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Best Tie-ins


SkynJay

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Sometimes you feel the longing for a familiar story line. Something you don't have to think too hard on. Characters you already know.

In short, you want to read pure trash.

But there is trash, and then there is Sweet, Sweet, Mind Candy. Some are better than others.

Many of us know what to avoid (Kevin J Anderson Star Wars novels), but what is actually worth the time reading?

Ill drop a couple I have enjoyed.

Peter and Max- A Fables tie in. To be fair, this is a novel based on a respected comic series, so may be stretching it. But I really enjoyed this book..

The Thrawn Trilogy- The first EU of Star Wars, and probably the best. I believe that if it wasn't set in the Star Wars universe, it would get a bit more respect in the tactical Sci-fi world. Zahn is a decent author, too bad he does so many tie ins, I would love to see more originals. (He also did Terminator Salvation, which i refused to read).

Any one have others?

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In the Star Wars Extended Universe:

  • Matt Stover's Traitor and Revenge of the Sith novelization. Both are interesting, and very different from the usual Star Wars books. Both tend to be rather philosophical at times.

  • Michael Stackpole's I, Jedi book. This tends to be a "love-hate" book with the fandom, with half the fandom liking it, and the other half thinking it's a bunch of ridiculous Gary Stu nonsense. I like it, and it is rather rare in being a first-person POV book in the Star Wars Universe. It helps that it really handles the "Jedi Academy" storyline much better than Kevin J. Anderson handled it.

In the Warcraft Universe:

Jeff Grubb's The Last Guardian. I think it's the only good Warcraft novel. Most of the rest tend to vary from awful to mediocre.

In the Starcraft Universe:

Jeff Grubb's Liberty's Crusade. Great storytelling of the Terran campaign in the first game.

The Thrawn Trilogy- The first EU of Star Wars, and probably the best. I believe that if it wasn't set in the Star Wars universe, it would get a bit more respect in the tactical Sci-fi world. Zahn is a decent author, too bad he does so many tie ins, I would love to see more originals. (He also did Terminator Salvation, which i refused to read).

I've never been more than lukewarm towards Zahn's books. They're better than most of the dreck that is the EU, but he never really captures the "feel" of Star Wars. His books tend to be very minimalistic (the capture of 200 decades-old ships is a major blow to the Republic in one of the Thrawn Trilogy novels), and almost always centered around his "pet" characters (particularly Mara Jade).

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One that sticks out for me recently was the Warhammer Empire series. I read "Reiksguard" and loved it. The next two weren't as impressive, but "Reiksguard" sticks out as being exceptional. It deals with an elite group of knights and the conflict between "capital" knights and "provincial" knights. It was a theme I was trying to play with and it's really well done.

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In the Star Wars Extended Universe:

[*]Michael Stackpole's I, Jedi book. This tends to be a "love-hate" book with the fandom, with half the fandom liking it, and the other half thinking it's a bunch of ridiculous Gary Stu nonsense. I like it, and it is rather rare in being a first-person POV book in the Star Wars Universe. It helps that it really handles the "Jedi Academy" storyline much better than Kevin J. Anderson handled it.

I've never been more than lukewarm towards Zahn's books. They're better than most of the dreck that is the EU, but he never really captures the "feel" of Star Wars. His books tend to be very minimalistic (the capture of 200 decades-old ships is a major blow to the Republic in one of the Thrawn Trilogy novels), and almost always centered around his "pet" characters (particularly Mara Jade).

-I did like I, Jedi, and Stackpole's X-Wing books. And it thrashed the Jedi Academy story line, in the best possible way. The worst part about ties like this is other authors have to deal with bad authors ideas. Here, it took Anderson's schlep and made it good.

-I'll agree with you on Zahn have a pet character issue in most of his books. There is a reason I only listed the first trilogy, after that it almost felt like he had to reclaim all his new characters and reset them the direction he wants. But I love the first trilogy.

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The New Adventures series for Doctor Who is pretty amazing. A handful of duds, mostly fairly early on, but the average standard is remarkably high. The later Eighth Doctor books were more variable in quality, though there are some real classics in the mix (mostly anything by Lawrence Miles).

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I do agree with the Doctor Who books, although I feel that as both the BBC and the Virgin ranges continued, they became a bit more convoluted in their own backstory (the BBC Eighth Doctor books particuarlly so). The same with the Star Wars books, which is honestly the reason I eventually stopped reading them towards the end of the New Jedi Order storyline. I much preferred the early Bantam approach by having the stories be self-contained (either in trilogies or short series of one off books) That said, Matt Stover is one of the best writers they have with books such as Traitor and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

Although I'm sure people will be loathe to agree, the current books that the BBC puts out (to tie in with the currently running show) are as hit and miss as the previous series (and indeed, Doctor Who itself) but a whole lot of fun.

For sheer badness, I'm going to have to point out the William Shatner Star Trek novels that show Kirk being brought back to life by the Borg after his death in Generations and kicking about in the 24th century. They're entertaing Gary Stu fiction written (supposedly) by Shatner himself.

Although, on a side note, when I read them as a kid of 12-13, I really enjoyed the Jedi Academy trilogy. I've not read them since, so I really never got why everyone has such a hate on for them. Now, Karen Traviss' Star Wars books, now they I have an issue with.

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The Peter David Babylon 5 Books Legions of Fire

Pretty much all of the earlier Star Trek books by Peter David but most notably Vendetta, Q-Squared, and Imzadi.

The Death and Life of Superman, novelization of the death of Superman storyline from the comics.

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She purporfStobring a balanced viewpoint to sw ie jedi. Instead we get nothing but mandolove with boba retconned more sympathetically and jedi jaina solo pprtrayed as a jedi brat desputr being a vet of the last war and a rogue squad vet.

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She purporfStobring a balanced viewpoint to sw ie jedi. Instead we get nothing but mandolove with boba retconned more sympathetically and jedi jaina solo pprtrayed as a jedi brat desputr being a vet of the last war and a rogue squad vet.

got a wee bit o' pints inye Derfel?

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Some of the Warhammer 40k tie-in fiction is really good. I'm looking specifically at Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain series, and I've heard good things about Dan Abnett in general and in particular his Gaunt's Ghosts stories.

Yes to Cain, no to Gaunt. After struggling through five of his novels I still can't figure out why Abnett is the runaway bestselling author of 40k fiction. Black Library has published far worse, I'm sure, but in many ways the Ghosts' stories don't even feel particularly rooted in the setting.

By far the best 40k novels I've read so far have been by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The First Heretic (okay, technically that's 30k, I guess), and his two Night Lords novels. The guy "gets" the setting (being a fan since childhood probably helps) and his overall writing is good enough that I'd check out any original novel he might publish some day.

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I got my money's worth from these two. Then again I found them in the bargain bin at a second-hand bookstore for $0.50 each.

Destruction of Illusions by Keith R. A. DeCandido. A prequal to the Andromeda tv series that explains how the crew of the Eureka Maru came together.

Quantum Leap 10: Odyssey by Barbara E. Walton.

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She purporfStobring a balanced viewpoint to sw ie jedi. Instead we get nothing but mandolove with boba retconned more sympathetically and jedi jaina solo pprtrayed as a jedi brat desputr being a vet of the last war and a rogue squad vet.

Well I don't know what you said, but I was thinking of her clone war stuff more. And honestly, complaining about retcon in Star Wars fiction is like complaining about lightsabers in Star Wars fiction :P

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Well I don't know what you said, but I was thinking of her clone war stuff more. And honestly, complaining about retcon in Star Wars fiction is like complaining about lightsabers in Star Wars fiction :P

I stopped reading after the Vong invasion(whatever that was called? New Jedi Order? IDK), but I heard that her books essentially ignored the legacy of the force plotline to blowfocus on Boba Fett. And she would retcon other authors work to show us how Mandalorians>Jedi. I'm pretty sure it got to the point where Denning refused to work with her on the next series of EU books.

On that note, I always enjoyed Dennings books. Mostly because I love Wedge.

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I stopped reading after the Vong invasion(whatever that was called? New Jedi Order? IDK), but I heard that her books essentially ignored the legacy of the force plotline to blowfocus on Boba Fett. And she would retcon other authors work to show us how Mandalorians>Jedi. I'm pretty sure it got to the point where Denning refused to work with her on the next series of EU books.

On that note, I always enjoyed Dennings books. Mostly because I love Wedge.

Dennings has Wedge? Are you sure you're not thinking of Stackpole or Alliston?

AFIK she left Lucasarts after they took most of her work out of continuity for a season of Clone Wars. (In her defense, I personally think what they did with the Mandos on Clone Wars was fucking stupid). And in fairness, I'd almost rather have Goodkind then the shit her replacement puts out.

Af for her retconing others work, I've never heard that. She gets a lot of hate for Star Wars trolls over something Lucas made her write into one of her commando books, something about army size numbers, so a lot of the things you may have read about her are plain out lies.

Edit: She also had a star wars "fan" make a video using the sims in which he kidnaps and tortures her then brutally murders her. Because he didn't like a number in a book. So, I'd be pretty bitter too.

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