Star Wars - Expanded Universe

[Vegita-San]

So,

In order to wipe the taste of bad new star wars from my mind... I decided to go back and re read some of the old expanded universe stories.

The Zahn trilogy still holds up. masterfuly done new tales...and reminds you of the movies every so often to show it's in the same universe.


The Kevin J Anderson trilogy though. My god, how did those books ever leave the publisher? Half baked ideas. Thoughts repeated, sometimes in the same paragraph. dialogue that sounds like bad fan fiction. lines from the movies repeated literally every 20 sentences. sometimes twice. About 50% of the plot feels worth reading. the rest is nothing but filler. decent enough ideas. decent enough new characters...horribly executed.


About the only NEW EU books I've tried was Aftermath. absolutely Horrible. It made Kevin J Anderson look like a hugo award winner.

I decided to give one more a try. Ashoka. So far, it reads pretty good. But, about 40 pages in, and ALL the characters allowed to talk are women. And the first guy allowed to talk is 'a mean drunk'. the new story group isn't exactly being shy about what it thinks......and if this is the quality of the newer books, maybe it's a good thing I've avoided them so far.......

anyone else revisiting the old eu?

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Yes! I JUST started reading these.

Loved "Heir to the Empire." Waiting on my copy of "Dark Force Rising" to come in.

It's really weird to read the words "Dark Jedi" and realize these were written before Sith was a thing.

[Andrew NDB]

When the Disney announcement was made about jettisoning the EU I actually wished that a lot of it could be "saved." By that, I mean gently rewritten by the original authors to suit the new continuity. It wouldn't even take much. You could spend 1 hour and make the Zahn trilogy work just fine, for example. Like, pick 6 or 7 of the best, most beloved books and just do new editions, you know? It'd seem like a great act of good faith from Disney.

But I don't think -- at all -- that fans would agree on what warrants saving and what doesn't, and it would just piss off more people than please.

[CyberCubed]

Grand Admiral Thrawn is in Star Wars Rebels, that's all that matters.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Grand Admiral Thrawn is in Star Wars Rebels, that's all that matters.

Kind of a sad consolation prize, though.

Who knows, though. How mind-blowing would it be if the "Rian Johnson trilogy" ends up being a retrofitted Thrawn trilogy set 5 years after Endor?

[Vegita-San]

God no.

Keep Ruin Johnson and those SJW pansies from Lucasfilm far away from Thrawn.

As for books..

I think fans would largely agree on what to keep and what to ditch before the Vong War happened.

After that, I think things got alot more divided.

I personally didn't mind the Vong themselves.. but what I hated was everyone dying. and the turning of jacen. It just got way too dark.

[dl316bh]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Grand Admiral Thrawn is in Star Wars Rebels, that's all that matters.

Completely divorced from the stories that made him a beloved antagonist that even some people who haven't read the books at least heard of, so it's not much of a victory.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Who knows, though. How mind-blowing would it be if the "Rian Johnson trilogy" ends up being a retrofitted Thrawn trilogy set 5 years after Endor?

How do you even do that anymore, though? Mark Hammil's still kicking, but much older now. Luke would almost have to be involved if we're talking five years out from Endor.

[Vegita-San]

Finished Truce, Reworking Courtship.

Novels like this would be written SO differently if it was done these days. but, being done in the early 90s, it shows a VERY well balance between romances. and everyone acts like they are supposed too..


these books read much faster the second time around too oddly enough...
and are just so much better written then the newer cannon books.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I read the Han Solo trilogy by AC Crispin. Really loved Paradise Snare and Hutt Gambit... Rebel Dawn was a bit less impressive, but still good.

Read the Thrawn prequel... well-written, enjoyed the characterization, but it just didn't feel very compelling. I think the follow-up (Thrawn: Alliances) will be a lot more interesting, especially if Vader and Thrawn interact much.

Couldn't get into Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader... it took like 7 chapters to even get to Vader, and the first chapters were about a bunch of characters I've never heard of. NOT the Vader prequel character piece I was anticipating. The Marvel comics have done a much more interesting story for that.

Also bailed early in trying to read Heir to the Jedi... it might be good, but I am just not interested in a first-person narrative by Luke Skywalker. I prefer third-person for my media tie-ins. I might give it another try before I take it back to the library... need to read Shadows of Mindor and Honor Among Thieves first.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

It's been awhile since I tracked my progress... here's a bunch of books I read since last month.

Did Tales of the Bounty Hunters, loved it. Read the Boba Fett and Mara Jade stories in Tales from Jabba's Palace, skipped the rest. Don't care about the one-off characters... Star Wars worldbuilding doesn't interest me.

Outbound Flight was GREAT. Much better Thrawn origin than Zahn's "Disney canon" Thrawn novel. Way better.

Honor Among Thieves and Razor's Edge were both great.

Bailed on Shadows of Mindor... too exaggerated, felt all wrong. Bailed on Leia, Princess of Alderaan... YA, ugh.

Kenobi was badass.

Allegiance and Choices of One were both amazing. Loved the renegade Stormtrooper squad.

Also reread Dark Empire again. Ugh. Terrible colors for that book, all very muddy and monochromatic. There are, what, 2 or at most 3 colors per page? Bizarre. A decent read, I guess... couldn't get into Dark Empire II, though.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

And also just finished the Jedi Academy Trilogy... gotta say, Vegita-San hit the nail on the head. Kevin J. Anderson uses the movie quotes WAAAAAAAAAY too frickin' much. Super annoying.

And Luke was bizarrely oblivious to Exar Xun or whoever. He loses ONE student, and never bothers to investigate where or how the dude made a lightsaber? Seriously, that was stupid.

But other than that, I really liked it. Really good. 4 out of 5, compared to Zahn's consistent 5 out of 5.

Next up, the Callista trilogy (Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and Planet of Twilight) and Crystal Star... I'm expected to dislike these, based on what I've heard about them. What do you guys think?

[CyberCubed]

Just curious where are you getting all these books from? Are you buying them digitally, or buying physical books? It seems like you have a lot of them and are reading in quick succession so I'm wondering.