Losing Outbound Flight and Rogue Planet would be good riddance. And I really hope the ST retcons the Leia/Han/Fabio love triangle The Courtship of Princess Leia. Definitely one of the worst EU novels I've ever read. Any Luceno and Stover novels are definitely essential reading though. And are you including the EU that TCW series has already retconned--Jedi Trial, Coruscant Nights and the Obsession comics?
I'll give you Rogue Planet (that one is hard to get through) but I like Outbound Flight. Leia/Han/Isolder? Don't blame you. COPL was alright from what I remember. Sure it was majorly cheezy but I like those kind of stories. Agreed about Luceno and Stover novels being necessary. Jedi Trial, Coruscant Nights and Obessions should be made necessary
I had to force myself to finish Outbound Flight, I found it so horrible. One half Jedi Master Completely Bat**** Nuts and one half Random Characters Drooling Over Thrawn.
I think if we are going to make a list of recommended reading for people wanting to jump into the EU before EP VII, if it falls that way, it would go something like this... I am not including the X Wing or the Jaden Korr duology series though I love them because chances are no one from the series will show up in the sequels... 1. Thrawn Trilogy 2. Jedi Academy Trilogy 3. I, Jedi (if Corran has anything to do with ST) 4. Young Jedi Knight Collections 5. Vector Prime 6. Star by Star 7. Unifying Force 8. Betrayal 9. Exile 10. Sacrafice 11. Fury 12. Invincible 13. Outcast 14. Apocolypse 15. Crucible (Probably) 16. Sword of the Jedi (Probably) Want to make it even easier for really late comers? 1. Crucible 2. Sword of the Jedi
Not necessarily. An offhand comment about the past may undo pre-Movie works for all we know. If, of course. But the thread isn't concerned by what will be, just what is, at the moment. 55 is still a harmless story otherwise. The other two refer to the Vong, after all... Anyone else have thoughts on BFC? I am unsure about that one, tbh. Well, the Thrawn Trilogy coped fairly well without showing us Coruscant falling, for example. The Corran Horn point is relatively covered by I, Jedi, giving him the entire novel to be introduced to us too. Which X-wing novels would you consider essential? The first 4 and number 8? CoPL was actually on my original notes, and so was Revan... Oops. The Kyle point is well heard I was also supposed to have Revan in there, to resolve the KotoR arc. That then leads into the 'when do the Sith return' which is shown relatively easily by the three trailers. ToR itself is simply too massive (and unlikely to end anytime this decade) to be considered essential. Further, ToR is likely to continue on until the New Sith Wars, so everything between is relatively unimportant. Crimson Empire also goes into some depth as to the why Palpatine is finally defeated, was my logic. It is what Empires End should have been, methinks. Kyp's slow change of heart is fairly well indicated in SbS and DW I thought? With Legacy I only cut issue 4 and the Mando arc before realised it wasn't worth it I'm tempted to include the Corellian Trilogy and Agents of Chaos but I'd need to take other opinions. Thoughts people? Event wise, though, they don't push the war any further forward, nor are referenced in almost any shape or form in other media or by other authors. I love them, insofar as much as I love the entirety of the X-wing arc. Cloak is covered by Plagueis... Dark Lord (and most Dark Times media), is covered by a summary of 'the Empire wins' which is obvious. MF is hardly essential.
Well I guess if I was going to do this this would be my list: 1. Dawn of the Jedi 2. Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith, The Sith War, & Redemption 3. KOTOR I & II 4. Jedi vs. Sith 5. The Phantom Menace novelization 6. Darth Plagueis 7. Attack of the Clones novelization 8. The Clone Wars novelization 9. TCW Mortis Trilogy (3x15-17) 10. [future TCW finale] 11. Revenge of the Sith 12. The Force Unleashed 13. A New Hope novelization 14. The Empire Strikes Back novelization 15. Return of the Jedi novelization 16. X-Wing 1-4 17. The Thrawn Trilogy 18. The Dark Empire Trilogy 19. I, Jedi 20. Darksaber 21. The Hand of Thrawn 22. Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Shadow & Jedi Sunrise 23. Vector Prime 24. Dark Tide II: Ruin 25. Balance Point 26. Edge of Victory I: Conquest 27. Star by Star 28. Traitor 29. Destiny's Way 30. The Final Prophecy 31. The Unifying Force 32. Betrayal 33. Sacrifice 34. Invincible 35. Fate of the Jedi (haven't read any of these so I assume they're all equally important lol) 36. Crucible (presumably) 37. Legacy I assume the origin of the Lost Tribe is explained in FotJ so I would think the stories themselves aren't that relevant. The TOR era seems too disparate and expansive to bother including anything, plus it makes a terrible epilogue to the KOTOR era. JvS serves the same function as the Bane trilogy, except better and in several hundred fewer pages. I Rogue Planet but I don't think it and Outbound Flight are essential; the NJO doesn't suffer without them and TTT is a better introduction to Thrawn than OF. I don't think Darth Maul is important at all so I wouldn't even bother including his resurrection. LoE is great but I'm not sure what vital information it contains that isn't summarized in the opening chapters of RotS. On the other hand, I think the formal founding of the Rebellion is important enough that TUF bears including (unfortunately). SotE is great too but I don't remember it being that important plot-wise. CE is completely about a side character; Palpatine's already dead by this point and Nom Anor's introduction isn't that essential since he gets reintroduced in VP anyway. I don't remember Rebirth being very important; didn't they just have Keyes write it to fill a hole in the publishing schedule? DNT was a waste of time. The only important event I can remember from the non-hardcover LotF books is Pellaeon getting killed, but I'm not sure if that one scene is worth including Revelation.
Shatterpoint is referenced in the ROTS novel, as well as Coruscant Nights (though I'd agree that one is not essential), and is referenced in Shadows of Mindor (which I might also argue deserves a spot on the list, since Luke ending his military career and beginning his life as a Jedi is very important). I suppose I can agree on Dark Rendezvous, though it is referenced in Labyrinth of Evil (though that's a Luceno novel, so that's not entirely fair).
There's a difference between "like" and "regard as important to the plot". Some wonderful books might contain very little stuff that you need to know to understand later works. And vice versa.
Yeah I think the goal is to condense all the major EU story beats into as concise a list as possible. If I were to expand my previous list to include stories that are essential by virtue of their quality or "classicness," I'd add: Lost Tribe of the Sith KOTOR comics Knight Errant novel & comics Cloak of Deception Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter Quinlan Vos Omnibus Rogue Planet Shatterpoint Yoda: Dark Rendezvous Clone Wars Omnibuses 1-3 Labyrinth of Evil The Han Solo Trilogy The Han Solo Adventures Classic Star Wars 1-3: In Deadly Pursuit, The Rebel Storm, & Escape to Hoth The Valance, Tarkin, Vanis, and Lumiya arcs from Marvel Splinter of the Mind's Eye Shadows of the Empire Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina Tales of the Bounty Hunters Tales from Jabba's Palace Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor Rogue Squadron 5-10 The Crimson Empire Saga The rest of the NJO
Hi all, I just finished the Shadows of Mindor and I am now moving on to the X-Wing series. No spoilers please but... are all of the x-wing novels important to the series, or only the first 4? I see on Amazon that there are a ton of them (7 or 8) and if possible I would prefer to avoid the lousy filler books and read the ones that are important to the story line or fun cool filler. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!!
The X-wing books split up into groupings. The first 4 form one storyline (the war against Isard) the next three could be summarized as "the war against Zsinj"- the next wraps up the Isard story, and the last two are basically stand-alone. Still very entertaining, but less essential.
Awesome thank you. Are luke and the gang in them as minor characters or is it mostly a wedge storyline?
The X-Wing books have minor cameos from the Big 3 though Han Solo stars a major role in Solo Command.
Sounds good to me. I can't wait to get started. I started on a journey 3 years ago when I happened upon a copy of Darth Maul: Saboteur and I have made it all the way up to the X-Wing series. In the beginning I was a little worried about reading books where I didn't really know any of the characters but besides a few duds almost every book has been enthralling.
If you like starfighter battles and comedy the X-Wing books are for you. Wedge will probably be the only major character you know but the other new characters won't disappoint or shouldn't anyway
The first X-Wing series (the first four books) actually center more about a character named Corran Horn, a rookie to the squadron who goes on to become a major player in future stories, though Wedge remains a very important character. Wedge is arguably the main character in the Wraith trilogy, but that one is more about the squadron as a whole, and focuses on all of them a bit (which is why I personally prefer them; do yourself a favor and do not skip any of the X-Wing books). And yeah, like Forcesmuggler mentions, Luke and co. only make cameos, and they're mentioned a lot. This works really well IMO, as you get the feeling that they're enormously important figures even better than a lot of the books starring them. Though the novel is a bit cheesy, I suggest you read The Courtship of Princess Leia after you finish Solo Command. Those novels, amongst other things, serve as a sort of prequel to that one (mainly, the Wraith trilogy really fleshes out the villain from Courtship, who was fairly one-dimensional before).
Hi Catherine! Ummm my least favorites so far were probably Rogue Planet, Shatterpoint and Shadows of Mindor. I love almost every single book and there was a ton about Shatterpoint and Mindor I really enjoyed. In Shatterpoint the action and intrigue was great and I really enjoyed the plot resolution. However, I thought the psychosis stuff was a little too drawn out and the book made Mace Windu look extremely arrogant. His hand to hand fight with Kar Vastor when he was basically talking smack to him the whole time just seemed so out of character for any Jedi I had seen/read before. And as for Mindor I liked it a lot but some of the battle scenes were very confusing. There was so much going on with asteroids, gravity guns, explosions and volcanoes lol. I reread several parts just to try and grasp my head around it. By the end I was ready to jump in the book and kill Blackhole myself! Finally Rogue Planet to me was by far the worst I have read. Besides Anakin's first kill, nothing happened in the entire book (in my opinion). Thanks instantdeath, I won't skip any of them. I will write down The Courtship of Princess Leia so I don't forget it. I don't mind cheesy at all. That is actually one of my favorite parts about the Star Wars EU. Every book can be vastly different, but still amazing. Some are a little cheesy, but who cares!
That makes sense I guess, because of the "far outsiders" and the missing jedi. I would love if it all came full circle. My hunch when I reached outbound flight was that there would be a mention of the far outsiders or at least a nod to rogue planet. So I am excited to hear that it will come together.
