Star Wars novel discussion

[randar23rhenn]

I just searched and it doesn't seem like there is a thread specifically for dicussion of the Star Wars novels, and since I'm a big fan of them, I wanted to talk to anyone else on here who is interested in them as well.

I just finished reading Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice and I must say I am continually impressed. It seems that lately the Star Wars books have been getting better and better. Sacrifice is easily tied for my favorite Star Wars novel yet.

I've read almost every single novel released AFTER the movies, but haven't read any of the prequel/episode I types of books. If anyone wants to discuss ANY of the novels I would love to.

[Rob B]

I guess you didn't see this thread you started about a month ago?
The Merits of Star Wars

or this one:

Best Star Wars book?/Looking for good Star Wars novels...

Anyway, please make sure to mark you discussions with the spoiler tag for the recent Legacy of the Force series.

The spoiler tag works just like the Bold tag ([ B][/B ]) except you insert 'spoiler' rather than 'b'

[randar23rhenn]

the merits of star wars was more to defend the series than talk about discussion.. and I think we all know how ridiculously off track it got

[Rob B]

Fair point, I suppose. So then, for all would be participants let's try to keep this as much to the books as possible. Granted, the books are offshoots of a film franchise so the film discussion will naturally seep into our topic.

I am actually looking forward to reading The Legacy of the Force series. I've got the first two and the last one, I just need to fill out the middle books.

I'm also really looking forward to The Force Unleashed, although that is in no small part because Sean Williams is writing the book.

[randar23rhenn]

Yeah The Force Unleashed looks amazing

What Star Wars books have you read?

[bohbohb]

I was a fairly avid Star Wars reader a few years ago, actually what got me reading sci-fi books... havn't read anything since then though. I remember Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books were very good. Can't remember a lot of the details except that the main bad guy was the blue skinned alien Thrawn, and if I remember correctly the protagonist was Mara Jade? Not sure on that though. I'd have to look at my Star Wars books to refresh my memory for any more details than that.

[randar23rhenn]

if you enjoyed that trilogy, you should read Spector of the Past and Vision of the Future.... two star wars books by Zahn about the same sort of thing.

Star Wars is actually what got me into Sci-Fi as well. Before I read Star Wars books I ONLY read fantasy (R.A. Salvatore to be exact... whom I can hardly stand any more )

[bohbohb]

if you enjoyed that trilogy, you should read Spector of the Past and Vision of the Future.... two star wars books by Zahn about the same sort of thing.

I read those as well. I read a lot of the Star Wars novels that were published about 7-10 years ago, but nothing since then. A lot of them are kind of blurred together in my memory. The Star Wars universe is exceedingly large, for an imaginary one, and has had a lot of different contributors over the years.

[Feel like a #]

This post was deleted due to possible spoilers.

[randar23rhenn]

first id like to recommend spoiler tags for that

second

I personally think the family aspect of it is what makes the legacy of the force so good. It finally feels like they're bringing it all together. The family aspect makes it feel real and personal rather than abstract.

[thrinidir]

Alas, I haven't yet read any of the Star Wars novels, but I've hear that Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy is supposed to be awesome...

* Heir to the Empire (1991)
* Dark Force Rising (1992)
* The Last Command (1993)

The novels written by Matthew Woodring Stover received much acclaim as well: Traitor, Shatterpoint, and the Revenge of the Sith.

Karen Traviss is another author that supposedly writes quality SW fiction; her Commando series are known to me:

# Republic Commando: Hard Contact (2004)
# Republic Commando: Triple Zero (2006)
# Republic Commando: True Colors (2007)
[forthcoming] # Republic Commando: Order 66 (September 2008)

I'm aware that Salvatore and Brooks dabbled with the SF franchise, but I wouldn't know how their books were received.

[randar23rhenn]

yes the Thrawn trilogy is widely regarded as the best "series" if you will within the star wars series of books

it also happens to be a pretty decent place to kick start your reading of the novels if you ever wanted to... though I personally recommend starting at The Bounty Hunter Wars. To see the timeline of the SW novels, you can just crack open any of the latest ones and take a gander. Whatever you do, though, don't start with Truce at Bakura, even though its IMMEDIATELY after Return of the Jedi. That one is possibly the worst of all the SW books I've read, and might discourage you from reading more of them.

Karen Traviss also wrote some of the Legacy of the Force novels, which are superb.

R.A. Salvatore, as far as I know, only wrote Vector Prime, part of the New Jedi Order series. That was an excellent novel.

[Rob B]

My Star Wars readings consist of the following:

• Shatterpoint and
• Revenge of the Sith by MWS
• Salvatore's so-so adaptation of Attack of the Clones.
• The entire New Jedi Order saga, which had some really good writers join in the fun. Stover's Traitor was a higlight, as were the books by Keyes, Walter Jon Williams and Troy Denning's Star by Star.
• The Thrawn Trilogy,
• The Dark Empire comics series something I've seen George himself consider an apt sequel, to the films
• I'm also giving the new Legacy series a try.
• However, one of the more disappointing books, Star Wars or not Star Wars, I ever read was James Luceno's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. I saw this book as unfulfilled potential, Luceno knows his Star Wars stuff, but this book just did not work for me.
• I am eager to read the Republic Commando series by Karen Traviss; I really enjoyed her (what I've read thus far at least) Wess'har series.

And of course I'm also very much looking forward to Stover's forthcoming (October) Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

[Corporal Blues]

I've always been a fan of Star Wars, and for awhile, was into some of the Star Wars universe books as well. I tended to stay with books featuring the classic characters, i.e. Han, Leia, Luke, Chewie, the robots.

Years ago, I read the Thrawn Trilogy and liked it.

I also read roughly 1/2 of the New Jedi Order books, and for a time was pretty much reading them as they came out, however, I got out of that habit, and stopped reading them all together, which is too bad, because now I probably don't remember all the important details and would need to start over, and that seems like a lot of work. I did enjoy that series though, and if I ever get the inkling, I may just dive into those waters again someday.

[randar23rhenn]

Honestly, Star Wars books are easy to jump in and out of. I hadn't read any for 2 years before I started the New Jedi Order series and I jumped right back just fine