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Master of Ossus wrote:

CmdrWilkens wrote: Oh wait...that one, sorry I've got my "Storms" mixed up and I'm actually thinking of Shield of Lies which was plain ol' horrible (with one semi-decent part).

Understandable. When there are two books with similar titles and both of them share the blanket-attribute of sucking it's easy to get confused. If you want a taste of Approaching Storm without suffering too much, you can read my exerpts from the book earlier in the thread. They're actually pretty representative of the book as a whole. It's really horrible, but I didn't have to make anything up to point out how much the book sucked.

Tell ya' what I'll just take your word for it.

As far as I am concerned Zahn, Stackpole, and Aliston are the three core SW writers. Reading their books and short stories and you will have a good undestanding on what is going on. You will get introductions to the main characters (Luke, Han, Mara, etc...) as well as an introduction to some of the minor characters who have important status (Wedge, Paleon, Karde, etc...).

Without a doubt Zahn wrote the best books. His Thrawn Triology brought people back to SW reading and his Hand of Thrawn Duology deepened the mystery behind Thrawn while answering other questions.

Stackpole started his books under a different line of reasoning. He took the only non-major character to survive all three movies and wrote a story around that. The X-Wing series started out somewhat slow and bad, but still got the series going. His books really got good by Bacta war though. Aliston started right where Stackpole left off and did a VERY good job. Wraith squadron was both the dark and humerous side of Star Wars. We got to see minor characters and how they interacted with somewhat more important people. Some of the characters we got to know even got killed off.

Stackpole started off not so good, but ended it quite well anyway. But by the time of the NJO series, Aliston had the better story. The Dark Tide series was ok, Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand were SOOO much better (and longer) Some people don't much like the NJO series but I have seen MANY accept that Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand ard just damn well written books (plenty of combat no less).

Zahn is the must read, Stackpole and Aliston are also up there because they give you a good grounding of the entire series and their books for the most part are better then most others.

Zahn wrote some decent books. I did not like the Mara Jade character at all though.

Alyeska wrote:As far as I am concerned Zahn, Stackpole, and Aliston are the three core SW writers. Reading their books and short stories and you will have a good undestanding on what is going on. You will get introductions to the main characters (Luke, Han, Mara, etc...) as well as an introduction to some of the minor characters who have important status (Wedge, Paleon, Karde, etc...).

Personally I would add Roger Macbride Allen to that list. The Corellian Trilogy might have been relatively short but it was thoughtful, had great characters, allowed some sentimental ones to die, and generally let the heros run amok in a way that made sense (the little kids being strong enough in the force to brek free but inexperienced enough to barely be able to fly the Falcon). Basically if you're looking for a good SW story but don't have the time to devot yourself to one of the bigger sets his work is perfect.

I would also nominate L. Neil Smith. The Lando Calrissian Trilogy is perhaps one of the deepest series out of the entire SW EU and it is the greatest pity that more people haven't read it.

Commander LeoRo wrote:Zahn wrote some decent books. I did not like the Mara Jade character at all though.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Actually, I would not say that Zahn is unchallenged. I think that SbS is as good as anything he wrote, but was handicapped by being in the NJO. Zahn was writing in a vacuum, and was allowed to go anywhere he wanted with his books. Once others began to pick it up, he fell into problems. His short story with Stackpole was terrible, and his duology was not quite as strong as his trilogy (though much of that is due to the absence of Thrawn). Denning's book, however, may well have been an isolated occurance. It is true that Zahn is clearly the best writer in SW, but not because of a single book.

Master of Ossus wrote:

Commander LeoRo wrote:Zahn wrote some decent books. I did not like the Mara Jade character at all though.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Actually, I would not say that Zahn is unchallenged. I think that SbS is as good as anything he wrote, but was handicapped by being in the NJO. Zahn was writing in a vacuum, and was allowed to go anywhere he wanted with his books. Once others began to pick it up, he fell into problems. His short story with Stackpole was terrible, and his duology was not quite as strong as his trilogy (though much of that is due to the absence of Thrawn). Denning's book, however, may well have been an isolated occurance. It is true that Zahn is clearly the best writer in SW, but not because of a single book.

Which co-written short story did you not like?

Alyeska wrote:Which co-written short story did you not like?

He wrote more than one? I was thinking of the silly and boring side-trek "Interlude at Darkknell." You could tell he had written a very good opening, and then had to struggle to finish with the material Stackpole left him with. Stackpole kind of backed him into a corner, there.

Master of Ossus wrote:

Alyeska wrote:Which co-written short story did you not like?

He wrote more than one? I was thinking of the silly and boring side-trek "Interlude at Darkknell." You could tell he had written a very good opening, and then had to struggle to finish with the material Stackpole left him with. Stackpole kind of backed him into a corner, there.

They co-wrote a story for Tales From the Empire and Tales From The New Republic. One was about Coran and Hal stumbling upon Thrawns plan for Black Sun, the other was about Hal and Issard hunting down a rebel agent who happened to be Bel Iblis.