Anyone read the Star Wars novels?

[First of My Name]

Damn, there are so many books! That's going to cost a fortune.

If I were you I'd look them up on Amazon for reviews, so you can sift through the ones that aren't enjoyable. Because some (Jedi Trial, Children of the Jedi, Planet of Twilight) are shit. I think therea lot of enjoyable ones though.

[Winterz]

Aye. I'm also an active editor at Wookieepedia, you might want to check it out.

[Werthead]

I'd generally recommend reading these books:

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Heir to the Empire

Dark Force Rising

The Last Command

The X-Wing Series by Michael Stackpole

Rogue Squadron

Wedge's Gamble

The Krytos Trap

The Bacta War

I, Jedi (sometimes cited as one of the best individual Star Wars novels)

Aaron Allston's X-Wing books are also reportedly good, but I haven't read them.

The Corellia Trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen

Ambush at Corellia

Assault at Selonia

Showdown at Centerpoint

The Hand of Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Specter of the Past

Vision of the Future

The New Jedi Order

Unfortuntely, you have to read all nineteen of these for the story to make sense. This does involve reading several quite awful books (Dark Journey is absolutely appalling, Balance Point and Recovery are a bit iffy) but it does also include the single finest Star Wars book ever (Traitor) and several very good ones (Stackpole, Luceno, Keyes, Allston and Walter Jon Williams' books are all very solid).

I bailed after the end of the NJO and it sounds like there isn't anything really good after that.

Avoid anything with the words 'Kevin J. Anderson' on it like the fucking plague.

I started reading NJO (over a decade ago! Wow! Where has time gone?!!?) but found myself lost and couldn't keep track of what happened where. I feel like I remember events being referenced that happened in a comic book or some other format that I didn't read and just saying "To hell with it" and that was the last Star Wars book I read.

That's odd. The NJO was entirely contained with the novels, apart from a couple of short stories that I recall. There was also a one-off comic arc about one character that helped explain what he was doing before the NJO kicked off, but was certainly inessential to the series itself. The only other thing outside that grouping was Rogue Planet, a novel set in the prequel era which set up a couple of characters, but again wasn't that essential.

[Noroldis]

Damn, there are so many books! That's going to cost a fortune.

One thing you could do is focus on one era of the Star Wars timeline at a time. If you look again at the timeline I linked to, you'll see that it's divided into several specific eras. Also, if you care about the canon status of novels, then keep in mind there's a fair chance that that the upcoming Sequel Trilogy will make much, perhaps even all, of the post-Endor Expanded Universe non-canon, or that Lucasfilm will declare the post-Endor EU an alternate universe.

[Darth Richard]

Lots of them are shit. The clone war cartoon made the continuity if the clobe war novels iffy, George had enough of Karen Traviss' anti-jedi/Mando lovefest and had the cartoon shit all over her books to the poibt where ahe gave up. And the new movies will probably wipe moat of the others from continuity.

Best ones are Darth Plaguis, the XWing novels (including i, jedi) and shatterpoint.

I don't think George had anything to do with the plot of the cartoon regarding the Mandolorians. And you know, there were all the death treats she received and posted on youtube because of a number. But no, you're right, it's entirely her fault. Certainly Bobba Fett wasn't unusually popular until she came along.

[polishgenius]

The New Jedi Order

Unfortuntely, you have to read all nineteen of these for the story to make sense.

Tbf, I don't think this is quite the case; I certainly didn't read all of them and I wasn't majorly lost at any point. They mostly make a point of doing a quick scene-setting in later books when it's needed. It may have helped me, mind you, that I read Rogue Planet as well, which is set before Attack of the Clones but connects to the NJO.

I can't remember which were the ones I read worth reading though, beyond Vector Prime, Traitor, and the last one.

[Winterz]

It's commonly said that the best novel for beginners is Shatterpoint. If anyone is thinking in starting reading SW, you should start there.

[Darth Richard]

Yeah NJO all blends together for me. Man, 19? I read them in all in almost one go. What the hell has happened to all my free time?

Traitor is the only one I remember standing out.

[polishgenius]

It's commonly said that the best novel for beginners is Shatterpoint. If anyone is thinking in starting reading SW, you should start there.

Shatterpoint is awesome, if only because it's essentially Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness with Star Wars in.

[Castel]

Stover's Revenge of the Sith versus Gemmell Award winners...who wins?

That novelisation was just ridiculous. I was really, really surprised when I read it. Stover ftfw.

Tbf, I don't think this is quite the case; I certainly didn't read all of them and I wasn't majorly lost at any point. They mostly make a point of doing a quick scene-setting in later books when it's needed. It may have helped me, mind you, that I read Rogue Planet as well, which is set before Attack of the Clones but connects to the NJO.

I can't remember which were the ones I read worth reading though, beyond Vector Prime, Traitor, and the last one.

Meh,there's an entire trilogy focused on more Anakin Solo that I just straight up skipped and lost nothing.I think it was the Dark Tide books? There's a Jaina book right after Star by Star that seemed like it was cut from a bigger novel.

Well I think they do, later on it really addresses the questions of the Clone Army like why should these beings have to fight for a Republic they don't even understand? Or why have the Jedi supported building an army of sentients to die for them? Its a bit biased against the Jedi but I think the Jedi are too often made out to be white knights, the last two novels show them for the child-stealing cult that they actually are which I think is very refreshing.

What children do the Jedi steal? They are given children. On the slavery thing she has a point, on that? No. And from what I've heard about that series it goes to ridiculous lengths. I might try to find a few quotations,but the one I saw with the Jedi dying to protect a clone trooper from a padawan and then getting this moving speech was amazing.

As for Traviss, I read her Legacy of the Force books and her prejudice just immediately makes me not want to read anything else. There was a pretty good review on it but the Jedi Council Forums deleted it because they wanted to pander to her. It's just silliness on multiple levels. Her hatred of Old Republic Jedi just leaks in and contaminates everything.

I'm also not sure how she types when she's wanking the Mandalorians so hard.Mandos are literally the best at everything, and everyone relates shit back to them. I don't want to give any spoilers but the hijacking of the plot for inane reasons was just far too much. Thank god other authors immediately took to beating the Wankalorians into the ground.

DARTH PLAGUEIS by James Luceno and SCOUNDRELS by Timothy Zahn are both very good reads. DARTH PLAGUEIS was published at the beginning of 2012 and SCROUNDRELS was published at the end of 2012.

The book focused far too much on Palpatine and stuff we already knew-or could assume- for my liking. We don't need more "this is how Palpatine took over". We know. It just wasn't awfully compelling. Luceno made good use of the aliens. Nothing else stuck.

The Darth Maul novels are a good quick romp,especially Shadow Hunter iirc. Not very deep at all but they had enough action for me. so was Outbound Flight.I honestly can't think of a series I loved that much (putting aside the Thrawn stuff)

[SkynJay]

You know what? I realized my hatred of prequels kept me from reading the Stover adaption of the third movie. I also don't think I have ever read Shatterpoint. I may actually have to read more Star Wars someday, despite swearing off it after forcing myself to finish FOTJ.

[End of Disc One]

It's commonly said that the best novel for beginners is Shatterpoint.

It is?

[Darth Richard]

The Travis hate here kind of weirds me out. Did she personally kill one of your dogs, or something?

[Winterz]

It is?

It is so, sir.

[SkynJay]

Oh geez. Every time her name comes up you go crazy. I now know if that she was threatened by nut jobs, but my dislike for her books(not her personally, just her books) came on its own. Namely, her books in the already shoddy LotF series were A. Boring and B. Completely at odds with the rest of the series. She seemed to make it her mission to retcon the entire EU into her own personal vision. I also don't like KJA or AC Crispen, but you don't jump to their defense.

[Spring Bass]

I don't think George had anything to do with the plot of the cartoon regarding the Mandolorians. And you know, there were all the death treats she received and posted on youtube because of a number. But no, you're right, it's entirely her fault. Certainly Bobba Fett wasn't unusually popular until she came along.

She didn't get the death threats because of a "number", she got the negative reaction because her response to criticism over the number was to call the people in question "Talifans", get the admin over at TheForce.net to ban people criticizing the number, and then write some stupid short story claiming that the whole Clone Wars was a Jedi conspiracy. All to improve the reputation of a shitty, cliched Army of Super-Soldiers in a bunch of mediocre tie-in fiction. Seriously.

Compare that with how Stover responded. He just said, "I don't make the numbers, LucasArts does" and that was that.

The Travis hate here kind of weirds me out. Did she personally kill one of your dogs, or something?

More that there's always someone who comes into these threads to defend her books, gets criticized, and then feels the need to "white knight" for her.

[Castel]

She didn't get the death threats because of a "number", she got the negative reaction because her response to criticism over the number was to call the people in question "Talifans", get the admin over at TheForce.net to ban people criticizing the number, and then write some stupid short story claiming that the whole Clone Wars was a Jedi conspiracy. All to improve the reputation of a shitty, cliched Army of Super-Soldiers in a bunch of mediocre tie-in fiction. Seriously.

Compare that with how Stover responded. He just said, "I don't make the numbers, LucasArts does" and that was that.

she got death threats because internet.Seriously, that is the nature of this cyber-world, some douchebags go overboard.I feel bad for her but that doesn't negate the reasons for her hate. She got legitimate hate because of her reactions to things.

[Darth Richard]

OK a few things.

1. I was under the impression from other site that the talifan and boardbanning was in reponse to the death threat/nasty youtube video. Things happening the other way around would certinaly paint a idffernt light on things.

2. If someone made that kind of youtube video involving KJA or even Goodkind I would still be somehwat outraged. This isn't just regular net rage. This was a graphic depection of said author being brutalized and raped. That shit is not cool.

3. I may feel extra defensive sometimes because I've met her in RL and she's actually quite a nice person.

4. I'm actually not a big fan of her LotF books either. Her Commando stuff I feel is much better.

5. Maybe not revelent to this thread but I see it brought up a lot that Bobba Fett's popularity with fans somehow orinated with her, which is bullshit if you understand how linear time flows. Example: Dark Empire

[Castel]

1. I was under the impression from other site that the talifan and boardbanning was in reponse to the death threat/nasty youtube video. Things happening the other way around would certinaly paint a idffernt light on things.

They banned people who had simply posted reviews critical of her works.YodaKenobi's huge,hilarious reviewof her Revelations went down because it was apparently offensive for criticizing her writing skills. All to protect the celebrities. Honestly though I put that as much on TFN going crazy with their new VIP policy.

2. If someone made that kind of youtube video involving KJA or even Goodkind I would still be somehwat outraged. This isn't just regular net rage. This was a graphic depection of said author being brutalized and raped. That shit is not cool.

Really? That's bad, I never saw anything about her being raped.

That said, that doesn't really affect a lot of the criticism. No one here has ever called for her being raped. If they did they'd be banned We don't know the people that did but I doubt that they were the majority. We cannot control their actions so bringing them up in this context...does nothing. It could have been anyone. Sure, it must truly suck to be on the receiving end of that but it isn't a reflection of people bringing it up here.

5. Maybe not revelent to this thread but I see it brought up a lot that Bobba Fett's popularity with fans somehow orinated with her, which is bullshit if you understand how linear time flows. Example: Dark Empire

Boba Fett was a surprise fan-hit from his first appearance. Or so I'm told. Which is really odd to me because...he doesn't really do much. However, all of that Mando'a stuff originated with her though.

[Spring Bass]

Let me add that I'm not saying she deserved death threats (nobody does), but harsh criticism for that series of reactions to criticism over the numbers? Yes.

5. Maybe not revelent to this thread but I see it brought up a lot that Bobba Fett's popularity with fans somehow orinated with her, which is bullshit if you understand how linear time flows. Example: Dark Empire

She took it up to a new level, but you're right that the Boba Fett fan-wankery was already there to some degree. "Why" mystifies me, aside from the armor - the guy got his ass kicked by a blind man in Return of the Jedi, and ended up falling into the Sarlacc Pitt.