Check out the newly released Tarkin. It's a fantastic read and iit's canon
Edited by Yogibaer13OT What is worth reading in the EU?
If that's your style, check out Allegiance. Great story about a rogue band of stormtroopers. Besides, it's by Timothy Zahn. Then its sequel is Choices of One which is also really good.
Haha, already have! All of Zahn's works read like novelized RPG campaigns, which is amazing!
I haven't read that much of the EU, but I can confirm that the Thrawn trilogy is probably the best place to start
The Thrawn Trilogy and the X-Wing Series are great to start out. Then move into the rest of the Timothy Zahn novels on Star Wars.
Both Han Solo trilogies, but for completely different reasons. One is campy and pulpy as **** and the other is a cool lead in on the story of his life, ending right as Obi-wan sits down with him in the cantina.
Agreed. The second Han trilogy is one of my favorites of the EU. It gives Han a real reason to be how he is. The first trilogy is all in one book, and it is campy as ANW so be prepared for that.
Republic Commando is absolutely amazing. Definitely read it.
Seconded. My favorite Star Wars books ever! It's probably the best portrayal of non-Force Users in the setting, too.
Haha awesome. I love how it portrayals the clones as real people, not just robots that only know war. And the Mandos are so awesome too.
The Thrawn trilogy audiobooks, with the first book read by Wedge and the second two books read by Anthony Daniels are really good. I recommend them!
Stay away from...
Just an awful series. Barbara started it terribly, Kevin tried to drag it up to "ok", then Barbara shoved it back down to miserable.
Kevin J. Anderson tried? Aha! Now I finally understand what Yoda meant by "try not".
Seriously. Just don't do KJA.
I'm glad of the positive reviews for Plagueis and Tarkin. I've been thinking about giving those a try - especially the latter, as it's canon.
The Thrawn trilogy audiobooks, with the first book read by Wedge and the second two books read by Anthony Daniels are really good. I recommend them!
Stay away from...
Just an awful series. Barbara started it terribly, Kevin tried to drag it up to "ok", then Barbara shoved it back down to miserable.Kevin J. Anderson tried? Aha! Now I finally understand what Yoda meant by "try not".
Seriously. Just don't do KJA.
I'm glad of the positive reviews for Plagueis and Tarkin. I've been thinking about giving those a try - especially the latter, as it's canon.
*grabs popcorn* dis gon be gud
The Thrawn trilogy was really good, it's the most memorable of the books I read back in the 90s. The Anderson stories weren't great, He seems to be one of the most hated Star Wars authors, along with Karen Traviss, but I haven't read any of her books myself.
I also liked those collections of short stories, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and Tales of Mos Eisley. I remember liking Shadows of the Empire, but I tried reading it again when wave 6 was announced, and the writing was so bad I couldn't get past the second chapter.
Thrawn Trilogy
X-Wing series
Then I'd recommend the other books by Zahn. I also like the books that flesh out the films, so the "Tales from..." trilogy, Shadows of the Empire, Death Star and Truce at Bakura (set after ROTJ so soon to probably be completely destroyed by VII). I Jedi has been recommended a lot here and is good; all about Corran Horn.
The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy was absolute garbage. I recommend staying away from that, as well as the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy and the New Jedi Order series.
A lot of people hate on the New Jedi Order, but I quite liked it. Too often before that the novels were just "Imperial superweapon/admiral of the week" with not a lot of new things taking place. NJO had the Jedi facing a massive threat, and a completely alien one, even to the Star Wars universe. And ever since Farscape I love the living ship idea, and living everything is kind of the Yuuzhan Vong's thing, but to each their own.
I also disagree with Bounty Hunter Wars being garbage, it was three books of Boba Fett being badass, with some Bossk and Dengar thrown in with him, and it at least shows that he didn't just waltz out of the Sarlacc, if Dengar hadn't found him he would've been baked in the desert sun while bleeding out.
As to some of the novels everyone should enjoy:
-Shatterpoint
-Darth Plagueis
-Death Star
-Every Timothy Zahn book (especially the Thrawn and Allegiance books, Allegiance and Choices of One having some awesome fleshed-out stormptroopers and Mara Jade action)
-The X-Wing series (particularly the Wraith Squadron books, last one I read was Mercy Kill and it was brilliant, real shame that Aaron Allston's dead now though)
-Shatterpoint
-The Fate of the Jedi series can get pretty interesting, and is made to fix a lot of the problems with Legacy of the Force, if you liked the Mortis arc in The Clone Wars you might enjoy some of the stuff there. It also involves Luke and Ben Sywalkers adventures across the galaxy together, which is great.
-The "Dark Lord Trilogy" as some people have called it (Labyrinth of Evil, ROTS novelizastion (which is way better than the movie, and I like that movie) and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
-The Darth Bane trilogy
-Did I mention Shatterpoint?