Lit Must Reads & Favorites Books/Comics

Somewhat new to the EU (now LU?) and was hoping to get the "key points" or what you believe are the most important books/comics in the timeline, and of course your favorites. I will still read what I find to be interesting, but recommendations help me from skipping good ones, and wasting my time with the bad ones. With the new EU and movie coming I was hoping to compile a list of the timelines "key points" to shorten the list for myself and read through most if not all by the time the first movie comes out.

Might be a weird request, but any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you for your time and help.

 

Shadows of the Empire, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Dark Empire, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, the entire NJO.

Strictly post-Episode VI stuff (besides SOTE) because I don't have time to go through the rest.

 

Pretty much what DigitalMessiah said as well as ,Darth Plagueis, Cloak of Deception, Darth Maul Shadow Hunter, Yoda Dark Rendezvous, The Jedi Academy Trilogy, The Truce At Bakura(some people don't like this one but I do) and Darksaber.

 

Cloak of Deception
Clone Wars Omnibus 1
Shatterpoint*
Cestus Deception
Clone Wars Omnibus 2
Medstar Duology
Jedi Trail
Yoda Dark Rendezvous*
Labyrinth of Evil*
Revenge of the Sith Novelization (despite being a movie novelization it is a must read)*
The X-Wing series (the novels)
The Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command)*
The Jedi Academy Trilogy
I, Jedi
The Hand of Thrawn Duology*
The New Jedi Order (19 books)*

I placed asterisks by the books that are absolutely essential. I've included more because I'm taking into account character development as equal to major events. So while the X-wing series isn't an essential read, it introduces a character who plays a major role on the New Jedi Order series. Thus to get the full effect I believe it's important to read the X-wing books (he's only important in the first four and the eighth, but the other have so many fun characters they can't be missed). Also, I will put a couple bad books on this list because you can't do a EU read through without experiencing some bad novels (these will be Jedi Trial and the Jedi Academy Trilogy). In the case of JAT, I would highly reccomend forcing yourself through it; while the most important aspects of the novel are found in I, Jedi, JAT introduces another important character. Also, one of the main conflicts is introduced in JAT is seen in I, Jedi but its resolution is only seen in JAT -- this isn't too large of a problem and doesn't detract from I Jedi which is a far superior book. Lastly, I'm placing the whole Clone Wars multimedia project on here because it's worth reading in its entirety. If you read them in the order on my list there will be some problems with the chronology. This is primarily because there are two issues I'm the first omnibus that should be in the secomd and because two novels happen within the third (probably with the first also) -- this is very easy to fix, thus will only cause problems in a couple of places.

 

All 6 movie novelizations, but Revenge of the Sith is a must! But also feel they are all essential since one gets a bigger perspective of the movie. Things left or cut out the movie. Back stories, characters, some sort of development, etc, etc.

Darth Plagueis- both a behind the scenes and a prequel to The Phantom Menace. Even to Attack of the Clones somewhat. Love that Palpatine gets a backstory. I feel it gives way more to his character and he's not just the master of evil, manipulation, and everything.

Labyrinth of Evil- prequel to ROTS. Anakin/Ob-Wan friendship, Battle of Coruscant, the Jedi hunting for Darth Sidious, and much more.

Dark Lord: Rise of the Darth- sequel to ROTS. Last hours of the Clone Wars. But I find most important and most interesting is Vader. Getting inside his head. How difficult it is to live in that iconic suit. Even how heavy his prosthetic arms.

 

Comics: KOTOR, Dark Times, Republic, Knight Errant, Legacy

Books: Cloak of Deception, Darth Plagueis, Revenge of the Sith, Yoda: Dark Randezvous, NJO

 

Novels:
The Han Solo Adventures
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command
Shadows of the Empire
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
Tales from Jabba's Palace
Tales of the Bounty Hunters
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
X-Wing Books 1-10
The Courtship of Princess Leia (only because it concludes an X-Wing storyline)
I, Jedi
Specter of the Past
Vision of the Future
Cloak of Deception
Rogue Planet
Shatterpoint
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
Labyrinth of Evil
Revenge of the Sith
The New Jedi Order

Comics:
Tales of the Jedi: Redemption
Jedi vs. Sith
Dark Empire

 

I appreciate the caveat concerning COPL.

I guess for pre-ROTJ stuff, besides the aforementioned SOTE, I'd go with Plagueis, Cloak of Deception, Rogue Planet, Shatterpoint, Dark Rendezvous, and the ROTS novelization.

I'm kinda zahned out.

 

New to the site, signed up with a bad name, but fixed now. Wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted here, and an extra thank you for those that gave extra words about their choices, I really do appreciate that.

If anyone has any more "key points" to add or favorites to suggest, PLEASE do, want to make sure I get all the good stuff out of the LU. Again, thank you to everyone for all their time and help, I appreciate it.

 

I'd say the Han Solo trilogy is even more important than the Han Solo Adventures trilogy, to fleshing out Han's backstory.