Any SW novel by Timothy Zahn, the Thrawn trilogy is commonly the best place to start. If you like stormtroopers, esp Allegience.
I also enjoyed the second half of Death Star. Once it caught up to the movie timeline it became a lot more interesting.
People rave about the Imperial Commando series, but I guess you have to read them in order for them to be any good. I made the mistake of picking up 501st: An Imperial Commando Novel and it was as exciting as watching Aunt Beru knit a gundark sweater!
The Force Unleashed books look good, but I haven't read 'em yet. If they're anything like the game, tho, they should rock.
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Cool thanks for the info. I have a vague recolection of seeing the Thrawn books mentioned here on another thread but I couldn't remember what the name. Thanks!
Like all Star Wars material, 85% of it is absolute Lucas-approved crap, and 15% of it is pure lightsaber awesome. The Zahn books are good, yes--but the older ones are kind of dated. Not bad, just old. The big plotted out arcs are pretty good, but are quite the investment if you want to read the whole spiel. I can recommend the New Jedi Order series and Legacy of the Force series. I've not yet decided on the Fate of the Jedi series--but it is currently ongoing so you can deal with all the mystery and plottage at the same time as the rest of us, should you or your friend like that sort of thing.
Also, I would personally recommend I, Jedi by Michael Stackpoole. It is dated as well, but was quite the departure from the standard Star Wars fare when it came out. For the longest time, it was also the only Star Wars book ever presented in the first person, and I've always enjoyed it.
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I've read The Force Unleashed, and if you've played the game, it's actually rather boring, since you're just getting a play-by-play of the game, with a bit of extra background on Juno Eclipse. So if you want to find out more about Juno, get the book, if not, just play the game, much more fun that way. Still haven't read #2 though.
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Originally Posted by BackFire
Any SW novel by Timothy Zahn, the Thrawn trilogy is commonly the best place to start. If you like stormtroopers, esp Allegience.
I also enjoyed the second half of Death Star. Once it caught up to the movie timeline it became a lot more interesting. People rave about the Imperial Commando series, but I guess you have to read them in order for them to be any good. I made the mistake of picking up 501st: An Imperial Commando Novel and it was as exciting as watching Aunt Beru knit a gundark sweater! The Force Unleashed books look good, but I haven't read 'em yet. If they're anything like the game, tho, they should rock. |
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If 2 follows the game it'll be shite. The second game didn't have half the appeal of the first and left off just as it got interesting. The first game stands on it's own for story, but the second really has none to speak of.
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Originally Posted by Alpha-One
I've read The Force Unleashed, and if you've played the game, it's actually rather boring, since you're just getting a play-by-play of the game, with a bit of extra background on Juno Eclipse. So if you want to find out more about Juno, get the book, if not, just play the game, much more fun that way. Still haven't read #2 though.
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Mostly this... I'm not too fond of the whole "fate of the jedi" bit. The series is just *weak,* though it does do some factional development. Then again, I'm at the point where (a) I want some of these writers to just go away, and (b) Luke, Han, leia, etc. need to just die off already. I'm expecting, 3-4 books from now, to hear "Luke got up from his hoverchair and slowly started chasing after Ben with his light-cane before going out to the balcony and yelling, at the top of his Force-enhanced voice, "Get off my lawn!" to the rest of Coruscant." |
Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Like all Star Wars material, 85% of it is absolute Lucas-approved crap, and 15% of it is pure lightsaber awesome. The Zahn books are good, yes--but the older ones are kind of dated. Not bad, just old. The big plotted out arcs are pretty good, but are quite the investment if you want to read the whole spiel. I can recommend the New Jedi Order series and Legacy of the Force series. I've not yet decided on the Fate of the Jedi series--but it is currently ongoing so you can deal with all the mystery and plottage at the same time as the rest of us, should you or your friend like that sort of thing.
Also, I would personally recommend I, Jedi by Michael Stackpoole. It is dated as well, but was quite the departure from the standard Star Wars fare when it came out. For the longest time, it was also the only Star Wars book ever presented in the first person, and I've always enjoyed it. |
Death Star wasn't bad, I rather liked the trio of Bane novels, Millenium Falcon stank on ice.
Fortunately, we're getting more "very-pre-ANH" stuff coming out. I want them to go back farther with the novels (and not have to try to find the Dark Horse comics.) But then again, I like backstory. *shrug*
The New Jedi Order, while being WAY too long (19 books? REALLY?), is still a damn fine read. The most notable thing about it IMO is how much it shook up the established status quo of the Star Wars universe. Anyone could die, no planet was safe, and the effects of it were still being felt in future books. It also is probably the only series in the entire franchise that accurately captured the feel and effects of a galaxy spanning war (the jury is still out on the Clone Wars series).
The Legacy of the Force on the other hand was...mweh... I don't want to spoil too much but it plays it way to safe, somehow reenacting the plots of both the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy at the same time and resetting almost everything back to square one at the end. There are other problems too (the Mary Sue Mandalorians being one that comes to mind), but my biggest gripe is that for a nine book series it never seemed to accomplish much.
The jury is still out on the Fate of the Jedi series, but I do have to agree with Memphis Bill and say that it is a SLOW series. For a franchise that was founded on spaceship battles and lightsaber fights there is a lot of talky bits. I do like that it introduced the first real Lovecraftian horror the Star Wars universe has seen though. There are still three books in the series left to come out, so hopefully the pace will begin to pick up soon.
I didn't see it mentioned here, but a good (albeit older) series to read is the Rogue Squadron Series. It follows Wedge Antilles and his band of misfit pilots, and has one of the best uses for an Ewok ever put in print.
Highly recommended.
"I may," he said with a grin that would have sent sane men scampering for the trees, "have been imagining it."
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I won't claim that series was the best thing I ever read but enjoyed each book, and there was always something to make me laugh.
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Originally Posted by Quantum_Knight
I didn't see it mentioned here, but a good (albeit older) series to read is the Rogue Squadron Series. It follows Wedge Antilles and his band of misfit pilots, and has one of the best uses for an Ewok ever put in print.
Highly recommended. |
The Republic Commando series was pretty good, at least through Order 66. Haven't read Imperial Commando just yet. The Darth Bane novels are frakkin awesome. Legacy of the Force; I liked it. Most people I've talked to about it hated it, but that wasn't the case for me.
Some of the Pre-PT stuff isn't bad (Cloak of Deception, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, and Outbound Flight), but the Clone Wars series so far has been crap. I don't know if these two books are really that good, or if Shatterpoint and Cestus Deception sucked that badly, but I actually enjoyed the two Medstar books. I'm actually considering skipping Jedi Trial and Dark Rendevous.
I mentioned this in the sci-fi book thread, but right now I'm reading the Lost Tribe of the Sith e-series (is that a word yet?) and so far through 1 book and 2 chapters of the 2nd I'm enjoying it. Somehow it's supposed to tie into the Fate of the Jedi series. Gonna probably start the new TOR novel after I'm done with these.
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Some people love these books, others hate it.|
Originally Posted by BackFire
People rave about the Imperial Commando series, but I guess you have to read them in order for them to be any good. I made the mistake of picking up 501st: An Imperial Commando Novel and it was as exciting as watching Aunt Beru knit a gundark sweater!
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I enjoyed the first three novels, the fourth was decent, but the last, 501st, was kinda bleah to me. Seemed like not a lot actually HAPPENED in that one, just a lot of brooding and angst over going from "Heroes of the Republic" to "Darth Vader's goon squad".
I did not read the Legacy of the Force books by the same author, Karen Traviss, which I understand where a lot of the fandom hate for her comes from.
The author was a military journalist prior to writing novels, and it kinda shows. She's very pro-soldier and the soldiering lifestyle. Her other major work is, perhaps not surprisingly, the Gear of War tie-in novels, featuring more soldiers. I understand she's scripting the storyline behind the Gear of War 3 game as well.
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Originally Posted by Quantum_Knight
I didn't see it mentioned here, but a good (albeit older) series to read is the Rogue Squadron Series. It follows Wedge Antilles and his band of misfit pilots, and has one of the best uses for an Ewok ever put in print.
Highly recommended. |
Let me say Wraith and Rogue Squadrons were decent reads. The Timothy Zahn "Thrawn" series was great. Add another vote for I, Jedi by Stackpole. Everything else has really been pretty crappy.
I find the EU books are hampered by the main three characters. Any prequel theyre in is silly because we know nothing bad happens to them, anything more than 10 years post-Jedi is stupid because theyre too damn old. The best stories for my money take place to other charaters around the time of Return of Jedi.
--Frog
Stackpole's Rogue Squadron and Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron books (All under the unifying title of X-Wing series) are probably the best Star Wars Novels written if you're looking for plain old fun to read stuff.
Zahn really has the feel of the setting down, and he is good with the characters, though sometimes his plots veer a little too far into the intracacies of intergalactic politics for my tastes. But anything by Tim Zahn is a solid bet.
I really enjoyed the republic commando novels, and Traviss' writing style but I already had a vitrolic hate for the Prequel era Jedi anyway.
I really stopped reading Star Wars novels when the Yuuzan Vong thing started, but I still like to check the new releases for good Clone Wars stuff.
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chiming in and agreeing with the folks who've already mentioned the various Tim Zahn novels (both the Heir to the Empire trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, and Survivor's Quest), and pretty much all of the books by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston (most notably Rogue Squadron).
the New Jedi Order is long, but if you're willing to stick with it, most of the novels are decent. just have to be willing to suffer some of the really bad ones. (which, sadly includes Vector Prime, which kicks the whole thing off)
I haven't read the Legacy or Fate of the Jedi series, and being a pretty big fan of the EU, i dont really want to. too much dark crap happens for me to even want to read it.
A couple of other SW books i dig are the Han solo trilogy by A.C. Crispin, and the older Han Solo books by Brian Daley. this one gets a bit of flack, but it's a fun read regardless, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. then there are the Darth Bane books, which are on my to read list, but i have to get my hands on some copies of them. Fundage is light at the moment, so i havent been able to get them.
...and because i cant get into Star Wars EU without bringing up Dark Horse comics, if you want comic adaptation, Dark Horse has been the ones holding the license for better than 20 years and they do awesome work and a lot of their older material has been reprinted in decent priced Omnibus editions. (for example, the Rogue Squadron omnibus... omnibi?... books, that cover events prior to the RW series by Stackpole.)
The main snag that the EU novels suffered from for years was the following decrees from Lucas:
1. You shall NOT reveal Luke/Leia's mother! Hence the Black Fleet Trilogy which sends Luke on a quest for his mother ends up being a bit of a fizzle.
2. You shall NOT reveal how the old Jedi Order worked, nor HOW the Emperor took power or what turned Anakin to the darkside.
3. Only "I" George Lucas can ever kill Luke, Han, and Leia. When Vector Prime broke the "invincibility bubble" it was with Lucas' approval considering who the victim was.
4. "I" George Lucas do not have to have my movies tie into these novels at all and can disregard anything from the novels at any time!
Also Lucas has to give his stamp of approval for the content in general and has in the past ordered a change to the story to fit his plans for the movies. This occurred in the NJO books when he ordered the story changed to kill off Anakin SOLO since he feared that fans who saw the prequels would be confused upon seeing Anakin SKYWALKER......oy. Writers that were interviewed weren't too pleased by this and also joked that Kyp Durron should thank Lucas as HE was the intended victim.
As the prequels came out, then they could be referenced a bit but for all the adventures they had and all the times in the movies and books that Artoo was damaged and repaired he still carried in his super duper secret core memory information that would finally get revealed to Luke and Leia in the Dark Nest Trilogy of books, a trilogy that came out after Ep 3 was released. This information was that Artoo had downloaded the Jedi Temple recordings of Anakin killing everyone, and his encounter on Mustafar with Padme and how he force choked her senseless, and the last recording was of Luke and Leia being born and Padme dying. Considering all the years that passed in the books this revelation was truly a Deus Ex Machina, imo.
Still the books I'd recommend are:
The Heir to the Empire Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Command) the Hand of Thrawn duology (Spectre of the Past, Vision of Tomorrow), Survivor's Quest, Allegiance, Outbound Flight. All written by Timothy Zahn.
The Heir to the Empire trilogy was what got the EU moving again, however technically the old book Splinter of the Mind's Eye is what got the EU started in the first place. Problem with that book is that it was written way back after Star Wars first came out and while it has been folded into EU continuity it is still a bit of a stretch since it had a pre Yoda trained Luke vs. Vader and no mention that Vader was his dear old daddy.....
The young Han Solo trilogy: this is pretty much the definitive Han Solo origin and how he met Chewie, got the Falcon, and got into trouble with Jabba and meeting Lando. Also it has his first encounters with Boba Fett. It also loosely references the old Han Solo at Stars End novel and the two others as well as the old Lando trilogy all of which were written between Star Wars and Empire.
The Corellian Trilogy is recommended.
The entire Rogue/Wraith squadron series
The Jedi Academy trilogy and the I, Jedi novel which ties into it.
Courtship of Princess Leia: decent story, kind of humorous about how Han finally won Leia's hand in marriage.
Tales of Jabba's Palace, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina: novels that are collections of short stories, but they each have one about Boba Fett and one of them should contain the short story about how he got out of the Sarlaac.
Boba Fett Trilogy: expands on how he got out of the Sarlaac and his recovery and adventure afterwards. Decent story but if you want the full story on how he gave the Sarlaac a bad case of indigestion then pick these up. Also any revelation or hint to Boba's past in these books must be taken with a grain of salt since Lucas made him a Jango clone in the prequels.
The Dark Empire, Dark Empire 2 and Empire's End comics from Dark Horse...eh. They could be avoided. Also Children of the Jedi should be avoided and for all that is good and decent about Star Wars: NEVER READ Crystal Star.
Looks like I have a lot of sifting to do at the book store this weekend. Thanks guys for all the advice.
Many have already suggested my favorites, but I do still have one suggestion. If you only read one thing, read the original thrawn trilogy by Zahn (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Command) - and if you read more than one thing, read them first. Why? Not only are they by Zahn and hence awesome, they were essentially the first major expanded universe novels published. Thus, there aren't any references to other novels, etc - nothing you have to go read or a certain part won't make sense. All you need to do is have seen the original trilogy.
Aside from that, I would echo the suggestions of the entire Stackpole/Allston X-wing series, I, Jedi (and thus, even though it's not as good in my opinion, you'll probably have to read the jedi academy trilogy whose events interweave with the early parts of that book), the 'Han solo origin story' trilogy by Crispin (The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, Rebel Dawn), and everything else by Zahn.
I specifically *don't* recommend anything set, chronologically, after Vector Prime (the beginning of the 'New Jedi Order' series and the Yuuzhan Vong war). It's just my own opinion, of course, but I *really* didn't like the direction the universe took at that point - specifically, how dark and grim the whole thing got. If Star Wars stories were supposed to be 'everyone dies', they'd be set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. 
I finished the New Jedi Order series, but I regretted it, and what little I learned about the next series was enough to turn me off of the era completely. YMMV, of course, but that's my two cents on that particular topic.
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What hurts the NJO/Vong War was that for me it was getting a bit lengthy. The hardcover books had the main events and the paperbacks inbetween had a few events in them and some plot revelations but the series was just getting too long. By the time the last novel came out I was glad. The other thing that hurt it was Lucas' interference by mandating that Anakin Solo be killed off due to the fear that fans would watch the prequels and be confused by Anakin Skywalker in the movies vs. Anakin Solo in the books. (I'm not kidding). The writers didn't even have Anakin Solo due the big fade away into the Force and as of yet, he has not appeared as a Jedi Ghost. This threw things off a bit as I remember they planned for Jaina vs. Jacen in this series as part of some Vong ritual but some things had to be aborted.|
Originally Posted by Muon_Neutrino
Many have already suggested my favorites, but I do still have one suggestion. If you only read one thing, read the original thrawn trilogy by Zahn (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, Last Command) - and if you read more than one thing, read them first. Why? Not only are they by Zahn and hence awesome, they were essentially the first major expanded universe novels published. Thus, there aren't any references to other novels, etc - nothing you have to go read or a certain part won't make sense. All you need to do is have seen the original trilogy.
Aside from that, I would echo the suggestions of the entire Stackpole/Allston X-wing series, I, Jedi (and thus, even though it's not as good in my opinion, you'll probably have to read the jedi academy trilogy whose events interweave with the early parts of that book), the 'Han solo origin story' trilogy by Crispin (The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, Rebel Dawn), and everything else by Zahn. I specifically *don't* recommend anything set, chronologically, after Vector Prime (the beginning of the 'New Jedi Order' series and the Yuuzhan Vong war). It's just my own opinion, of course, but I *really* didn't like the direction the universe took at that point - specifically, how dark and grim the whole thing got. If Star Wars stories were supposed to be 'everyone dies', they'd be set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I finished the New Jedi Order series, but I regretted it, and what little I learned about the next series was enough to turn me off of the era completely. YMMV, of course, but that's my two cents on that particular topic. |
It also began to use the concepts of Unifying Force and Living Force from the prequels and led to a major change for Luke and the Jedi code about the Darkside, which while good sadly didn't last.
Dark Nest Trilogy: decent story, Luke and Leia finally learn about Padme thanks to the Deus Ex Machina that is Artoo Detoo, we see that Jacen is kind of skirting the darkside a bit but seems to have a more well rounded view of the force and seems to be similar to Qui-Gon in attitude, imo. But it also pretty much restores the classic light vs dark mentality of the Force from the movies.
Legacy novels: well I guess it was inevitable that someone descended from Anakin Skywalker would try to follow in his footsteps. As I recall the series ended up being cut short a bit due to some negative reaction of the fans and some things were left unresolved at the time.
However strictly speaking the Star Wars EU started long before Heir to the Empire:
Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a science fiction novel; it is a sequel to both Star Wars and its novelization Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. Written by Alan Dean Foster and originally published in 1978 by Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books, it was the first original full-length Star Wars novel to be published after the release of the 1977 Star Wars film, retroactively making it one of the earliest Expanded Universe works.
The principal characters are Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Darth Vader. The characters of Han Solo and Chewbacca do not appear, and Solo is only referred to by Luke Skywalker as "a pirate and a smuggler" he once knew at the end of the book. The book was originally written to be filmed as a low-budget sequel to Star Wars if the original film was not a success.
[/b]The Han Solo Adventures[/b], by Brian Daley, is a 1979 trilogy of science fiction novels set in the Star Wars fictional universe two years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). The trilogy follows the smuggling days of Han Solo and Chewbacca before the movies. The books were released April, June and August 1979 respectively. They also were published as an omnibus edition in 1992.
The events of series are incorporated into the timeline of the rest of the Star Wars Expanded Universe by being contextualized in interludes in Rebel Dawn, the final book of Ann C. Crispin's The Han Solo Trilogy, published in 1998.
Adventures of Lando Calrissian is a trilogy of science fiction novels set in the Star Wars galaxy 52 years BBY. The series serves as a prequel to the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The trilogy follows the smuggling days of Lando Calrissian before the movies and helps further establish his character. The trilogy was written by L. Neil Smith. The books were released July, October and December 1983 respectively.
In A.C. Crispin's The Han Solo Trilogy, this series is brought into chronological context with the rest of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Heir to the Empire pretty much reboots the EU books and the above books are referenced or loosely tied in at best.
Happy almost New Year to everyone.
I was wondering if I could appear to your collective knowledge. I bought a copy of Death Troopers for a friend of mine as a Christmas present and while I was at the book store looking through the SW novels it kind of piqued my interest. Now I have no idea if Death Troopers is good or not, it just happened to be on sale and my friend has a particular fascination with storm troopers (after reading the back I realized it wasnt really about stormtroopers but it was the closest thing they had). I was wondering if you guys could turn me on to some good Star Wars novels. The era doesnt really matter just hoping to find some before bed reading. Thanks for your help.