I am more of a 40k fluff guy so I turn on this forums for some recommendations on Star Wars reading (preferably novels, but if there is some particulary good graphic novel I wouldnt mind) relevant towards the Age of Rebellion. I have only read Thrawn trilogy and Hand of Thrawn, and have recommendation for Hand of Judgement (looking forward it as I am no big fan of rebellion).

Also are there any books featuring Kyle Katarn during his commando years?

Thanks

It turns out that the Dark Forces Saga trilogy's first book is essentially a novelization of the early days and eventually the Death Star plans retrieval. The subsequent books are both after Endor though.

All the X-Wing books. Yes its about fighter jocks but they do a lot of ground missions, too. Especially Wraith Squadron.

(though they are post RotJ, they start before the fall of Coruscant during the last days of the Alliance/first days of the New Republic. They have a good military bend to them and are more about the rank and file. The Elite rank and file, but less about Luke Skywalkers and Han Solos and more about the Wedge Antilleses and Wes Jansons).

If you're willing to read the Dark Horse comics, there's also the current Star Wars ongoing which is set (as the first volume puts it) "In The Shadow of Yavin" just like Edge of the Empire , though unlike the aforementioned Squadron books it's got a "Skywalker, Organa, Solo and Chewie" main cast, but with Leia more in the thick of the action.

Shadows of the Empire is well written from an EU standard (sorry, some EU stuff is horribly written or centered on a teenage audience). It started the Black Sun as part of EU canon that is already ripe through EotE sources. It's between Ep. V and VI, but is set around a large criminal organization that is center stage of EotE.

I never read the Dark Forces trilogy. It was based on the first-person shooter video game and thus had one character doing way, way too much. It receives no stamp for my personal canon and I thus reserve what Katarn did (grab the plans, for example) for something the players could end up doing.

Oops I screwed that up. Corrected the time frame.

SotE is between V and VI, so somewhat in the vein of AoR (which I understand is meant to be between Hoth and Endor?). As for the Dark Forces Saga trilogy, only the first book is within the purview of EotE/AoR and corresponds to Dark Forces (but it seems to not cover the Dark Trooper Project), the other two books correspond to the later "Jedi" games set post-Endor.

I've been hitting a lof of SW books lately for the exact same reason. So far I would recommend Allegiance, and Scoundrels. Currently I am reading Kenobi and its starting off pretty good as well. Probably even better because I just finished Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

In regards to the EU issues I can't tell you what's cannon or what's not or what should be, but I can assure you that these books will give you lots of good ideas and will help set an inspiring mood for you and your groups adventures.

The next books on my list will be Choices of One which is a sequel to Allegiance and then I will be knocking off the X-Wing series.

Let us know what you end up coming across that help inspire you.

Cheers!