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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit GENERAL QUESTION THREAD (What to read? Where to start? What's canon? What's not? Duros, etc.)

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Master_Keralys, Jun 4, 2008.

  1. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004

    Not really Leia centric but her plots in Hand of Thrawn and the Thrawn Trilogy are rather awesome.
     
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  2. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Shadows of the Empire focuses mainly on Luke, but Leia gets a few nice moments as well.

    Leia doesn't do a whole lot in the Corellian Trilogy, but in the second book, she and Mara get a really nifty prison escape sequence.
     
  3. Giovs

    Giovs Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 29, 2013
    Maybe The Courtship of Princess Leia.
    There's a lot of Leia in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy too.
    But they're not "Leia-centric".
     
  4. themetresgained

    themetresgained Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 23, 2013
    In the hundreds of EU books there's almost nothing that can be considered Leia-centric? Damn.

    Does BFC at least feature Political Genius!Leia?
     
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  5. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Yes and no. She's manipulated by the bad guy horrendously in the first book, and wallows in self-pity in the second book. But it all pays off in the third book where she shows everyone just what being awesome in politics is all about. :D Even in the second book she's pretty politically badass half the time.
     
  6. themetresgained

    themetresgained Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 23, 2013
    OK. Worth a read, then.

    I just wish Life Advice from Princess Leia was a thing *sigh*
     
  7. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Yeah, I don't think there's any book where Leia can be considered the main character. She's always hanging out with the boys. BFC is probably the one that comes closest, since the series pretty much has 3 concurrent plots: Luke, Lando, Leia.
     
  8. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004

    Me and afaik Havac (properly others as well) have been clamoring for a Leia book similar to the Han Solo Trilogy for ages now. Razor's Edge just really does not do that job.
     
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  9. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Yeah, Leia deserves her own book. I'm sad Crispin's idea for a young Leia trilogy never went through.

    The issue with Leia-centric books is that most of them aren't that much good. The Crystal Star, Children of the Jedi, and Planet of Twilight all feature Leia quite heavily -- they're just about her biggest starring roles in Bantam, outside holding down her own plot in the BFC (which is well worth reading as the pinnacle of Leia's political depiction), and feature a great deal of focus on her inner life and thoughts -- but they're also generally boring, silly books. The Courtship of Princess Leia revolves around her, but it's also kind of silly. They're also none of them Leia solo deals, in the way that Han got his own books or Luke got starring stories. It's all just a matter of getting a little more highlighted or out on her own in a big three book. And there are big three books with solid Leia roles, from TTT to Truce at Bakura to Shadows of Mindor, but they don't tend to fall in the category of Leia-centric. Though you could make the case that Leia does get a really good showing in The Truce at Bakura, something pretty close to the level of Children of the Jedi or The Crystal Star. That might be worth bumping up that category, and it's better than any of the others in it.

    It's worth noting that Leia does tend to get a better shake in the comics, for whatever reason. There are a few arcs of Empire devoted to her, and she played a central role in a great many of the classic Marvel comics and newspaper strips in the seventies and eighties.
     
  10. themetresgained

    themetresgained Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Sigh. She's been shafted by a bunch of crappy writers. What a shame.

    I did start reading the post-ANH pre-TESB Star Wars comics series that came out this year, but I just got... bored. Which is a shame, because I loved the Leia focus.
     
  11. newdawn12

    newdawn12 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 9, 2013
    Have you tried Razor's edge?
     
  12. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Would The New Rebellion also fall into this category?
     
  13. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    I'm not sure it's Leia-centric enough. It certainly falls into the category of sucking, though.
     
  14. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    As far as I can remember, there is no solely Leia-centric book, a la Shadows of Mindor. However, most EU novels have two or three separate plot lines, so Leia often gets one of those plot lines, while the other is for Luke, Han or Lando. So that's the best you're gonna get.
     
  15. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Splinter of the Mind's Eye has only one protagonist plotline - and no Han. So in that sense Leia gets more "screen time" than in most books.

    Comics (I think the Marvel comics in particular) sometimes have stories where Leia is the primary protagonist.

    And I think sometimes the Alex Wheeler Rebel Force YA books focus more on Leia.
     
  16. themetresgained

    themetresgained Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 23, 2013
    Thanks for your advice guys, even if the conclusion seems to be '... yeah, there's really nothing that fits what you're looking for'. What a disappointment! According to Wookieepedia, Sabe has a hand in training the young Leia on Alderaan. Why can't that be the focus of a novel? *sigh*
     
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  17. The_Four_Dot_Elipsis

    The_Four_Dot_Elipsis Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 3, 2005
    In which Keira Knightley instructs Carrie Fisher how to keep her figure...
     
  18. Jeff_Ferguson

    Jeff_Ferguson Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2006
    I wouldn't recommend reading them without reading the rest of The New Jedi Order, but Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse and Balance Point both feature Leia as a principal character, leading her own storyline while Han is off doing his own thing. The two of them do spend some time together in the latter book, but their stories are still largely separate throughout. James Luceno and Kathy Tyers both wrote a great Leia, and those two books are very underrated in general. Leia's also doing some awesomeness independently of Han in both books of the Dark Tide duology, which comes earlier in the NJO... yeah, just read the NJO. It's an incredible series and Leia is pretty damn awesome in its first five or six volumes. She doesn't necessarily get less awesome per se in the later works, but she's far more interesting as her own character than she is as "Han's co-pilot."
     
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  19. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Yeah, I had forgotten that Han is largely absent from the Dark Tide books. Stackpole has several concurrent plotlines going in those books, though (Luke/Jacen, Anakin/Mara, Leia/Jaina, Corran/Ganner in the first, and Luke/Anakin/Mara, Corran/Jacen/Jaina/Wedge, Leia/Pellaeon and Shedao/Deign in the second).
     
  20. DoubleGold

    DoubleGold Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2013
    I have a quick question. Where do most fans begin in Star Wars, ie. Origins. For example, for EndBooks, most fans stop before NJO while others read that and stop and say that is the true end. But where do most fans begin? Dawn of the Jedi, Lost Tribe of the Sith, Old Republic, Darth Bane? Those into the Old Republic Era, what is your official starting point?
     
  21. DoubleGold

    DoubleGold Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2013
    I did get my answer to my last question, most start at the Old Republic Book, Revan.
    Anyway, I do have another question. Which authors are most commonly known in the Star Wars EU by fans? There are so many, problem is some authors only wrote 1 or 2 books.
     
  22. Random Comments

    Random Comments Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2012
    Revan is evil, and I refuse to acknowledge its existence.


    Dawn of the Jedi is quite good, though.
    And Lost Tribe of the Sith is good, too.

    I just tend to ignore whatever I don't like. Mara and Luke are off in the sunset being happy, and the NJO never happened. But Ben was born anyway. Though I admit I've read all the post NJO bar Crucible.


    Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, James Luceno, Aaron Allston, etc (Karen Traviss and Troy Denning, but not for good reasons).
     
  23. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    Zahn, Stover, Crispin, Luceno, Keyes, Stackpole and Allston are generally regarded as the best EU authors. Denning is a good author in the sense that he can write some really vivid scenes, but the direction he has taken the EU is not one that most fans agree with.
     
  24. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Brian Daley was good (Han Solo Adventures)- even if he didn't write as much.

    Sean Stewart's Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is also very popular these days.
     
  25. DoubleGold

    DoubleGold Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 3, 2013
    Thanks, next question, if I do decide to read Dark Nest Trilogy, would I be able to stop there, or does the last book have some unresolved issued that would force me into reading legacy series?