[QuickTidal]

Just figured I'd make an ongoing thread as I started a while back (earlier this year after being so disappointed with TLJ, and Disney Star Wars in general; don't ask) re-reading the old Expanded Universe books and chatting about them.

I initially thought I'd try to be timeline-true and read in order...but since I'll be skipping books I know are crap (Looking at you CRYSTAL STAR), and will likely read on whims that take me, I'll likely be skipping around a fair bit through the timeline.

Oh, and I've NEVER read any of the Old Republic novels (about Revan, Bane, Malgus or anyone else) so those will be a first time experience for me!

So far I've already done the THRAWN trilogy (which is still as excellent as I recall it being, and this time I read the comic version which I highly recommend to anyone reading it a second time!), TRUCE AT BAKURA which I like, but I'm not over the moon about, DARK DISCIPLE which was like reading an un-made 3 part episode arc of TCW...which it essentially was before it became a novel after TCW's cancellation (and it is excellent as a result), and a slew of NEW REPUBLIC/NJO-era comics which is about as close as I'll bother to get to the whole Yuzahn Vong war (which I've never been overly fond of), largely because it gives great visual focus on Jacen and Jaina and Co. as they learn to become Jedi Knights (and it achieves this better than the Jedi Academy dreck by Anderson ever did)

Next up will either be the Zahn's Mara Jade duology (ALLEGIANCE, and CHOICES OF ONE), or I'll get back into the 9-volume Maxi series for LEGACY OF THE FORCE with Allston's BETRAYAL. Will chime in with each new volume re-read.

Anyone else who re-reads (or reads for the first time) an old EU book and wants to chit chat about them, feel free to join in....otherwise it will likely just be me and BK rambling about the good ol' days in here.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 06 January 2021 - 03:27 PM

[Gintokian]

I thought the Bane books were pretty good, a new era in the history we haven't seen before, and it starts the whole rule of two.
Revan was ok as a book, I was a little disappointed in the ending, without spoiling anything they wrote it to try and connect the KOTOR games to TOR MMO. As a huge kotor fan I was really disappointed in the way it played out and it didn't have enough characters from the games that I would have liked to see. Did not give Revan a proper ending that he deserved.

I always wanted to read the Thrawn Trilogy because I've heard great things about it but never ended up picking them up.

I read 4 or 5 of the Yuzahn Vong books but after chewie kissed the moon I couldn't get into it. I did read a good Boba Fett series, can't recall the name off the top of my head but those were some good books.
I want to do a re-read of some of the comics that I have, can't remember the names but the old old republic ones with the original sith, nomi sunrider, Ulic Qel Droma and the like, those were great.

[Salt-Man Z]

I've read very little of the pre-ANH stuff, but almost all of the post-RotJ stuff (though the X-Wing books are my biggest omission of that era.) Oddly enough, I've never reread any SW book outside of maybe 1 or 2 of the old Brain Daley Han Solo Adventures. They were the first SW books I ever read; I remember checking out At Stars' End from the elementary school library a number of times.

[Gintokian]

I really do wish they had brought kyle katarn back into the new canon, he was great.

[QuickTidal]

I went with ALLEGIANCE by Timothy Zahn for my next read. Excited to get into it as I hear it’s solid stuff.

[Zeto Demerzel]

QuickTidal, on 04 May 2018 - 08:56 PM, said:

I went with ALLEGIANCE by Timothy Zahn for my next read. Excited to get into it as I hear it's solid stuff.

QT, I don't mean to hijack your thread but I thought I'd quickly chime in as I'm doing my first (quick) pass through the 'Legends' books. I have to say I didn't like ALLEGIANCE much. Started off spectacularly and then went nowhere. Anyway, here's as far as I've gotten:

Old Republic Era
OK: ToR: Revan, ToR: Fatal Alliance, ToR: Annihilation, Darth Bane Trilogy 1 - Path of Destruction (books 2 and 3 await)
Ugh: ToR: Deceived

Rise of the Empire Era
Nice: Outbound Flight (I'd ignore the pundits and read this *before* Survivor's Quest if I were you)
OK: Darth Plagueis

Rebellion Era
OK: Tales from Jabba's Palace
Ugh: Allegiance

New Republic Era
Nice: Thrawn Trilogy
OK: Survivor's Quest

New Jedi Order Era
Working through the books and have gotten as far as Ylesia and it's been a real mixed bag.


Could I ask about this Bobba Fett series? What are you guys referring to? I stumbled upon a Karen Traviss short called Bobba Fett: A Practical Man. Is that a part of the same seris?

[QuickTidal]

Zeto Demerzel, on 22 May 2018 - 07:37 AM, said:

QT, I don't mean to hijack your thread but I thought I'd quickly chime in as I'm doing my first (quick) pass through the 'Legends' books. I have to say I didn't like ALLEGIANCE much. Started off spectacularly and then went nowhere. Anyway, here's as far as I've gotten:

No worries, you are more than welcome to join in the discussion and use the thread. Anyone is!

Zeto Demerzel, on 22 May 2018 - 07:37 AM, said:

Could I ask about this Bobba Fett series? What are you guys referring to? I stumbled upon a Karen Traviss short called Bobba Fett: A Practical Man. Is that a part of the same seris?

Traviss is an interesting bird. She was phenomenal at giving Boba Fett (and conversely the Clones too) fantastic stories after the fact in the NJO era. The problem is she was either entirely uninterested in the rest of the SW characters, or she was just shit at writing about them, so her volumes in the big epic 9 book series are garbage in the sections where she wasn't writing a chapter about an aging Boba Fett. Troy Denning and Aaron Allston (the other two authors on those Meg-series) always worked well with one another, and their books cohered well to one another...while Traviss's books stood out hard! It was noticed by Del Rey to the point that (and they peddled a diplomatic reason for this; "she was too busy with her other books") even though she was scheduled to be the 3rd author on the last Mega-Series (FATE OF THE JEDI), she was replaced by Christie Golden (who, it should be noted, worked FAR better with the other two).

So yeah, her Boba Fett stuff is great...but the rest of her contributions on those series is subpar at best. Her Republic Commando series though (CLONE WARS era) is fantastic.

[Gintokian]

Zeto Demerzel, on 22 May 2018 - 07:37 AM, said:

Could I ask about this Bobba Fett series? What are you guys referring to? I stumbled upon a Karen Traviss short called Bobba Fett: A Practical Man. Is that a part of the same seris?

The one I was referring to was the trilogy The Bounty Hunter Wars by J.W. Jeter. I read it years ago so I can't remember too much about it other than it starts with him escaping the Sarlacc pit.
If I remember correctly it was pretty good.

[Zeto Demerzel]

Cheers, both! Republic Commando and The Bounty Hunter Wars go onto my TRP now. That said, I'm both a slow reader and a bit of a completionist so I suspect I'm going to slog away at those SW books before moving on to my Malazan re-read.

What does everyone think of the NJO? BK has already indicated he likes it. Interesting direction for the series overall, I think. Some absolute gems in there such as Traitor that I just finished. Equally so, there are some real clunkers in there. I'm looking at Dark Journey, Apprentice and Balance Point.

[Vengeance]

I read the new Thrawn book which give him a new background before Rebals. I wanted to refresh the differences between it and the Thrawn trilogy so I started that. The character is very similar I think that there is less Jedi hate in the new books which make sense based on this character in the show. Still a good strong series.

[End of Disc One]

Zeto Demerzel, on 23 May 2018 - 08:21 AM, said:

Cheers, both! Republic Commando and The Bounty Hunter Wars go onto my TRP now. That said, I'm both a slow reader and a bit of a completionist so I suspect I'm going to slog away at those SW books before moving on to my Malazan re-read.

What does everyone think of the NJO? BK has already indicated he likes it. Interesting direction for the series overall, I think. Some absolute gems in there such as Traitor that I just finished. Equally so, there are some real clunkers in there. I'm looking at Dark Journey, Apprentice and Balance Point.

I really liked Dark Journey and Balance Point. I don't remember Apprentice; apparently it's a short story. While some NJO novels were better than others, I didn't think any of them quite reached the lows of the Star Wars EU. I did think that the Force Heretic trilogy had some filler and didn't justify being a trilogy while everything else was duologies and standalones.

[QuickTidal]

Okay, someone convince me to read Kevin Anderson's JEDI ACADEMY trilogy. I may have tried JEDI SEARCH a number of years ago, but I don't recall if I finished, and I don't know how good they are. Anderson doesn't have the best reputation as a writer (his Dune books are pretty well dragged through the mud), so I'm scared of bothering.

Should I read them in my Re-Read or skip them and hit up something else? They are a portion of the twins lives I've never read, so I'm curious...

[Salt-Man Z]

When you read Jedi Academy, you should also read Stackpole's I, Jedi, which shows some of the academy stuff from Corran Horn's perspective.

[End of Disc One]

I, Jedi is definitely one of my favorite EU books.

I read the Jedi Academy trilogy when I was young but I liked it. Amazon was my only source of book reviews at the time, and the reviews were good. I was surprised to later find out that it was hated. I guess KJA can be over the top but I thought his SW books were fun.

[Salt-Man Z]

Yeah, I would have been like 15-16 when that trilogy came out in 1994 (and when I read it.) I never hated the KJA stuff at the time. (I loved the heck out of Darksaber, for that matter.) I doubt they'd hold up well today, but I've never reread them.

I will say with the JAT, I also had fun reading the Dark Horse comics that tied into it featuring Exar Kun. ("Dark Lords of the Sith" and "The Sith War" were the two series, if I recall.)

[QuickTidal]

Thanks all. I’m going to try it out!

[Tsundoku]

Is it Admiral Daala in the Jedi Academy trilogy?

Spoiler

She reminds me of the Oscar Wilde quote - adjusted:
"To lose one Star Destroyer may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness."

Overall I was rather "Meh" about that trilogy.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 06 June 2018 - 08:41 AM

[Salt-Man Z]

Tsundoku, on 06 June 2018 - 08:40 AM, said:

Is it Admiral Daala in the Jedi Academy trilogy?

Yeah, she shows up in most of KJA's books from that era, I believe, but the JAT was her first appearance. She's on the US cover, even:

Spoiler

[QuickTidal]

I liked her in all the later books she appeared in.

[QuickTidal]

Haven’t started it. It’s up next now that I finished OATHBRINGER.