Lit Any star wars books for mature readers?

I'm 25 years old, and a pretty strong star wars fan. Defiantly seen all the movies multiple times, played threw KOTOR 1 and 2 multiple times, and spent a few thousand hours in TOR. I'm just now looking at the books and I'm overwhelmed.

I have heard rumors that most of the star wars books are for young/teen audiences, and they may be catered to a low reading level. I am looking for writing on terms of game of thrones or sword of truth series, for example. Where I will develop emotional attachment to the characters, while also being surprised, and invested in the plot.

Can you recommend (preferably a series of 3 or more books) that is for a mature audience, that will draw upon star wars lore outside of what I have already seen in the movies and video games?

 

The New Jedi Order

 

my recommendations for taking the first step into Star Wars fiction:

"officially" noncanon:
Cloak of Deception
Labyrinth of Evil
Kenobi
The Han Solo Trilogy
Shadows of the Empire

"officially" canon:
A New Dawn

The large scale series are located postROTJ and I can't recommend any of them since I haven't read them, so you'll have to look for others opinions for them. Personally I'd stop looking just for stories that are structured in to trilogies or larger, as I think Star Wars is just one big story that all of these books fit in to quite well. Most of the best books are standalone and work well as a one off piece of work. This list is far from comprehensive; if/when you get more interested in diving deeper, there are plenty of other books of great quality. The new canon is just starting, so it's a great time to get in to Star Wars fiction. There are approximately 5 new adult novels coming in the next year roughly, so there will be plenty to read in the future, along with all the old classics from the Legends EU.

 

The X-Wing series and the Thrawn trilogy are also good.

 

Luceno, Stover and Kemp are meant more for adults than children. And as stated above, The New Jedi Order series.

 

Darth Ban trilogy
Shatterpoint
Thrawn Trilogy

 

My X-wing fanboyism may be blinding me, but I would say the Wraith Squadron trilogy (Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command - the fifth, sixth and seventh X-wing books) is a pretty mature storyline, even if it's balanced out by Allston's humor.

It's a cross between Mission: Impossible and your basic Ragatag Bunch Of Misfits story, but it's probably the best RBOM story I've ever read. He goes to some lengths to show that the characters aren't just quirky and misunderstood, but have real personal issues to work through (not all of them do), and that, in a nutshell, they're misfits for a reason.

On top of the personal drama and spy-fi hijinks, they're also just really good war stories, and IMO, definitely a mature treatment of the subject. (If you're looking for a more pulpy, 1940s-propaganda-movie like war stories, Stackpole's X-wing books - the four before and the one after - are what you want. If you're looking in the other direction for dark and cynical, Karen Traviss' Clone Wars era books. Allston splits the difference).

 

i've heard it said that drew karpyshyn's path of destruction is a pretty good novel for adults, like me

 

Oh, God, no, that's a brutally bad novel.

But the X-Wing series, as others have mentioned, is a great series. It's definitely great. Just read the whole nine book series. And the Black Fleet Crisis is a series that features the main three, as opposed to focusing on side characters like Wedge, and is really written very, very well. It's a great three book political thriller that's definitely not for kids. And Rogue Planet is probably the best prequel novel in these terms; it's really a slow relationship character drama, more for serious readers than for people looking for cheap thrills.

I'd also mention Into the Void; it's an Ancient Star Wars novel and it struck me as being a lot more adult in terms of content. The violence is quite a bit more graphic than really anything else I've seen in Star Wars and it's kind of much darker too, so that one is, I think, a more adult book, as opposed to being a kid's book.

 

Other than what has already been mentioned, the Republic Commando series is great.

 

Have to add Shatterpoint, and Dark Rendezvous to the above lists, Shatterpoint especially. Easily my two favorite novels in all of star wars. Actually most the original clone war multimedia project novels were pretty good (Medstar was iffy) .

One not to read is Jedi Trail. Unless you are the masochistic type, or just want to be able to join the club that can safely say they've read the worst Star Wars novel ever penned.

 

I disagree about Medstar; those books were fantastic. They're very underrated.

 

Don't worry, this is a running joke mocking some guy's statement on the Official Site forums that SWDBPODANOTOR was a better version of Jedi vs. Sith, "for adults, like me."

But yes, person making this thread: the Darth Bane books are the definition of thirteen-year-old-targeting garbage.

 

Post-RotJ
The X-Wing novels and Thrawn trilogy are good starting points.

Prequel-era:
RotS Novelization
Shatterpoint
Dark Rendezvous
Darth Plagueis

 

Don't forget about the comics as well. Dark Empire is a must read, though it doesn't hold up super well over time. Crimson Empire, Legacy, Golden Age of the Sith, The Hyperspace War, Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War, and Republic (The Clone Wars) all tell great stories.

 

For the OP's original question, I will say that most Star Wars lit isn't actually at the YR/low reading level . . . level. It's generally all-ages in the sense that it's got some boundaries in terms of profanity and sex, but the themes are usually pretty adult and the prose isn't being written down to a lower reading level. There is some pretty juvenile stuff out there, whether it be the intellectually vapid fanboy juvenility of the Darth Bane books, or the incompetent prose and utter childishness of Kevin J. Anderson's novels, and there's quite a bit that's just unexceptional tie-in cash-ins that aren't going to hold your attention if you're looking for ASOIAF-level stuff. But there's a lot of stuff out there that can reward you as a reader.

The Thrawn Trilogy from Tim Zahn is a good starting point; it's not spectacularly "mature" in the sense of profound depth, but Zahn is a Nebula- and Hugo-winner and his stories are intelligent expansions on the films. They're grown-up stories. Other stuff set following or around the original movies that you might be interested in are the X-wing series; I, Jedi; the Hand of Thrawn Duology; Shadows of the Empire; The Han Solo Adventures; and The Han Solo Trilogy. I would also recommend as genuinely mature and well-written The Black Fleet Crisis trilogy and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, a novel by Matthew Stover, who is a legitimately excellent author, not just for Star Wars, but by any standard. That's for a start. Following that era is a big, big novel series, The New Jedi Order, which benefits from being familiar with the previous works but which can work on its own merits if you want to jump into it. It's a really impressive project and it's probably the most intelligent, mature, thematically deep project Star Wars has done. In the prequel era, I would recommend Cloak of Deception and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter as setup for TPM. Also Darth Plagueis, which benefits from being at least somewhat familiar with most of the other material in the prequel era beforehand. After TPM, Rogue Planet and Outbound Flight are both good novels, with Rogue Planet especially being a really deep, mature novel. For the Clone Wars, Shatterpoint is a brilliant book from Stover, and Yoda: Dark Rendezvous and the MedStar Duology are both pretty good and worth checking out. Republic Commando: Hard Contact is great but don't bother with the rest of the series. Labyrinth of Evil is a great book setting up ROTS. After ROTS, Kenobi is a great novel.

 

The ROTS novelization by Stover is also worth reading.

 

Mature readers? Ahem. "C3PO Does Dantooine" is pretty saucy. But you have to buy it in a brown paper cover.