Lit Most Overrated and Underrated Star Wars Book

That's the thing.. I didn't have any problems with Dry prose with Game of Thrones, and Martin is a very dry writer. For some reason the black fleet crisis was just very boring and meh to me

 

That's interesting. I never made that connection myself, but I read the books many years ago, before our real-world cultural climate was quite so inundated with Islamic-related cultural matters (at least in the US). I think that I kind of relate them to *any* post-colonial society with 'different cultural traditions' than the POV characters.'

Maybe the Yevetha resemble the typical Star Trek villain more, aliens as a stand-in for something or other, whereas Star Wars tends to do less of the species-based differentiating and takes more of a spiritual approach.

 

Of all the bad takes... this is the worst.

 

Underrated:

Star Wars The Old Republic: Annihilation = I feel like this one gets overlooked by large pockets of the fandom. It doesn't have any major characters in it and it doesn't have any major paradigm shifting events that would make it a huge stand out in the Legends timeline. What it is however is a fun, exciting, character driven story that feels like classic Star Wars. It is just a really great action/adventure tale with interesting characters that are all intertwined as everything builds to a great climax (Theron Shan, his mother, Darth Karrid, and Gnost Dural are all good for one reason or another). Everyone I know that has read it had loved it, but because it doesn't have any major characters (either OT favorites or even Old Republic era stars like Revan or Darth Bane) and no major events happen, it typically gets skipped over, which is a shame.

Overrated:

The Dark Empire Trilogy = I can pick a comic right? This one is hard for me to rag on as I know it is a big part of the Star Wars extended franchise. It really broke Star Wars out into the world of comics and opened the doors for more Star Wars stories in this fashion. I'm sorry though, but I just wasn't that big a fan of it. I think my major gripe is that it kind of undermines the events of Return of the Jedi. In that movie, Luke is able to resist all temptations and stay on the lightside of the Fore, denying the Emperor, the Dark Side, and all the power that comes with it. In this story...yeah he turns. And the Emperor that was killed off in ROTJ? Yeah he's back again because he can transfer his consciousness into clone bodies. I like the idea that he would try to achieve immortality, but it just feels like a cheat after the way ROTJ ended.

Its funny because one of my criticisms of The Force Awakens was that Snoke is kind of just a rehash of The Emperor to me. When I first saw it, I was like "Yeah, that's just the Emperor again". Well this story goes a step further. This story LITERALLY just does The Emperor again.

I'm also not a huge fan of the art style as it uses these ugly muted colors and these weird monochromatic look. Here is an example.

What's up with that puke green/yellow taking up most of the page? I don't know, but it just looks so ugly to me and doesn't invoke that classic Star Wars imagery I'd expect.

Another major issue: OK, one of my criticisms of Return of the Jedi was doing the Death Star again. I think I would have preferred something like the Rebels storming Coruscant and taking the Imperial City or something like that. Doing the Death Star again just kind of felt like a retread. Not awful, and it doesn't hurt my overall enjoyment of the movie, but it was the weakest part of the film to me. However, any Star Wars story that includes some kind of planet buster weapon immediately causes me to roll my eyes. The Sun Crusher, Darksaber, and (to knock Episode VII again) Starkiller Base all just annoyed me because it feels like they just constantly try to recreate the Death Star and I feel like that story has already been told, so, uh, please STOP IT! Well, we get one here too. The Galaxy Gun not only fits into that trope, but also looks awfully, uh, phallic as well.

Also, some writers felt the need to just shoehorn in a love interest for Luke. Why, I'm not sure. The worst example of this was Callista from Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and Planet of Twilight. Her inclusion felt more like bad fan fiction than anything else. Well in Dark Empire II, Luke gets shoehorned in another girlfriend who does nothing and is booted off just as fast as she gets there. So not as annoying as Calista, but completely pointless in the grand scheme. See they got it right with Mara Jade. She was set up, given a personality, character, and story arc that made her likeable. She wasn't created for the sole purpose of hooking up with Luke. They made her a good character first and then hooked them up as sort of a bonus. Mara Jade would have been great whether she married Luke or not.

Issues aside, I don't think Dark Empire is without merit. I liked the Han/Leia subplot and Boba Fett was used effectively here, and there are moments of goodness sprinkled throughout. I also acknowledge its importance in getting Star Wars off the ground in the realm of comics, but there have been FAR better Star Wars comics out there since (hey, the recent Marvel titles have been pretty sweet actually) and this one did too many things to annoy me to say its an all time great.

 

Ah, I really like Dark Empire's art. It's the sort of artistic element that allows a lot more innovation and expression that you lack with generic Marvel/DC house style.

 

Underrated - Young Jedi Knights
Ok, not the greatest Star Wars novels ever but they're great for the young adult novels they are plus they were my (and I'm sure many others) gateway to the EU after I saw the special editions way back in 97 (now I feel old!!)

Overrated - Tatooine Ghost
I just found it boring and it didn't really go anywhere. To be fair to Denning it's better than his LOTF/FOTJ stuff (he couldn't screw up the characters in this era) but they're not overrated, at least on these boards, as general consensus is they're pretty terrible.

 

Honestly, I think I would have liked the artwork in Dark Empire more if it was in black and white.

The colors they went with (especially the puke green-yellow I mentioned) were just off putting for me.

 

Underrated - Cloak of Deception - A tight fast paced political thriller set in Starwars, basically what TPM should have been.
- Dark Empire - Back in the day I didn't think much of it but now, yes it's quite enjoyable - Byss and the World Devastators were all great and brining Boba Fett back and then simply explaining it with a throwaway line was great.

Overrated - IJedi - People love this book as one of the EU greats but for me no. The Tycho/Horn dog fight aside, it just feels like Stackpole through his alter ego is giving the ultimate Self fan service. Plus enough with the Winks already, everyone seems to wink at each other !!
- Alliegance - Zahn was hurting after Mara had been killed off in the EU and it showed, like IJedi it was fan service with shots against George Lucas through Lucas characters (Han excepted)

 

So you flame and insult my very reasonable and well thought out opinion.

 

Reasonable? I don't think that word means what you think it means.

 

What because I don't think the OT is untouchable or the best the SW franchise can ever be?

 

I honestly got a Bosnian war vib from the thing then Islam. The ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

Since at the time it was a major event at the time, though in our current world it recontextualize the events

 

Nope. The OT has plenty of opportunities for improvement. The prequels on the other hand? That's an irredeemable pile of diarrhea. Calling the prequels underrated is like calling my last dump underrated. It might be underrated only in he sense nobody wants to talk about my dump... because it's a dump.

 

Under rated: The Crystal Star. As someone who works with kids, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin are written as developmentally realistic and they do act their age. Goodness knows, I was a lot like Jaina when I was 5. They are brave and their jail break was epic!

 

I find it easier to digest now that we don't have to consider it canon to the franchise. I love the artwork because it matches the vibe of a nightmarish dream/situation that the story had. Dark Empire I is certainly the best, DE 2 is ok, Empire's End is eeh.

 

OK, I'll do another round:

Underrated: Tales from Jabba's Palace = Honestly, of all the "Tale Of" anthology books, I think this one is one of the better ones. While I enjoyed both, I thought the Bounty Hunter and Mos Eisley Cantina collections had a little too much repetition. The Cantina character tales HAD to have almost every story include the key moments from the Cantina in A New Hope. How many times do I have to read about poor Ponda Baba losing his arm? Most of the Hunter stories HAD to have that scene from Empire with Darth Vader. I mean, yeah, that makes sense as they are trying to explain how all these characters wound up where they were in the movie, but reading so many stories with similar settings can get a little repetitive after a while. Fortunately, the Jabba's Palace book largely avoids this by virtue of the cast of the Jabba scenes be so large that the stories feel more spread out without as much overlap. For example, Bib Fortuna and the Rancor Keeper were not on the Sail Barge, so their tales don't feature anything having to do with the Sarlaac scene. The stories do recount familiar scenes from Return of the Jedi, but it isn't the same ones over and over again and it is easier to digest that way. And there is some great interconnections in the stories with an interesting murder mystery worked into it. It is hilarious to me to think that there was this whole murder mystery going on behind the scenes while all that stuff in Return of the Jedi was going down.

Overrated: The Darth Bane Trilogy = Its not bad by any means. I actually quite liked it overall. However, if I had to critique anything, it would be the pacing of the overall arc over the three books. I feel like maybe Part 1 covers a little too much ground and part two not enough. I don't know, but I kind of felt like Bane gets his training, dissatisfaction, and ultimate destruction of the greater Sith faction all in one book. The problem with this it that didn't leave much material outside of him training Darth Zannah. What I would have liked is for him to have his training, fall from grace, and finding of Darth Zannah to take his apprentice, and then book 2 would be about the two of them finding a way to take down the Sith. Book 3 was perfectly fine. Don't change it. Honestly, the trilogy works overall and gives us proper context on how the Rule of Two got started and how it works. I just wish there was more material for Book 2 since that was definitely the most forgettable of the three.

 

I'm sorry this isn't Red letter media's YouTube channel some of us like the prequels.

 

Overrated: Lost Stars (Good book, but not that great that many says)

Underrated: Han Solo Book Trilogy (If the film goes for this side, it will be epic)

 

I thought it had a general nineties geopolitical vibe. The Big War is over, and now all the little local ethnic/sectarian conflicts are popping up (shaped partly by the legacy of the Big War). The Yevetha are the genocidal Serbs in Bosnia, or Hutus in Rwanda, or Pashtun (the Taliban) in Afghanistan - reader's choice.

 

I won't say overrated, because I think its a dumb term, but some of the things that I haven't liked as well as others have are-
The Truce at Bakura- To be honest, I flat out hated it.
Shatterpoint- I liked it well enough, it just wasn't mind blowing for me.
Lost Stars- Again, I didn't hate it by any means, I'm just not super big on YA.

As for underrated-
The Medstar One Duology- I might be on an island here, but for some reason I LOVED these books. Definitely my favorite Clone Wars novels of the time.
Twilight Company- Everyone I know who has read it has really liked it, but it doesn't seem to be discussed much. I thought it was a pretty fresh approach to the GCW, at least as Star Wars novels go.

 

All elements taken from all three.

 

I had a blast reading it. The Cook and Gamorrean guard's tales are probably my favorites. Great dark humor in them.

 

So who was that holding Leia in front of Jabba (and grinning evilly just before Jabba offers the heroes a chance to plead for mercy)?

https://starwarsscreencaps.com/star-wars-episode-vi-return-of-the-jedi-1983/20/

 

Overrated: Thrawn novels.
I'm not saying they are he worst SW novels. In fact, overall, they were above average (for SW novels). But the formula of Thrawn bringing in an Imperial as his second in command / aide, just to have that aide constantly fawn over Thrawn and spell out for the reader why Thrawn is just so great can get really corny. Especially when what usually qualifies as Thrawn's mastery is more simply in relation to the incompetence that surrounds him. Thrawn went Mary Sue years before TFA. Can you imagine if Vader had a Stormtrooper that just followed him around for no other reason to say "that was so bad*ss, my lord" when Vader unleashes some samurai policing? It really does feel like Zahn trying to picture himself in the Star Wars Universe, right down to the rhyming name of Thrawn. That's not to say I didn't find other elements of the Thrawn novels enjoyable to read.

Underrated: Han Solo trilogy (A.C. Crispin). I really don't follow the SW novel fan base to know what temperature this series receives, but it recall enjoying the trilogy quite a bit yet don't find many talking about it. When I first started reading SW novels, I realized some of the things I love about the movies don't translate well to novel format. Mainly, lightsaber fights. Most novel lightsaber fights are extremely boring to read if they are "action oriented". So the Han Solo trilogy was quite fun with that off the table. I would say the novels were more fun than deep.

 

Are you talking about Crispin or Daley?