SW EU: Where to start?

[Cos Dashit]

Here's the deal: I've read the novelizations of the six episodes (save for Episode I), and also Shatterpoint.

What to read now? I've heard that much of the expanded universe is very poorly written, and I want to avoid that part of it. I'm looking for something well-written and captivating; Shatterpoint was fairly good.

Well, SDnet denizens; any suggestions?

[Stark]

Like anything else, there's always someone who likes anything. If you read everything suggested, you'll end up reading everything.

You should certainly read the ROTS prequel thing, Labyrinth of Evil or whatever it's called. It's universally enjoyed, and really sets the scene for ROTS.

[Ghost Rider]

What have you read beyond that?

Personally if you haven't the Thrawn Trilogy is amongst the best of the EU. After that, sift through a few authors. They generally vary between eh, good, and shit.

[Cos Dashit]

What have you read beyond that?

I've only read episodes II - VI, and Shatterpoint.

[Ghost Rider]

What have you read beyond that?

I've only read episodes II - VI, and Shatterpoint.

Then follow from Thrawn Trilogy and then pick from who you want.

[Stark]

Are there any SW:EU book review sites that are worthwhile? Such sites have made my exposure to the DW:EU significantly less painful than it would otherwise have been.

[Connor MacLeod]

Brian Daley's Han Solo adventures. They're top of the line and the closest you'll get to the original movies in book form.

Black Fleet crisis. Aside from the absurdly tiny size of the Republic and the "Find my mom" quest for Luke, the series is quite good.

Tattooine Ghost, Shadows of the Empire, Aaron Allston's wraith Squadron books (you may want to read the Rogue Squadron ones too. They're not bad per se, but they aren't great either. Starfighters of Adumar is also a good choice.

Alliegance I hear is good. HAnd of Thrawn is so so, I personally did not care for it much.

Cloak of Deception and Darrth Maul Shadow hunter are IMHO the best of the Ep1 novels.

Of the Clone Wars stuff, the Medstar duology is good. I also recommend jedi Trial. In addition to that, Labyrinth of Evil is also good (Luceno always is.) DarK Lord is also good. Some like Yoda, ,Dark Rendezvous, and its not bad, but again I don't find it to be stellar either. And despite the bad name Traviss has earned herself, Republic Commando: Hard Contact is a good read (but at all costs, avoid Triple Zero.)

Some also suggest outbound flight and survivors quest (read SQ first if you do), but I didn't care for those (again), but they are Zahn, so touy may like them.

If you want to read the NJO era, the best novels (IMHO) Are "Agents of Chaos 1 and 2", "Enemy Lines 1 & 2" Gregory Keyes "Edge of Victory 1 & 2", Star by Star, ,Destiny's Way, and the Unifying Force. Problem there is you might get a rather disjointed account of whats going on since there is a lil continuity (not much though, and alot of the parts that continue don't really bear on the war itself but more on the characters.)

Beyond the NJO you probably don't want to read. I liked DArk Nest, but not everyone did, and it is probably the last gasp before the LOTF series, which is NOT going very well IMHO.

[Stofsk]

Brian Daley's Han Solo adventures. They're top of the line and the closest you'll get to the original movies in book form.

These are actually pretty good. I agree with Connor. It's a good alternative to the "Jedi save the galaxy... again" that the vast majority of the EU is composed of. Because it's all about Han Solo having (mis)adventures and getting into trouble.

Black Fleet crisis. Aside from the absurdly tiny size of the Republic and the "Find my mom" quest for Luke, the series is quite good.

I don't know if it's Star Wars though. It was the first example of the EU I read, so it holds a place in my heart. I liked Before the Storm because it was interesting and started off well, but the other parts of the trilogy didn't endear this series to me.

Tattooine Ghost, Shadows of the Empire, Aaron Allston's wraith Squadron books (you may want to read the Rogue Squadron ones too. They're not bad per se, but they aren't great either. Starfighters of Adumar is also a good choice.

Tattooine Ghost and Shadows are good, solid, stand alone books. Connor and I once dueled over our appreciation of Allston's Wraith Squadron books, but I will say this for them: they're a million times better than Stackpole's books.

Alliegance I hear is good. HAnd of Thrawn is so so, I personally did not care for it much.

I haven't had a chance to read Alleigance yet, it's available in at least one store down here for hardcover, $50 AUD. Hand of Thrawn is decent.

Let it be said again: if you stick to Thrawn, you can't go wrong. (see, that's catchy too - it kinda rhymes)

[Cykeisme]

Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader are good picks.

As a point I now disregard all post-RotJ EU. Zahn's Thrawn trilogy was good, but I pretty much ignore anything that takes the Emperor's rebirth as truth. Ruins the epic nature of the movies.

[VT-16]

It's not a book, but Dark Empire (especially DE I) is epic in scale, and despite the naysayers (:P), I actually liked the plot. The choice of non-natural colors to create moods isn't everyone's cup of tee either, but I had little problem with it.

Also on the comic front, SW:Legacy. Unlike what I hear of Legacy of the Force, the comics have been great so far and you don't really have to read the New Jedi Order to "get" the background (since it's usually brought up in-story).

[General Soontir Fel]

Black Fleet crisis. Aside from the absurdly tiny size of the Republic and the "Find my mom" quest for Luke, the series is quite good.

Are you kidding? Don't forget this is also the book that had Coruscant's oceans, nudist Luke, and Wookiee rites of passage. Urgh. BFC is a piece of the EU that I'd happily throw out.

Beyond the NJO you probably don't want to read. I liked DArk Nest, but not everyone did, and it is probably the last gasp before the LOTF series, which is NOT going very well IMHO.

Dark Nest sucked. However, LOTF, while certainly not on the scale of the best of the EU (or even the best of the NJO), seems decent. Two of three authors (the ones without initials KT, that is) know what they're doing.

OK, and as for my advice...

The first thing to do is pick up or find The New Essential Chronology. Basically, it'll help you make sense if you decide to skip certain pieces.

The starting point should be the "Vader is born" trilogy--The ROTS novelization and the two novels surrounding it, Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: the Rise of Darth Vader. James Luceno is the second best SW writer, IMHO (after Zahn). That's really the central event of the entire saga, and after you get that, you can go either forward or backward.

If you've got the money and are into this sort of thing, you should play Knights of the Old Republic, Knights of the Old Republic 2, and Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. (The first two games in that series, Dark Forces and Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, are old games that 1)are nearly impossible to find anymore, and b)won't run on versions of Windows past 98)

Going chronologically through the novels...

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction: Interesting for the background, but didn't really grip me. Also, you'll get confused if you haven't played KOTOR.

Prequel era: Cloak of Deception is good stuff, Rogue Planet is boring (but important for the NJO), and The Approaching Storm sucks ass. As for the Clone Wars era, the only decent novels to come out of it are the two parts of the Medstar duology, Battle Surgeons and Jedi Healer. Read those, especially if you're interested in events far from the main characters (IIRC, the Mestar duology has none of them). But the Clone Wars comics are very good. And of course, you should read Outbond Flight, though reading its sequel, Survivor's Quest, first might make it more interesting. And Survivor's Quest is the better of the two.

Intertrilogy: Not much there (yet--there's an entire series coming out), but your really should read Brian Daley's Han Solo Adventures, and A.C. Crispin's Han Solo trilogy. The only problem with them is that they'll probably seem a bit weird in the light of the prequels.

Movie era: I'm reading Allegiance right now, and it's very good. It's also nice in that you can read it without knowing any other EU, and still understand what's going on. However....

I'll have to disagree with Connor MacLeod and Stofsk. Shadows of the Empire is a piece of shit. Unrealistic premise, poor writing, and technological absurdities all at once.

Finally, if you'd like a Boba Fett wankfest of galactic (pun intended) proportions, read The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy by K. W. Jeter.

Post-ROTJ: This is where the Chronology will spare your wallet, brain, and calendar a lot of pain. The essentials:
X-Wing series for the sheer entertainment. Wraith Squadron is better, but Rogue Squadron isn't bad if you don't think about the technical aspects and simply enjoy things.

Thrawn trilogy--the first big EU project, by the best EU author. Introduces a whole bunch of characters who become very important later on.

Hand of Thrawn duology, the aforementioned Survivor's Quest.

If you think you might continue into the Legacy era, the Corellian trilogy by Roger Macbride Allen is essential. But if you're interested in technical aspects... that set has some of the worst minimalisms of the whole EU.

The rest... basically, read the chronology and decide for yourself. The Truce at Bakura, the Jedi Academy trilogy, the Callista trilogy (Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and Planet of Twilight), the Dark Empire comics, and the Young Jedi Knights series are all important to the later plot, but as far as entertainment goes... not for everybody (I like the Callista trilogy, and regret my time spent reading the others).

The less said of the Black Fleet Crisis, The New Rebellion, and The Crystal Star, the better. They all either a)have no impact on the future events whatsoever, b)are shitty writing, or c)both.

The Courtship of Princess Leia... well, it isn't the best, and that's as much as I'm going to say.

NJO:
OK, some people don't like the biotech, the scale, the characterizations, or all three. Overall, NJO is certainly no worse than the rest of post-ROTJ EU, and in some cases, better. But Hero's Trial, Jedi Eclipse, Dark Journey, Star by Star, Destiny's Way, and Traitor are all worth reading. The Unifying Force is important, but it didn't grip me.

Dark Nest trilogy, as I already said, sucks.

Legacy... I'm still withholding my opinion. I'm reading it as things come out, but so far, I don't think it was bad, with the exception of Karen Traviss's obsession with Mandalorians (Yes, there are also her technical errors, but I learned to ignore these things by now).

And finally, a bit off topic, look through the list of EU titles and count how many of them have some variant of Dark in them. The writers sure are creative there... [/quote]

[VT-16]

I liked the Dark Forces book trilogy that follows the story of the two first games, fleshes out the characters more and gives a few nice anti-minimalism quotes here and there. :)

[Sunstreaker]

The Timothy Zahn novels are worth while:

Thrawn Trilogy:
-Heir to the Empire
-Dark Force Rising
-The Last Command

Thrawn Duology
-Specter of the Past
-Vision of the Future

-Survivor's Quest (Luke and Mara fun)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prominent Characters introduced in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Mara Jade
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Gilad Pellaeon
Talon Karrde
Jacen <last name's a spoiler for you>
Jaina <last name's a spoiler for you>
Winter
Garm Bel Iblis
Borsk Fey'lya
Joruus C'baoth

Prominent Species introduced in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Noghri (sentient race)
Ysalamiri

Prominent cool Jedi abilities introduced in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Light Saber throw
Clone detection
Will control
Battle Meditation

Prominent tech introduced or used in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Sparti Cloning Cylinders
Katana Fleet (dreadnaughts and slaving)
Z-95 Headhunters
Cloaking Device

Prominent Planets introduced in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Coruscant
Kashyyyk

Prominent Original characters used in the Thrawn Trilogy:
Luke Skywalker (DUH)
Han Solo
Leia Organa
Chewbacca
Obi-Wan (brefily)
R2-D2
C-3PO
Land Calrission
Wedge Antilles
Derek "Hobbie" Klivian
Wes Janson
Admiral Ackbar
Mon Mothma
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fun fact: Bantam published Star Wars novels for the better part of a decade. Their first story was the Thrawn Trilogy and their last was the Thrawn Duology. The rest of the EU was published in-between these two sets of stories and can largely be skipped. Although all the books are an interesting read during a time when fans craved anything Star Wars and writers had more flexibility in defining the universe. The Bantam books were based off of the original trilogy, no special addition and no prequels. For example, ask anyone of my friends what they thought the Clone Wars were about and we would have said it was Jedi vs clones and/or Dark Jedi and/or Dark Jedi clones. Also Sith was never said in the first Trilogy so it was an uncommon term, Dark Jedi was used quite a bit however. The Zahn books go into this.


Important characters are introduced in the following stories:

Kyp Duron (Jedi Academy Trilogy)
Corran Horn (X-wing books)
Booster Terrik (X-wing books)

[Coyote]

Just the Timothy Zahn books, really. You don't need much else beyond that. Some of the "Tales of the..." books are fun reads.

I am disappointed with most of the EU, myself.

[LordShaithis]

Yeah, just read the Thrawn trilogy and give the rest a pass. There are highlights among the crap that makes up the rest of the EU, but it's still mostly crap.

[Noble Ire]

At risk of rattling off an endless list (much of which really isn't that great, anyways), I would say that most of Zahn's stuff, especially the Thrawn Trilogy, are safe bets, as are Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord. I enjoyed the Medstar Duology as well, but it might not be to everyone's taste. Most of the other Clone Wars novels are also fairly good, but post-OT, aside from Zahn's stuff, there really isn't that much decent material, unless you want to wade through the New Jedi Order for the few gems therin.

[Aaron]

I'd read the Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Lord and leave the rest to die. The EU is pretty chalked full of crap, even worse than the Trek EU in my opinion. Avoid anything by Kevin Anderson.

[Lazarus]

I started the EU with the Thrawn trilogy in the late nineties, and continued with the X-Wing series, before moving on to others like the Jedi Academy trilogy, Corellian trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Truce at Bakura, 'I, Jedi'...

I was only about 8 when I started, so technical details like those in the X-Wings didn't bother me much, although I was aware that the 'shield generator dome' thing was a bit dodgy. I think a lot of readers tend to brand books as 'shit' if they have errors in, which is a bit hasty. Personally, I loved all of the above books when I read them (save maybe for the academy + corellian trilogies, which I merely enjoyed).

Of particular note is Zahn's work, as the birth of the EU, and Allston's brilliant characterisation - I would highly recommend both the Thrawn trilogy, and the X-Wing series (just try to ignore the more blatant errors).

As for the NJO, I started a few months after Vector Prime was released, and over the years have managed to get up to Balance Point (depressingly bad, errors just make it worse). I do intend to finish, eventually, even if it takes me another decade or two. Despite the poor quality of BP, I have enjoyed the NJO up to this point, save for a few gripes, and would recommend it, even if you want to miss a few out.

[Guardsman Bass]

Whatever you think about the nonsense of bio-wank in the NJO series, it does have a few books that are fun to read. I greatly enjoyed Unifying Force by James Luceno, and Traitor by Matt Stover (which also could basically serve as an introduction to the "Potentium" school of thought on the Force, regardless of how correct it actually is in-universe).

Other than that, I greatly second Labyrinth of Evil, although I didn't like Dark Lord quite as much. Still, I've heard that they form a kind of "informal trilogy".

[Kane Starkiller]

Cloak of Deception and Darrth Maul Shadow hunter are IMHO the best of the Ep1 novels.

Not only of EP1 but better than any of the EU I ever read including the vastly overrated (in my humble opinion ) Thrawn trilogy.
Darth Maul Shadow hunter especially is a real page turner. I literaly couldn't put down the book until I finished it.

[Cos Dashit]

So far the Thrawn Trilogy as well as Dark Lord and Labyrinth of Evil sound like good bets.

[Imperial Overlord]

The Han Solo trilogy by Brian Daley.

[Darth Fanboy]

In rough Chronological order, my recommendations

Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Outbound Flight
Medstar Duology
Dark Rendezvous
Jedi Trial (Admittedly this book is not tremendously popular, but I liked it, it is also the real story of how Anakin ascended to Knighthood)
Labyrinth of Evil
Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader
Allegiance
Wraith Squadron
Iron Fist
Solo Command
Tatooine Ghost
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command
Starfighters of Adumar (like Jedi Trial, I liked it but not as many others have)
Survivor's Quest (If and only if you seriously enjoyed Outbound Flight, and even then many will recommend you read this book BEFORE reading Outbound Flight. I had already read this by the time I had read OF, and it did make the book a little bit better, but it was not as good as most of the others on this list.)

[Chris OFarrell]

I'd keep it somewhat simple and stay to a large extent in the order of their publishing rather then in universe date. Helps avoid spoilers.

Stay away from the prequals. Partially because I don't think they are needed at first and partially because I think the best stuff is in the classic era.

You start with the Thrawn Trilogy.
Period.

Zhan was the first person to continue the Star Wars saga in real literature and to do so in such a breakthrough way. You simply can't go wrong with starting here. They are magnificent reads.

Truce at Bakura was a good read IMO, nicely jumped right in after Return of the Jedi (though to the annoyance of more then a few rabid SW fans didn't show Endor as the wasteland they wanted from the DSII explosion )

I've never read any of the Dark Empire novels or the Comics themselves and I'm glad I didn't. Frankly I think its something you can skip easily. I went right to the Jedi Academy trilogy...with a decade of hindsight I can say that they are not very good, but its neatly bridged the gap for me without any worry about reading Dark or Crimson Empire. But they are Darksabre are useful for insights into the collapse of the Empire and some of the aftermath of the UNLIMITED PALPITINE crap.

The Rogue Squadron books are okay. I don't think they are the horror that some people think, though Corran Horn really starts to grate after a while. But its worth at least grabbing them from a library and giving them a once over to get a few plot points. Frankly I found them readable, especially compared to "I Mary Sue....errr.....Jedi".

The Wraith Squadron books are just awesome. Period. They really flesh out Wedge, one of the best damn SW non main characters as a person and they introduce (and are not afraid to kill off) great new characters. As well as other characters.

Planet of Twilight, Crystal Star...well pretend they don't exist and everything is just better. So much better.....*shakes head*

The black fleet Crisis I found quite interesting, though the aggressive attacks on the scale of the Star Wars Galaxy got rather irritating after a while, the authors gross underrepresentation of Courscant (and the New Republic fleet for that matter) was very annoying. The battles were more 'Wing Commander' then 'Star Wars' for me, but fun in their own way. But not a 'must read'.

The Correllian trillogy has the same problem, vastly underestimating both the scale of the Star Wars Galaxy and a plotline that really didn't make all that much sense. Not to mention the Solo Kids trying to their best to play 'spy kids', not to mention some really "out of character" characters.

The Hand of Thrawn Duology is Zhan returning once again. Although I wouldn't put these two books at QUITE the same level as his breakthrough SW work, what I loved about them was the masterful way Zhan took the characters, plots and events from a great many of the previous works by many authors and did his damn best to weave them together. He did it really fluidly and his characterizations are again spot on. Plus many old favs return, with a core change in the whole universe.

When you finish all of this, THEN we'll talk about where to go from here

[Dalton]

Going more or less chronologically...

Outbound Flight was great. I recommend reading Survivor's Quest first; otherwise, it's like reading the last half of the mystery first.

Prequel novels are pretty interesting. Dark Labyrinth/ROTS/Rise of Darth Vader are all worth a read. Shatterpoint had Mace Windu, which automatically added badassness to it, even if the book itself wound up being only decent.

The Han Solo books were overall good. Brian Daley's trilogy was top-notch, and Ann Crispin's trilogy was still a fun read.

Tales books are hits-and-misses. Some of them have interesting stories.

Allegiance, while being somewhat formulaic, was still a good Zahn entry.

Shadows of the Empire was very interesting, because it was an attempt to tie a novel to a videogame and present the whole thing as a sort of multimedia experience. The book was alright.

Truce at Bakura was so-so. I wasn't overly thrilled.

Rogue Squadron was alright. Wraith Squadron is a must-read, and Starfighters of Adumar is absolutely on my top three.

Stay far, far, FAR away from Courtship of Princess Leia. CoPL is an Abomination unto Star Wars, and that's without having read Crystal Star, which I shall never, ever do.

I simply cannot agree more with the Zahn recommendations. He is the only author, I've found, who is consistently good. The Thrawn trilogy is a classic.

The Jedi Academy books are terrible. Admiral Daala is a joke. They have some redeeming qualities but what KJA did to Pellaeon was unforgivable. Zahn delivered an amusing smackdown to him in the Hand of Thrawn books.

I, Jedi is strictly for Corran Horn fans.

Children of the Jedi was stupid. Darksaber was atrocious. I didn't even bother finishing the trilogy, because I didn't even know it was a trilogy.

Black Fleet Crisis was...well, your mileage may vary. I personally hated what the author did to Han (turned him into a pussy) and Leia (turned her into a screaming bitch).

The New Rebellion...the worst book on this list. Even worse than CoPL. When I tell you that this book is atrocious in the worst way, I am not joking. This book is so bad that I almost had to stop reading it. As I have said before, it reads like a bishie fangirl writing bad fanfic. It was so bad, in fact, that I mentally blocked it until I started writing this list.

Now, back to Zahn. The Hand of Thrawn duology takes some of the fucked-up ideas and continuity from earlier novels and actually makes them make sense (like that idiotic Lando/Mara shit). This is why I like Zahn so much: he has the ability to plant seeds in earlier books and then harvest the sprouted ideas later on, even if they sucked. He took a lot of what was wrong in earlier books and managed to retcon them in a way that seemed plausible, while at the same time presenting an excellent new plot. Very much worth it, I think.

Survivor's Quest was good, if you like a lot of Luke/Mara and a hefty dose of mystery.

That's it from me. Take from that what you will.