Star Wars Books

[MBNorris]

There are tons of these out there. Anybody want to recommend a book or series of them?

I just read Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. Didn't like it. Premise is this happens right before the Trade Federation institutes the embargo on Naboo. Spoiler alert:
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Anyways, the characters besides Maul you knew were gonna die? Why? because the were Jedi you've never heard of and they new about the sith's existence. So from page 20 on, I was just wondering when they were gonna die. To be fair, I guess that is one interesting point; you know the bad guys are gonna win.

Matt

[Film Hobbit]

Whew... do NOT read any of the books based on Star Wars Episode I, they are TERRIBLE.

Norris, some of the ones based on the original trilogy are INCREDIBLE. If you haven't already read them, read any of the ones by Timothy Zahn. He started the Star Wars series of books with his trilogy of books:

Heir to the Empire
The Last Command
Dark Force Rising

Read these three before you read ANYTHING else.

Then, he followed those up much later, after all these other writers had run amok with what he started with three more books. Read those. WONDERFUL.

Those are guarenteed GREAT reading, in fact, the first three books he wrote for Star Wars are among my favorite novels EVER, right alongside some of Robert A. Heinlein's work.

Other than those, some of the New Jedi books are fairly good, dealing with an invasion from outside the galaxy. There are a few others, but they can be hit and miss. But if it has Timothy Zahn's name on it... it's GOLDEN.

[MBNorris]

I have read the Timothy Zahn books MANY years ago. They are great. Bring on Admiral Thrawn!


Matt

[Film Hobbit]

Good. Didn't know how much Star Wars reading you had done. If you haven't read Zahn's latest ones, run out right now and buy them. They are nearly as good as his first three... though you can't beat Thrawn.

Man, if only Lucas had made a movie out of that. What an interesting piece of work that would have been.

In lieu of Zahn, check out the New Jedi Order books. They are for the most part quite good, though the latest in that series have gotten a bit cheesy. It starts out VERY strong though.
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SPOILERS BELOW
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The thing that is becoming annoying to me about the New Jedi Order series, is not that the writing quality has really dipped... for the most part it is TOP notch. But I've read about 6 of these books now... and it gets depressing because the good guys NEVER win. 6 or 7 books now, you just watch them lose lose lose lose, more people die, more planets lost, more homes shattered... it never gets better, the heroes NEVER wing. That's ok for awhile... hell, in the first book Chewbacca freakin DIES (that I did NOT approve of, but other than that its a fantastic book), I don't mind seeing the good guys lose for awhile, but eventually it gets MONOTONOUS. Every time I read one of these books I know I'm just going to be depressed because nothing good is ever accomplished. They don't even win little victories. Just retreat, backstabbing, and death over and over and over again. It's getting tiresome, to the point that I am probably going to stop reading this series. But the first 3 or 4 books I highly reccomend, some amazingly good writing conisdering the types of books they are.

[Film Hobbit]

Ok, here's some of the ones I reccomend most:

Original Thrawn Trilogy

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=521666&catID=26307>Heir to the Empire</A>

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=523640&catID=26307>Dark Force Rising - Timothy Zahn</A>

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=1180719&catID=26307>The Last Command - Timothy Zahn</A>



Hand of Thrawn Series

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=523641&catID=26307>Dark Force Rising - Timothy Zahn</A>

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=909528&catID=26307>Vision of the Future - Timothy Zahn</A>

Misc

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=522683&catID=26307>Tales from the Mos Eisely Cantina</A>




New Jedi Order

<A HREF=http://www.vstore.com/cgi-bin/pagegen/vstoremovies/filimhobbit/page.html?mode=itempage&file=/page/itempagev4/itempage.spl&prodID=1288442&catID=26307>Vector Prime - R.A. Salvatore</A>

[Fahad Al Qurashi]

All of Stackpoles books are great i think.

Fahad

[Film Hobbit]

Most of them. Next to Zahn he is the second best. After that, Kevin J. Anderson's are sometimes good. Then it is pretty much a crap shoot, except for R.A. Salvatore, but he only wrote one book.

[Pippin the hobbit]

I haven't enjoyed the NJO as much as some other series. And it feels as if they will never end.

I've enjoyed the "Jedi Acadamy Trilogy" and "I, Jedi". Those I found to be enjoyable. "I, Jedi" is in first person, giving it a different feel than the other books.

[Film Hobbit]

I like the story in "I, Jedi" but in parts the writing doesn't quite keep up with the great ideas behind it. It's a Stackpole book isn't it? I usually expect higher quality work from him.

I agree about the New Jedi Order. It was fantastic the first couple books I read of it... but like you, it now is just dragging on for me... and getting tired. They need to let the good guy win a few.

[Pippin the hobbit]

I agree Hobbit. I mean the first few were pretty good... but they just dragged on. It seems more like they're going after quantity instead of quality.

One reason I liked I, Jedi was 1) b/c of the first person tense that I don't usually see and 2) it co-incided with other SW books, like Jedi Acadamy and such. It just focused on one character with many events instead of one event with many characters. But I did expect a little better from Stackpole.

[Film Hobbit]

Yeah, like I said, "I, Jedi" has some great ideas, just for some reason Stackpole's writing isn't up to par.

Actually, on the whole, most of the Star Wars books Michael Stackpole has written have been mediocre at best. Which is odd, because everything else he writes is usually quite well done. His Battletech novels are spectacular, and the only ones of that lot really worth reading at all!

[Pippin the hobbit]

*throws up hands at Hobbit* Fine! I surrender! You win! AHHH! :lol:

[Christine the bean]

I'm stickytacking this as AOTC just came out. :)

The only SW book I've read was ROTJ and I recommend it. I found it to be well written and insightful.

[crappertay]

One of my friends owns nearly ever Star Wars book known to man. Seriously, the dude has a bookshelf full of nothing else, much to the great non-amusement of his good lady. :)

Never read any of the novels myself. I had the big kiddies book of ROTJ when I was a yungun, still floating about somewhere in my parent's attic I think.

[Film Hobbit]

I to have a rather large library of Star Wars. But then I have a lot of books. Let's see, my book collection is probably composed of

35% Star Trek Books
25% Star Wars Books
40% Quality Reading

Pretty much all of the Star Wars / Star Trek stuff is all packed away. I only keep out the Zahn books from Star Wars, they sit happily alongside Frank Herbert, Orson Scott Card, Shakespeare, Douglas Adams, Heinlein, Twain, Tolkien, and Machiavelli on my bookshelf of honor :)

[NotSoSecretAgent]

Half of my books are screenplays, and the other half are Star Wars books.

[Film Hobbit]

How many SW books do you have Not So? I probably have 30 or so. I used to have double that, but gave some away to my cousin when I last moved... those things are HEAVY when you box them up.

[Creedboat]

My favorite is Dark Empire.

[NotSoSecretAgent]

I'd say I have a good 20 or so.

[Film Hobbit]

So you are nearly as sick as me. Good ;)

[NotSoSecretAgent]

Few other books can hold my attention the way a Star Wars book can.

[WittlesVaseel]

The first 8 books of the x-wing series are good, but stay away from Starfighters of Adumar. Poopoo it is. Truce at Bakura is kind of crappy too.