tell me about Star Wars novels!

[Temis the Vorta]

I've only read one Star Wars novel ever - the one set between ANH and ESB - and I've forgotten what it was called! Forgive me, I'm a Trekkie!

Anyway, I wasn't blown away by that one. The plot didn't seem like it was really solidly part of the Star Wars universe and Luke and Leia weren't written convincingly as "themselves."

But I still would like to check out more novels. So without divulging any important spoilers (other than what these questions ask), can you tell me:

1. Overall, how do the novels stack up against either the OT or the PT movies?

2. Are there other novels set between ANH and ESB, or ESB and ROTJ? I've heard there's only that one that I read between ANH and ESB, and that seems like a wasted opportunity.

3. Is there a novel series that takes off right where ROTJ left off and if so, what is it?

4. Are Luke, Leia and Han written so that you can recognize them?

5. Is Luke the stiff, humorous, oh-so-serious Jedi from ROTJ or do the novelists return some of the qualities that made him so charming - idealism, humility, innocence and boyish enthusiasm (why are those incompatible with being a Jedi!!!)

6. Does Leia ever learn to use the Force?

7. Is Leia still a bossy, crabby bitch (please say yes)?

8. Are either Luke or Leia ever seriously threatened by going all Dark Side on us (I'd be astonished if this plot twist never came up)?

9. Just out of curiosity - no details, please - do the novels ever depict how Luke, Leia, Han or Chewie die?

10. Are there Clone Wars-era novels and are they any good?

11. If so, is Anakin written like he should have been and not like a whiny little punk?

12. Are there any novels that don't deal with the Skywalker family and are they still interesting anyway?

Thank you!

 

[Myasishchev]

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was the first original SW novel series. I think it takes place right after RotJ. It's actually pretty awesome, iirc, although it's been about a decade and a half since I read it. And a decade and a half ago I was twelve. It is highly-regarded, however. The Courtship of Princess Leia is also in that first wave (I think), but I can remember absolutely nothing about it.

There are some other ones that are decent, sitting on my shelf, but unread for years. Nothing really mind-blowingly great, though. There's that one trilogy with the Jedi academy on Yavin IV with the Sun-Killer and the black hole cluster, and it's okay, but, again, nothing fancy.

Oh, and word on the street is that Karen Traviss, who's embarassingly wet for all that is Mandalorian, needs to be on some kind of medication. Also that a great deal of the current output is dross.

 

[Mr Light]

The novels are very hit and miss. There's some great ones and there's some terrible ones.

The only one featuring the main characters set between the OT is Shadows of the Empire, between ESB and ROTJ. It's just alright. The one you're thinking of is Shadow of the Mind's Eye, which was written back in the 70s and yeah it has nothing to do with continuity

There's an entire novel continuity after ROTJ. It starts with Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, set 5 years after ROTJ, and widely considered to be the best SW books out there.

Luke I think is well written, all powerful but with a sense of humor. He's too introspective and pacifist, but oh well. Most of these were written before we found out the Jedi were war generals! Leia does become a Jedi, though not a very good one

Luke's flirt with the Dark Side takes place in the first post ROTJ comic book "Dark Empire", which some hate but I think is a great read with great art. Dark Empire is a total of 14 issues collected into two trade paperbacks, "Dark Empire I" and "Dark Empire II".

Basically if you want to give it a try... read the Thrawn Trilogy and see if you want to continue. And Dark Empire the comic book.

The big three have not died yet, but many supporting characters have died.

There's a lot of Clone Wars novels, some great, some terrible.

There's many non-Big Three novels, notable the X-Wing series, which I hear great things about, but I read the first two and didn't really care for them.

There's basically two eras of the novels. The Bantam Era (1991 to 1998 I think) is a series of standalone novels without any central storyline. There's a few trilogies but it's mainly one off books. The Empire is kinda the recurring villain in several forms but not really.

Then there's the Del Rey Era (1998 to present) where the novels became a single unified storyline. First with the New Jedi Order depicting a 19 book long war. Some loved it, some hated it. It's basically World War Two in the Star Wars universe with really evil torture obsessed aliens. After that was the 9 book series Legacy of the Force, which I really liked but many hated. We're currently in the Fate of the Jedi 9 book series... the case is out on that one.

http://www.theforce.net/books/reviews/novels_chrono.asp
This is a chronological list of the novels.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Luke I think is well written, all powerful but with a sense of humor. He's too introspective and pacifist, but oh well.

I can see that being a natural evolution for him.

Leia does become a Jedi, though not a very good one

Not surprising. With her temper control issues I got her pegged for eventual Sithism. "Release your anger..." When did she ever do anything but?

http://www.theforce.net/books/reviews/novels_chrono.asp

http://www.theforce.net/books/reviews/novels_chrono.asp
This is a chronological list of the novels.

Thanks!

 

[6079SmithW]

There are lots of post ROTJ books but I have not read them so I can't say anything about them. I myself like "ancient star wars" novels but I don't know if that's up your alley. The Darth Bane trilogy takes place 1000 years before ANH and explains how the Sith went from numbering in the thousands to just two. The first book in this trilogy is pretty hit or miss and is the weakest in my opinion. The other two get progressively better (also my opinion).

There is a series of comic books called "Tales of the Jedi" that take place 5000 years before ANH. Several events and characters relevant/important to Star Wars history, and in some cases post ROTJ novels, are dealt with here. Some art work is terrible and some is gorgeous.

There is a new comic book series called "Knights of the Old Republic" which takes place about 4000 years before ANH and sets the backstory for the two video games of the same name.

Hope this helps.

 

[CorporalClegg]

They're terrible.

That's all you need to know.

 

[Klaus]

The one you read was probably Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster... of the later ones I've only gotten around to reading the first Thrawn trilogy by Zahn but recall liking them.

 

[Kelso]

I tried to give this a go last year, but couldn't make it through the Thrawn trilogy.

Good luck!

 

[Gaith]

Shadows of the Empire (which is decent) and the Thrawn trilogy (which is fantastic) are as far into the EU as I care to go; along with the OT (but not the PT), they make up my personal SW canon.

 

[Skywalker]

If you're into stories not directly involving the Big Three, I'd recommend the X-wing novels by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. Light on the Jedi, heavy on the space battles, intrigue, and awesome.

 

[PsychoPere]

1. Overall, how do the novels stack up against either the OT or the PT movies?

Hit or miss, though there are still plenty that I've enjoyed. Once upon a time, I was keeping up with the novels on a regular basis. After The New Jedi Order ended, I was out of the loop until recently, when I started trying to catch back up on the current timeline. I'll be starting the Fate of the Jedi series after I get caught up on the DS9 Relaunch finally.

2. Are there other novels set between ANH and ESB, or ESB and ROTJ?

Between ANH and TESB, there's pretty much just Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye, originally published in 1978 and intended to be a low-budget sequel to ANH if the movie wasn't a great success. As for between TESB and ROTJ, it's pretty much just Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry. Shadows is interesting because it was essentially treated as a movie release, sans the movie: in addition to the novel, there was a young adult version of the novel, a soundtrack, a comic book adaptation, and a Nintendo 64 video game.

3. Is there a novel series that takes off right where ROTJ left off and if so, what is it?

There is a novel, The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers, that takes place directly after ROTJ.

The first series to take place following the Battle of Endor is X-Wing, written initially by Michael Stackpole, focusing on Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron. That series shifts focus to a new squadron with book five, when Aaron Allston takes over. Personally, I quite enjoyed all of the X-Wing novels and they feature some of the most important moments in the establishment of the New Republic as a legitimate governing alternative to the post-Palpatine Empire (retaking Coruscant, for example).

Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy takes place shortly before that (5 years ABY, as opposed to about 6 years for X-Wing) and were the first post-ROTJ novels published. They remain some of the EU's best to this day.

4. Are Luke, Leia and Han written so that you can recognize them?

Yes.

5. Is Luke the stiff, humorous, oh-so-serious Jedi from ROTJ or do the novelists return some of the qualities that made him so charming - idealism, humility, innocence and boyish enthusiasm (why are those incompatible with being a Jedi!!!)

Luke always retains his idealism, optimism, and his belief in others, often to his detriment. He may finally have lost some of that in the Legacy of the Force series, however, set 40 years ABY. Quite a few horrible things happen in that series, forcing him to compromise on many of his own ideals.

6. Does Leia ever learn to use the Force?

Yep, though she doesn't finally invest the time in her studies until The New Jedi Order. Thus, she's not a fully fledged Jedi Knight for most of the Bantam-era novels (Del Ray received the license starting with NJO).

7. Is Leia still a bossy, crabby bitch (please say yes)?

She can be.

8. Are either Luke or Leia ever seriously threatened by going all Dark Side on us (I'd be astonished if this plot twist never came up)?

Leia not so much, though Luke has more than one brush (and even more than a "brush") with the Dark Side. However, the most prominent of those situations came in the Dark Empire comic series, rather than in the novels. DE is a pretty good read.

9. Just out of curiosity - no details, please - do the novels ever depict how Luke, Leia, Han or Chewie die?

One of those, yes, and it's as heroic as you would expect. The other three are still alive and kicking 40 years ABY.

10. Are there Clone Wars-era novels and are they any good?

There are many (and several pre-CW as well), and some of them are good. At least one -- Matthew Stover's Shatterpoint -- in fact is damn good. It's one of my favorite SW novels, period. Karen Traviss's Republic Commando novels are also very good reads. My memory of Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is fuzzy though favorable. Outside of those examples, I've barely touched the CW novels, so can't offer any other thoughts.

11. If so, is Anakin written like he should have been and not like a whiny little punk?

Unfortunately, I can't answer this, as most of the CW novels I've read have barely even referenced Anakin Skywalker.

12. Are there any novels that don't deal with the Skywalker family and are they still interesting anyway?

The most notable example here would be the X-Wing novels I previously mentioned.

For a couple of really "out there" and crazy trilogies, however, I can easily recommend both The Adventures of Lando Calrissian by L. Neil Smith and The Han Solo Adventures by Brian C. Daley. Of those two, Daley's books are better, but I had a blast reading both. Keep in mind, however, that I read both of those trilogies about 10 years ago, so I could be wrong if I were to re-read them today. The Lando trilogy covers 4 and 3 years BBY, while the Han trilogy is 2 years BBY.

Speaking of Han, A. C. Crispin wrote a Han trilogy called simply The Han Solo Trilogy that starts 10 years BBY in book 1, covers 5 and 4 years BBY in book 2, and leads directly into ANH by end of book 3. In that series, we find out how he met Chewbacca, how he met Lando, and how he got his hands on the Millennium Falcon, as well as how he tried being a Rebel once upon a time for another lovely lady before he met Leia.

If you want some specific post-ROTJ recommendations, let me know and I'll open up a list to see if I can come up with some general impressions beyond the books I've already listed.

 

[sojourner]

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was the first original SW novel series.

Not even close to the first original novels.

 

[PsychoPere]

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was the first original SW novel series.

Not even close to the first original novels.

Heh, I didn't see that bit during my first read-through of the thread. Indeed it was not. That honor belongs to the ANH novelization Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published under George Lucas's name. Following that was Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I used to have a 1976 copy of that novelization, though sadly I seem to have lost it.

 

[6079SmithW]

Another series is "Jedi Apprentice" which follows the adventures of young Obi-Wan and his master Qui-Gon. Its more of a children's/young adult series, though.

 

[captcalhoun]

i can't recommend the Republic Commando series enough. although a lot hate them because of the Mandolorian worship in them.

the X-Wing series is also made of win

so is I, Jedi. although i gather some people hate it.

 

[-Brett-]

I've read a few. The post ROTJ stuff is mostly terrible. The continuity is so damn thick, at some points they might as well be written in greek.

I'd suggest reading the Thrawn trilogy and call it a day. Keep in mind that it was written in the early 90s and the prequels have contradicted the bajeezus out of it.

 

[stonester1]

Among some others mentioned, I recommend the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. Wookie commandoes, what more do you need?

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Read the Lando Calrissian Adventures, the Han Solo Adventures, the Thrawn Trilogy...

Then retire from SW Lit.

 

[Myasishchev]

Not even close to the first original novels.

The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was the first original SW novel series.

Not even close to the first original novels.

Heh, I didn't see that bit during my first read-through of the thread. Indeed it was not. That honor belongs to the ANH novelization Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published under George Lucas's name. Following that was Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I used to have a 1976 copy of that novelization, though sadly I seem to have lost it.

Well color me incorrect. I always thought they were the first.

Were they the first post-trilogy?

 

[Mr Light]

The Thrawn Trilogy was the first book of the 1992 relaunch. Prior to that there was a smattering of circa 70s/80s book like Splinter of the Minds Eye, Han Solo Adventures, Lando Adventures.