Star Wars novels - opinions please

[Dron_Cah]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/st.../timeline.html

Here is a timeline of the books that Morgie so graciously linked for us.

Edit: As an afterthought, I figured I'd give a brief idea of what's good/ok/not. In that timeline, everything after Episode IV is good for more mature readers, excluding the Junior and Young Jedi Knights series. The latter is actually what I started on, some years ago. Still decent reads, if you don't mind the intended audience. The Junior Jedi Knights I never checked out.
Before Episode IV, I read the Han Solo adventures and the Han Solo Trilogy. The former is again, a bit younger of an audience, but the latter is very good. Other than those, I haven't read much of the prequel stuff. Need to catch up, lol. Hope that helped! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-30-2005, 05:56 PM: Message edited by: Dron_Cah ]

[Jorath Calar]

I read few some years ago, here is what I remember reading, and what I thought.

Thrawn trilogy : Excellent, my favourite of the bunch.

The bounty hunter trilogy: Awful, mostly just reading about Boba fetts shiny armor, it destroyed so many "established before" things I liked about him and the other bounty hunters.

Shadow of the force: Very good, happens between Empire and Jedi, but I didn't like [spoiler]how they killed the han solo replacement[/spoiler].

Tales of the... : these include Tot Jabbas palace, Tales of the cantina, tales of the Bounty hunter and Tales of the Empire. Very nice, has some very good stories in them, especially the bounty hunter and jabbas palace.

Jedi Academy: This is the one were I gave up, read just the first book... turned to the forgotten Realms... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Luvian]

Star Wars Timeline, from episode 6 and after:

<font size=5></font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">0 years after Episode 6:
Tales From Jabas's Palace
The Bounty Hunter's Wars
-The Mandalorian Armor
-Slave Ship
-Hard Merchandise
The Truce of Bakura

2.5-3.5:
X-Wing
-Rogue Squadron
-Wedge's Gamble
-The Krytos Trap
-The Becta War
-Wraith Squadron
-Iron Fist
-Solo Command

4:
The Courtship of Princess Leia

5:
The Thrawn Trilogy
-Heir to the Empire
-Dark Force Rising
-The Last Command
X-Wing: Isard's Revenge

7:
I, jedi
The Jedi Academy Trilogy
-Jedi Search
-Dark Apprentice
-Champions of the Force

8-9:
Children of the Jedi
Darksaber
Planet of Twilight
X-Wing: Starfighter of Adamar

10:
The Crystal Star

12-13:
The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy
-Before the Storm
-Shield of Lies
-Tyrant's Test

13:
The New Rebellion

14:
The Corellian Trilogy
-Ambush at Corellia
-Assault at Selonia
-Showdown at Centerpoint

15:
The Hand of Thrawn Duology
-Specter of the Past
-Vision of the Future

18:
Junior Jedi Knight series

19-20:
Young Jedi Knight Series

25-30
The New Jedi Order:
-Vector Prime
-Dark Tide 1: Onslaught
-Dark Tide 2: Ruin
-Agents of Chaos 1: Hero's Trial
-Agents of Chaos 2: Jedi Eclipse
-Balance Point
-Recovery
-Edge of Victory 1: Conquest
-Edge of Victory 2: Rebirth
-Star by Star
-Dark Journey
-Enemy Lines 1: Rebel Dreams
-Enemy Lines 2: Rebel Stand
-Traitor
-Destiny's Way
-Ylesia
-Force Heretic 1: Remnant
-Force Heretic 2: Refugee
-Force Heretic 3: Reunion</pre>[/QUOTE]</font>

[ 03-30-2005, 06:16 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Ilander]

If you all haven't noticed, Drew and I are deeply torn over Corran Horn and, alternately Kyp Durron . Drew tends to say that Kyp is a whiny, annoying prick, while I say that he's a tragic character who tries to do the right thing and fails as often as he succeeds, kind of an Everyman character with superpowers.

Corran Horn, however, is a film-noir style detective character that would remind me a lot of Sam Spade if he didn't lapse philosophical every thirty-five seconds (whenever I say that, I tend to get Dron steamed... hehe).

Now that I have "picking on Drew" off my checklist, TL, I'd say that chronological order is generally best, so Shadows of the Empire is a good place to start. Then Truce at Bakura, then the Thrawn Trilogy, then the Jedi Academy Trilogy, then the X-Wing books (including I, Jedi). The last of the core books that I'd suggest reading before the NJO series is the Hand of Thrawn books.

After that, go ahead and read the NJO, and then come back later and fill in the gaps. Honestly, you could get by without the X-wing series, but it's a fun, light reading.

I started with the Jedi Academy Trilogy, myself, but that's because my evil aunt conspired to make me a dork for life by buying me that book .

[ 03-31-2005, 05:39 PM: Message edited by: Ilander ]

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Morgeruat: http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/st.../timeline.html

So I should start with Jedi Apprentice 1 and make my way up from there? I won't read the movie novels as I've seen the movies...

[Memnoch]

That link shows a TON of books - is that how many books there are?!

That means I would have to read THIRTY books before I got to the Star Wars A New Hope period. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

Maybe I'll skip all that and start with stuff after RotJ...maybe the X Wing series? Then the Thrawn series and then go from there?

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Memnoch: Maybe I'll skip all that and start with stuff after RotJ...maybe the X Wing series? Then the Thrawn series and then go from there?

Yes, use the timeline I posted, skip the teenage books.

[ 04-01-2005, 01:59 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[T-D-C]

Originally posted by Memnoch: That link shows a TON of books - is that how many books there are?! That means I would have to read THIRTY books before I got to the Star Wars A New Hope period. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] Maybe I'll skip all that and start with stuff after RotJ...maybe the X Wing series? Then the Thrawn series and then go from there?

Thats what I'm doing. I'm halfway through the X-wing series at the moment.

[Irongrinder]

yup, I started out with the new jedi order series, and even though everything up to that gets explained a bit I still felt left out quite a bit. It was shocking to know Han had three kids!

[Morgeruat]

the movie novels do fill in some of the gaps in the movie, but the amount of new info is negligible and I disagree with some of it (ie in the book for Episode one, it mentions after Qui-Gon dies at the hands of Darth Maul that Obi Wan becomes one with the light side of the force to defeat Maul, I'm sorry, he's seriously channeling the dark side in that scene. Just because he doesn't continue using it, or make a habit of drawing on it doesn't mean he didn't in that instance.