New Jedi Order vs Legacy of the Force

Wow, its been a LONG time since i've posted here. Forgive me if there is a thread like this already but I searched all over and couldnt find one.

I've read alot of SW novels and I was looking to get into a new line of stories. so far I've stayed within the PT and OT timeframes, with Spectre of the Past being the novel furthest after the OT that i've read. Soooooo, I heard that LoF was an awesome series so I bought Betrayal and was looking forward to starting it. BUT then i thought about it. Should I read NJO first to get background info on these new characters that I am not familiar with yet?

So i came here, to seek the Council's infinite knowledge. Is it necessary to read NJO before LoF?

 

Realistically, yes.

 

Might as well read them. You get some good stories and LOTF will make sense.

 

Unfortunately, yes, NJO is necessary to read before LOTF.

 

-necessary = no
-reccomended = yes
--To each his/her own though. I really enjoyed the NJO. But maybe it's different now because it's not the current story...If you can get a good system that allows you to power read than you could read about 2 books a week. Depending on the time you can allow.. 9 WEEKS. Knock off say 2 weeks to really good reads that just cant be put down like Allstons & Dark Journey & The Final Prophecy.. It's that trilogy towards the end by Shane Dix & his buddy that kileld my flow. It took me a month to read those three books..The last book of the three picks up though..Oh and "Traitor" is required regardless if you skip the NJO. So if you do skip it, it's My honest opinion that you should read Star-by-star & Traitor. But Dark Journey follows Star By Star & it's a fast read because of the events & the fact that the writer really flows. I think i read Dark Journey in 2 sittings..

--Read them bro! It's Star Wars EU at it's finest!

 

Edittedo ut just in case.

 

I dunno, I liked NJO's overall idea....but LOTF seems to be better-written.

 

I Never read NJO, as I found the whole concept of the Yuuzhan Vong to be pathetically unoriginal and a weak plot. Picked up Betrayal and read every single book and loved it immensely. There's nothing in there which you can't figure out with a brief visit to Wookiepedia to read a Vong War synopsis.

 

completely necessary imo.

you should also read the dark next trilogy.

you need to understand why all the characters are the way they are in LotF

 

Both series suffer from the same problem: great concepts hampered by piss poor execution. However, LOTF is better- but only because it's shorter. Personally, I would suggest skipping both entirely and going to the Legacy comics, which are superior on every level.

 

It's not necessary to read the NJO prior to LotF, no; the latter draws on the former very little. It might even be less confusing.

That said, I'd heartily recommend you read the NJO in leiu of LotF. The former has some problems, yes, but in my estimation these are far outweighed by the positives; the latter, unfortunately, promises much but fails to deliver.

 

When I was blazing through Zahn, Anderson and the prequel books, Betrayal came out. I thought I had to read it cause it was so "now". I was not thrilled that I had to get through the NJO in order to understand LOTF. Everyone said to stop and enjoy the NJO and that there was no hurry whatsoever to get to LOTF. And they were all so right!

Edit: Oh BTW I passionately recommend the NJO or at least a few of the books as some of the best EU books that exist.

 

Interesting.

I'm curious.

Do people who simply "skipped" NJO like LOTF better?

Do people who read NJO dislike LOTF more?

Do we have a correlation there?

 

Read the NJO series if you want to have a full understanding of the Legacy comic series.

Skip the LotF books entirely.

 

my opinion?
NJO is the best of the EU with some outstanding books in there, read it.. though you dont necessarilly need all of it to understand LOTF
Vector Prime
POSSIBLY the Edge of Victory duology? that was really good i thought..
Star by Star
DJ
DW
Unifying force

that should do..

and probably DNT.. though i found it rather dull and seem to have blocked most of the events from my recollection now to be honest.

Though if you REALLY didnt want to try NJO then you can read wookiepedia and just fastforward straight to the start of LOTF..
wookiepedia will give you enough information to make the following stories make sense..
Though like i said, NJO is fantastic.. IMO the cream of the crop when it comes to star wars lit..

(this is coming from some1 who has the legacy TPBS ordered but not actually got/read them yet btw)

Vereor

 

I read like two NJO books and then stopped. Afterwards, I proceeded to reading LOTF and I love it. You can get a Vong War summary from Wookieepedia, and LOTF will be fully understandable.

 

The NJO is very enjoyable in parts. It is not at all a necessary read to understand and enjoy LotF. There's surprisingly little connection between the two. The Vong War is referenced more in the Legacy comics than it is in LotF.

DNT, on the other hand, sets up a number of plot lines for LotF. So I'd read that.

 

I can't recommend most of The NJO enough and I am quite luke warm (no pun intended) about LOTF. DNT is great but to say that one should read DNT instead of or in place of The NJO has crazy priorities IMO.

 

There's alot more to the NJO than just a Vong war summary. There's alot of character interactions that the Pedia leaves out.. As several posters have said " THE NJO is STar Wars EU at it's finest. It's EU on a grand scale...It really introduces Jag well & expands on him. As well As Nom Anor. The biggest cheese imo is the whole SHamed ones cast. I dislike how easy it is to become shamed.. Not really a spoiler but a who's who of NJO...

--The post that said to skip it all & goto Legacy comics is so silly. I hate the way wookiepedia is there for those who now have a option to skip out & still getthe story. To each his/her own. I love Wookiepedia for info btw...

---Could there ever be a war on such a grand scale as the Vong war? I mean 19 books + a few ebooks too.. All i can think of is when the books catch up to the comics of Legacy than we could have a massive series about that whole war etc. But until then i dunno..

 

I really like the NJO books, but they aren't necessary for the legacy of the force novels. The Dark nest books probably won't make a lot of sense unless you read NJO, i don't feel that they are necessary for legacy either.

I think you should read vector prime, the first book in the NJO series. If you like it, keep reading the NJO, if you don't try the first legacy book.

 

GREAT info guys, thanks alot! I'm gonna peep out Vector Prime and take it from there, see how it goes. I'm sure i will enjoy NJO, but i dont plan on reading all 27 (or however many there are)books.

but thanks again for the input guys and/or gals

 

If you don't plan on reading all nineteen books, at least read these five:

Vector Prime
Balance Point
Star by Star
Destiny's Way
The Unifying Force

NJO was sort of designed so that you could just read those five and you'd get all the story you need. I disagree, and I'm sure most everyone else who's read NJO will, too, but if I remember right each one of those comes with a recap at the beginning that explains what happened so far.

 

And don't forget Traitor. That one really shouldn't be missed EVER. In fact if you read only one book going into LOTF it should be Traitor.

As you point out, Randy, each book recaps the last one so I'd personally prefer the Edge of Victory duology to the previous, Balance Point. Much more interesting stuff than Balance point IMO.

 

Oh, I completely agree with you. High points like Edge of Victory and Traitor should definitely be read. I also didn't find Balance Point very interesting, but in retrospect it's got some important details about Jacen that help shape his future views on the Force.

 

I started LotF first, and then I decided to pick up Traitor because it featured the Temple. Then I was hooked on Vergere and everything else so I wound up getting all of the books. So yeah get them if you can afford all of them!