What to read?

Hello, and Merry Christmas!
I read some very good SW books, but also some very, very terrible ones.

I would like to sift through it all, and skip the bad ones. Could you help me with that?

Which books besides the ones I wrote below are good books? Not good books because they are SW, but really good books.

Thrawn trilogy(great)
Cloak of Deception(great)
Jedi Academy trilogy(beyond terrible)

 

Yes, somebody besides me you liked Cestus Deception!

I'd go and read Republic Commando, the first half followed by the last two books of the NJO, I, Jedi, The Rogue Squadron books, Truce At Bakura Tattooine Ghost and round up the Clone Wars comics.

 

The NJO era novels are excellent, IMHO, though you'll get a different opinion from some folks.

I also suggest you read "Shadows of the Empire," if you can find it anywhere. It starts out a little slow, but in the end it provides an important tie-in between ESB and RotJ.

Avoid the "Bounty Hunter's War" trilogy. I love the character of Boba Fett, but these three books really aren't all that entertaining.

If you like comic books, I suggest reading as many "Tales," "Star Wars Jedi," or "Republic" issues that you can. None have really let me down at this point...

It'd likely be hard to get your hands on this currently, but if you can find the "Tales of the Jedi" comic book series anywhere, I highly recommend it too (especially if you'd want to know a bit of history of the Star Wars universe leading into the events of KotOR). If you can wait until April 2005, Dark Horse Comics is re-releasing the entire TotJ series, as well as the "Sith Empire" duology, in one graphic novel at that time.

I originally enjoyed the "Dark Empire" graphic novels, but as time has passed I've lost most of my enthuiasm for "singing their praises." In other words, passing up the "Dark Empire" trilogy is not a bad thing.

That's all I can think of for now...

 

I woudl highly recommend:

X-Wing novels (9 books)
Tatooine Ghost

Those should get you started.

If you really like Zahn, then also go for:

Hand of Thrawn series (2 books)
Survivor's Quest

There not as good as the original Thrawn series, but still okay.

 

I was thinking of moving forward from the Jedi Academy(I forgot to mention I've already red I, Jedi - which was great).

I was told to skip over Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, Planet of Twilight, The Crystal Star and the Black Fleet thrilogy.

The next to come would be The New Rebellion and the Corellian thrilogy.

Which should I read?

So here's how I planned it

maybe:
The New Rebellion
Corellian thrilogy

will read:

Hand of Thrawn
Survivor's Quest

If there's anything in between that I've missed and is worth reading, please, do tell

Yes, somebody besides me you liked Cestus Deception!

Sorry, pal. You missread

 

Children of the Jedi
Darksaber
Planet of Twilight
The Crystal Star
Black Fleet thrilogy
The New Rebellion
Corellian thrilogy

Although none of the above is particularly good, the only truly terrible one is The Crystal Star. Most of the rest are at least bearable, and without them you miss out on a lot of events that are relatively important to the NJO when you get to it.

I would also suggest trying to track down all of the Young Jedi Knights book series. They were reasonably good, but you just need to keep in mind they were written before a lot of the novels, yet occur between the Hand of Thrawn and the NJO, so there are some continuity discrepancies.

Truce at Bakura is probably worth a read even if earlier in the timeline than your plans. If you want to read good post-ROTJ books, you should seriously consider moving backward a little and going for Bakura and the X-Wing novels.

 

I'd ditch The New Rebellion. Despite the large quantities of stormtroopers on the cover, it isn't that good a book.

 

and without them you miss out on a lot of events that are relatively important to the NJO when you get to it.

Yeah, I thought that might be the case, so I'll just read the synopsis' from the timetales.

Pretty much everybody I've spoken to says the x-wing series, and Crispin's Solo books are great, so I'll definately be getting back to that.

What about The short stories? Fool's Bargain and Judge's call. Are those any good? Zahn seems to be a guarantee for quality, but still...

 

...Corellian thrilogy.

I just noticed the typo, and its kind of an amusing oxymoron.

 

...Or *is* it...??

 

I would like to sift through it all, and skip the bad ones. Could you help me with that?

How do you know what will be the bad ones as far as you're concerned? Folks could tell you what books are great and you find that you may agree with some but others you hate. It's really up to you to make up your mind about each book and decide if it was worth your time or not.

 

Hard Contact and The Black Fleet Trilogy are solid mature reads. Only the determined will be disappointed.

 

Just ignore Kube Mcdowell's GFFA minimalism and the BFC should be okay.

TUF is definetely a must read, as are all the other hardcover NJO books. It's probably also a good idea to read at least four of the X-wing books.

Personally, I don't think the Callista trilogy (CotJ, DS and PoT) is particularly revelant.

 

If you do read the X-Wing Saga be sure to read Courtship of Princess Leia between Solo Command and Isard's Revenge as it wraps up some of the Wraith Trilogy's plotlines.

As for the NJO, I'd put that off until you read all of the enjoyable Bantam ones. Most of the paperbacks are skippable, but few are painful to read.

The high points of the series are Star by Star and the four paperbacks that follow. They're also the only ones that get back to writing the YJK in character to some extent. Dark Journey is an excellent read if you've read the YJK series, the Enemy Lines Duology was 90% good, and Traitor might be the best Star Wars book to date.

The "Force Heretic" Trilogy is super if you need some toilet paper, but otherwise it's best staying far far away from it. It's only redeeming aspects are the Nom Anor parts, so you might want to peruse them at a book store or library. Trying to read anything more could be dangerous to your health.

Final Prophecy is 90% skippable, but aside from a few points it's another excellent book. The war's just about over and wackyness ensues.

Unifying Force is a big disapointment, but you might as well read it anyway just to finish up the series.

 

>>"Unifying Force is a big disapointment, but you might as well read it anyway just to finish up the series."<<

!!!

Best book in the series!

>>"What about The short stories? Fool's Bargain and Judge's call. Are those any good? Zahn seems to be a guarantee for quality, but still..."<<

Judge's Call is far too short to be either terrible or exceptional. The Denning one was better.

 

It's really all a matter of opinion. This is not a helpful comment, but your best bet is to see what your library has, or go to used book sales(I once picked up most of the X-Wing series for a quarter each at one!) and just dive in. That's how I did things. What you've read so far is a good start.

The main thing is to have fun reading them.

 

"Best book in the series! "

I've never understood how people could feel that way about TUF. The first 40 pages had nothing to do with anything, and the rest of the story seemed so dull.

 

Yes, somebody besides me you liked Cestus Deception!

I only gave it a 7.5 out of 10, but I did enjoy it.