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Help me choose Star Wars novels
jhunter46
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
After playing through Forced Unleashed I have a Star Wars hankering. There are so many freaking books out there, where's a good place to start. I'm looking for maybe Post Rebel Alliance Jedi stuff.
jhunter46 on
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Start here.
If you want something that's not part of a series, Shadows of the Empire is pretty great.
PSN/XBL: dragoniemx
The Michael A. Stackpole stuff for Rogue Squadron (I think the first 5 books) are awesome
Shadows of hte Empire is fun.
I use to be a HUGE SW book nerd back in high school. You are pretty safe with stuff done by either Stackpole or Timothy Zahn iirc.
I like the 'Tales from...' series, too.
Keeping in mind that in terms of time line and continuity there are novels in between the Zahn and Stackpole novels.
The Truce at Bakura and Courtship of Princess Leia will deal with things a bit closer to the end of Return of the Jedi. So if you're a continuity freak you may be better off starting there. My experience has been that if you really liked Star Wars you'll probably find yourself enjoying most of the novels, at least up until New Jedi Order.
Shatterpoint (Heart of Darkness starring Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu)
Wraith Squadron books (5-7 of the X-Wing series)
Starfighters of Adumar (8 of the X-Wing series)
Traitor (NJO)
Star by Star (NJO)
The Han Solo adventures (by Brian Daley, all 3 books collected in one novel)
Behind Enemy Lines I/II (NJO)
Pretty Good Tier
Most of the rest of the NJO
Most of Legacy of the Force
Most of the stories in the Tales of... series
Rogue Squadron books (1-4, 9 of X-Wing series)
I, Jedi
Han Solo trilogy (A.C. Crispin)
Stuff that just doesn't do it for me
Zahn-verse (too dry for my tastes, Mara Jade and Talon Karrde don't really do it for me)
Republic Commando (too much oo-rah/Mando knobslobbing)
I will note that some of the old Bantam era stuff is worth reading for the sheer batshit-craziness going on, ie. Crystal Star, Courtship of Princess Leia, Darksaber).
Those books were literary abortions.
Anything by Zahn is good. The Rogue Squadron / Warith Squadron series, Wraith is better, but Rogue sets it up. Stover has good stuff, but I don't know if it's stand alone or not. The "Tales" books (Tales from Mos Eisley/Jabbas Palace/ New Republic etc etc) are pretty good short story collections that deal with lesser known characters.
Avoid everything else like the plague.
Avoid Darksaber. Its been said before. The Crystal Star is also terrible.
If you want a good prequel to The Force Unleashed, check out Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno. It takes place directly after Revenge of the Sith, and features Vader establishing himself and beginning to earn his reputation.
Ditto. Zahn is good stuff, Courtship of Princess Leia and Truce at Bakura are both good starting points. Also, I happen to like the Bantam-batshit craziness :P For some reason, I can't stand any of the new-ish (when the Solo kids are grown up) stuff. Give the graphic novels a whirl too; the Dark Empire books are great.
Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry. Great addition to the canon.
Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry. Everyone knows this one. Classic. Video game was pretty fun, too.
The Coruscant Nights trilogy by Michael Reaves.
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover.
As mentioned, anything that involves Rogue Squadron is good. The Thrawn Trilogy and The Jedi Academy trilogy are worth reading. I also read the Young Jedi Knights series when I was younger and, though they are for a younger audience, they're still well written.
I've also read everything from the New Jedi Order series on, up until the current Fate of the Jedi story arc. Start here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_Prime) and just start reading. That should fix your post Rebellion hard on.
Crystal Star would be an obvious one where it conflicted with the Zahn introduced love interest for Luke Skywalker. So the competing character was quickly written out and Crystal Star was even further made irrelevant beyond just being kind of a low end Star Wars novel.
Other things that take place in the NJO series are what made me stop reading the Star Wars series, and I'm a guy who has just about everything from 20 years before New Hope to about 20 or so years out from Return of the Jedi, somewhere in the middle of the Vong invasion. Things where Lucas or his cronies essentially decided that the readership wasn't smart enough to handle two characters named Anakin with different last names.
Really I think for me the Hand of Thrawn duology would've been a fine stopping point. As for the starting point I didn't mind Truce at Bakura and Courtship of Princess Leia. Some of the Star Wars novels are great, don't get me wrong, but to expect them all to be stellar examples of Sci Fi is setting yourself up for disappointment. Aside from Zhan, Stackpole and Crispin I view most of the novels as I would like a Saturday morning cartoon show or comic book, something that amuses me and fills that little yearning I have for Star Wars.
Rogue Squadron 1-4
I, Jedi
Anything by Timothy Zhan
Read When You Have Some Spare Cash
Rogue Squadron 5-9
Republic Commando 1-4
I was a huge Star Wars nerd in high school and I read every Star Wars book I could get my hands on. I still have a nerdgasm for Rogue Squadron and I'll re-read the entire Rogue Squadron series about once a year. I finished all of the Republic Commando books this last year on a whim; they're easy books to get through but won't really satisfy you if you're looking for serious literature.
New Jedi Order is addictive, and some are well-written, but it's also really dark and doesn't represent much of the things that I like about Star Wars.
My personal favorite is I, Jedi.
If you plan on reading a lot of star wars books, immediately after the Thrawn trilogy, read the Jedi Academy Trilogy. It happens almost immediately afterword, they aren't great books, but they set up a lot of the characters, plots and locations for later books.
Lies. The only lame part was that they shoe horned Anakin and Obiwan into it. The rest was awesome.
The Darth Bane series is also pretty good, they're done by the lead writer for Mass Effect, Drew Karpyshyn
The X-Wing series is possibly the best thing out there. Books 1 - 4 (The "Rogue Squadron" arc consisting of Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, The Bacta War) are really good, but I kind of waffle on that and the Wraith Squadron series (books 5 - 7, consisting of Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, and Solo Command), as the best.
Book 8 (Isard's Revenge) is a pretty good wrap-up to a couple of story arcs from the first four books.
Book 9 (Starfighters of Adumar) is pretty good. It's practically a stand-alone story, though.
I'd also recommend I, Jedi as it ties in with the first four X-Wing books.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Other than Zahn, my feelings have ranged from less than impressed to outraged. If I ever meet R.A. Salvatore I will shake his hand for his Drizzt books and then kick him in the balls for his "Star Wars" books.
I liked how the NJO series was a bit darker. Without the deaths and overwhelming odds placed against the good guys in that series (like their Force powers flipping out on them and depriving them of one of their greatest strengths), the series would have been boring. The Vong were a significant threat and one of the better enemies to ever be featured in the expanded universe books. Some of the books in the series seemed to artificially stretch the story out, but it was entertaining overall.
Dude was a bouncer, he'd probably go all Conan on you
Drizzt is the biggest goddamned Mary Sue I have ever seen. But that's off topic.
Whoever said the Coruscant Nights series is right. It's Star Wars noir. Star. Wars. Noir. Fantastic.
Sold. I'll have to check those out.
I personally would go only with Zahn. Lot of stuff that Stackpole has introduced have been downright retarded. I also don't like the ridiculous superweapon creep in the later stories.
Later stories? I think superweapons have been toned DOWN since the mid 90s. (Suncrusher, anyone?)
I read in a wiki that some Jedi was able to bring back someone from the dead. That's kinda ridiculous.
Think of Rogue/Wraith as KOTOR/KOTOR II. In one, everyone gets along and goes on galactic adventures and the good guys are attractive and can lead and are articulate and everyone is happy in the end and Carth can trust again and Bastila can love, Wraith squadron Kreia is a lying bitch, the fucking droids fight on the ship, and everyone dies alone.