What do you read of the SW EU?

Enterprise E · Post by **Enterprise E** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:07 pm

How many of you guys read the books from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Also, what books in the EU do you read? Do any series really stand out to you?

The ones that I've read that stand out to me in a positive way are the Thrawn Trilogy, the Thrawn duology, the X-Wing series, and the later half of the NJO (most of what comes after Star by Star). I've also read most of the post-OT Bantam SW books, which include some of the series mentioned above.

Sunburst · Post by **Sunburst** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:40 pm

I used to read Timothy Zahn's works which included everything from Heir to the Empire through Survivor's Quest. I read most of Bantoms publishing run and some of the Early Del Rey novels. Survivor's Quest is the furthest I've gotten in the story.

The novels that stick out are the Thrawn trilogy, and duology, the x-wing novels up to the Bacta War, the Jedi Academy trilogy, Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, and Courtship of Princess Leia. Those had lasting repercussions on the EU.

I didn't get very far into the NJO and since I've heard Mara is written poorly, Chewie dies, the Vong as a concept exist at all, I've had little desire to take the time to read any of it.

Also The Thrawn Duology is a good conclusion to the Star Wars story with the end of Imperial Republic hostilities and Luke hooking up with Mara.

l33telboi · Post by **l33telboi** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:58 pm

I've started with the NJO, expecting to finish the series sometime in the distant future. We'll see after that. I've been hearing a lot of good things on the Thrawn books.

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 1:07 am

I'am not a terribly big fan of the SW EU, just as I'am not that big a fan of most of the ST EU. Like a lot of folks, I've enjoyed the Zahn trilogy, but have only skimmed through parts of his more recent duology. If there's one series of SW books I miss, it's the old Del Ray "Han Solo at Star's End", "Han Solo's Revenge", and "Han and the Lost Legacy" books written by the late Brian Daley in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Daley later went on to write the NPO SW radio drama scripts.

Daley's Solo trilogy is kind of cheesy, but it still has it's heart in the right place, and it's kind of nice having the Corporate Sector Authority as the villains rather than the Galactic Empire. The Daley Solo trilogy with it's action, adventure, intrigue, fast-pace, cleaver one-liners, feels more like the original Star Wars than most of the current crop of the EU, even Zahn's works.
-Mike

GStone · Post by **GStone** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:57 pm

The only ones I've ever read, and enjoyed, are the ICSs.

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:00 pm

The original ANH SW ICS book was very good. But he following TPM ICS book, dispite the illustrations being excellent, was ruined by the movie being so stinky. Then came AoTC ICS, and the possible taint of settling the Versus debate with the over-inflated power numbers, and I lost all interest in ICS.
-Mike

watchdog · Post by **watchdog** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 9:27 am

Read the comics, many of the ideas I debate have come from them. Been through the Thrawn books, and use the essential guides pretty well, also liked the clone wars cartoon (they are planning a 3-D animated version). I have trouble getting into the novels because for me star wars is a visual story and I prefer to see the ships and not try to imagine them based off of an authors description.

GStone · Post by **GStone** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 2:18 pm

Oh, I read Dark Empire. 1 was okay, 2 sucked and I never read 3. That's it.

Edit:

Mike DiCenso wrote:The original ANH SW ICS book was very good. But he following TPM ICS book, dispite the illustrations being excellent, was ruined by the movie being so stinky. Then came AoTC ICS, and the possible taint of settling the Versus debate with the over-inflated power numbers, and I lost all interest in ICS.
-Mike

I've found the wanked out-ness of Saxton ICS to be funny and very peculiar. The methodology of the science has given me hours and hours of wonder of just 'why'.

watchdog · Post by **watchdog** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:55 pm

GStone wrote:Oh, I read Dark Empire. 1 was okay, 2 sucked and I never read 3. That's it.

Personally I never really liked the dark empire books myself, something about them just seemed odd to me. The art was ok, but most of the story just made me go bleah.

I've found the wanked out-ness of Saxton ICS to be funny and very peculiar. The methodology of the science has given me hours and hours of wonder of just 'why'.

I think we've all just sat around and wondered, why.

Nonamer · Post by **Nonamer** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 11:12 pm

I've read a few books from SW:EU. The first volume of the Thrawn trilogy and the first 4 or 5 books of X-wing series, as well as Darksaber. If you consider the novelization of the OT as EU, then I've read that too.

Post by **Jedi Master Spock** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 2:12 am

Frankly, Splinter of the Mind's Eye stands out to me because of how close it was to ANH... and how much the rest of the EU differs from it in feel (or even just ROTJ is a bit different). I also taped the NPR radio dramatization when it came on, but I misplaced the tapes a good while ago.

I've also read Zahn, the X-Wing books, the Young Jedi Knight series, the Han Solo trilogy... waitaminute, I'll save you and me some time. I've read (or listened to as "audio books" on cassette tape - the lazy/busy man's edition) most (80-90% or so) of the novels and short story anthologies that came out before TPM, up to and including Vector Prime. Since then I've only read a couple of the new SW books.

I skimmed through a few of the WEG sourcebooks back in the day. That about rounds it up.