Lit Been away from the EU for years and I have some questions

Greetings all,

I used to post to this board in the 2003-07 time frame when I was in high school. I devoured all of the EU material from that time period and prior. I went to college in 2007 and my interest in the EU became diminished for multiple reasons, none of which having to do with a lack of quality. I finished my six year program this past May and started my first "real" job and find myself with more free time and more interest in SW EU than I have had in years.

I last finished Legacy of the Force. How have the novels been since the 2008 timeframe? Was Fate of the Jedi well received?

Additionally, I'd love to get back into the comics and I see the Omnibus releases are way more widespread than when I stopped reading the EU. What is the general consensus on TPBs vs Omnibus?

Finally, has anyone ever come back to the EU after years away? I fear some of the stories won't hold up to my high school era impression of them.

Sorry if this seems muddled, I just feel overwhelmed by the amount of new EU out there in the past 5 years or so.

 

By many recycling bins.

 

Both are awesome

Some pretty good ones, among them these that you can just pick up and read without the need for another book beforehand.

Knight Errant
Darth Plagueis
Scourge
Scoundrels
Kenobi

 

You got out before Fate of the Jedi started? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY OUT. You're one of the lucky ones.

 

Some won't, some will. I did something similar where I stopped reading during college and for several years afterwards before getting back into the EU about a year ago or so now. I've been generally going through the books in timeline order starting from just before ANH, though since hitting TTT, I've started going in release order. Going timeline order to start allowed me to hit a few books I hadn't read when I was into the EU back in the '96-'01 time period, like the Han Solo and Lando Calrissian adventures.

Anyway, I was surprised how well some stuff held up (anything by Zahn or Stackpole. I had very low expectations for The Courtship of Princess Leia, but it was surprisingly enjoyable). On the other hand, some books that I remember loving back in high school (Shadows of the Empire especially, but also The Han Solo Trilogy to some extent) I found to be nearly unreadable. Then there's stuff like the Jedi Academy Trilogy, which I never even finished in high school, but was able to fight through it this time. The dialog was even worse than I remember, but I found the general world building to be competent, if often ridiculous.

So ... uh ... all that said, it's a mixed bag. I have been honestly surprised at how well a handful of books have held up in the intervening decade. I expected far more of the books to be in the SotE category.

 

Thanks, I will check these out first. Kenobi looks especially interesting.

 

That is unfortunate to hear. I loved the NJO and Dark Nest. Parts of LOTF were good but it wasn't enough to keep me interested in the ongoing story. I guess I will focus on the newer books from other time periods.

 

Yeah. Read Knight Errant.

 

Was Choices of One not well received?

 

I read it a few months ago for the first time. Liked the Pellaeon stuff; got very annoyed by Luke's constant "OMG Mara is so amazing!!!!" and Mara's constant "OMG Luke is so pathetic!!!" The lightsaber-swinging, backflipping prequel-era Jedi that is Mara is so contrary to the OT-era Emperor's Hand we got in the nineties who barely (if ever?) used a lightsaber and really only used the Force to communicate with Palpy and subtly enhance her assassin skills. As for the Big Three, their role in the book was nothing special. The book didn't really wow me in any way.

 

The Han scenes were the standout, but I agree the Mara/Luke juxtaposition was eyebrow raising. I never read the Zahn penned comics about Mara so I can't really comment on her in her capacity as Emperor's Hand. I liked the Hand of Judgement too.

I guess my other complaint was the whitewashing of Thrawn. Not really sure why we have a scene at the end with Thrawn and those reptilian aliens where the background behind Thrawn fades to an American flag and he talks about how his Empire of the Hand has EQUALITY and then in Dark Force Rising he's using the Noghri as foot rests.

 

I thought the "twist" about the mysterious character's identity was pretty obvious, too. There wasn't too much to keep me interested; I found most of the non-Pellaeon scenes pretty boring, to be honest. The Hand of Judgment are kind of cool, I guess, but Zahn doesn't distinguish between them or uniquely characterize them enough. It took me to the end of the book to really be able to figure out the differences between the non-Larone ones.

 

whizkid38 How did you like LOTF? It gets a lot of hate here, but aside from a few spots I find it one of my favourite SW series. I as well didn't get into FOTJ because of the recycling of another Sith threat so soon after Caedus. But LOTF is SW storytelling at it's heart: The tale of how the dark side corrupts, betrayal, jealousy, pain and tiny bit of redemption.

 

I enjoyed some of the books individually but as a whole it did lack the cohesion that I was expecting. 19 books by 10+ authors is one thing, I get how each author wanted to focus on different subplots while advancing the main arc. It becomes predictable when it is 3 authors and their pet subplots rotating every 3rd book. I enjoyed what we got but it could have been so much better. Though it's been 5 years since I touched anything Post-ROTJ so I'd like to reread NJO-LOTF to see if my memory serves me well.

 

To play devil's advocate (meaning, I'm not sure I buy it either, but it's a thought), Thrawn didn't instigate the situation with the Noghri, Vader did. It's possible that he simply looked at Honoghr and decided "welp, I COULD reveal the truth to them and ask them to not be mad and promise that from now on they'd all be treated equally, but they're likely to be so angry they won't listen and they'll start a revolution instead, or at least not work for me ever again, and I don't want that because their assassins are useful, so, I might as well continue playing the part that Vader started."

That scene with the aliens talking about how proud they were to serve Thrawn actually sent me back to another book, Outbound Flight, where Thrawn is talking about Maris and saying that he doesn't want her to think badly of him because her idealism is so beautiful he wouldn't want to damage it. Car'das calls bantha poodoo, and says "really, you just like the hero-worship," and he basically goes "well, yeah." Thrawn likes the personality cult, and actively nurtures it. I think at least some of the whitewashing that happens with him is in-universe.

 

That seems plausible.

 

No because Mara not informing Vader about Luke is very out of character for supposedly loyal Imperial though since Zahn keeps changing her from good guy Assassin to Judge Dredd who ALWAYS helps out the Rebellion (which even he admits is a bit strange) I suppose its to be expected

 

I always thought Courtship had a quasi S an M vibe what with a Planet full of Dominatrix's and their male slaves. I thought that was bit adult for Starwars, then I remembered that the OT had Incest and true PT Love was a child killing pysco and a woman with battered house wife syndrome so maybe it wasn't so bad

 

LotF is Star Wars storytelling at it's heart? Oh please, that osik doesn't deserve the name Star Wars, because if it did, then Darth Vader II either wouldn't exist or would have been redeemed, and all of those characters wouldn't have been pointlessly killed.

 

My answers for you:

I last finished Legacy of the Force. How have the novels been since the 2008 timeframe? Was Fate of the Jedi well received?

* Errrrr..... Ahem...... Yes, welll.... My recommendation would be to avoid the post-LOTF era although the rare exceptions to this rule are X-Wing Mercy Kill, Crosscurrent / Riptide. You would be better to seek out other era works - Stover's Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is highly regarded, as is the recent Kenobi and Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void. Anything that has the name James Luceno or Michael Reaves is worth a gander too. If you loved HTTE, then you need to get the 20th Anniversary edition. Though you'll see much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the likes of LOTF and FOTJ, there is substantially more good material than you might expect,albeit scattered across time and space!

Additionally, I'd love to get back into the comics and I see the Omnibus releases are way more widespread than when I stopped reading the EU. What is the general consensus on TPBs vs Omnibus?

* If you are very particular on page size, you want all the books the same size, then you should pick either Omnibus or TPBs. BUT quite a lot of the TPBs are now out of print and in those cases the Omnibus is the cost-effective option most of the time. In terms of page size you are talking millimeters difference, but it does matter to some - it does to me, but I've already got the TPBs I want.

Finally, has anyone ever come back to the EU after years away? I fear some of the stories won't hold up to my high school era impression of them.

* As you've grown, so has the EU! It'll be different because you're different but this is not necessarily a bad thing!