Star Wars novels - opinions please

[Irongrinder]

I liked the whole New Jedi Order. It's the only SW series I've read, but it's a lot more serious then the first three films and according to others a lot more serious then the earlier books as well. It's not 'and everyone lives on happy' anymore.

[Timber Loftis]

I read one of the early Rogue Squadron books. It was okay.

If I wanted to pick up and start reading them, what's the best ones to begin with?

[Luvian]

There are two kinds of Star Wars novels.

There are the teens novels that are below even Forgotten Realm level and are really just printed money.

And there is the extended universe. Those are good and written by good authors. They are happening after the movies and describe what happened after then empire fell. I find those stories better than the one from the movies as they are not written by george lucas so don't have the weakness or his newest movies. In my opinion those are the only official novels.

[Morgeruat]

Luvian unfortunately the only "official" word on Star Wars is the movies (and the Holiday Special/Ewok adventures movies) Lucas has declared all else non-canon.

[Timber Loftis]

Well, I consider anything done by a "Lucas" company to be canon -- and if Georgie doesn't like that, he can quit making money off the stuff.

Luvian, how do I tell the two types of books apart. What about the Jedi Academy works Ilander was discussing?

[T-D-C]

I really enjoyed the Rogue Squadron books as they do occur soon after RoTJ. I used to be a big fan of Salvatore's SW books until he killed Chewie.

[Timber Loftis]

Don't fret, T-D-C -- Salvatore never *really* kills anybody. He's worth than daytime soaps for bringing the dead back to life.

[Morgeruat]

Except when the characters are not his own. That and there's no mechanic (barring possibly uploading the wookie into a droid, or cloning him) to bring Chewie back.

[ 03-30-2005, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

[Dron_Cah]

Yeah, Chewie's dead for good.
As for the Star Wars books, like Lyle, I've a read a lot! I, myself, like Stackpole. The Rogue Squadron books were fairly good, and while he may make Corran Horn too good, I don't remember him "being above Skywalker or Antilles." At one point, he knocked Luke down, because he wasn't paying attention, but at all times it was obvious Luke could take him with a twitch. Wedge doesn't have contact witht he force, so Coran has an edge over him, though they never say Corran could take him in a dogfight. Indeed, he never flies against him.
The books are pretty much all written by already established authors int he fields of fantasy and science fiction. I don't think Lucas allows anyone who is not to write. And Timber, you will know which books are kiddie, and which aren't. The Junior Jedi Knights, and Jedi Apprentice and the such are the kiddies. Young Jedi Knights are basically a teenage series, following the twins. I can vouch for almost all the stuff taking place after the original trilogy, but as for the others, I've been slacking and not keeping up with them. NJO is a very good series, I agree.
If you want a good lead into the books, "Truce at Bakura" begins very quickly after "Return of the Jedi."
Happy Star Wars reading! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Timber Loftis: Well, I consider anything done by a "Lucas" company to be canon -- and if Georgie doesn't like that, he can quit making money off the stuff. Luvian, how do I tell the two types of books apart. What about the Jedi Academy works Ilander was discussing?

Well, Here's an example of some for younger readers.

You know, findind out which book are the most mature has been really hard.

I havn't read any Star Wars books in years, and to make things worse, they replaced all the old covers with image from the movies. I HATE when they do that. And to make it even worse, they released about a billion books about the clone wars and the new movies...

The New Jedi Order Series is the most mature series.

The only problem is that it's happening in the middle of the Extended Universe, so you won't get a slow progression from episode six to there, but if they ever made movies, it would have to be about that series.

I think "Children of the jedi" was ok, but it's been so long...
Morguerat mentioned Timothy Zhan, that's good too. He wrote "The Thrawn Trilogy". That's happening not long after the movies.

Basically, anything happening after the movies, except those scholastic I linked above, as well as "Young Jedi Knight" and "Junior Jedi Knight" series you should be ok.

I have the timeline of all the Star Wars books. I'll try to post it here, but there are many of them, and I can't tell from the title which are interesting and which are crap.