Star Wars Reading Question

I recently picked up a copy of I, Jedi on a whim. I was just curious if any one had Star Wars' book recommendations, or knew which ones to avoid. I am not to concerned about which era of the galaxy the books are set in, just more curious as to which are the best and worst. Thanks for any input!

I remember reading Shadows of the Empire and not finding it horrible.

I have not read any books but my friend has told me some cool stuff from the extended universe and it sounds pretty cool

@BaneFireLord said:

I remember reading Shadows of the Empire and not finding it horrible.

This and the Thrawn Trilogy are the only ones I've read that are memorable at all.

The only thing I've read was the Han Solo Adventures, but that was many, many years ago around the time that I read the novelization of Baldur's Gate, so anything I have to say about it can't really be trusted.

There are rumors of the new trilogy having ties with the jedi academy books so those could be a good read

Definitely the Thrawn trilogyand Darth Plagueis. I read that book after not reading a Star Wars novel in 10 years and I can't recommend it enough if you have any interest in how Palpatine became a senator for Naboo and then a Dark Lord of the Sith. I loved it.

Thrawn Trilogy, as others have mentioned.

Also, check out Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matthew Stover- really fun post-Jedi read.

The X-Wing books are also worth checking out. Large swathes of the EU fiction can be pretty terrible but there are some really solid reads to be found. Most anything by Timothy Zahn is good (he wrote the Thrawn Trilogy and a number of others). I did not enjoy some of the mid-90s stuff (e.g. Crystal Star, Darksaber, Children of the Jedi, etc.) but those books no doubt have their fans. The trend for the last 10 years or so has been to release extremely long series covering huge galactic events (New Jedi Order started this trend). Those series would be somewhat difficult to just jump into. Just starting out I would suggest the Thrawn trilogy and/or Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor as great jumping off points.

The worst Star Wars book (in my opinion) is the tie-in to Star Wars: Galaxies called "Ruins of Dantooine." It is exquisitely awful and should be avoided like the plague.

I got shelves full of them. My favourite ones however are the Darth Bane series, the Republic Commando series, and the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy. Each one spans the major times in Star Wars so if you get them you will get a good taste of what each time was like and can narrow down future books based on what time line you find the most interesting. If you can only read one series though, get Darth Bane. Those books rekindled my love for reading after losing it.

If you want to dip into comics as well, the Dark Horse line called Empire was a really good read. And if you find yourself really wanting to get into Star Wars, the Clone Wars cartoon going right now is really god dam good. The first few seasons are kind of Saturday morning kids show, but by season 3-4 they go some really fucking dark places. Like lining people against a wall and shooting them in the head on screen without cut away kind of dark.

Han Solo trilogy by AC Crispin is pretty decent as escapist literature goes.

• The Thrawn trilogy
• Shadows of the Empire
• Darth Bane trilogy
• Republic Commando series
• The Old Republic: Deceived
• Darth Plagueis

I also recommend two books called Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. These take place right before and after Episode 3 and are both pretty great, especially the last one. They're sold as a trilogy book with RoTS nowadays.

If you played the KOTOR games then maybe check out The Old Republic: Revan. It's a bit controversial as it's not just about Revan but the character from KOTOR 2 as well, The Exile. Personally I loved it and thought it filled in some big blanks about the KOTOR games, especially the non-ending from 2.

As for what to avoid, quite a lot of the books from the first publisher, Spectra, released in the mid to late 90's are pretty bad and you're probably best off staying away from of them. The exceptions are noted above.

Thanks, looks like I will be reading the Thrawn Trilogy sometime soon!

Tales from Jabba's Palace is also a good one. Got like 6 books into the new Jedi order series before I gave it up, just didn't have that Star Wars-ey feel.

Like @Deakor said, the X-Wing books are great (first four are written by Michael J. Stackpole, who also wrote I, Jedi, and they're the books that introduced Corran Horn).

Personally, the X-Wing series is as deep as I got into the Extended Universe. I'm not sad about that either.

Anything published before the new trilogy came out felt Star Warsy to me, anything since felt like trash.