At long last, a definitive consensus! Are the NJO paperbacks skippable?

Sorry Marvin pal but you ain't gonna get a consensus on this. Oh, and don't commit suicide.

Jedi Zaphod Beeblebrox

 

I voted for the paper backs and the HC's. I haven't bothered reading the ebooks, mainly cause I haven't acquired them. Technically, the series was written to allow you to read the HC's only and get the story.

I find reading the PB's very enlightening, although Dark Journey was skippable in my view. She wasn't all that dark IMO.

In my view traitor is a must read, because it sets up some interesting thoughts about the view of the force. Not saying that Vergere is right or anything. If you want to resurrect that debate, find the nature of the force debate thread.

I can see it that u can read only HC's and get the story, but the story is greatly enhanced by reading the pb's.

 

I almost went with Anakin but then I voted hardcovers/paperbacks . I guess the NJO is designed to be read by hardcovers only but you'll miss an awful lot. I mean reading DW without reading Traitor would lead to questions. Reading SBS without knowing of EOV would dramatically lessen the impact of Anakin's death...and so on.

 

except for a few the paperbacks are almost worthless. you can get by with the Hardcovers

 

I was going to vote for Jag, but I went with the second option, the one that's winning.

R.

 

I'd say that it's possible to only read the hardcovers, but I wouldn't recommend it. I've read all the HCs, PBs, and the first e-book (can't recall of the top of my head the title).

Edit to complete my thought, clicked the post button before I finished thinking.

 

I believe my high fever has impaired my judgement:


THE NJO IS A TRAIN!

 

I've read only the four hardcovers, and I'm doing just fine.

 

I believe to experience the FULL NJO experience, you need to read everything... Harcovers, Paperbacks and E-Books.

 

Hardcovers and paperbacks. The e-books have been good (I particularly enjoyed Ylesia), but I don't think they're essential to experience and enjoy the NJO. The paperbacks, however, definitely are; a great deal of them have been just as good or even better than the hardcovers, and despite what Del Rey originally said, they're definitely required reading if you want to get all of the story.

(It was very tempting to vote 'Anakin', though... )

 

It was very tempting to vote 'Anakin', though...

I agree with Balance_Point on this matter...

 

Paperbacks, hardcovers.
A must recommend, you just don't understand when it says "Jaina went dark, Kyp brought her back." without reading Dark Journey.
that's what i mean.
I've skipped a few though, i just look em up on google when i need to get the meaning

 

I would read the hard covers and the paperbacks. There is only one paper back I could skip and that would be Dark Journey. Many important stuff happens in the paperbacks like seeing Vergere for the first time, Ben being born, meating the preists and shamed ones and so on. So I would read the hard and paperbacks.

 

Really, you need to read everything in the NJO to have a fuller understanding of how things come about. For instance, we could have been told that Ithor was destroyed by the Vong, Han hooked up with an alien named Droma, Han and Droma foil an attempt to wipe out the Jedi, and the Hapan Fleet was virtually destroyed by Centerpoint Station in Balance Point and that be considered all that was needed to catch us up on what happaned in the paperbacks between Vector Prime and Balance Point. Yet we'd then be faced with questions if we didn't read the paperbacks and ended up with this kind of explination of what happened between the two books. Why was Ithor destroyed? What forced Han to hook up with Droma and what is Droma's race? How did Han and Droma foil an attempt to wipe out the Jedi? Who attempted to wipe them out and how were they going to do so? Why did Centerpoint virtually wipe out the Hapan Fleet and who fired it when this happened? These are things that we really need to read the paperbacks in the NJO to answer.

Then there are the e-books. Just like the paperbacks, it's best to read these as well in order to answer questions that may arise. For instance, at the end of Balance Point it appeared as if Leia was never going to be able to walk again. Yet she was walking in Conquest. It was never answered as to where Leia recieved her medical attention in any of the books following BP so folks were asking if the e-book Recovery answered the question. Which it does. But for those of us who hadn't read Recovery, the question had to be asked and then answered here.

E-books still have their own problems as far as reading them goes. Some of us can't download them. Some of us are not intrested in having to download and then read off a computer screen or the screen to an e-book reader just so we can get them. Yet so far all the Star Wars e-books have been included in the paperback form of a hardcover. Recovery appears in SbS. So for those of us who don't have the e-books for what ever reason, we have a chance to obtain them this way and catch up with those who have them.

 

I think that the E-Books ARE essential to the complete storyline, for example one of the major NJO storyarcs, the Peace Brigade, was resolved during the E-Books Ylesia.

 

I had to vote 'the NJO is a train', but my vote in fact goes for 'You'll get the gist with just paperbacks and hardcovers'.

 

It was very tempting to vote 'Anakin', though...

I gave in to that temptation.

~PAd

 

Of the hardcovers, I've only really found SBS to be up to the billing. The paperbacks are just better, IMO. So maybe the story would hang together okay without 'em, but it'd be less entertaining.

 

I'd say, you really need to read the whole lot to fully follow the NJO plotlines...

 

If you don't mind having pretty much no clue what's going on, and if you don't mind missing the best of what the NJO has to offer, then by all means skip the paperbacks.

 

I read only the HCs and about 4 paperbacks and I understand the story fine.

 

I've read the all the HC's and paperbacks, and i think it's necessary to read to read these to fully understand the NJO. however, i don't think it's necessary to read the E-book(s).

 

Mastadge wrote: If you don't mind having pretty much no clue what's going on...then by all means skip the paperbacks.

Now, now. I've read only the hardbacks, and I have a clue!

 

If you don't mind having pretty much no clue what's going on, and if you don't mind missing the best of what the NJO has to offer, then by all means skip the paperbacks.

Bah, you only say that because Matt's book wasn't a hard cover.