This is a good question. Outside of the original toys that came out as I was growing up, I am sure there were books that came out too that I read but can't recall them. In regards to the EU that we know today, it started with the first Thrawn Trilogy book when it came out. I read it then and half of book two but didn't finish it. I picked up the final book about 8 years ago to fill out an order via Amazon for free shipping. I read them all in a row for the first time two summers ago right after all the books went to ebook and have been hooked ever since. I have the Han Solo Adventures at home but never read those. Maybe I need to do so? The X-Wing books though are what really got me into it seeing heroes other than Jedi saving everyone. I am now nearing to read NJO for the first time.
I've never read the Solo books. They are kind of a stand alone series... At least from my understanding
That sounds like the title, but A Forest Apart came out in 2003, whereas this must have happened back in like... 97 or 98 or something. That's why I can't for the life of me imagine what it was, as there weren't that many books around back then. Unless that was actually it.
If for no other reason, every Star Wars fan has to see that "I prefer shooting first line", laugh, then laugh more when you realize the novel pre-dates the special edition by nearly two decades. Brian Daley read the future, and he disapproved.
As a very young person my family would go south on occasion to visit relatives in Kentucky and West Virginia. One of my favorite things we did was go to a gigantic outdoor flea market. THERE, buried in a box I dug through was Splinter Of The Mind's Eye. WTH? I thought perhaps it was some sort of ripoff. I bought it with money my grandparents were good about handing out. This was long before GL made up his mind about relations. Reading the book now is creepy. But it was a wonderful thing to find at the time and my first intro into the wider environment of a given fictional universe.
The Marvel series and Stars' End. Then, years later, the sacred triunvirate of the WEG roleplaying game, the first Dark Forces videogame, and the X-Wing videogame series. And then, my curiosity piqued by all of this, Zahn's trilogy. Good times.
I nagged the librarians relentlessly, looking up the expected release dates and placing holds in advance. Ah, the years before the interwebs.
I think my first EU experience was Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. After that I played the Jedi Knight games as they were released, then came KotOR I & II and the KotOR comic series.
I have to add now that I think about it, so many years later I played KOTOR 2 and after defeating a Sith Lord I searched his remains and found the Kaiburr Crystal. NERDGASM.
When you send your selection of party members to the Tomb Of Freedon Nadd(While you head off to Onderon) there is a Sith Lord who tires to turn you to the Darkside before you battle and kill him and his two companions. Out of perhaps 6 play throughs only one turned up the Kaiburr Crystal.
Cool, I was always a Halcyon, and would use the trading planets vendor to get the Silver Lightsaber... The Male Exile to me was always start of the Halcyon line...
For books it was at a Barnes and Nobles bookstore. It was either children of the Jedi or I Jedi, I remember reading the the phrase they hid the children down the well, and thought it was a horror novel. One of the reasons I thought Callista was Luke's first love, little did I know... And of course I Jedi may have been read first because of the Jedi thing in the title. For games it was Star Wars Rebellion the Old Empire at War game. I was introduced to Pellaeon, Thrawn, Tallon Karrde, Noghri, and had absolute no idea why they were in a Star Wars game. Then I read the Jedi Academy series rudimentally, and still they weren't in the books. Finally I found the Thrawn Trilogy!
Yes -- they're an absolute must to read! A little campy, but fun. And they set the stage for a lot of Han's weird little quirks in many subsequent novels. Also, the Lando Calrissian Adventures are a trip -- basically like the Han Solo ones, only... what you'd expect from Lando.
