Lit The best author of Star Wars novels. Who do you think is the best?

If you count novella's, then William C. Deitz would be there. Also, Jude Watson, Paul Davis and Hollace Davis, and John Whitman for the kid books

 

There's quite a few novelization writers not mentioned- Donald Glut (ESB), James Kahn (RoTJ), Terry Brooks (TPM), Patricia C. Wrede (junior novelizations of the PT).

 

And Derek J. Reda.

 

On the subject of novellas and kids' books, as jedimikey mentioned a few pages back, Windham is pretty good. Granted, he writes for kids. But I've long been of the opinion he's horribly underrated as an author and contributor to the EU. I mean, just take a glance at his bibliography. This guy's been writing since some of you were in diapers!

 

Agreed. I liked the hardback series (Rise & Fall of Darth Vader, Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi etc) and thought he did sourcebooks very well too (Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force, springs to mind).

 

Hmmm...

I'm not going to vote on who's the best, but I will say who's my favorite: Brian Daley. Not only are his books still fun to read, but he pretty much created (or at least refined) the character of Han Solo from a wisecracking, gunslinging mercenary smuggler to the wisecracking, gunslinging, semi-mercenary, lapsed idealist with his own moral code that has endured. Plus, he has the advantage of being one of the first EU authors, and thus having to invent a whole lot of stuff with only ANH to go on.

And I'll also put in a word for Archie Goodwin, who wrote the Marvel comic during some of its best years. It's pretty amazing how much he managed to get away with in terms of the restrictions he had between movies.

 

Hav, I would actually bump Smith up a level. The Lando novels are fantastic.

EDIT: also, you left Hollace and Davids out of the god-tier

 

Yeah, I left off the pure novelization writers, as they're not really writing their own novels in the same way. And since the thread topic specified novels, I left off all the kids'-books, and short-story and everything else authors.

RC: I'd put Smith at the upper level of the good-to-competent tier -- he's good, but not "very good" -- he's too weird and his grasp of the universe too awkward to really fully endorse him.

 

Oh and Stover's not?

Three words: Flying. Volcano. Spaceship.

 

Brian Daley, no question.

 

Luceno needed that homerun of Pleagius. It solidified him as a top tier star wars author

 

Brief aside, I'm finally reading the Daley Han novels thanks to his Seinfeld usage for the win.

I'll be positive today. Mom turned fifty-five, and I still have a little red wine in my system from when the uncles came over earlier.

Thanks to some of my friends letting me borrow a few novels, the advantage of reading the Kindle while I'm running on the eliptical, and the pluses of having post-graduation reading time I've gone through most of the EU in the past year. So, here are the writers I consider to be technically superior, elicited an emotional response out of me, or a mixture of both.

Matthew Stover. Most of us will agree on this one. A lot of EU novels are stylistically lacking. Awkward sentences, terrible attempts at in-universe similes, and general silliness. Stover is the best craftsman in the Expanded Universe. After reading through a lot of poorly crafted novels Stover's utilization of present tense, unreliable narrator, a slight self-deprication when writing Mace, and novel-in-a-novel frame narrative alongside superior characterizations of Jacen, Mace, Anakin Skywalker, and Luke in their respective novels. I love Star Wars, but I rarely see much character depth. Stover is a great example of how a media tie-in novel can be novels of admiration.

Troy Denning. One of the two writers I immensely preferred reading post-graduation. Found Dark Nest to be abominable during high school, possibly my favorite post-ROTJ trilogy right now. Denning is able to invert the Big Three after countless repitiative novels. Denning's sentence structure is probably the weakest of my favorite writers, but his characterization and plotting are superior. However, I enjoyed the few little touches he adds to his novels. Alternating between Jacen and Caedus to show the final conclusion of the Jedi to Sith transformation is a nice touce. Invincible is still one of my favorite EU novels. A lot of work put into that novel. Great, great read. One of the few novels I own the hardback and paperback.

Karen Traviss. Darman finding out his parentage in Order 66 is one of the few scenes hitting my emotional cords. Hard Contact, Triple Zero, Bloodlines, and Revelations are strongs novels I quite enjoy rereading. Omega Squad reacting to sights, sounds, and smells of Qiilura, great stuff. The "Mandalorian overload" is not anywhere near as bad as many critics made out to be, and, frankly, I no longer care because I love journey Omega Squad and Ben are going through in their respective novels. Too bad there was not a final novel for Imperial Commando, but the road was fun enough. Other writer I like a lot more after the fact.

Michael Reeves and Steve Perry. Shadows of the Empire is a classic most people will agree on. MedStar is still one of my favorites for their successful look at the average person going on in the Clone Wars. MedStar and Republic Commando are great counterparts to each other when discussing the ethics of treating the clones. Fun stuff. Two of the most underrated writers.

 

It's hard to choose only one.
I like Zahn, of course, Troy Denning, Brian Daley, Dave Wolverton, Kevin J Anderson...
And A.C. Crispin, she wrote my favorite series.

 

Gah, how could I forget Crispin?!?

I shall henceforth hit myself in the head with my copy of the Han Solo Trilogy several dozen times until I am forgiven.

 

Zeta1127 Maybe some day they'll get around to compiling all the uncollected Adventure Journal and Hyperspace stories into more tales novels, and even commission some more for an Old Republic or New Jedi Order version.

 

you know i never bothered to read the Han Solo trilogy. I havge read almost everything else. Maybe i will pick it up.

 

You should it is surpisingly good