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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. _Catherine_

    _Catherine_ Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 16, 2007
    Actually just don't even get into Star Wars at all, huge waste of time.
     
  2. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Oh wait. A New Hope!
     
  3. First Of My Name

    First Of My Name Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2014
    Are they that bad?
     
  4. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    No. A lot of them are good. Just having some fun. There are some stinkers of course but the really good ones are very good. Personal preference on what is good though. Read them! More SW is good.
     
  5. Vthuil

    Vthuil Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2013
    If you specifically meant Apocalypse and Crucible, though, I'm gonna have to go with "yes."
     
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  6. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Yeah those 2 books are not good. Read them if you want though don't expect much.
     
  7. sir PING1

    sir PING1 Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Mar 20, 2014
    I've read extensively preROTJ (so I'm well versed in Star Wars lore), but have never read anything postROTJ. So with the decanonization of the EU and the new movies on the way it's made me want to get into the only section of Star Wars EU I've ever experienced. So far the list of books I'm considering getting (based off what I've read on the forums and reviews I've seen) consists of the following:

    Truce at Bakura
    Shadows of Mindor
    X-Wing series
    Courtship of Princess Leia
    Tatooine Ghost
    TTT
    Jedi Academy trilogy
    I, Jedi
    HoT
    Scourge
    Survivor's Quest
    NJO

    My questions are whether or not this a good representation of whats worth reading postROTJ, should something be added or removed, and where is the best stopping point postROTJ? I've read that The Unifying Force is a good stopping point, but is there anything past it that's worth reading?
     
  8. Todd the Jedi

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

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    You're on the right track. Most of those range from good to amazing. I'd personally say skip Truce at Bakura; It's not that great. I would suggest you read the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. Opinions on it are mixed, but I'd definitely say it's worth it. Also, I, Jedi covers most of the events of the JA trilogy, and it's way better, so I'd suggest just reading that and skipping the JAT.

    Past NJO you'll get a few hits in the two major series, Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, but they're nowhere near necessary. Crosscurrent, Riptide, Millennium Falcon, and the tenth X-Wing book are all pretty great, though.
     
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  9. JediKnight75

    JediKnight75 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2011
    That seems like a good list to me. It's almost exactly what I'd recommend, with a few additional books. I should note that the Jedi Academy Trilogy is pretty bad, but it is very important. Although, the main plot points are covered in the first half of I, Jedi, you miss the conclusion of the conflict -- not that it's very important and you don't feel like you're missing anything. Still, JAT is worth trying just to see the bigger picture of the founding of the new Jedi Order. Also, the trilogy introduces a fairly important character. Tatooine Ghost isn't that important but I can't comment on the quality since I haven't read it, I just know that it doesn't impact other stories in any important ways. Scourge is unimportant, but I thought it was a fun book, it was a nice change of pace from the stories we were getting. Still Lyon could skip it and be fine. I do strongly suggest stopping at the NJO. I can't recall anything worth reading afterwards and it has the best possible conclusion to the saga. Don't spoil of by reading anything else
     
  10. Vthuil

    Vthuil Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 3, 2013
    Personally, I don't like I, Jedi much at all, so I'm not sure I'd recommend it over the JAT. It is basically the conclusion to Corran Horn's story from the X-Wing novels, though, so if you like that (general opinions are mixed) I'd still recommend it.
     
  11. kubricklynch

    kubricklynch Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2012
    So, I haven't read Hand of Thrawn since I was a kid. What was in it that people claim to be Zahn "retconning" or taking shots other authors' works? Was it just the whole thing about Mara speculating that Palpatine's clone wasn't really him?
     
  12. Riv_Shiel

    Riv_Shiel Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 12, 2014
    I disagree RE: Tatooine Ghost. It bridges a lot of character and plot gap between Truce/Courtship and TTT/DE. It also ties the early New Republic era to each other and to the Prequels. I highly recommend it.

    Regarding ending point, I would have to say Unifying Force. The plot goes pretty far off the rails after the NJO (not to mention the characterizations which go even farther off the rails and are what drives the plot off the rails). Best bet in this era are the side stories (Crosscurrent/Riptide & Mercy Kill) - but reading these won't be a clean ending point, and do tie back into the main series (to varying degrees). Depends what you want in an "ending".
     
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  13. Iron_lord

    Iron_lord Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    The most overtly "retcon" moment is when Mara explains that her and Lando were never a couple - it was a cover story.
     
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  14. JediKnight75

    JediKnight75 Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2011
    I'll defer to you since I haven't read it. Your post actually makes me want to read it; I was uninterested before. I agree completely on the post NJO books.
     
  15. sir PING1

    sir PING1 Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Mar 20, 2014
    Thanks for all the suggestions. Definitely going to start working my way through postROTJ once I finish up my preROTJ read through. Two or three books a week will definitely fill out a lot of my free time. It's gonna feel a bittersweet losing the ignorance of not knowing what happens after ROTJ after so many years of watching all the movies in a day and just leaving the ending of Star Wars at ROTJ.
     
  16. Master Fisto

    Master Fisto Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Jun 10, 2013
    Morning everyone!
    I am about to finish The Thrawn Trilogy. I loved all three books! What books do I turn to next? I am up for reading any timeframe. I just want some recommendations.
     
  17. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    No comics? For shame.
     
  18. First Of My Name

    First Of My Name Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2014
    I meant specifically Apocalypse and Crucible, I've read like 90 other Star Wars novels/comics.
     
  19. sir PING1

    sir PING1 Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Mar 20, 2014
    what would you recommend? I've been a fan of the books for years, but just now starting to get into the comics with the strong possibility of them going out of print. I've got a good idea of what I want preROTJ, but my knowledge of postROTJ comics is pretty slim so any help there is appreciated.
     
  20. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    DNT/LOTF/FOTJ/Crucible don't bother. Or read at your own peril. Mercy Kill, Crosscurrent and Riptide, and Millennium Falcon are all pretty good though.
     
  21. First Of My Name

    First Of My Name Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2014
    I've read The Joiner King, all of LOTF, FOTJ from Abyss up to and including Ascension, and the Jaden duology. Mixed bag, I don't hate some of those books as much as others seem to though.
    I think I'll stay away from Apocalypse and/or Crucible, then. Thanks for the recommendation.

    These are some books you could read:
    -The Hand of Thrawn duology is a sequel the Thrawn Trilogy, set 10 years later.
    -The Republic Commando series is one of my favorites, but isn't for everyone due to what the book has to say about Jedi and Mandalorians
    -The X-Wing series are very popular, if space battles are your thing this is a must-read, plus the later books have great humor
    -The New Jedi Order series is mostly good, there are some weaker books but you can skip most of those. (Note: if you're going to read this, definitely read Traitor)
    And some standalones that accessible and enjoyable: I, Jedi, Dark Rendezvous, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, Shatterpoint, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
    Darth Plagueis is a great read, but you'll appreciate it more if you've read more books set in that period, I think.
    (Btw, if it has 'Matthew Stover' on the front, it's worth reading).
    I hope that helps!
     
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  22. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    If you enjoyed TTT, I would suggest the X-wing series. Most of it is set before TTT, giving you some backstory for the New Republic and including some of Zahn's characters, as well as others Zahn latched onto; he and Michael Stackpole, the main X-wing author, worked together pretty closely. After X-wing I would suggest I, Jedi, a book about a main X-wing character set after TTT. The Hand of Thrawn Duology is a sort of sequel to TTT that wraps up the immediately post-ROTJ era. Those are the really outstanding books of the larger post-ROTJ arc, and all good places to go from TTT. After The Hand of Thrawn, Zahn has another smaller adventure, Survivor's Quest, that ties into another book set in the prequel era, and is very worth reading. There are some other good books in the period, such as the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, and some relatively plot-significant books, such as The Courtship of Princess Leia, the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and the Young Jedi Knights and Junior Jedi Knights YA series that aren't all that good. Whether you choose to read any of those is largely up to your interest. There is also the excellent standalone Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, but I'd say that's best appreciated after reading the prequel novel Shatterpoint, more on which later.

    There are a lot of other places to go, too. Once caught up on the immediately post-ROTJ era, I strongly recommend the New Jedi Order, a sort of megaseries covering an entire war set after the Hand of Thrawn Duology. It's the high point of the EU, and is best approached with some level of grounding in the prior era of stories and their characters.

    Before ROTJ, but still in the realm of the original trilogy, I strongly recommend the Han Solo Trilogy and the Han Solo Adventures, two different trilogies featuring the adventures of Han and Chewie before A New Hope. They're absolute blasts. If you start on the HST, there are actually built-in spots to read the HSA novels within the last book. Shadows of the Empire is also a pretty good book, bridging between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There are also several books that are collections of short stories, all with titles beginning with "Tales from" or "Tales of," which aren't frequently mentioned in recommendations but which are some of the best stuff in the EU, just fun collections of short stories. Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and Tales from Jabba's Palace all expand on the designated topic from each film. Tales from the Empire and Tales from the New Republic are wider-ranging short story collections that are about anything and set all over the timeline, and they're quite good. Some of them feature backstory or further adventures for Zahn's characters, if you're interested.

    For the prequel era, there are two really excellent novels leading into The Phantom Menace. Cloak of Deception is about the political crisis leading up to TPM, with Palpatine manipulating the situation and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon trying to stop an assassination attempt. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter is about a couple of nobodies who happen across important evidence of the upcoming Sith plot and are pursued by Darth Maul across Coruscant. It's a really great nonstop thriller. Darth Plagueis is a book about the Sith prior to Episode I which synthesizes pretty much everything written in the period into a big-picture narrative. It's good, but in my opinion best appreciated after reading enough to get a grounding in the era and know what the author is working with. Between Episodes I and II are Rogue Planet and Outbound Flight. Rogue Planet isn't universally popular because it's not big on action, but it's a really well-written book about Obi-Wan and Anakin on an adventure to a strange planet that ends up tying into The New Jedi Order. Outbound Flight is by Timothy Zahn and it's about the backstory mentioned in TTT, featuring Jorus C'baoth and Thrawn and the Outbound Flight program. I think it's best read after Survivor's Quest, which has Luke finding Outbound Flight's wreckage, but was published before Outbound Flight and sort of sets up some mysteries OF resolves. Like any of my "best before/after" recommendations, that's just a suggestion of how I personally think you might maximize the impact of the reading experience if you're going to read both/all books, not a hard recommendation that you cannot read one book until you've read the other.

    The Clone Wars originally had several novels published set during the war, but the chronology of the original publishing program was disrupted when the TV series The Clone Wars came in years later and ended up rewriting a lot of the Clone Wars. None of the new TCW tie-in novels are worth reading, but several of the old novels are, and most of them haven't been significantly messed with by the show (it did more to the comics); to the greatest extend, you just have to tweak when exactly they're set. Shatterpoint is the best of the bunch, a really hard-hitting war story about Mace Windu going back to his homeworld to try to rescue his former Padawan in a jungle hellhole. Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is a very good story about Yoda and a couple Padawans going on a mission to talk to Dooku after he claims he wants to return to the Jedi. It's really well-written with great characterization. Labyrinth of Evil is a lead-in to Revenge of the Sith that sets up what's going on in that movie; it's also the only really big-picture look at the Clone Wars and is very good. Republic Commando: Hard Contact is a very good war story, but the series after it goes severely downhill as the author sort of goes off the reservation with a really weird worldview and basically abandons any attempt at action to have the characters sit around telling each other how cool they are and loudly speechifying about her pet peeves with the Star Wars universe. Avoid the sequels. The MedStar Duology is a pretty good little series, a sort of riff on M*A*S*H about doctors and a few of their friends behind the lines of the war. The Cestus Deception may also be worth checking out. It gets mixed reviews, but it's not bad, about a clonetrooper who discovers a little independence on a mission with Obi-Wan and Kit Fisto.

    Set shortly after ROTS, there's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, which isn't anything special but is a decent look at Jedi fleeing Order 66 and Darth Vader right after his transformation. There's also Kenobi, a really good small-scale story about Obi-Wan arriving on Tatooine to hide out and getting into a little trouble with some local conflict as he figures out what he's going to do.

    There are several books set well before the prequels, but few of them are worth any notice. There are tie-in novels to The Old Republic MMO, if you're into that, but none of them are worth much. There are also three books about the Sith Lord Darth Bane, but they're absolutely terrible and are best avoided in favor of the far superior comic Jedi vs. Sith, about the same conflict he was involved in. The two novels that are worth anything are both comic tie-ins. Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void is set thousands and thousands of years in the past, among the precursors to the Jedi, with one of them going on a mission. It's a good novel but it sort of needs the grounding of the comic Dawn of the Jedi to really grasp the setting, and it isn't anything particularly vital. Knight Errant is a tie-in to the comic Knight Errant, and is a really good adventure about a Jedi Knight a thousand years before TPM who's trapped behind enemy lines in Sith territory and trying to do everything she can to help the people there. As comics have started to come up now, it's worth saying that there are some really excellent comics out there, and it's a whole additional set of recommendations if you're willing to read comic books too. They're some of the best parts of Star Wars, but some people just aren't interested in reading comics. You didn't mention, so I'm not going to write out a bunch of recommendations unless you're interested. If you are, there are a lot of great ones out there.
     
  23. Gamiel

    Gamiel Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Dec 16, 2012
    Well I a bit behind in my Star Wars reading but I like:
    Tales of the Jedi saga
    Dark Empire saga
    the Marvel's Star Wars omnibus collection
    In the Shadow of Yavin
    X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The Phantom Affair
    Crimson Empire I & II
    Empire 7: the wrong side of the war
    and the comic adaptation of The Thrawn Trilogy
     
  24. Master Fisto

    Master Fisto Jedi Knight

    Registered:
    Jun 10, 2013
    Havac you are awesome! Thank you for all of that info. And yes I am interested in comics also, but have not really read any yet.
     
  25. Gorefiend

    Gorefiend Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2004