Star Wars Books/Comics

[TMM]

Basically, I'm in "I'm addicted to Star Wars" mood right now, and I wanna get my hands on anything I can. I'm going to buy the Clone Wars DVD tomorrow as well as some figures and stuff.

Now I wanna read some of the Star Wars books. I've only read one (and a-half ) so far, but I wanna read more, so I'm asking the EWB community to recommend me the best Star Wars books.

Edited June 2, 2005 by The Monkey Molester

[Ananas]

Anything Timothy Zahn wrote is pretty much a must read. "The Thrawn Trilogy" is kick ass, and after that I'd check out the "Hand of Thrawn" duology. Not sure how much pre-knowledge of the expanded universe you need (it's been a while), but those are great Luke-centric books.

[BlackFlagg]

as said above, Thrawn Trilogy is a must read

[apsham]

I have read ad enjoyed the following:

* The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin

o The Paradise Snare

o The Hutt Gambit

o Rebel Dawn

* The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley

o Han Solo at Star's End

o Han Solo's Revenge

o Han Solo and the Lost Legacy

*The Truce At Bakura by Kathy Tyers

* The Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson

o Jedi Search

o Dark Apprentice

o Champions of the Force

You could also look into the guide books, that are listed on the following website. I have the "Essential Guide To Star Wars: ______" the characters and droids ones especially are good I find, they give a lot of information, into the exteded and offical universes and all. Use the bar paralell to the Books header on the website to choose between Novels, Guides and the like.

http://theforce.net/books/reviews/main_reviews.asp

http://theforce.net/books/reviews/main_reviews.asp

[Mick]

Darksaber is my personal favorite. What's left of the Empire is united by a genius admiral, and a Hutt steals the plans for the Death Star.

Not to be forgotten:

Tales of the Bounty Hunters

5 different stories about IG-88, Dengar, Bossk, Zucker&4-Lom, and Boba Fett. Kinda out dated thanks to the events of ATOC for Boba Fett, but still, an awesome read.

I, Jedi

The tale of a Rouge Squadron ace, his struggle between love, the Jedi commitment, and flying. As far as I know, it's the only first person POV SW story.

[Ananas]

Ditto to any of Kevin J. Anderson's stuff, as well as "I, Jedi". In fact, Michael Stackpole is another of the fantastic EU writers; check out his Rogue Squadron stuff.

[cauti0n]

According to my friend, in some of the books Luke turns to the darkside. Does anyone know which ones those are?

[apsham]

I am not sure which book, but I do believe that one of the Emperors clones turns Luke evil for a while.... it was either that or a spirit that resided in his Jedi Training facility on Yavin 4 or what not.

[triplexpac]

I want to say the book with the clone Emperor is Dark Empire.

Edit: And as has been said earlier in the thread, the Thrawn Trilogy is awesome. I have a few books from the X-Wing series too, they're good. I have way too many Star Wars books actually, and I like them all...

You'll probably see more of the New Jedi Order books in bookstores though, I'd think. Most of the books we've been recommending were printed a while ago, I'm not sure if they're still in most stores.

Edited May 24, 2005 by triplexpac

[SeanDMan]

Some of the NJO is okay, and some of it is not so good. Their science is really questionable and generally their fiction is pretty monotnous, but if you have $200 to burn and want Star Wars books, they exist.

[Mick]

I am not sure which book, but I do believe that one of the Emperors clones turns Luke evil for a while.... it was either that or a spirit that resided in his Jedi Training facility on Yavin 4 or what not.

←

Actually...both.

In the Dark Empire books, Palaptine-a-mania runs wild across the galaxy, but I'm not sure what book it is, but the spirit of the Sith Lord Exar Kun inhabits the temple on Yavin 4. Or inhabited, I should say.

The NJO books just seemed very surreal to me. So much death going on, all fucking hell breaking loose, to me it seems like a conflict that would more or less overpower the Clone Wars and the Rebellion.

[SeanDMan]

Death wise, it starts off with a bang, but it kinda goes nowhere from there. There are spots where it is very good, and then large voids of nothing interesting that span 2 or 3 books.

[Blehschmidt]

* The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin

o The Paradise Snare

o The Hutt Gambit

o Rebel Dawn

[triplexpac]

I am not sure which book, but I do believe that one of the Emperors clones turns Luke evil for a while.... it was either that or a spirit that resided in his Jedi Training facility on Yavin 4 or what not.

←

In the Dark Empire books, Palaptine-a-mania runs wild across the galaxy, but I'm not sure what book it is, but the spirit of the Sith Lord Exar Kun inhabits the temple on Yavin 4. Or inhabited, I should say.

←

[stokeriño]

Aye, the spirit of Exar Kun is indeed in the Jedi Academy series by Kevin J. Anderson, where he spends his time hanging around the temple before making friends with Kyp Durron and going off to help him run amock.

I hate Kyp Durron. He's like every generic shounen vengeance-driven male protagonist ever.

"I'm just a teenage boy with special powers (Force)...but the Empire killed my parents! RARGH!"

*attends Jedi Acadamy*

"Pah, my Master (Luke) isn't teaching me as much as I want him to! I'm better than him! I don't have to stand for this! RAARGH!"

*gets manipulated by evil spirit and steals uber-weapon*

"Now I shall go on enormous killing spree! RAAARGH! ...But first I shall go and rescue my brother."

*accidentally kills brother*

"RAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

...and so on.

Aside from the already-mentioned Empire Trilogy by Zahn, and the Han Solo Trilogy by Crispin, my favourites are probably the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy by Michael Kube-McDowell, and the X-Wing series of books. Some were written by Michael Stackpole (the earlier ones, I think), but I preferred the ones by Aaron Allston. Iron Fist in particular. It has a frikkin Super Star Destroyer in it, plus a pretend ewok pilot ("Yub Yub").

Oh, and Darksaber (also by Anderson) is pretty good. I liked it better than the Acadamy Trilogy...partially because it has Pallaeon, who rocks, but also because it does have an SSD too.

I do love my SSDs.

[apsham]

Was the game "Shadows Of The Empire" based on a series of books? I liked that evil guy in it. He reminded me of Gumby.

[triplexpac]

Aye, the spirit of Exar Kun is indeed in the Jedi Academy series by Kevin J. Anderson, where he spends his time hanging around the temple before making friends with Kyp Durron and going off to help him run amock.

I hate Kyp Durron. He's like every generic shounen vengeance-driven male protagonist ever.

"I'm just a teenage boy with special powers (Force)...but the Empire killed my parents! RARGH!"

*attends Jedi Acadamy*

"Pah, my Master (Luke) isn't teaching me as much as I want him to! I'm better than him! I don't have to stand for this! RAARGH!"

*gets manipulated by evil spirit and steals uber-weapon*

"Now I shall go on enormous killing spree! RAAARGH! ...But first I shall go and rescue my brother."

*accidentally kills brother*

"RAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

...and so on.

Aside from the already-mentioned Empire Trilogy by Zahn, and the Han Solo Trilogy by Crispin, my favourites are probably the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy by Michael Kube-McDowell, and the X-Wing series of books. Some were written by Michael Stackpole (the earlier ones, I think), but I preferred the ones by Aaron Allston. Iron Fist in particular. It has a frikkin Super Star Destroyer in it, plus a pretend ewok pilot ("Yub Yub").

Oh, and Darksaber (also by Anderson) is pretty good. I liked it better than the Acadamy Trilogy...partially because it has Pallaeon, who rocks, but also because it does have an SSD too.

I do love my SSDs.

←

[Bigal]

Was the game "Shadows Of The Empire" based on a series of books? I liked that evil guy in it. He reminded me of Gumby.

←

[stokeriño]

Sun Crusher > SSDs

←

Pfft, blowing up suns. More trouble than it's worth - and there's not even anything left for you to take afterwards. SSDs are far more impressive, and look snazzy while they're laying out destruction.

And only a pussy would fly a craft with indestructable armour anyway.

[SeanDMan]

Was the game "Shadows Of The Empire" based on a series of books? I liked that evil guy in it. He reminded me of Gumby.

←

Yeah, it's based on a single book. I assume you mean Prince Xizor? Kick-ass character

←

Actually, it was originally based on a run of graphic novels that were lated penned into one novel.