Lit Favorite Books and why?

This is my first post here, so bare with me. What was your favorite book and why? Have you read more from Legends or Canon?

 

I was a teenager in the 90s and that’s when I started reading Star Wars books. So, over the years I’ve read a lot more of the EU (now Legends) than the new Canon. The old EU had it’s share of flaws, but there’s some epic storylines and complex character arcs in there. There’s also a lot to like about the new Canon.

My favourite book is probably Shatterpoint. Windu is one of my favourite characters (partly because I like Samuel Jackson, but mostly because of this book). Stover really put meat on the bones of Mace Windu. Windu is in some ways a stoic, humourless and by-the-book Jedi. The novel explored Windu’s relationship towards his home planet and people, his loyalty to the Jedi Order and his emotional ties to his former Padawan (the closest thing he has to a daughter). The book also lets Windu be an absolute badass. He uses the force to slam his uncharged lightsaber into an attacker’s skull. Awesome.

 

I have more experience with Legends material than Canon, i've read all the Classic era comics from Marvel (1977-1886), the Dark Horse comics, the UK ones, etc. and i'm currently reading the novels (now i'm on The Unifying Force) but i'm also into the Canon EU, i read the newer Marvel comics, though not as religiously as when i was exploring the Dark Horse material back in 2015.

My favorite book so far has been Traitor from the New Jedi Order series, it is a masterpiece of a book.

My least favorite book has to be Planet of Twilight.

I still have a long way to go with the books, though.

 

Dark Rendezvous, for its great depiction of Yoda and Dooku, as well as the new characters it introduces. And of course, the humor.

 

I will be predicable and say Revenge of the Sith, though Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader are close as is Darth Plagius.

As for canon, Lost Stars. No contest.

 

Yep, YDR is the best written Star Wars book imo. Stewart's prose is without peer:

Spoiler

RE: Ventress
She was a dagger of a woman, slender and deadly. Even in a galaxy cluttered with hate, such a combination of speed and fury comes only once in a generation; Dooku had known that from the first moment they met. She was the rose and the thorn together; the sound of a long knife driving home; that taste of blood on one’s lips.

RE: Qui-Gon
Yoda opened his eyes. The feel of Qui-Gon in the Force was the same as always: stern and energetic, like a hank of good rope pulled into a fine sailor’s knot. Become a wave he has, Yoda thought. A wave without a shore.

RE: Yoda and Qui-Gon on Dooku's proposal
He is a fencer, Qui-Gon agreed. Leverage, position, advantage—they are as natural to him as breathing.
“My old student—your old Master, Qui-Gon. The truth he is telling?”
He thinks he is lying.
Yoda’s ears pricked up. “Hmm?”
He thinks he is lying.
A slow smile began to light Yoda’s round face. “Yessssss!” he murmured.

RE: Dooku on Yoda's response
Dooku reached for the box. He found to his surprise that his hands were shaking. Odd. He had been almost as surprised as Ventress to see himself sparing the gaunt Jedi, Jai Maruk. It had been a sudden whim, sending him back. A hook dropped for Yoda, as he had told Sidious afterward. A hook baited with the pink squirm of an old memory.

Most of even the best SW writers are either too technical or too vague or too overwrought, but Stewart just nails it with clever turns of phrase: dagger of a woman, a hank of good rope pulled into a fine sailor's not, he thinks he is lying, a hook baited with the pink squirm of an old memory, etc.

And these are just from the first two chapters!

 

Legends -> Traitor

Canon -> I would say Queen's Shadow, Queen's Peril, Jedi Lost and Master & Apprentice

 

Favorite book, I, Jedi. Favorite book series (it's hard to pick too many individual favorite books because so many are part of a larger series), the X-wing series, which I, Jedi is basically supplemental material to. (The Bacta War is probably my favorite of the books in the actual series).

There's probably lots of reasons for this - I love fighter pilot stories, I like the balance between the military, fringe, and Jedi aspects of Star Wars (especially in I, Jedi), I like the worldbuilding that it does both explicitly and just sort of in the background through the characters that it chooses...

I think the biggest reason this is my favorite corner of the Star Wars universe, though, is that it's something that was the personal baby of only a couple of authors, that the rest of the authors largely left it alone, and that those two authors knew what they were doing and did a pretty good job with it. (Both in the X-wing series per se, and when they came back to those characters in later works like the New Jedi Order or its aftermath). That's the blessing that comes from your characters not being the center of the universe. You don't have multiple radically different versions of Wedge Antilles like you do Luke Skywalker, except maybe in a couple of stories where he's a background character and it doesn't really matter that much, because you don't have twenty different authors all trying to get their hands on him and write The Next Chapter In His Life. It also means the characters are allowed to have reasonably happy endings, which is more than you can say for Luke, Leia, and Han after the sheer amount of drama and soap opera they were put through over the course of a forty or fifty year narrative and God knows how many stories. I have more closure for my X-wing characters than I do for a lot of the other ones in the universe.

 

This is a hard question to answer. It depends on what you mean.

Best book overall as a piece of literature in context: Traitor
My favorite book, because I love both what the story does and what the story establishes for the future: The Last Command
My favorite book to re-read: Vision of the Future
Not high literature, but great, pulpy fun: Starfighters of Adumar

Two other books that have to be mentioned because of what they are and what they do: Darth Plagueis and Return of the Jedi

Generally speaking, it's hard to go wrong with texts by Zahn or Stover. Luceno is usually great but can be a bit more hit and miss, some of his offerings are more encyclopedia entries than plots (which I like a bit of encyclopedia in a novel, but sometimes the balance is off).

Least favorite: Children of the Jedi

 

Tales from the Mos Eisley
Darth Bane trilogy
Darth Plagueis
Kenobi
ROTS novel

 

Old school here, my favorites are Brian Daley's Han Solo adventures. Nobody captured the feeling of original '77 SW better than Daley. Those books are just plain fun to read, and are so much like movies that I want popcorn with them.

 

For me its Young Jedi Knights. I like and respect NJO a lot but it does have a few clunkers and a few bits I don´t like. So in the end YJK is closer to my heart and is not only my favourite book series but also my favourite piece of SW in general.

 

The Alphabet Squadron books. Some found them a bit heavy, but I loved the exploration of questions and ideas that aren't typically touched on, and the focus on character. I found them to be a really enjoyable self-contained story.

Probably 50/50 on Legends or Canon, possibly read more Canon by this point.

 

Even though my sig is Shatterpoint, and Shatterpoint is brilliant. I’m going to second Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, it’s just so good.

“I want a rose.”, and Dooku can’t give it to Yoda. The Dark Side can’t give it to him, all those temptations, all those grandiose offers of power, and something so small, so simple, is forever beyond its reach. It’s just beautiful writing.

 

For me it is very hard to decide if i like Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap, or The Bacta War better, they are all so memorable and great, and with very different reasons to be number one.

 

Phasma. It's the only SW book other than the ROTS novel that has truly floored me. Delilah Dawson created a world and a tone with that book that blew me away. Its sequel Black Spire is also excellent.

 

I enjoy the fact that The Bacta War sends the Rogues back to their roots by forcing them to be Rebels again in fact and not just in name. And I love that they brought Booster Terrik into the main cast, along with his relationship to Talon Karrde. Some of the smaller guest star roles too - Elscol Loro wasn't indispensable to the story, but it was nice having her back, especially once you've read her backstory in the comics, and similarly the Twi'lek warriors brought something to the universe that you don't often see from that species, or at least didn't back then. Lastly, it's got a few of my favorite conversations in the EU, be it the serious ones (Corran and Booster going at it with "you smugglers were just like the Hutts"/"you cops were just like the Empire") or the hilarious ones (Booster, Karrde, and Cracken's crazy negotiation over the fate of what's about to be the Errant Venture).

 

Agreed. So many damn good lines and exchanges in that book.

Also, selfishly, it has my favorite depiction of Sidious. As much as I love and appreciate the godly chessmaster of the prequels, there will always be a special place in my heart for the sadistic troll of the originals. It's fun to read the terrible mind games he plays with the poor Count throughout the book.

 

Dp

 

I love that as chancellor Palpatine he sends Anakin and Obi-Wan to be the big heroes and save the day, when as Sidious he knows how close Dooku is to turning back and he’s actually sending them to ruin everything.

 

In general, it seems to be a throwback to the originals that happens to be set in the prequel era. Yoda feels more like the trickster troll from ESB, Palpatine feels more like the sadistic troll from ROTJ.

 

I am trying the new canon, but I really think Darth Plagieus sounds good?

 

It's really good.

 

What would be the generally-accepted top-tier Star Wars books?

I reckon:

• Revenge of the Sith novelisation
• Darth Plagueis
• Lost Stars

Would be three of the candidates.

 

My favourite book was traitor. It was wonderful. My favourite series would probably be the new Jedi order (I enjoyed every book from this series). I don’t have a least favourite, as I haven’t read many of the books yet and have yet to come across one that I don’t like.