2011 at 8:57:54 AM

[up]I know what you mean with that. It takes away everything everyone worked and sacrificed so much for annoyingly fast. If it had been a few centuries I would totally understand and maybe even enjoy enough to read, but the way it went was much too fast.

edited 23rd Nov '11 8:59:29 AM by Liisiko

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NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#25: Nov 23rd 2011 at 10:32:10 AM

Wait, the New Republic ends? I didn't even know that; I haven't read anything involving the Hard-to-spell Vong Organic Techonology aliens or taking place afterwards — because quite honestly, I don't care about some random aliens. I like the Star Wars setting for the light side/dark side, rebels/empire conflict. If you want to play around with that formula (such as the New Republic replacing the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire being pushed back until it resembles the old Rebel Alliance, or having an equally powerful Empire and Republic with shitloads of Jedi/Sith on either side) then that's cool. But having an entirely invented new third party show up and wreck everyone? It may be interesting sci-fi, but it doesn't feel like Star Wars to me.

Anyway, yeah. New Republic goes boom? How does that happen? What replaces it?

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

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