Tucson What Recent Star Wars Novel Have You Read? What was there about it that you enjoyed?

I read the graphic novel The Force Unleashed. I don't like how they are referring to it as the next chapter of Star Wars as far as Canon goes.. like as usual forget the books ever being canon.. and as usual let's change the story once again. I liked the idea of the story and most of the plot though, I want to read the novel of it, I know I am not going to be playing the game any time soon.

 

From what I understand the Fate of the Jedi series is going to be a nine book post-Legacy of the Force series written by Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, and a newcomer lady (so they're doing the co-author thing again...). There's also apparently a stand-alone book called Blood Oath that will also be post-LOTF and feature Zekk (....refer to my Jag comments earlier...).
I want to read the Force Unleashed book, too, since, like you, Cat, I will not be playing the game since it is not released on the one platform I have!!!

 

I have zero desire to read a book featuring Zekk. How about a book featuring Jag and his new job.

 

Yes, that would be awesome! Maybe this Fate of the Jedi series will have some of that...?

You know...Zekk sounds really similar to Zedd...coincidence?

 

Oh, Kat, I know that I am on your mind most of the time, but this is getting to be a bit obsessive, don't you think?

 

Ha!! You'll have noticed, however, that I am in the pro-Jag camp, not pro-Zekk!

 

I miss hearing you two in the same room together.

 

I'm reading Coruscant Nights I right now. Started it yesterday, so far I'm enjoying it.

 

I just finished up Force Heretic II: Refugee, which is the 16th book in the NJO. It was a pretty good installment of both NJO and the Heretic series.

Still though, my 3 favorites for NJO have to be Vector Prime, Destiny's Way, and especially Traitor. That one's great.

 

I enjoyed those three as well, but my favorite NJO book is the last one in the series when it wraps up everything, I love how it ended and ties in with a book from the Prequel era.

 

The NJO series is epic. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the Force Heretic Trilogy. I am reading Rogue Planet right now and that's really cool because my mind remembers that trilogy. I have to say that my favorite book in the series was either Vector Prime, Traitor, or The Unifying Force.

 

I'm currently Reading Coruscant Nights Again. Cause I cant buy anymore books, caused by my Film.

 

Yeah, Traitor had a uniqueness that isn't found in a lot of the other Star Wars novels. I think there are like 4 major characters in the entire book. The way that they explore the "deeper meaning" of the Force was very interesting, and it's now one of my SW favorites.

 

Rogue planet just ties in so well with NJO. I love that about it. I have mislaid my copy of Coruscant Nights: Twilight Jedi.. which is the pits cause I was almost done with it.

 

So I just finished The Final Prophecy (Book 18 of 19 in NJO), but to be honest, it's not a spectacular book. Felt a lot like filler to make the 19th book shorter or something.

I really don't know how they're going to end this, I hope they don't drop the ball.

So now, I go to finish a journey I started 9 years ago, when Vector Prime first came out, to end my journey through the New Jedi Order...

 

Okay, where to begin. Let's start with the Force Unleashed book and graphic novel. They're....not good. Both feel like you are just readng a walk through of the video game. And there is far too much in there that makes you go "WTF?" (I've never mastered the black text thing, so i'll just say that if you read these, you'll easily spot the very weird parts.

If this is the first step in the "New Expanded Universe" that Lucas was talking about, then I'm not too happy about it. I really don't like the fact that he now feels it's okay to throw continuity out the window in order to get more stories out there. It's too Star Trek for me.

On the other hand, Couruscant Nights was a pretty amazing book. I like noir, and there was just enough of that, with a little intrigue and mystery too boot. At times it didn't feel like I was reading a Star Wars book, but an actual crime novel.

The Legacy comic is, far and away, the best thing going in Star Wars now. The story is better than anything written in novel form since...geez...the Thrawn duology? Well, let's say NJO because at least that series had some redeeming value. Unlike the LOTF series. That was just a trainwreck from page 1 on. I'm hoping this new series, FOTJ, will fix some of that. Hopefully...

 

I'm still waiting on the Force Unleashed...maybe one of these days the library will get to me on the list. I agree about the Legacy comics, they are pretty good!

I did finish Coruscant Nights II the other week, and I have to say that I liked the other one better. Not much seemed to happen in it--it was a murder mystery instead of a "political thriller," which was kind of disappointing. Maybe the next one will be better. Once again, the author did get carried away with his big vocabulary words, and I'm not sure that he used all of them correctly. My favorite example being him calling something (a containment field, if I remember correctly) "adiabatic" because it let no mass through, but adiabatic means letting no heat through! (Being a ChemE I find this a serious error )

 

Okay, see, I thought that same thing. I have a degree in English Lit, and at times, when I'm reading the Couruscant Nights books, I feel the author is overusing words and using words incorrectly. I brought this up in the Lit Forum, but of course you're not really allowed to say anything bad about the authors anymore (except Traviss...lol), so I was shot down pretty quickly.

I know English though, and I know how to use words, and that guy isn't doing it right all the time.

Another author does that too. I want to say it's Troy Denning, but I'm not sure now. What he does is seem to latch onto a certain word, like "caf," and then he just repeats it and repeats it. There was one book, I think in LOTF, where it seemed all anyone did was sit around and drink caf the whole time.

Now, in the grand scheme, these issues weren't terrible. I still enjoyed the Couruscant Nights books, and LOTF was at least good for a laugh. It just seems like something the editors should find and correct. But then, after reading LOTF, I'm pretty sure they don't even use editors anymore. That could be the problem.

 

ZMOG thank you for noticing. That totally turned me off to the story and I don't plan to read the 2nd and 3rd books.

As for TFU novel, I read it and was engaged by it and found the idea of the Apprentice - forget his name at this point - starting the Rebellion. Was it literary gold? No. I have been told it follows the story arc in the game to a T but since I won't be playing the game I won't know that so my only connection to the story was through the novel.

 

I just read Rogue Planet and after reading NJO I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Greg Bear was really good with his writing of Obi-Wan and Anakin and even better for Tarkin.

 

Still working on Cantina, made through five stories so far.

 

I finally got ahold of The Force Unleashed. It had better be good: I biked through snow and wind to get to the library! (Yay! It finally snowed here, well, we got a little dusting!)

 

I read the graphic novel of it, I started the book but was never able to complete it as I did not own it, I was reading it in the bookstore.

 

Finished the Force Unleashed! I really enjoyed it, particularly the exchange "Do you have a name boy?" "No." The apprentice's force powers were a little over the top, but cool nonetheless, although I did enjoy the "cut scenes" (or what I'm guessing are the cut scenes in the game) better than the action parts. I just didn't like the apprentice's demise at the end, :-( poor Juno.

 

Just finished The Unifying Force, and by extension, the NJO. Pretty incredible.