Star Wars Books Thread

[DigificWriter]

I'm looking at making a concerted effort to start completing my Star Wars Legends novel collection, based around the premise of unifying things primarily through the Thrawn Trilogy, the The New Jedi Order series, the Legacy of the Force series, and the The Fate of the Jedi series. However, I'm having trouble finding a list of novels that are important in relation to those "tentpoles", and was wondering if anyone could help me out.

Note: What I'm looking for is a full list of novels that contain characters, scenarios, artifacts, etc. that are referenced in or play some significant part in the Thrawn Trilogy, NJO, LotF, and TFotJ.

 

[JD]

I thought it was pretty good. It is more of a character study, though, than an action story.

Good to know.

Good idea. One way to get the full effect would be to read Catalyst, then the Rogue One novelization prologue (pp. 3 - 18) which covers Galen Erso's capture, then Rebel Rising, the the rest of the Rogue One novelization. That puts all the pieces together in order.

I'm not sure if I'll do that on my first read through, but that might be the kind of thing that could be fun to do on a reread.

 

[JD]

StarWars.com has revealed the cover, and author quotes for Cato Bight.
All of these stories sound like they have a lot of potential. I was curious about this one before, but after this I'm actually getting excited for it.
I can't remember, this is going to be another middle grade book like Before the Awakening, or is it geared towards aldults?

 

[Reverend]

It's seems more in the thread of the 'Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away' book, which was a collection of short stories, mostly about denizens of of Maz's Castle and Nima Outpost. Never got around to reading them them (except the 'Crimson Corsair' story) so it's hard to tell what age range it was aimed at. I'm guessing Young Adult.

 

[WebLurker]

StarWars.com has revealed the cover, and author quotes for Cato Bight.
All of these stories sound like they have a lot of potential. I was curious about this one before, but after this I'm actually getting excited for it.
I can't remember, this is going to be another middle grade book like Before the Awakening, or is it geared towards aldults?

The Wook listed it as an adult-targeted book, for what it's worth.

 

[The Wormhole]

It is previewed at the end of the Phasma novel, so that's a pretty good indication it's meant for the adult audience.

Based on the blurb, I'm kind of reminded of those short story anthologies they did in the 90s, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales from Jabba's Palace, Tales of the Bounty Hunters and so on.

 

[DigificWriter]

Is anybody going to answer my query about the Legends novels?

 

[WebLurker]

I'm looking at making a concerted effort to start completing my Star Wars Legends novel collection, based around the premise of unifying things primarily through the Thrawn Trilogy, the The New Jedi Order series, the Legacy of the Force series, and the The Fate of the Jedi series. However, I'm having trouble finding a list of novels that are important in relation to those "tentpoles", and was wondering if anyone could help me out.

Note: What I'm looking for is a full list of novels that contain characters, scenarios, artifacts, etc. that are referenced in or play some significant part in the Thrawn Trilogy, NJO, LotF, and TFotJ.

Hmm, that's a tall order. The Essential Reader's Companion would be a useful resource for that.

As I recall, these are stuff you'd want for sure (in no specific order):

- Dark Nest Trilogy
- Karen Traviss's Clone Commando and Imperial Commando books
- Brain Daley's Han Solo Aventures trilogy/AC Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy
- John Jackson Miller's Lost Tribe omnibus
- Rouge Planet
- Outbound Flight and Survivor's Quest
- Truce at Bakura
- Jedi Academy Trilogy
- Crystal Star
- Dark Saber
- Dark Fleet Crises trilogy
- X-Wing series
- Tales From... anthologies
- New Rebellion
- Hand of Thrawn duology
- I, Jedi

 

[Reverend]

Is anybody going to answer my query about the Legends novels?

There's this thing called google and the wookipedia that might be useful.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'd already done research on my own and have the Essential Reader's Companion, so asking in this thread was literally a "last resort".

Based on having read the NJO series, here's the list of stuff I'd kind of flagged as important, but that I was hoping to find corroboration/clarification on:
Outbound Flight
Rogue Planet
Hand of Thrawn
Young Jedi Knights
Dark Nest
Millennium Falcon
Junior Jedi Knights
Corellian Trilogy
Black Fleet Crisis
Allegiance
Choices of One
Survivor's Quest
Crucible
Bounty Hunter Wars
Courtship of Princess Leia
Lost Tribe of the Sith

Anybody willing to give specific insight into why Crystal Star, Darksaber, Truce at Bakura, Jedi Academy, The New Rebellion, the Han Solo stories, all of the X-Wing books, Karen Traviss' stuff, and I, Jedi are important as well?

 

[Reverend]

It rather depends on one's definition of "important". I mean, they're all basically standalone narratives and so aren't really required reading to understand any other stories. Also, they're not requires to transport oxygen from your lungs to your other vital organs, so it's not as if you'll fall over dead if you don't read them.

That said 'Crystal Star' & 'Darksaber' are bloody awful books by any measure, with the Jedi Academy Trilogy being only slightly less terrible. 'Truce at Bakura' is utterly skippable with decidedly mediocre writing and a plot that adds nothing of any significance. I don't even remember what the hell 'The New Rebellion' was even about it left so little impression on my. I only have the vague recollection that it was mostly a derivative rehash of previous plots (and not even the good ones.) Indeed, based on that alone and without looking it up, I'd be willing to put money on one of the thread being the Solo kids and/or Leia being targeted for kidnapping and/or assassination. Because that was all most of the authors could think to do with them.

The X-Wing books are fun and well written, so worth checking out. So by extension is 'I Jedi' as works as a sort of a supplement to those. Bonus points for it throwing serious shade on the Academy Trilogy, why simultaneously taking place within it.

Never got around to the Han Solo books (Daley or Crispin) but I've heard generally good things about all of them. I wouldn't get too attached to them though, what with the upcoming movie likely to ignore most if not all of it.

Karen Traviss...I guess, if you're into OTT 'roided up warrior culture porn then sure, go for it.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ That's the exact opposite of a helpful answer.

 

[JD]

It's seems more in the thread of the 'Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away' book, which was a collection of short stories, mostly about denizens of of Maz's Castle and Nima Outpost. Never got around to reading them them (except the 'Crimson Corsair' story) so it's hard to tell what age range it was aimed at. I'm guessing Young Adult.

The Wook listed it as an adult-targeted book, for what it's worth.

It is previewed at the end of the Phasma novel, so that's a pretty good indication it's meant for the adult audience.

Based on the blurb, I'm kind of reminded of those short story anthologies they did in the 90s, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales from Jabba's Palace, Tales of the Bounty Hunters and so on.

Ok, thanks. I was thinking given the subject matter, criminals and the whole underworld aspect, it would probably be more adult, but the cover art looked similar to the middle grade books, so I wasn't sure.
Canto Bight is one of the aspects of TLJ I'm most curious about, from the bits and pieces I've seen and read it sounds like a really cool setting.

 

[Reverend]

^ That's the exact opposite of a helpful answer.

It was exactly as helpful as the question required it to be.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ No, it wasn't. I asked for insight into why the mentioned novels would be important in relation to a Legends novel continuity focused through the Thrawn Trilogy, the NJO, LotF, and TFotJ, and your answer did the exact opposite.

 

[WebLurker]

I'd already done research on my own and have the Essential Reader's Companion, so asking in this thread was literally a "last resort".

Based on having read the NJO series, here's the list of stuff I'd kind of flagged as important, but that I was hoping to find corroboration/clarification on:
Outbound Flight
Rogue Planet
Hand of Thrawn
Young Jedi Knights
Dark Nest
Millennium Falcon
Junior Jedi Knights
Corellian Trilogy
Black Fleet Crisis
Allegiance
Choices of One
Survivor's Quest
Crucible
Bounty Hunter Wars
Courtship of Princess Leia
Lost Tribe of the Sith

Bounty Hunter Wars is non-essential (I thought it was really bad). You don't "need" Allegiance or Choices of One if you don't want them (they're good).

Anybody willing to give specific insight into why Crystal Star, Darksaber, Truce at Bakura, Jedi Academy, The New Rebellion, the Han Solo stories, all of the X-Wing books, Karen Traviss' stuff, and I, Jedi are important as well?

Crystal Star sets up stuff with Daala, as I recall, that Legacy refers too. Darksaber is a piece of Callista's story, which is relevant to Fate of the Jedi. Jedi Academy /, Jedi, and X-Wing feeds into other stuff that you're wanting to collect. The Han Solo books set up stuff in New Jedi Order, Dark Nest, and others. Karen Traviss stuff is major important to Legacy. Come to think of it, New Rebellion might not be essential.

 

[Reverend]

^ No, it wasn't. I asked for insight into why the mentioned novels would be important in relation to a Legends novel continuity focused through the Thrawn Trilogy, the NJO, LotF, and TFotJ, and your answer did the exact opposite.

There's a fundamental assumption in that statement that "importance" means the same thing to you as everyone else. And I did specifically say that none of them have particularly significance narrative ties to anything else, which is the closest one can sensibly get to such a subjective criteria.

 

[Ithekro]

Because the requested amount of series asked to be tied in with basically means it just best to read everything because they did make at least some effort to tie all the novels together eventually, and the farther along the old EU got, the more references they would try to sneak in from earlier novels. New Rebellion might be the only one that doesn't really do anything.as it is probably the most self contained story of the group.

Truce at Bakura doesn't do too much, but is referenced in the Corellian trilogy.

Mind you I only read up to half way through the NJO series before there were just too many books coming out at once. So if stuff is getting referenced after that point, I only know from wiki sources.

The better question would be "what are you trying to relate the stories too?" as some references are not all that strong and you can get away without knowing what they were from in the context of the story.

Outbound Flight - Thrawn backstory and some EU justification for Palpatine's super weapons.
Rogue Planet - Early hint of the Vong threat.
Hand of Thrawn - Introduces the End of the Galactic Civil War ideas and the other Imperial forces in the Unknown Regions (what could have been the First Order in another timeline, but isn't)
Young Jedi Knights - gives character to the Solo children rather than just being kids.
Dark Nest (haven't read)
Millennium Falcon (haven't read)
Junior Jedi Knights - Again, more characterization for the Solo children
Corellian Trilogy - Problems with holding the Republic together and some early issues with Corellia
Black Fleet Crisis - Problems holding the Republic together and the introduction of the New Republic Navy.
Allegiance (haven't read)
Choices of One (haven't read)
Survivor's Quest (haven't read)
Crucible (haven't read)
Bounty Hunter Wars - I don't remember this being important, though it might do something for Boba Fett later on.
Courtship of Princess Leia - Introduces characters for other series.
Lost Tribe of the Sith (haven't read)

 

[JD]

We've got to new pieces of books and comics news:
Marvel is going to be releasing a new one off comic called Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Storms of Crait #1, which takes place during the OT era, and has Luke and Leia one Crait, one of the new planets introduced in TLJ.

They've also announced the cast list for the audiobook version of From a Certain Point of View, the ANH 40th anniversary short story collection.

Full cast list (in alphabetical order):

Jonathan Davis
Ashley Eckstein
Janina Gavankar
Jon Hamm
Neil Patrick Harris
January LaVoy
Saskia Maarleveld
Carol Monda
Daniel José Older
Marc Thompson

Not a bad list, John Hamm and NPH are easily the biggest names.

 

[Tuskin38]

The Audible preview of 'A Certain Point of View' is out, and reveals something interesting

Spoiler

Yoda wanted to train Leia, not Luke