For those of us who hate NJO(me)our suffering is almost over

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2002-08-03 09:07am

First of all I'm gonna complain about the NJO, if you wanna get to the point skip this first paragraph. Some call it "intense" or "edge of your seat" or "thought provoking". But by intense you mean its intense because you dont know which one of your favorite characters is gonna get killed off, if by edge of your seat you mean by which rather unclever way the YV will beat the NR, if by thought provoking you mean your gonna have to think real hard on which planet they'll conquer next. I mean all it is is basicly this:
YV fleet pops up near planet, NR fleet pops up near planet. They fight, YV wins. Major character is killed/captured/maimed/turned to the dark side. Planet is destroyed. Repeat. Not very intense is it? In fact, can you say PREDICTABLE!!!!!! I sure can, and it bugs me. And poor Han every other book one of his freinds/family is killed (chewie, anakin), maimed (leia), captured (jacen), or almost turned to the dark side (jaina), poor fella.

Now to the point, according to Star Wars Insider there is only 19 books in the NJO, and Traitor makes 13. 2/3 of the way there, but in order for us wrap up this series one of three things is gonna have to happen:

1.) Vong defeat NR, I consider this the leats likely , but still it could happen (Oh and what a plot twist

). In that event the NR would sort of revert back to the Rebel Alliance and the YV would sort of become the pre-Endor Imps. Which by the way I hope does not happen, nobody and I mean NOBODY gets to take the Imps place in subjagating the NR/Rebs.

2.) The NR will fight some decisive battle and win (sort of like WWIIs Midway) and the tide will turn in the NRs favor (for once). Or they'll get some fancy deus ex machina to handle it for em, whatever.

3.) This is what I hope happens here though, the Imperial Remnant comes in and wallops some YV butt. And with the NJO book appropriatly titled "Remnant" I think this might happen. After all Pellaeon's a smart guy, he worked with Thrawn he can handle the YV.

From what I've heard Traitor is pretty good (and is Matthew Storvers only venture into the NJO) but it simply cannot redeem the awful NJO. We'll just have to see where the NJO takes us, I suppose.

P.S.-According to Star Wars Insider the next book will be called "Destiny's Way" but by the time SWI comes out it is old news, so we'll have to see.

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-03 07:42pm

I'm getting tired myself of NJO fans saying that it is great because it is more realistic. Why? Because they kill on or two major characters?

I personally think that, while the NR does seem to be pretty pathetic, having a good fourth of the galaxy taken in a manner two or three years is petty un-realistic.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-03 08:11pm

I've keep myself far far away from these books at all costs so far
Is there a full list of whats been written? will be written anywhere?

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-03 08:16pm

On the first couple of pages of ever book there is a complete list of all SW books written and a time line to go with them. Unfortunately so is the cartoon map.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2002-08-03 08:20pm

Whats been written the the NJO thus far:

Vector Prime
Dark Tide I:Onslaught
Dark Tide II:Ruin
Agents of Chaos I:Hero's Trial
Agents of Chaos II:Jedi Eclipse
Balance Point
Edge of Victory I:Conquest (stealing Wongs fanfic name, ofcourse, jerks)
Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
Star by Star
Dark Journey
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand
Traitor

I, by the way, did not memorise any of this this is brought to you complements or Star Wars Insider, I hate the NJO (remember).

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-03 08:28pm

Can somone kindly edit that list with Large blinking lights to prevent Another *GK incident?

Tychu · Post by **Tychu** » 2002-08-04 12:21am

when i started the NJO i hated it. I only started to like it in Edge of Victory duology when it seemed that the Vong werent the super unvunerable aliens they were. and with the Enemy Lines Duology the old Rebel Alliance seems like its back.

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-04 12:30am

by the way, did not memorise any of this this is brought to you complements or Star Wars Insider, I hate the NJO (remember).

Read Traitor. It's the best SW book ever written. I kid you not.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2002-08-04 12:41am

David wrote: by the way, did not memorise any of this this is brought to you complements or Star Wars Insider, I hate the NJO (remember).

Read Traitor. It's the best SW book ever written. I kid you not.

*Raises Eyebrow cautiously* So I've heard, I haven't read any other novels by Stover, but if you say Traitor is as good as it sounds (which it damn well better be!

) then maybe I'll check it out.

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-04 12:45am

Traitor is the real shit. Dark Journey was supposed to be about Jaina falling into the Dark Side and I think it came of pretty lame. Not only that the next book almost completely ignored her conversion to the D side. Traitor focuses on Jacen and does alot better job of pulling the whole story togather.

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2002-08-05 04:00am

I don't mean to get anyone's hopes. down with this, but on the official Star Wars page it says that there are 22 planed books for the NJO, so has this number been officially brought down?

You can read about it here;

http://www.starwars.com/eu/news/1999/12 ... 91202.html

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2002-08-05 04:08am

Double post coming up...

Here is a list of all the confirmed titles for the NJO from the Star Wars web site...

Vector Prime, by R. A. Salvatore.
Dark Tide I: Onslaught, by Michael A. Stackpole
Dark Tide II: Ruin, by Michael A. Stackpole
Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial, by James Luceno
Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse, by James Luceno
Balance Point, by Kathy Tyers
Edge of Victory I: Conquest, by Greg Keyes
Edge of Victory II: Rebirth, by Greg Keyes
Star by Star, by Troy Denning
Dark Journey, by Elaine Cunningham
Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream by Aaron Allston
Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand by Aaron Allston (Aug 2002, paperback)
Traitor, by Matthew Stover (Oct 2002, paperback)
Destiny's Way, by Walter Jon Williams (Nov 2002, hardcover)
Force Heretic I: Remnant, by Sean Williams & Shane Dix (Mar 2003, paperback)
Force Heretic II: Refugee, by Sean Williams & Shane Dix (Jun 2003, paperback)
Force Heretic III: Reunion, by Sean Williams & Shane Dix (Aug 2003, paperback)

So that's seventeen confirmed, and by the off chance someone from Lucas film/arts is reading this, there is no way that I will buy any more hardbacks of this shocking display of poor story and writting!

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2002-08-05 05:34am

I think they make the books little to predictable when the YV dictates how the battles are to be fought and how NR will loose, that it very boring and it does get a negative effect.

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-05 08:17am

I think there is supposed to be another trilogy and maybe a few more singles after the Force Heretic trilogy.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2002-08-05 08:39am

Triologys are good, Much better than single books as you try to cram way to much into it(At least in SW) Duologys are also strong possibilites, If Zahn can do it, You can!

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2002-08-05 01:01pm

Anakin DIED?@!!@!@!@!#!!>!>!?!<>!!

I read vector prime and I though it was ok until they killed chewie in such a fucking crappy way, and now ANAKINS DEAD! How can we get this off the cannnon list. FUCK THIS SERIEs. They'll probly have Han or Luke sacrafice themself to turn the tides on the YV. Or hell, why not every star wars character we've ever liked? HELL LETS CLONE VADER SO HE CAN DIE AGAIN TRYING TO FUCKING SAVE A SHIP FULL OF PIRATES! GOD DAMNIT!

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2002-08-05 02:43pm

There are two novels planned after the Force Heretic trilogy. One untitled and the series finale, "The Unifyinf Force"

Three books (The Knightfal trilogy) were cancelled.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2002-08-05 02:44pm

Crap my spelling there is terrible.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-08-05 03:52pm

Mr Bean wrote:Triologys are good, Much better than single books as you try to cram way to much into it(At least in SW) Duologys are also strong possibilites, If Zahn can do it, You can!

Yeah, but he did it by making both books much longer. His duology has almost as many pages as his triology. The NJO is awful for many reasons, and those 300 page books arn't helping, you cant tell a decent story in somthing that short anyway..

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2002-08-05 03:58pm

I know I'm asking for some pretty baised opinions but I haven't read an EU novel since the Jedi Academy trilogy I think, is it worth it to even start reading the NJO? I gave up on the EU because I thought it just wasn't as good as the Thrawn trilogy which I hold up as the standard to which all other EU novels are matched against and I was getting very tired of the "lost imperial super weapon" plot lines and the weak writing. I've also heard some pretty vehement things about the new villians these Vhong guys. So I guess I just want to know whether to make the investment in starting to read these or just keep to my policy of ignoring any new EU novels

Jadeite · Post by **Jadeite** » 2002-08-05 04:07pm

I havnt read an EU book since Vector Prime, I just lost interest in them. But I might buy Remnant if it has the Empire in it

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-08-05 04:29pm

One of the biggest problems I see in NJO(Besides the bio-tech chic aliens, sacrifice of main characters, and general ridiculousness of a few thousand ships overruning a galaxy) is that it seems written round-robin style. Each book is by another author.

We get the Pipefighter Project in one book, which looks like it'll turn the tide and give the NR a good chance... And the next book tells us it was a hoax(Good hoax! How ya gonna explain the shot coming in from beyond the edge of the system, jackass?).

This will undoutably continue to get worse and worse.

David · Post by **David** » 2002-08-05 05:06pm

SirNitram wrote:One of the biggest problems I see in NJO(Besides the bio-tech chic aliens, sacrifice of main characters, and general ridiculousness of a few thousand ships overruning a galaxy) is that it seems written round-robin style. Each book is by another author.

Unlike the mighty-morphin' bioships, Stover does try to give a plausible reason for why vonduum crab armour and the YV staffs are so lethel. But I won't spoil it for you.

We get the Pipefighter Project in one book, which looks like it'll turn the tide and give the NR a good chance... And the next book tells us it was a hoax(Good hoax! How ya gonna explain the shot coming in from beyond the edge of the system, jackass?).

The next book explains how the shot appeared to come from the pipefighter. The second book of the duology says that a Mon Cal cruiser entered the edge of the courscant system and fired one heavy turbolaser shot at the Worldship, and exited the system.

This will undoutably continue to get worse and worse.

I hope not, Stover and Stackpole seem to be tring to save the series.

Stover also explains how the YV are not in the Force. Jacen discovers this and uses it to rip a gigantic new hole in the YV.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2002-08-05 05:33pm

While some rationalize the nonsense, it was rather clear from the one that introduced the Pipefighter that it was supposed to be a success. Now, if the next person immediately erases that with the simple words 'It's a hoax'(Regardless of rationalizations), isn't that just cheapening the whole point? I can't help but feel the authors there were trying to undermine each other, and I doubt it'll be the last.

Oh, and the quote Solo makes in the 'preview' for the next book simply makes me think someone is very, very bitter towards the Empire.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-08-05 05:56pm

SirNitram wrote:While some rationalize the nonsense, it was rather clear from the one that introduced the Pipefighter that it was supposed to be a success. Now, if the next person immediately erases that with the simple words 'It's a hoax'(Regardless of rationalizations), isn't that just cheapening the whole point? I can't help but feel the authors there were trying to undermine each other, and I doubt it'll be the last.

Both books were by the same author, Aaron Allston's Rebel Dream and Rebel Stand.