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

Well, it depends on how inclusive you want to be. Most of that era of books are pretty self-contained. It really comes down to whether you want to read all of the stories, or if you want to read the best stories.

 

If you're looking for things with MAJOR plot implications, there aren't that many between ROTJ and NJO. Most books/trilogies are pretty self-contained in their plots.

The ones that have longer-reaching continuity factors would be

The Courtship of Princess Leia (debateable) - mostly because it introduces a ruler of a set of planets which become important in the future, and shows Han and Leia getting together

The Thrawn Trilogy - Han and Leia have their first kids, we get an excellent look at the post-emperor Empire, and introduces the biggest recurring characters of the EU

Dark Empire - this is a comic series, but most stores carry the hardcover collection of all of them, tells about Han and Leia's last child being born, and some interesting bits about the Emperor

The Jedi Academy Trilogy - Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order and introduces many of the future Jedi Masters of the new order who become important. And one warlord who pops up later...

The Hand of Thrawn Duology - the Empire's final surrender and some important stuff about Luke and his future



Other books vary in quality and importance, but generally don't have many far-reaching consequences as far as long term plot is important. Some are excellent (I Jedi, Shadows of Mindor), some are merely OK (Black Fleet Crisis, Corellian Trilogy) and some are widely considered to be quite terrible (The New Rebellion and The Crystal Star - though I personally like both).

The X-wing series (9 books and 3 comic omnibusses) is also a VERY excellent read and introduces a lot of minor supporting characters who play different roles in other stories, and are quite enjoyable.

Opinions will vary on each book, but if you're wondering, ask here, you'll get a good cross-section of opinions and can decide for yourself.



YJK and JJK are both pretty decent series, but do remember they are children's books so won't be excellent. But they do give a great look at Han and Leia's kids as they grow up and sets their personalities for future books.



Of the books I would personally say are "can't miss" - Thrawn (trilogy and duology), JAT, I Jedi, Shadows of Mindor, and the X-wing series.

 

You can kind of skip it as I,Jedi tells that story as well.

 

Also, I just finished New Rebellion the other day. I remember Han and Lando escaping together, blasting everyone that worked for Neaderson, but maybe I missed it? Did Neanderson die?
Also, if I read correctly. Brakiss lived, but his boss, whatever his name was, don't remember was shot by Leia?

 

Chewbacca shoot him.

Barkiss stays around for a while yep

Spoiler

He forms his own little evil version of the Jedi academy on a mobile Stealth Space Station and gets blown up along with it

And yep Kueller is shoot dead by Leia.

 

I'm in a bit of a pickle. At one time I thought I would be able to collect everything Star Wars that fits in the timeline, but now I realize that's virtually impossible. Can't do it. So I'm going to try to focus on the major threads.

I think what I'm going to go for is this:

The films. However, I will be ditching all of the material set during the films' timeframes except the adult novelizations and any part of en established series (ie, Republic, Republic Commando, ect) that runs during the films.

The 2 Clone Wars TV shows. Again, as with the films, I will be ditching adaptations. As far as Droids, Ewoks, and the Holdiay Special go, I will probably skip them entirely except for the comics. This is because it seems very unlikely that any of those 3 will ever be released on DVD, and they're pretty much self contained anyway, if I'm not mistaken.

All of the adult novels and a good chunk of the youth novels. Not sure yet about Galaxy of Fear, Science Adventures, Jedi Prince, or the Ryder Windham bios. Are they really that important?

Most of the comics.

Unfortunately, I will have to skip most of the video games since they were not made available for PC and I cannot afford a Playstation, PSP, ect. Probably the only ones I can buy are KOTOR/TSL, EAW/FOC, TFU/TFU II, GC/CC, TOR, XW/TF/XWA, and DF/JK/MOTS/JO/JA.

Adventure Journal, Insider, Gamer, ect. is very difficult to decide. I know there's a lot of important material in these mags, but they're very hard to find, even on Amazon.

RPGS/Wizards - Not sure if they're sufficiently important or not.

Does this seem reasonable? Am I excluding anything that would be considered important enough?

 

Do you mean between the films or concurrent with the films? With the former you would be missing some good stuff like Rogue Planet, Shadows of the Empire, etc. With the latter, I don't think there even are any full-length novels that happen at exactly the same time as any of the films, besides parts of books like Darth Plagueis and Death Star. Well I guess the Bounty Hunter Wars books do.

The two live-action Ewoks movies were released on DVD, as were a few episodes of the Droids and Ewoks cartoons that were edited together to feature-length. None are really essential though.

No, but GoF is a lot of fun. The only Windham biography I've read was the Vader one but I liked it quite a bit, with so much clutter around ROTJ I thought it made a nice retrospective for Vader's story.

TFU I & II both have novel and comic adaptations so there's no reason to spend money on the games if all you want is the story. Idk what half those other acronyms are but KOTOR and TSL are the best games ever made (maybe slight hyperbole).

Yeah the only AJ stories you can easily get are the ones in Tales from the Empire and Tales from the New Republic.

I don't even know what this is so I'd say no.

None of it's really important.

 

Are the events/characters of the Ewok cartoon ever referenced in other EU works?

 

Yes, Dark Horse released an Ewok comic earlier this year that referenced stuff from the cartoon.

 

Random question that's been bugging me for a while, I remember a scene from a Bantum-era book, but I cannot remember what book.

The scene is one where Han is on a balcony with a crowd gathered below, and someone shoots at him (or another major figure who I forget) but everyone thinks its Han when he draws his blaster because the assailant's gun had a colour-less beam. Han then pursues.

Anyone remember what book that's from?






As for obtaining copies of the adventure journals, it is difficult to track down hard copies, and can be very expensive. There are various ways to obtain digital versions though.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Specter_of_the_Past

 

Cindel Towani from the Ewoks movies is referenced in The BLack Fleet Crisis (and also in The Essential GUide to Warfire), but that's about it.

 

Thanks Gorefiend.

 

I figure this is the best place to ask.

Does anyone know if there's any place online or otherwise to obtain a copy of the Webstrip "Evasive Action 4 - Endgame"

I've managed to track down copies in some form of all other webcomics, except for this one, and I'm trying to complete my collection.

Similarly, anyone have the Star Wars Missions books (from scholastic in the late 90) #9-20 that they want to get rid of?

 

So,

A few more tips...

Anything by Kevin J Anderson is UTTER GARBAGE. Throw them away. He's one of the worst authors of any genre I've ever read.

Star Wars novels have undergone a mini-renaissance recently with the prequels. The novelization of Revenge of the Sith is probably a better experience than the movie given how the author manages to write over the massive plot holes that exist in the movie. Also, the Rise of Darth Vader by James Luceno is a very good novel, one of the best I've read in a while. That said, the NJO are pretty bad and I would avoid. The Thrawn Trilogy is good and so are the first few Xwing books.

The comic are better than the novels. The best comics I've run across are:

Star Wars Legacy. This is about as close to a reboot of Star Wars as you can get...cleaning up a lot of the mess of the NJO. Very well written and drawn. Very enjoyable.

Dawn of the Jedi. Made by the same people who made Star Wars Legacy. Again, extremely good. Also, kind of a reboot since it takes place so far in the past.

Knights of the Old Republic. It's funny and has great characterization.

The Republic and Dark Times comics are generally pretty bad and aren't worth bothering with. That's because they still carry over some of the stench from the prequels, and how the authors are so hemmed in by Lucas's bad decisions in the prequels.

 

KJA FTW!

 

Not Redemption.

Nah.

Not sure this actually happened.

Nah.

 

Wait, SW Legacy "cleans up a lot of the mess of the NJO"?

I don't think TOTJ was utter garbage in general, and KJA became involved with Dark Lords of the Sith #1.

But I've been known to like crap, from time to time.

 

Been awhile since I've read ROTS. How exactly does Stover do this?

 

A couple things come to mind:

1) He shows a behind-the-scenes conversation between Mace, Yoda and Obi-Wan where they discuss how going after Grievous will force Sidious to be drawn into the open. That's why the "let's send Obi-Wan to Utapau" conversation in the movie is so painfully awkward, but it makes much more sense if you have read that scene.

2) Stover also shows precisely why Anakin is so upset about not being made a Master. Masters have access to more secure areas of the Jedi Archives, and Anakin suspects one of those areas holds the secret to saving Padme. When he's denied access to it, he becomes more desperate and willing to listen to Palpatine.

 

After all this time being an SW fan, all the novels and comics I've read, not to mention countless times seeing the movies, I never thought of this until now. I was watching ANH last night and figured I'd pop in TESB this morning just for giggles. Me and my son watched it a few days ago but who cares, it's awesome right? So while I'm doing this a question formed that I had no answer to. At the end of ANH Han is itching to get the reward money and haul ass to go pay off Jabba. Of course we all know he does the heroic thing at the end and stays around, but after that. After the medal ceremony, what keeps Han from then going off to pay Jabba? What happens in between ANH and TESB that keeps him from doing so and ultimately ending up on Hoth instead?? Is there a novel or comic which explains what went on during this time?

 

Right now, their are the Star Wars comics by Brian Wood, that are covering events after A New Hope, I recommend reading them, plus Han is getting a book next year called Honor Among Thieves, in the Empire, and Rebellion book trilogy, set between ANH, and ESB

 

Obie, you want the Goodwin-Williamson Classic Star Wars series - the 20-issues are available digitally.

 

Than compare. Disney's bound to do a series set between ANH, and ESB, whether Live Action, Cartoon, or something for Netflix

 

Huh?