Star Wars novels

[Kudos]

Looking through this forum i was amazed to find no thread for Star Wars novels, there's one for The New Jedi Order (It's not half as good as they think) and one for fiction books, but what about all the other great SW books out there; the Timothy Zahn books, the Xwing books, the Clone wars novels, i'm sure there must be some people out there who read these.

The whole reason i wnt in search of a Star Wars book thread is i just finished reading the clone commando book Triple Zero, which i very much enjoyed, it is the second book by Karen Travis, the first was Hard Contact, I think they were originally books to tie in with the clone commando games, the stories are about a group of clone special forces squads and what they did during the Clone wars, both these books are great, very much war stories that happen to be set in the Star Wars universe.

Anyone out there read these books? Or anyother Star Wars books they'd like to mention??

Splinter Of A Mind's Eye - brilliant sequel - no need for the other films...thus no Jar jar!

[Orin]

A friend introduced me recently to the Tim Zahn books, and I've never been so impressed with a tie-in novel. Marvellous new characters -- Zahn makes fantastic and spectualarly in-depth use of Mara Jade, a character that was originally created only so that the beat-em-up video game Masters of Teras Kasi could feature a female Jedi! -- and a stunning villain in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn: SURELY he was the inspiration behind Farscape's Scorpius?

Any reccommendations on what to read next?

[Lee Grice]

Originally Posted by khoardiroy

Splinter Of A Mind's Eye - brilliant sequel - no need for the other films...thus no Jar jar!

Yeah! Gotta love the 'old school' stuff!

Han Solo At Star's End
Han Solo's Revenge
Han Solo and The Lost Legacy
by Brian Daley (who also wrote the SW radio adaptations)

Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp Of Sharu
Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind Of Oseon
Lando Calrissian and the Starcave Of ThonBoka
by L. Neil Smith

and Splinter of course. {sigh} Life was simpler then...


I was getting into the whole Star Wars novels thing (The Zahn books, the X-Wing books, the 'Tales Of...' collections and the 'new' Han Solo trilogy) back when it was all really starting to take off again and I was really enjoying all of 'em, but then Phantom Menace came out and managed to pretty much kill my Star Wars Jones overnight - and I never really got it back, sad to say.

[Barsoom]

Originally Posted by khoardiroy

Splinter Of A Mind's Eye - brilliant sequel - no need for the other films...thus no Jar jar!

I've been kicking myself about this book. A while ago I was flicking through a second-hand bookshop, saw this but decided not to get it for some reason. Never seen it since. Idiot!

[sparhawk]

Splinter of a Minds Eye is a great story and so is Shadows of the Empire. The fact they are set in the time of the original trilogy probably helps.

The Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy is superb and really rekindled my love of Star Wars, Kevin J Anderson's Jedi Academy isn't to bad either.

New Rebellion is pants, but Spectres of the Past and Visions of the Future are great.

Also worth a look are the Crystal Star, Courtship of Princess Leia, Truce at Bakura.

On a general note, George Lucas's control over the Star Wars universe is very important ensuring that all novels follow the same timeline using the history created by preceeding books. The central premise of all Star Wars books has always been the three main players, Luke, Leia & Han. As time progresses they have all grown older, I know Chewbacca has now been killed and also at least one of Han & Leia's children but at some point the books are going to have to kill off one of the main three even if it's simply through old age. When that day arrives I feel the whole Star Wars universe should be 'wound up'. Continuing with new characters wouldn't hold the interest of the people like me who fell in love with the Star Wars saga as a kid and to a degree will always remember it with a kid's vision.

[cuilean]

I find them very hit or miss - though I have read them all. The Tim Zahn ones are excellent, as are Troy Denning's. These two authors seem to have an air of continuity that some of the others lack, not counting the interminable New Jedi Order.

The "X-wing" series is great as well - especially for those of us who think Wedge is criminally underused elsewhere!

[Werthead]

Originally Posted by Orin

A friend introduced me recently to the Tim Zahn books, and I've never been so impressed with a tie-in novel. Marvellous new characters -- Zahn makes fantastic and spectualarly in-depth use of Mara Jade, a character that was originally created only so that the beat-em-up video game Masters of Teras Kasi could feature a female Jedi! -- and a stunning villain in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn: SURELY he was the inspiration behind Farscape's Scorpius?

Any reccommendations on what to read next?

Erm, Heir to the Empire was published in 1991 and Masters of Teras Kasi came out (IIRC) about 12 years later, so Mara Jade was knocking around for a long time before that game. In fact, she's the main character in Dark Forces II - Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith which came out in 1998.

After The Thrawn Trilogy, it's worth reading The Truce at Bakura, The Corellian Trilogy, The X-Wing Series, The Hand of Thrawn Duology and The New Jedi Order. The Jedi Academy Trilogy I liked when I read it when I was 15, but when I went back to it recently I was horrified to find out badly-written it was. The innocence of youth... The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy is interesting as it has the Wookies all talking in translated dialogue, which is bizarre and Just Not Right. The Courtship of Princess Leia is a bit lame but it does introduce the Hapan Consortium, which becomes a major player in the later books. The Crystal Star and Children of the Jedi are very boring.

The New Jedi Order is very long (19 books!) but very good in concept and execution (only a couple were bad, and they were dull rather than terrible). Traitor and Star by Star may be two of the best non-Zahn Star Wars books ever written.

[Kudos]

Two prequel era books i recomend are Cloak of Deception by James Luceno which is a just before Episode 1 story about how the blockade of Naboo occurs (it makes the film make a little bit more sense and gives a good view of the Qui Gon/ Obi Wan relationship. The second book is Shatterpoint by Mathew Moodring Stover which is a kind heart of darkness journey for Mace Windo as he attempts to track down his rogue former Padawan through the jungles of his homeworld. This book also features a great short story called Equipment about a clone gunner on a LAAT/i dropship.

On the whole most of the prequel era books have been ok, Nothing stands out to much, Outbound Flight deserves a mention because it's by Timothy Zahn and has early stuff on several of his established characters, mainly Thrawn himself. These books fill in gaps that the films don't cover which is well done in some cases and fumbled slightly in others, i especially like the humanization of the faceless clones that occurs throughout the clone wars books. As i mentioned above i enjoyed the Republic Commando books for this reason.It's good to see clones and Jedi in working relationships, this makes rewatching the order 66 sequence in ep3 even more disturbing.

Dark Lord: rise of Darth Vader is good for this, showing a squad of clones refusing to carry out order 66 on their Jedi leaders and the consiquences of their actions.

Ok, that's it for now more when i think of more.

[dafydd]

Regarding Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon...did any one else imagine Waywa Fybot as Sesame Street's Big Bird with a blaster?

Or was it just me?