Lit Unpopular EU opinions

I like the Darth Bane trilogy more than Jedi vs Sith comics
I think that Jedi Trial is one of the better clone war novels
I think that the Crispen Han solo series is great

 

Jedi Trial is one of my favorite novels as well.
The Crispin Han Solo trilogy is the 2nd best trilogy in the EU behind the Thrawn trilogy imo

 

Never!!!

Agree with the rest of your post though.

 

I felt The Paradise Snare was much better than the second two. I really liked Ylesia, but more than that the story of Han's young days were well written and when Bria left him on Coruscant man, I really felt sad. Really emotionally effecting because you're rooting for him the whole time and you can really believe their relationship..
However I thought books 2 and 3 weren't as good, they were a little faster paced maybe.. Nar Shaddaa is a great location and I liked that section alot, but i thought the suicide at the end of the second point was a little abrupt and uncalled for, and don't remember much about Rebel Dawn... just kinda simply written books I thought.

Definitely feel that the Brian Daley trilogy is much better, better adventure / story, kind of a cool early 80s style of writing.. I liked Bollux & Blue Max, liked the Stars End prison.. and the Xim adventure was really cool too. Really soft spot for the early Daley / Han Solo and Smith / Land Calrissian trilogies.

 

I didn't really enjoy any of the 80's Star wars novels I never could get into them I've read the first novel of both the han solo and lando trilogies and didn't care for them. Splinter of the Minds eye was ok.

It definitely was one of my favorite trilogies, I agree that the third is the weakest of the three but IMO their all still great and some of the best work from the bantam era. My personal favorite is is the Hutt Gambit I really liked how they set up Han and how he fits into the star wars underworld. It also one of the few stories that actually make Chewbacca a character rather than set piece.

 

Having read the other two contributions by Alan Dean Foster to the canon (he ghostwrote the Ep. IV novelization as well as penning The Approaching Storm), I'm not too keen to go back to pre-ROTJ EU and read Splinter. Foster's style is quite dense, and his prose is overly verbose; Storm was a chore to get through and it seemed to be a little overly dependent on the fact that it was the lead-in to a new movie (Ep. II).

 

Not sure if these have been mentioned, but I always thought they were unpopular EU amongst friends.

The first - and without trying to make another flame war - Karen Traviss in general. The only novel that I think is okayish is Republic Commando.
The second - is related to miss Traviss is Legacy novels, which I think is pile of rubbish, not even Allaston (who I like as writer due to X-Wing series) was any good. The series was so bad with different kind of characters being so out of character and doing things that completly go against what they are and should do. And the Pierre de Resistance is Karen's last book of the series and I think it was her last book of Star Wars, and YodaKenobi's review was spot on about why that book and the series is so bad.

As for Kotor games. 1 is kind of cool, but the story was predictable (at least for me), and can't figure out why so many are fondly about Revan character. Kotor 2 was kind of bad, specially being uncompleted game and always thought that the point of view of the Force the game try to put, wasn't about the Force from the movies, that I didn't care for it. Also never like the Jedi being wipeout in this time period, since it diminished the success Palpatine in destroying the Jedi Order. Its like: "I destroyed the Jedi Order!" Palpatine said victorious. Some slaps Palpatine's Head. "No, some already did, you just repeated history, nothing more! You looser!"

 

I loved both the EU horror novels by Joe Schreiber.

 

Well, I can say I agree with the third one. Didn't realize that was an unpopular opinion.

 

Most people seem to prefer Daley's HSA over Crispin's HST.

 

I think I do, too. Though it's been a while since I've read Crispin's. I still like Crispin's, though.

 

I haven't read the Daley HSA at all, but am just about to finish the HST and have really enjoyed it so far. Not sure I actually will go back and read the other lot. I wasn't actually aware they existed.

And, on the topic of the HST, I would think that my opinion would be unpopular - I actually enjoyed reading about Muurgh more than Chewbacca....

 

Well, I haven't read Daley's, so I don't know, but I definitely plan on reading the pre-Zahn EU novels.

 

You definitely should. They're fun, quick reads.

 

Stackpole's X-Wing novels are criminally boring.

Corran Horn is the worst.

I don't think I know enough about Star Wars fandom to know how many of my other opinions are unpopular or not.

 

Well, Corran Horn is a gigantic Gary Stu, but if you let it go then some of his appearances aren't so bad. I genuinely liked I, Jedi despite some of the more glaring instances of Sue-ness, because it has some interesting descriptions about how Corran actually does evolve as a character. He's still a Stu, but a little bit less so.

Later works have been less kind to him, though, so he's not such a blatant Stu anymore near as I can reckon.

 

I didn't find Corran that bad. I mean, I cringed a bit in That One Scene, where all of a sudden Corran becomes a father figure to Gavin for no particular reason, and Corran relates his night of passion with an otter, but other than that I didn't find it a chore to read about him.

 

Just imagine how Mirax felt...

 

I started reading the first X-Wing novel and nearly fell asleep because I was so bored. Then Jedi Academy was so tragic that a friend of mine told me that reading I, Jedi would make it better. My response to I, Jedi was pretty much "dude, I don't care about your boner for Leonia Tavira and how conflicted it makes you." Elegos A'Kla was an excellent creation, though.

Question: Does anyone feel like Thrawn is a bit of a Gary Stu villain? A friend of mine said this to me and I don't think she's right, but is that a widespread opinion?

 

"Let me tell you about this one time at the Academy, honey... wait, where are you going?"

The general opinion tends to be that he was fine in the Thrawn Trilogy- a new take on the Empire, one that had to make do with the resources available to him- but that he has become increasingly Stu-ish in each successive Zahn work. Personally I've enjoyed all of Zahn's works, but I can definitely see why they draw ire.

 

She made that comment based on just the Trilogy. I can almost see where she's coming from, because a lot of Thrawn's genius was tell and not show - a clever person and one with a natural affinity for battle tactics and strategy could definitely gain insight about the way species fight from their art, but you never actually see him analyse something to make the conclusions he makes. Though part of it is probably because most of the interactions with Thrawn in strategy mode are from Pellaeon's point of view.

I haven't read Outbound Flight or Choices of One yet, but the most you could say about his Stuishness in the Hand duology is that everybody panics when they think he's returned. And Survivor's Quest was more about the Chiss than Thrawn.

At the moment I'm in the same boat as you; loving all of those books, but I suppose I'll have to wait til I read the last two of his.

 

I don't want a weak villain! I want someone we can fear! Someone that can challenge the Heroes! Someone that has a dominating presence!

 

I don't think anyone disagrees with you Force Smuggler, it's the execution that some have problems with.

As for Stackpole, I think he's written the best dogfights in EU history. I can tell he's very familiar with atmospheric fighter tactics, though they don't make sense in space, that's the way Star Wars has always been. Even if his heroes rack up large kill counts at times, they definitely don't always, and he often makes his heroes work real hard, using actual tactics and maneuvers, to get those kills. Compare this to the dozens of kills some authors rack up, with nothing more but "He kills this one! And that one! Then he turns left and kills another! Then he turns right and kills two at the same time! Then he pulls a loop and destroys a capital ship!"

 

The biggest problem I have with Stackpole is his constant notion that all you need is an X-wing dogfight or two and then the entire planet has been conquered.