Aghama

Most people would say that Timothy Zahn's trilogy (Heir of the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) are the best of the bunch...and I would tend to agree. Pick them up first, and see what you think.

Blade

FYI, I merged your thread with this one. Read the posts in this thread for some good suggestions, though Aghama has already given you the answer most everyone else will. But there are a few other suggestions.

Happy reading!

Colonel Mustard

Use the force....errr...search!

Thanks.

Kaffe_02

Does anyone have a list or an idea of how these books fit chronoligically or can you just pick one up and go from there??

Thanks

Blade

Mutley Hyde

For anyone who may be interested...

I saw a great new hardback today collecting the original novel and the two sequels adaptaions. It looks awesome! It's pretty impressive, being very thick and weighty, which you can't really see by the pic. The cover is also a very slick glossy black, not flat as it looks in the pic. I know you can pick up the paperbacks a dime a dozen at second hand stores, but for anyone who needs a nice "show-off" hardback copy, here ya go.


Had a date of July '02, so get out there and get your first printing, if that's your thing . I think this may be the first official hardback collection of the three? Maybe not.

bishop2knight

You're right, the book is a beauty. And it is indeed the first hardcover collection of all three. But it's still a $25 book featuring stories I already own 3-4 times. Mmmm, should I buy this new one like I did the VHS versions? Not sure.

Mutley Hyde

Dude! ARGH!! I was so busy arguing about bullschitt Gosford Park at HTF that I just missed this auction...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1545806096
-headslap- OY!!

redskull

Does the ROTJ book still say that Uncle Owen is Obi Wan's brother, or did they revise that?

milo bloom

I'm curious about any changes myself. A few years back I made sure to get copies of the "Faces" novelizations in case Lucas decided to change the books to match the Special Eds.

I've got them with my Eps 1 and 2 hardcovers now, I wish the spines matched a little better, but I'll live with it.

What I'd really like, years down the road, is a big compiled hardcover edition of all six, with notations and references and the lines numbered (like a Bible). Actually, I'd love to help edit it. But if wishes were horses...

I'd also like to see Alan Dean Foster get some credit for ANH.

Michael Parks

Anybody read this series, and have any opinions on it? There's like 15 books, so far.

Could use some recommendations for Star Wars books, in general, too. Never read any, and I'd love to read some good ones. I tried browsing Amazon earlier, but there's well over a thousand entries, and I didn't know where to even begin.

Jason

Read Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy. It's the closest thing you'll get to Episodes 7-9. Although parts of it can be thrown right out the window because of events in the prequel trilogy, it's still a good story, and Thrawn is a great villian.

Michael Corvin

Agreed with Jason, and I'm sure many others. I have read about 95% of the expanded universe books and these 3 are by far the best by a long shot. After these you can pick up Zahn's other two books, semi-sequels that take place years later Spectre of the Past, and Vision of the Future. But really to read any other book first doesn't even make sense because every other author pretty much built on what Zahn created. Kevin J. Anderson's trilogy is probably next in line. And lastly, I, Jedi is a good read that focuses on 1 character that is pretty big in NJO.

As for New Jedi Order don't read until until after Zahn's trilogy at least and then maybe Anderson's trilogy. There are just so many new characters between these 7 books that play big roles in the NJO it wouln't be the same not knowing where they came from. Just not the same impact.

As for NJO, it is a good read so far. I think it has been dragging about the last 5 books or so. I mean I figured out where they were taking the plot about 6 or 7 books ago, and they are just now getting there. A lot of filler. On the whole pretty good. Nowhere near the same as Zahn's trilogy though.

Start with Heir to the Empire... and enjoy!

I might have to read that again, I haven't picked it up in a couple of years.

Michael Parks

Thanks for the suggestions. I went ahead and picked up the 5 Zahn books and all 15 NJO books. I grabbed the two Han Solo trilogies, too, on a whim. They probably suck, but, oh well.

The Anderson trilogy is the Jedi Academy one, right? The book store only had the last two in that series, so I passed on it. I'll check Ebay or Amazon for it now.

How about the X-Wing and Young Jedi Knights stuff?

Eric F

I think I got through 8 of them and started to tire of it.

It's beginning to become too much like the Star Trek series- just cranking them out with no real standard, some of them are great, some just OK, and some suck.

Jason

I enjoyed the first several Rogue Squadron books too. They developed a whole new group of characters, which helps a lot. The biggest flaw with a lot of these EU books is they always try to use every character from the OT. They strain credibility always adding a side story for Lando (like he has to be in everything) and they never know what to do with Chewie (since he doesn't speak Basic). How often can he go home on vacation or keep safe at an undisclosed secure location?

silentbob007

Like everyone else has said, the Zahn books are awesome. I have also enjoyed NJO so far, although there were a couple books in there that weren't too good. I believe this series is ending in November, so if you start now, you won't have to worry about waiting book to book.

Michael Corvin

I doubt it silentbob. There are supposed to be 20-30 books in the series and they are only on 17.

Is Zahn doing the last part of the series?

madcougar

Nope. The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force will be by James Luceno and as Silentbob said, it will be the final book of the series and it will be out in November. It will be the 19th book of the series if I'm not mistaken.

I remember reading where Lucasfilm was disappointed with sales and blamed the fact the story line was so dark on it. An entire year of stories was shaved off and they asked that the publisher begin writing non-NJO books with the original characters. Hence, Tatooine Ghost.

Michael Corvin

Hmm. I kinda liked the series. I liked it dark. Every book up until that point was happy go lucky. Nothing ever happened. Good guys ALWAYS prevailed. It kinda got stale. And like mentioned above, using every character got very old. The Lando example is perfect. He only needs to pop up every few books, not every one.

I hadn't picked up any of the one-offs like TG. Are they any good?

bishop2knight

If sales are down, you can blame the fact that the series was/is just too long. It's spanned 3-4 years, and 19 novels. That's crazy. If Star Wars fans read other books, how do they shell out the cash every other month for a Star Wars book?

A series should last no more than 2 years and maybe 5 books max. At least, in the Star Wars universe.

With that said, I must admit that I've purchased all of the NJO books and I am currently reading no. 12.

uncle markie

I'm a big Star Wars Expanded Universe fan, I have been buying all of the novels since Splinter of the Minds Eye came out in '78.

In my my opinion, the New Jedi order is the weakest run in Star Wars novels. It got off to a nice start, shook things up a bit, but it has remained too dark for too long.

The best place to start with the EU is definitely the Zahn books starting with Heir to the Empire. Follow that with the Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin Anderson, I found these books captured much of the humor present in the Star Wars trilogy.

The X-Wing series are also excellent especially those penned by Aaron Allston.

Enjoy

Josh H

I read the first 7 or 8 NJO books, and haven't had the time or desire to get caught up again. I'll probably read the rest of them sometime, but I just don't have time now with grad school.

Plus I like the books that focus on the old characters better than the new ones in most cases.

As others have said, the 5 Zahn books and I, Jedi, are easily my favorites.

Michael Corvin

So I am 100+ pages into Destiny's Way and I can already tell that they are trying to wrap it up fast because:



I like where they were/are going with the series but it did take too long to get there I realized it about the 4th book:



So it seems like they were going to take 15 books to get to that point and then 15 to resolve it. So now they have 5 to resolve it? I think it will seem rushed at this point.

madcougar

I'm a few books behind... so