Which books follow Mara Jade after the Thrawn Trilogy?

I finished the Thrawn trilogy a while ago. I was completely taken with the complexity and style of Mara Jade and want to continue reading my way up to the New Jedi Order. Which book should I get to next to see what trancends after Last Command. I appreciate any help.

I've filled my time with the novelizations of all the movies but being as I'm about done with that, I need to get back into the EU and dont want to miss anything.

 

Ah... simple answer is, there's no simple answer...

Mara's character was, in many people's opinions, sidelined and ridden roughshod over by several subsequent authors after the Thrawn trilogy, and most of what Tim Zahn did when he got back to the character in his "Hand of Thrawn" duology (Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future) - set ten years after the Thrawn trilogy - was in a sense rescue work, as was her appearance in a supporting-character role in Michael Stackpole's I, Jedi...

The trouble is, there's a lot in those three novels that's a response to the Dark Empire comics, which threw a spanner in the storyline, and to novels like Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy, which you need to read to understand the allusions, but which many people who like the Thrawn trilogy, and particularly those who liked Zahn's characterization of Mara, found somewhat enema-inducing. You might just want to read Specter and Vision... but I have no idea how they'd seem to someone who hadn't read the Bantam books chronologically - personally, I enjoyed Specter, but I found Vision somewhat sprawling and anti-climactic...

You could also look at the comics Mara Jade: By The Emperor's Hand (dealing with events immediately after Return of the Jedi) and Union (Luke and Mara finally tie the knot, after Vision of the Futire), both by Zahn and Stackpole, and both now published in trade paperback. Zahn has also produced two short stories, "First Contact" (dealing with how Karrde recruited Mara) and "Jade Solitaire" (dealing with more loose ends in the continuity) published in the anthologies Tales from the Empire and Tales from the New Republic respectively.

Some of the more recent New Jedi Order books, particularly Kathy Tyers' Balance Point and Aaron Allston's just-published Rebel Stand have a recognizable Mara in a major role, but there's a lot of somewhat overwrought unstoppable-alien-invasion plotline, so far spanning twelve books, with seven more to come.

Alternatively, there are some passable novels which don't feature Mara at all, like Michael P. Kube-MacDowell's Black Fleet Crisis trilogy (that's my recommendation, at least - some people hate it), or else you could try the fanfiction at ClubJade - some of it might seem self-indulgent and in-jokey, and some is very much a response to the character-assassination in the mid-'90s novels, but some - "Samizdat", for instance - is excellent...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I seem to remember there being a lot of Mara near the end of The New Rebellion.

 

Yes. She and Karrde brought ysalamiri to Almania in the fight against Kueller.

 

I didn't know Mara Jade: By The Emperor's Hand and Union were in paperback.