My probably contentious opinions of the EU

Nobody cares what I think on these boards, but my real life friends care even less.

So I might as well post something here, in case it sparks the fire that will light the flame of discussion.
^I used that metaphor ironically because I hate it.

I'm not an EU expert by any means, and I've only finished all the Star Wars books released til about 2003, so no opinions on Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi, or Episode III-era stuff.

Loved:
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Rebel Dawn
Lando Calrissian and the Bonkers Adventures Trilogy
Tales from Jabba's Palace
X-Wing 3 (courtroom drama? Yes please), 4, 6, 7, 9
Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm
Vector Prime
Traitor

Good but Overrated:
Thrawn Trilogy
Thrawn Duology
Corellian Trilogy
Star by Star

Awful:
Bounty Hunter Wars
Jedi Academy Trilogy
I, Jedi
Isard's Revenge
Force Heretic Trilogy

Some general opinions:

-Zahn's books are okay, but they lack dynamics. Not very exciting, not very dramatic, not very funny, just sort of middle-of-the-road storytelling in my mind. His saving grace is the characters he contributed, which admittedly are excellent.

-Stackpole wrote a few good early X-Wing books but for some reason the rest of his stuff is just bad. Perhaps the biggest disappointment I felt in all of my Star Wars reading was coming off of Vector Prime thinking "wow Star Wars is actually scary and intense now" to reading Dark Tide and thinking "Oh crap, actually it's just more Star Wars". I also think he loves Corran Horn way too much, and other authors write him better. Like, you know, with flaws. Stackpole posed as Corran for some 90s book at one point, and his face became the official face of his character. I think that speaks volumes about him as a person.

-The Han Solo Trilogy is very good, and it's so, so, SO much better than the movie we just got. (Side note: I really hate the Solo movie, and it's the only Star Wars movie I hate.)

-The New Jedi Order is too long, unfocused, and features too much militaristic hoohah and not nearly enough weirdo aliens, bounty hunters, mercs, or "fun" Star Wars content. It also focuses far too much on the central conflict instead of character development (more on that below). The two darkest novels are really good, and I wish that had been the tone of the whole thing.

-The Jedi Academy Trilogy is the worst Star Wars fiction by a mile. I remember when someone asks Luke why the Jedi Order should continue when it inevitably breeds Dark Jedi and catastrophic destruction. An interesting philosophical question. Kevin J. Anderson tackles it by having Luke reply, "Well I don't think a galaxy without the Jedi would be any worse!" Really deep thinking there, Kevin! This guy should have been relegated to junior novels and ruining the Dune series. Actually, I think that's exactly what happened.

-Final thought. What makes a good Star Wars story, like any story, is the characters. Space battles aren't interesting anymore after you've read 10 of them, let alone 50. The lopsided proportion of military Type A's in the Star Wars dramatis personae doesn't help the novels feel natural or fun. Most authors tend to focus FAR too much on conflict and action over dialogue and relationships, and the whole series suffers for it. Some of my favorite novels make my position clear - Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, a small-scale cat-and-mouse thriller. Tales from Jabba's Palace, a collection of character stories that give us great depth on unimportant creatures. Traitor, which forgoes the major conflict and gives us lots of philosophical development about the nature of the Force with only two characters. These are the best Star Wars books because they feel REAL and MEANINGFUL.

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These are my opinions, and if you disagree, that's fine. I'm not here to fight with anybody or say I'm right or you're wrong. I know that there's no reason to care about my views any more than another Star Wars fan's, but I'd like to have some general discussions with people who have read these novels. Perhaps I can get some recommendations on other books that could fit my tastes....?

 

Well someone's a bit controversial ;-)
If it helps, I agree with you on Zahn. Decided to reread the second half of Heir to the Empire a few weeks ago and slightly regretted it. I like to think that if the Thrawn trilogy grips someone, it can be really good, but if you don't 'get' it, it'll ultimately be a forgettable experience.

I've been reading the Han Solo Trilogy as of late (only just finished the first book) and I really like it too! I was worried it would feel like a generic smuggler novel, turned out it was a really fun story with plenty of focus on Han's character

Sad to hear the Bounty Hunter Wars might be bad, I've been super looking forward to those! :<

 

Haha thanks for biting, that was nice of you

It's funny you mention Luceno, cause I just finished posting a reply on another thread about how I thought his references are a bit overkill. At some point he's just cramming fan service in even if it doesn't help the story. Mentioninga beloved character is in a scene without fleshing that character out is a pointless trip to Wookieepedia for me. Oh he was the guy from the X-Wing game, cool. I still don't know who he is as a person.

But I digress. Thanks for the suggestions! I decided to soldier on through the timeline all the way to Crucible before going back to the prequel era, so I'm glad that Fate of the Jedi might have some good stuff for me.... I haven't heard the best things but I could read 10 Star Wars books without a single fight and I'd be happy.

I forgot to mention Allston in my post, he's one of my favorites. Small-scale and character-driven is my jam.

I'm surprised you liked Force Heretic I. It got so bad that I started to read diagonally, and I rarely do that. For me it often comes down to dialogue - does it sound like real people talking? If not, I tend to hate it, and Force Heretic was definitely the worst culprit of the NJO on that front. I have a soft spot for Pellaeon though, and he still rocked.

I still don't know if I'm gonna read the new canon. I enjoy the new episodes for their cinematography and dialogue, but I really don't care for the overall plot structure. Maybe I'll cherry pick some books like you suggested?

 

Hey I didn't even notice your reply, sorry!

What I find interesting about the third Han Solo book is that it carves out a space for Brian Daley's old Han Solo Adventures trilogy. There are several chapters in the middle where Han just disappears from the narrative and A.C. Crispin focuses on other supporting characters instead, which I think is so cool!

I'm curious..... when you get to that point, will you put the book down halfway and jump into the other trilogy for continuity's sake? I think that's what I did and it was an interesting way to get through a story. Not sure I'd recommend it though

 

Ooo, I actually originally bought the Han Solo Adventures books way back along with the Lando trilogy, but never got around to reading them. I'm sort of stunned and happy there's any kind of connection to Adventures! Thanks for mentioning that, I might just do what you did as well!

Seconding Maul: Lockdown. For whatever reason Joe Schreiber is one of my favourite EU writers. I loved all of his three books and I really miss his stories. They're very fast-paced and creepy in their own ways. If you're unsure about it, I'd recommend reading the The Syrox Redemption short story which ties into it first (which is probably my favourite short story of the old EU too!). Short and super super creepy, the perfect recipe for Maul stories in my opinion

 

Awesome, this is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much!!

Since NuCanon is (for now) so much smaller, I was thinking of abandoning the EU temporarily to catch up, but there's inertia with the arcs I'm reading. What should I do?? It's a terrible first-world problem to have.

I've been watching Matt Wilkins' YouTube series about the EU (is he active on these boards?) and he mentioned Thrawn as basically breaking the EU since it's not even the same character. So I'm surprised to hear you say it's EU-friendly. You think those books generally fit within the old timeline? Is there any credibility in the rumors that Episode IX will mess with space-time (ala Star Trek 2009) and make the EU an official part of canon again?

.....I know these are Big Questions but you're admin so I thought I'd try my luck

 

Yeah, Lockdown is for sure on my must-read list, but it's problematically neither part of NuCanon or the Main EU Story, and I'm concentrating on those almost out of obligation at this point. Maybe I'll make it a part of my midlife crisis book list, along with The Great Gatsby? What other books should I have read by now? Is Citizen Kane a book or just a movie? Uggghhh

A word of caution about the Han Solo chronological read - I didn't love Brian Daley's trilogy. It's fantastic to see Crispin mold her story around so much established EU, and she truly did her research. But passing from that story into a reasonably tame adventure with no connections to other stories - it makes Daley's trilogy feel like it's missing something, to no fault of his own.

This is a larger topic I'll probably dedicate to its own post one day (if I don't get kicked off these boards first), but I think there is merit to reading in order of release date as opposed to chronologically. Case-in-point: the Thrawn trilogy we talked about. Had I read it first, since it was published first, it may have blown my mind. But anticipating it through a couple dozen other novels, I read it with the hopes of a grand story, the way Endgame functioned for the MCU, but since it was so self-contained.... it kind of fell flat for me. It's similar to why C.S. Lewis diehards insist on reading the Chronicles of Narnia in release date order rather than chronologically. They just feel better that way

Thank you for reading Lando. I am a Lando Champion and Episode IX better be mostly about Lando. If Vuffi Raa is in the movie I will straight up lose my mind.

 

Ah, another fan of the Han Solo Trilogy. Good on you!