Lit fate of the jedi and new jedi order shortcut reading

Before I begin, I can say that, all of these can be bought from Amazon. 4.00 to 6.00 for a used book, this includes the price of shipping.
No book before the 12th New jedi Order book can be bought as an Audio CD, anything before that is audio cassette, which I don't have so I ignore that. Most Fate of the Jedi books can be bought audio CD, while some don't have that option.
The problem is Audio CD is usually 10-25 dollars, this includes shipping price and yes, used.
So this can get expensive.
Which books would be worth shortcuting, ie, paying for the CD instead of the book?
Either because they are long or hard to comprehend/understand?
I hear Vortex is long, and is one I would consider taking the shortcut.

 

The NJO books are all abridged in audio book format, whereas Fate of the Jedi is unabridged.

Personally, I'd say shortcut by not reading FOTJ at all! But YMMV I guess.

 

The best shortcut is to skip LOTF and FOTJ altogether. You'll thank me later.

 

Id say these are must reads for NJO
Vector prime
Agents of chaos 1 & 2
Edge of victory 1 & 2
Star by star
Traitor
The final prophecy
The unifying force

 

Why all this dislike for Fate of the Jedi? Legacy of the Force? I noticed in other threads many dislike it as well.

And if I skip that, will I know what is going on in Crucible or Dark Nest Trilogy?

 

Legacy of the force is a good series, i wouldnt skip that. FOTJ is decent but its so slow the first 4 books or so. I never read the Dark nest trilogy or crucible yet, But i think crucible is a stand alone story, wont be lost in it.

 

There's a vocal, if not sizable, group of fans that are unhappy with the direction which the Expanded Universe took after the NJO.

 

Dark Nest is before both of those, so there's no reason you shouldn't know what's going on. Crucible probably not.

The dislike for Fate of the Jedi comes from the fact the series was created as an author's saving throw (Author's attempt to fix previous mistakes) for Legacy of the Force, mostly in terms of Jacen Solo and the massive character derailment he underwent. The series started off focusing on that, and then went even further off the rails with numerous other plots (incidentally leaving even more plot threads left hanging at the series end) and only derailed Jacen's character even further, and giving further insane reasoning for his actions in LOTF. The eldritch villain of Abeloth was shoehorned in, given little development or buildup, and besides the characters speaking of this galaxy spanning conflict hardly seemed to be as fearsome as a being of her power would require. The series ends with the heroes receiving no type of thanks whatsoever, and instead leaving in shame. Given that the previous series also had an unhappy ending this one just adds fuel to the fire.

The dislike for Legacy of the Force comes from the character derailment of Jacen Solo, the retconning of Vergere's history, and the fact a mass murderer is placed at the head of the reigning galactic government at the end of the story. Jacen Solo is completely killed as a character, and the villain he's turned into doesn't even make it worth it. He's ineffective, deluded, and laughably like his grandfather. (Doesn't help that he even see's his grandfather at one point, decides not to be like him, and ends up being like him anyways.) The problems that lead to the conflict starting are never actually confronted, and the series instead ends with everything being swept under the rug, the heroes mourning the death of a loved one, and the galaxy once again reeling from the aftereffects of a major war.

Both series suffered from the same problem that NJO did, which is multiple authors with different ideas, styles that don't mesh, and a lack of communication. This led to certain characters receiving more focus in certain books, and led to the series as a whole being confusing as some people looked more important than they actually were.

(Note that above are fairly brief summaries into why people dislike both series. There are entire threads dedicated to looking further into the issues.)

In terms of NJO if you choose to shortcut, focus on:

Vector Prime, Balance Point, Star by Star, Traitor, Destiny's Way, The Unifying Force

You'll miss some things, but that's inevitable when skipping around in such a large series.

 

darthjenari, So wait, you're idea of shortcutting a series is not to buy the audio CD, but to read only a select few books in the series? That's 6 out of 19, why those ones?

 

You don't happen to remember which book that was in, do you? I was looking for that scene the other day and couldn't find it.

 

He watches ROTS on DVD in Swarm War, he flow-walks in Bloodlines.

 

That's my idea cause I don't do audio CD's, and you pointed out you couldn't get the first 12 since they weren't on CD. Vector Prime, Balance Point, and Star by Star are within the first twelve. Those books because i'd say they're the most important to the story.

 

Watching ROTS on DVD was actually one of my favorite parts of the Dark Nest trilogy...until Jacen liked what Anakin was doing. Luke and Mara's reactions to Padme's death and Anakin's attitude were beyond perfect.

 

Vector Prime, Balance Point, Star by Star, Destiny's Way, and The Unifying Force are the ones that were originally released in hardcover, and each comes complete with several pages of exposition as to what happened in the intervening paperbacks so that you can figure out what's going on if you didn't read them. Traitor is widely considered one of the best books (if not the best) in the entire EU, although there are some people who absolutely hate it; I'm not going to comment on why because I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth.

 

It was a contrived subplot which was shoehorned into the story because OMG EPISODE III JUST CAME OUT. Somehow Mara maybe killed Padme because Alema said it out of the blue is an excuse to dig out the ROTS DVD to watch it.

 

I did forget about this. That really was stupid; I think Mara would know if she'd killed Luke's mother and I think by now Luke would trust Mara about it. However if I were writing it, I'd write a pre-NJO book where Luke and Mara discover said DVD. And then Jacen couldn't go and ruin everything by being a twenty-something little brat. At least he'd be a teenaged brat.

 

Don't bother with anything past the NJO. Read the whole NJO but stop there.

 

*takes off glasses* Not counting Crosscurrent and Riptide. Read both of those.

 

And Mercy Kill. Crosscurrent, Riptide and Mercy Kill are okay.

 

It was incredibly stupid. Surely the GFFA would at least have blu ray.

 

Remember, Artoo is from the prequel era. They didn't have blu-ray then.

 

What about Crucible, aren't any of you curious to see how star wars ends, since it is the last book in the timeline?

 

Feel free to pass, little point to it, if you get it for free, or for 1 buck at a used book store, sure, but otherwise, meh.