Lit What is your pre-Episode VII reading to-do list?

So, the news of the novel Aftermath caught my attention. And although my initial intention was to stick with novels and comics from the old EU (Legends, if we must) as sort of a last hurrah before a new continuity arrives, Aftermath seems too tempting. Usually there's a level of excitement that I can accept with a certain amount of reserve, but Aftermath is making me think of Kenobi, one of those rare SW books that I just had to get in hardcover, and read only a few months after it had been released. Since the time factor is going to be short, and my curiosity about the new version of events is gnawing at the back of my mind, I'll probably tackle that book when it comes out. Plus which, reading Labyrinth of Evil a couple months ago is a lesson to me about want more and not realizing that exactly what I was looking for is sometimes right under my nose.

I'm still going to read novels from both the old and new EU, but Aftermath is probably were I will start with the new EU.

 

Woah woah woah, Kanan is WAY more relatable as an adult human male than any character in the prequel trilogy. Working a crappy day job just to earn beer money?

I'm reading the hand of Thrawn currently, I wanna try to read the Vong books before the journey to the force awakens books start releasing. If possible.

 

Gonna be way too into all of the novels and books that are coming out this fall to read old stuff.

So all of those YA novels
Aftermath
Whatever shattered empire is possibly is
Any other JTFA

 

I already dipped my feet into the New Canon with A New Dawn, and was already planning on reading Heir to the Jedi after the ANH novelization, but I agree: I am extremely interested to see what direction the post-RotJ GFFA will be going in. I should have time to put it at the end of my list and still finish it prior to the release of TFA in theaters. I will probably wait to read the novelization of TFA until after the first time I've seen the movie.

So were you saying you really liked reading LoE? While Luceno's contributions felt a bit encyclopaedic at times (see my previous comments), I thought "The Dark Lord Trilogy" as a story arc was excellent.

Well, good. Clearly that was the reason they made his character like that, so I'm glad he works for you. Like I said, "YMMV."

 

I am receptive to both old and new EU books and comics, I'm just been holding off on them a little, to give old EU material that last bit of space I can give it, before it has to coexist side by side with an alternative post-RotJ narrative. Having watched the SW Rebels TV show, I will definitely be looking in on A New Dawn, when it comes out in paperback (I wanted to invest in the characters and situations of the show in their primary format before going back and reading about their backstory). I like Luke Skywalker focused material, and hope that some of the mixed reviews that I've seen for Heir to the Jedi will help my expectation going in (I tend to react well to any kind of book, with some expectation prep work going in). I hope Heir to the Jedi is a bit more cheerful that Shadows of Mindor, which I thought was very well conceptualized and very thoughtful an exploration of Luke's character and his impact on people around him; Shadows was just a bit more apocalyptic than I was prepared for, so I enjoyed it much less than I thought I would.

I loved Labyrinth of Evil, yes! I've always enjoyed Luceno's prose, the details of LoE are amazingly unifying of all the movies, which helps me accept the Prequels as part of the saga, and it was a fun read. I made sure that my copy of DV Rise of a Dark Lord was easily accessible should I have a mad desire, however I'm prioritizing other books I hope to get to before The Force Awakens arrives.

 

Hello, everyone. Just wanted to drop in and update everyone on my reading list.

The Han Solo trilogy finished like it started. A very satisfying backstory that adds a lot to Han's character and ties a lot of EU elements nicely together. It will be interesting to see if Felicity Jones' character in Rogue One will be a nod to Bria Tharen's character in Rebel Dawn, or if the spinoff intentionally rewrites that lore. I suppose it is possible that Jones' character could be a different rebel commander involved in the same/related mission.

I just finished reading my own personal copy of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. It looks like this:

I've actually owned this book for years, but never got around to reading any of the episodic novelisations until I started my current, pre-TFA list. It was definitely clunkier to get through than the other, more modern, books on my list, but I'm glad I read it, at very least to say I did. There were a few minor differences here and there, mostly deleted scenes from the film, but for the most part it stuck pretty close to the movie. When there were variations in dialogue, the movie version was almost always superior. In a lot of ways it felt like a rough draft. I did enjoy the backstory to Biggs and Luke's friendship which was left on the cutting room floor, which I always felt was a shame.

And while the movie does a great job of making the audience feel the pressure on Luke at the climax of the story (nod to John Williams), the book did a better job of making the reader feel the great losses the rebels took during the battle. The parts about Blue (Red in the movie) Leader were good, and I appreciate the extra details about the attack runs and maneuvering during the battle. I found it very interesting that Luke made TWO passes at the exhaust port in the book... I had no idea!! He missed the first time using the targeting computer, and the second pass was just like the movie, though Vader gets cleared off of Luke's tail by Han/Chewie slightly earlier in the book than the movie. The book portrays Luke's state of being immersed in the Force to make his epic shot as trance-like or unconscious, almost. He actually doesn't remember triggering the torpedoes, but hears his colleagues congratulate him when they go in. Very interesting.

I'm looking forward to reading Heir to the Jedi next. I'm waiting on the hold list to be able to check out an e-copy from my library...

 

Hey, that's a really nice looking copy! I remember that book being harder to get through when I was younger, had a couple of false starts. Alan Dean Foster's prose always seems a bit more dense to wade through towards the beginning of any novel he writes, and then after a certain point he settles down (or the reader, me, acclimates to it).

I started reading I, Jedi for the first time about a week ago; now almost 200 pages in. It's turning out to be a really terrific return journey into the bantam era of SW, with Corran Horn's earlier head-exposition a great reminder of the good times (Thrawn, and the X-Wing stuff I only recently read) and some of the oddly fitting stuff (Dark Empire is a comic I like quite a bit, but as it's own separate story, it's own version of a sequel to RotJ; I always thought it was an odd fit in a single continuity with the Bantam's overall narrative). I'm getting a kick out of watching this logically, concrete thinking man struggling to open himself up emotionally and spiritually to gain access to the Force. It's funny being inside his mind and thinking, "Aw, poor Corran, you sometimes don't know your own mind, do you?" I've always thought he was a worthwhile character, and it's still consistent with this book. I felt for his guilt over the circumstances that Mirax got kidnapped, that was a strong, genuine emotional moment for Corran that really gripped me and lock the book on it's proper trajectory.

It's been 15-20 years since I read the Jedi Academy Trilogy, and I have remembered enough of it to not be lost at all with what's happening at Luke's school, yet been away from it long enough that I'm not feeling bored or impatient about hitting familiar scenes from a different angles. I like how Corran goes into police investigation mode, that makes sense for the character, and it makes sense for the story (a re-read of JAT after this might make that series seem a bit more rough, lacking a proactive approach to a mysterious threat that emerges).

 

Well, I did it.

I finally finished reading the main volumes in the Clone Wars Multimedia Project (the novels, the Republic series of comics, and even the Boba Fett YA stories). Really enjoyed it. It was fun seeing story elements that TCW picked up as a seed, but let it grow in a different direction. I can imagine the excitement reading these books between II and III were released, and especially reading Labyrinth of Evil just before going to see ROTS. I look forward to experiencing something similar with Aftermath.

Well, it Just so happened that Epic Collection: Volume 1 - The Empire just came out, so I picked that up to continue the story. I'll also likely read Kenobi as well, as it's gotten great reviews, and I really enjoy JJM.

And what the heck. I also started skimming Truce at Bakura to revisit the post-ROTJ storyline, and perhaps even get back up to the point where I left off decades ago. Maybe someday I'll even make it to NJO(!).

Not rushing anything for prior to TFA any more, just going for a leisurely pace, enjoying aspects of the Legends EU that I missed, or re-experiencing ones I enjoyed as an older dude.

Oh, and I'm also playing Dark Forces I through for the fist time. Fun and frustrating, just as I expected it to be!

 

This is why I've got my eye on Aftermath, having read LoE all these years later and seeing how effective it was as a story that helps unify the saga, and provides an exciting lead in to RotS. I know it's not reasonable to expect exactly the same from Aftermath, but I think this is a moment where I would like to be more synchronized with EU and EU fans than I have been in the past.

I hope you like it, that book and Darth Plagueis are what have helped persuade me to catch up with the some of my backlog of SW books I haven't read.

I had my frantic moment, it's noticeable in my earlier/earliest posts in this thread, where I throw out a list of all the bits and bobs I hope to hit before the new movie arrives. Wouldn't it be nice to catch up with all the Timothy Zahn books outside of TTT and HoT that I've neglected for too long? And assemble the remaining component of Luceno's prequel books that elaborate on the Sith's scheming (CoD), or finish of the Dark Lord trilogy with Darth Vader: Rise of a Dark Lord. I would love to look in on Coruscant Nights. I wanted to hit Wraith Squadron before following Corran Horn on his spiritual journey/awakening in I, Jedi (I'm going by publication order, ish, with the X-Wing and related books). In the end, I decided to scale back and target three books for a broad-strokes last visit with the old EU paradigm. I, Jedi is giving me a feeling that I've made the right choice by including it as one of those three. And I've started to pluck away at the Wild Space Omnibus Volume 1 comics on the side.

I don't want to wear myself out on SW before the new movie hits, but I also don't want to be hopping from one foot to another counting the days 'til the new movie. All these books and comics are helping to take the edge off of the wait for TFA. It's nice to take them at a leisurely pace, and to keep my energy at a more calm level.

BTW, you first experienced Legends EU as an older dude?! Does that mean you're younger now? You must teach me how that's done!

 

Ha! Poor grammar. I meant re-experience the stuff I first encountered as a kid as someone who is now in their 30s. The Older Dude. I read TTT when it first came out, book by book, and loved it. Read Jedi Academy Trilogy, and thought the references to Luke and Dark Side were weird, and then discovered a TPB of Dark Empire at Library. Also picked up Tales of the Jedi, and then was able to get TOTJ: Dark Lords of the Sith as the issues were released, as well as Dark Empire II and Empire's End. I read a lot of the stand-alone novels up to about the time of Shadows of the Empire, and The New Rebellion. And I think that's about where I left off all those years ago. Never read the X-Wing books. Never read NJO - didn't even make it to the Hand of Thrawn duology. It took the re-launch and the end/branding of the Legends-verse to get me back into the game.

 

To be fair, that was just an image I found online to represent the cover art of my book, but considering its age my particular copy doesn't look too bad, either. I, too, noticed a learning curve, or perhaps acclimation of the reader, over the course of the book. Not my favorite writing style, but it did seem to get better once the plot left Tatooine.

I'm glad you're enjoying I, Jedi. I agree that Corran is a really interesting character. I never read the JAT or NJO+beyond (and ever since the EU was banished to Legends, I don't intend to), so all of my experiences with him are with I, Jedi and the X-wing series.

The Thrawn series and the first 7 X-wing books are must-reads, IMO.

 

I'm currently in an awkward position between two books (note that they are partially marked out on my list, lol). I was on the library hold list for Heir to the Jedi for a while (which felt odd for an eBook, since I haven't had to wait on one before), so I broke down and started reading my personal copy of ESB while I waited. Like the novelization of ANH, it is basically a rehash of the movie, and doesn't offer any additional insights into the characters. It is, in my opinion, much easier to read than ADF's ANH...

So I got to the Bespin part of ESB when I happen to notice that Overdrive had auto-checked out HttJ, but my email had marked the notifying email as spam! So 3 days had already been burned off my checkout period before I actually started reading.... I was surprised when the story started out in first-person perspective, because that is extremely rare (at least within the books I read). However, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the author pulled it off. Using this technique ensures we stay close to Luke throughout the story, and the story itself stays focused instead of rambling.

Apparently lots of people want to read this book (Or the library didn't buy enough licenses ), but at any rate, despite making significant progress, I didn't finish it in 11 days. This is quite typical, as I usually need 2-3 checkout periods to complete a book at my usual pace. So now I'm back to Bespin to finish off ESB while I wait on the hold list again for HttJ...

 

I didn't get back to reading SW specifically as a lead up to TFA but I guess it could be said I hope to finish Republic Commando series and Tarkin before release.

 

Working through audiobooks of Stackpole's X-Wing books for the first time!

 

So, now that I've finished it, I'll talk briefly about Heir to the Jedi.
Overall, a very nice book. I appreciated the cleaner writing, especially after reading ANH. I thought the author did an excellent job staying within the lines of Luke's abilities at that point in his training (or lack thereof) and weaving together a story that gets us from his powers in ANH to those seen at the beginning of ESB (summoning the lightsaber to save himself from the Wampa).

I think the book did a really nice job of marrying the OT setting to current Out-of-Universe/IRL technology/culture. We still see EU terms like "slicing," but it also mentions spyware/malware and accessing computer systems remotely through the internet/Holonet (I don't remember what exact term they used for it). It made the story seem relevant without being forced. I also thought the descriptions of the Force were well done, especially in the climax of the story.

Despite the first person perspective, it never got old/repetitive to me. My only complaint is that Luke's tone/word choice seemed more like a vanilla protagonist rather than fitting the exact personality we were given in the movies, but perhaps that is better than trying TOO hard (see my comments on the Han Solo Trilogy). I definitely liked Luke's thoughts on the events of ANH, but the book stays pretty light on that, which I think is a good choice. It was a little annoying that the author made Luke so awkward with regard to romantic relationships, but again, I guess he is still supposed to be pretty green/naive at this point, and not just in terms of military experience.

I don't want to get too off track, but it seems to be trendy to hook the (white) main characters up with a black lady (Salla/Sana for Han, now Nakari for Luke)? I have nothing against interracial relationships at all (I've dated outside my race, no problem), but it just seems cliche that when authors feel the need/are told by their editor to make their story more interesting/relevant to modern audiences, they make a romantic interest black.

Spoiler

Does this actually add to the diversity of the story if the non-white person ends up being a throwaway character? (This is not really a spoiler as you know that Nakari is not in ESB or RotJ, so she and Luke must part ways before the book is over.) Is being a throwaway character better or worse than not even being a character at all? (To go along with the trope that the black person is always the first killed in movies, etc.)

Also, why in the world don't we see more Asian characters? And I'm not just talking East Asian, I'm also talking South Asian, too... After all, Asia actually contains a majority of the world's population. (This really doesn't even scratch the surface of the topic, considering we saw inter-species relationships in some Legends books- wonder if we'll see that in the new canon?) Anyway, just random thoughts to mull over...

I actually finished ESB in one or two sittings after resuming it. So I was a little out-of-order in finishing it before I was able to check out HttJ again. I just reserved a copy of Shadows of the Empire yesterday- I'm really looking forward to reading it for the first time. I never played the game (gasp!), but thanks to Wookieepedia I've been aware of a summary-level view of the story for quite a while.

 

truce at bakura
The thrawn trilogy
I,jedi
Spectre of the past
Vision of the future
Union
Survivors quest
The young jedi knights omnibuses
Start my yearly reread of the xwing books

The tim zahn books above plus union are what I call the courtship of mara jade series with I, jedi featuring her in corrans story.

I may also reread the waru book for the first time just out of pure sadism.

Basically I am rereading my favorite stuff thats canoncity has been destroyed by the disney death star and the new films. I am sure I will love the new films but I will still enjoy my parallel universre where Mara Jade, Corran Horn, Booster Terrik and most importantly Lt. Keetch, the ewok tie fighter pilot/pirate gang member who is really Wedge with a stuff ewok doll strapped to his tie pilot uniform, still exist.

God do I miss Aaron Allston's humor. R.I.P. Mr allston.

 

I'm devling deeper into the NEU soon, Force willing. September 4th you can bet I'll be reading Aftermath and Shattered Empire. Probably get into the YA novels with my kids. I'm a little out of the loop still, so I'm not sure what else is coming out that will be important story wise. I feel like I'm discovering Star Wars all over again with my sons. Which is interesting. I'll always have the EU in the back of my head, and I'm sure whatever fills the 30 year gap and is the story of the ST can't possibly be all that wildly different from the post-ROTJ EU. I mean, the broad strokes are already there. Dark Force-users, some resurgent form of Imperial Remnant, etc.

 

Alright, who has pre-ordered Aftermath: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens? I just did a couple of days ago, and September 4th can't come fast enough, especially now that I have finished all the other books on my list!

Man, talk about two great books, back to back! Return of the Jedi was (IMO) far and away the best of the OT novelizations, and Shadows of the Empire was, in one word... kickass. That was the Zahn-type action I'd been missing!

The characterization of Xizor was so good... even Guri, and android, was so interesting to get to know. Shadows definitely vaulted into the pantheon of my favorite SW books. It's a shame I didn't read it before now, but I'm so glad that I did!

(This is a real spoiler this time, I'm not just saving space like usual with these):

Spoiler

Isn't it interesting how the author left it (not likely, but) possible that Xizor survived, and very likely that Guri survived? Obviously with the end of the Legends storyline, we will likely never find out what adventures Guri went on next, which is a shame. I really loved that Luke tried to convert her at the end.

I loved all of the personal development/thoughts included in RotJ. As I expected, the story was a little slow until it moved off of Tatooine, but it was still enjoyable. Certainly nothing like the Shmi storyline in the novelizations of I and II... And even though I've seen the movie version a million times, I felt my eyes water a bit when Yoda became one with the Force. It was a book that was easy to get emotionally invested in, as the feelings of the characters were really well portrayed. The heaviness in Luke's heart at the loss of Yoda AND the prospect of having to confront his father came across much better than in the film, IMO. And I really liked how the relationship between Luke and Leia was written. The author made an effort to really emphasize Han's change in priorities after being freed from the carbonite, something that also didn't come across in the movies very strongly. Luke's confidence was cool... it was interesting that he and Vader could sense the Emperor's fear of Luke. And the Throne Room scene had more depth than the movie.

Anyway, those were my (unorganized) thoughts on RotJ. Really good read for a novelization, especially considering it was from the OT-era. Looking forward to the last two books on my list, which have not been released yet. Does anyone have a suggestion for one book I should read while I wait?

 

Actually, Guri's continued adventures are chronicled in Shadows of the Empire: Evolution.

 

On Dark Tide now. Hoping to finish Unifying Force circa TFA release.

 

Just Aftermath but gonna buy the hardcover & everything. Already have all of the Marvel comic Star Wars at my comic shope so I guess that counts too as ongoing since January.

As for the TFA novelization, I'm thinking I'm going to wait for the paperback. Interestingly, my novelization collection is a giant single collection of OT novelizations in paperback:



(the print is soooo tiny in this one but it's all 3 in one big paperback!)

And hardcovers of the PT releases so for the ST - all individual paperbacks!

 

I have only ever seen the OT novelizations in the form of a one volume paperback.

 

I'm collecting the OT hardbacks with original dustcover art. Mine aren't in pristine shape or anything, but I've got ANH and ESB; I just lack RotJ

Did anyone else see the teaser excerpt for Aftermath? I saw it via the Star Wars app:
http://www.starwars.com/news/chaos-throttles-the-capital-in-star-wars-aftermath-special-excerpt

Looks like Wedge plays an important part in the story, and I found it interesting that right off the bat Rae Sloane (from A New Dawn) is in there as well. You can also see that early and often they'll be blending in elements from PT lore to craft a unifying view of the saga, a la Labyrinth of Evil. Very interesting.

 

Removed the Tales from the....books from my list because I'm not going to bother with them until after all the full length books

Also read

Heir to the Jedi
Lords of the Sith
Dark Disciple
Servants of the Empire Edge of the Galaxy

 

I have that same old paperback trilogy collection where I bought it one time from the B Dalton bookstore in the mall back when I was in middle school in the early 1990s. Now the book's front cover is worn out and about to fall off lol.