[putumaya]

I have stopped reading Star Wars novel since the first Yuuzhan Vong series book.
I want to start again, but confused which ones are good / where to start.
Do you have any recommendations for a good SW series or standalone books which are published after year 2000 ?
My all time fave is the Thrawn series, my preference is not too Jedi oriented books, but OK with them as long as it's good.

Thanks

Putu

[Aptorian]

Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

It's about a [Jedi] who works as a Private Detective. He teams up with the [Imperial Forces] to bring down a [Sith] and solves crime by using his [Jedi powers].

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 10 August 2010 - 03:24 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

Well, if you plan on reading anything in the "future" of SW, you'll need to start with the New Jedi Order series. Whether that means reading all 19 or only hitting the important points is up to you. (Off the top of my head, Vector Prime, Star By Star, Traitor, and The Unifying Force are all must-reads.) For me, the NJO is the crowing achievement of the SW EU.

After that the fandom's pretty divided on what's good and what's crap, but the Dark Nest trilogy, the Legacy of the Force series, the one-off Millenium Falcon, and the current Fate of the Jedi series are what come next. I've read them all and enjoy them well enough, though they're not exactly great literature. But I'm invested in the characters (mainly Jacen and Ben) so there you go.

If you'd rather hang around in prequel territory, there's Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series, of which at least the first two are very good (haven't read the rest yet.) And of course anything and everything by Matthew Stover is a must-read (Shatterpoint, Revenge of the Sith, the aforementioned Traitor, and the post-RotJ Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.)

I'd suggest probably poking around at the Jedi Council Forums at TheForce.net. In fact, there's a thread there that's probably exactly what you're looking for.

[Roland_85]

Every few months I get the burning desire to read Expanded Universe. Last time it got me as far as the first volume of the KOTOR comic book series and the pretty mediocre Vector Prime. I guess I'll go with the next NJO books when the next surge comes, but I'm a bit put off by the fact that they seem to stray from the main story-line. Could you please tell me which ones in the series are following the invasion and which ones are just filler?

[QuickTidal]

Basically the Legacy of the Force series was cool...with some interesting ideas, but the execution is kind of all over the map. Like all the ones written by Karen Traviss were action packed/bounty hunter packed gun battles and the Aaron Allston ones are kind of meandering but had some good stuff happen in them...and then there is Troy Denning whose writing was either really good (Tempest), or really bad (Inferno). That, I suppose is why 3 authors to tell a series is kind of a mish mash. that said, there is some REALLY great stuff to be had in that series...and funnily enough my interest had nothing to do with Jacen Solo's storyline with the Sith, but rather everyone else.

Haven't moved onto the Fate Of The Jedi series that follows it, but I see some interesting plot threads I want to read about in it, so I'll likely give them a go soon.

anyways, ignore the rest of the Yuzahn Vong shit and the Nest crap and get stuck into Legacy...as it it really is the best of the new stuff.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 10 August 2010 - 09:59 PM

[QuickTidal]

 Roland_85, on 10 August 2010 - 09:46 PM, said:

Every few months I get the burning desire to read Expanded Universe. Last time it got me as far as the first volume of the KOTOR comic book series and the pretty mediocre Vector Prime. I guess I'll go with the next NJO books when the next surge comes, but I'm a bit put off by the fact that they seem to stray from the main story-line. Could you please tell me which ones in the series are following the invasion and which ones are just filler?

It's funny. You can actually take one volume that each of the three authors wrote out (minus a few details) and still be left with most of the whole story they were telling. Like, the first four books BETRAYAL, BLOODLINES, TEMPEST & EXILE are all really good...past that the next 3 books SACRIFICE, INFERNO, and FURY are all sort of okay, bordering in filler, and the final two volumes REVELATION and INVINCIBLE are again, really good.

It's worth a shot, but don't expect to not have to slog through a few bits.

[Roland_85]

Thanks, but I wasn't talking about Legacy of the Force, but of The New Jedi Order. I've only read Book 4 from Legacy, for whatever reason...

[QuickTidal]

 Roland_85, on 10 August 2010 - 10:19 PM, said:

Thanks, but I wasn't talking about Legacy of the Force, but of The New Jedi Order. I've only read Book 4 from Legacy, for whatever reason...

Ah, sorry. My bad. The Michael Stackpole ones (Dark Tide I: Onslaught, and Dark Tide II: Ruin) are both good. The Greg Keyes Edge Of Victory ones are good too, The Final Prophecy (Keyes again) and the Unifying Force (Luceno) are the only other ones I gave a passing grade to.

[Salt-Man Z]

In addition to what Quick said: Stover's Traitor is one of the best SW novels, period. And Denning's Star By Star is pretty much the linchpin for the entire series.

This post has been edited by Salt-Man Z: 11 August 2010 - 03:52 AM

[Roland_85]

Thanks! Btw, this discussion reminded me to review Vector Prime on my blog. So thanks for that as well!

[putumaya]

Thanks guys for the recommendations.

Regards

Putu

[Abyss]

 Salt-Man Z, on 10 August 2010 - 03:22 PM, said:

...everything by Matthew Stover ...

 QuickTidal, on 10 August 2010 - 09:54 PM, said:

... the Aaron Allston ones are kind of meandering but had some good stuff happen in them......

 QuickTidal, on 11 August 2010 - 12:07 AM, said:

... The Michael Stackpole ones (Dark Tide I: Onslaught, and Dark Tide II: Ruin) are both good. ...

For what it's worth, these three authors are all good in their non-SW stuff. Stover's ACTS OF CAINE in particular are brilliant.

 Aptorian, on 10 August 2010 - 07:54 AM, said:

Storm Front by Jim Butcher...

And i agree entirely with Aptorian on this. Butcher's SW books are by far the best ever written. [/irony] [/sarcasm] [/humour] [/recommendation]


- Abyss, stopped after the Thrawn trilo'.

[Roland_85]

Speaking of Thrawn, this is the single greatest SW villain I've ever encountered. So awesome

[Kanubis]

NJO was just depressing, for the most part. Got better when Stackpole decided that it might actually be acceptable to have some action and positive moments after several trilogies of literary wrist-cutting.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Wait, are you people serious when you say that you didn't enjoy the New Jedi Order series? My god, I absolutely LOVED the shit out of that. However, I feel this may be because I've never read Vector Prime; instead, I started the series on the second book, Hero's Trial. So, maybe Vector Prime sucked and turned everyone off from the rest of the series. Otherwise, I can't think of one single reason why anyone would have disliked it.

[End of Disc One]

NJO was good, but it started to get old towards the end. I also thought it was kind of strange that starting with the Allston books, the good guys randomly started winning battles and the YV got less threatening.

[McLovin]

NJO was 10% decent, 90% crap.

My recommendation is to skip the rest, and instead take a look at Dark Horse's various series of Star Wars comics. They are not great literature either, but the artwork is pretty great, and some stories are really good (Legacy ftw).