Greatest Hits and Misses of the Star Wars Expanded Universe

[DarKush]

With the recent news about the fate of the Star Wars expanded universe,

(See this thread: http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=243358)

I was wondering what are you guys and gals favorite and not-so-favorite things from the Star Wars EU?

Off the top of my head:

Hits:
-Yuuzhan Vong
-Lumiya
-Darth Krayt and the One Sith
-Solo kids
-Mara Jade
-Darth Bane trilogy
-Comic series (Legacy, Knights of the Old Republic, Republic, Dark Times, Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi/Sith War)

Misses:
-Darth Caedus
-Abeloth
-Daala as head of state

 

[Hound of UIster]

Hits
Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn
Matt Stover
TotJ
Dark Empire I
X-Wing Rogue and Wrath Squadron
TCW
Ostrander's Republic Comics
JJM's KOTOR Comic
the two Kotor Games

Misses
KOTOR MMO
Darth Bane books
NJO
LotF
Kevin J Anderson
Troy Denning
Drew Karpyshyn
Karen Traviss

 

[Awesome Possum]

Shadows of the Empire will always have a special place in my heart due to the game and the book. I'd also argue that we can still consider it canon since the Outrider is visible over Mos Eisley in A New Hope.

 

[Relayer1]

Hits :

Splinter Of The Minds Eye
Han Solo trilogy
Lando Calrissian trilogy
(I was sooo hungry for new Star Wars back in the late 70's !)
Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy
Mara Jade
X-Wing Rogue Squadron

Misses :

Most of what came after, including -
Yuuzhan Vong (the war was the final straw for me and I quit the EU altogether)
Anakin Jacen and Jaina Solo
Dark Empire
The Marvel comics
and so much of the last 20 years or so of the EU output...

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Misses:
Drew Karpyshyn

What a great Star Wars name though.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Hits:

-The Clone Wars series
-Han Solo trilogy (the Brian Daley one)
-Thrawn Trilogy
-X-Wing / Rogue Squadron / etc. (comics, novels, and games)
-Shadows of the Empire (the whole kit and caboodle.)
-Dawn of The Jedi
-Tales of The Jedi / Knights of the Old Republic
-KOTOR and KOTOR II

Misses

-The Clone Wars movie
-Han Solo trilogy (the shitey one from the 90s)
-The Crystal Star
-Endless Imperial warlords with some shitey scheme or ludicrous superweapon.
-Yuuzhan Vong war
-Chewbacca... more like Chewdeadda amirite?
-Any bloated, shambolic, overly political, meandering series that takes until the heat death of the universe to finish reading
-TL;DR: Most of the EU

 

[Turtletrekker]

Misses :
The Marvel comics

The Marvel series was awesome. Nobody can get past the damn green rabbit that appeared in four issues, and never again after #16.

The Marvel series had Valance the bounty hunter, the "Wheel" saga, the House of Tagge (all written by Star Wars newspaper writer Archie Goodwin, one of, if the not the best Star Wars comic writers ever), The Tarkin, Shira Brie/Lumiya, "Captain Drebble" and other gems. It wasn't all gold, but I'd say that in 107 issues, a four issue mini and three annuals, there was a lot more good than bad. "Hit" for me.

I like Stackpole's X-Wing books and comics, and "I, Jedi". I enjoyed Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, but I don't place it as highly as some do.

AC Crispen's Han Solo trilogy is a hit, as are the early Brian Daley Han Solo novels.

Misses include "The Crystal Star", "Planet of Twilight" (A Whole planet?? NOOOOOOOOOO! ) and everything post-NJO.

 

[Set Harth]

The Marvel series had Valance the bounty hunter, the "Wheel" saga, the House of Tagge (all written by Star Wars newspaper writer Archie Goodwin, one of, if the not the best Star Wars comic writers ever), The Tarkin, Shira Brie/Lumiya, "Captain Drebble" and other gems.

I always liked the issue where Anakin brought Valance to the Force.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The Marvel series had Valance the bounty hunter, the "Wheel" saga, the House of Tagge (all written by Star Wars newspaper writer Archie Goodwin, one of, if the not the best Star Wars comic writers ever), The Tarkin, Shira Brie/Lumiya, "Captain Drebble" and other gems.

I always liked the issue where Anakin brought Valance to the Force.

That was issue 29...

 

[Mr Light]

Novels only. I don't know the comics well enough. I basically only read Legacy which I enjoyed. Absolutely loved both incarnations of Clone Wars (micro and proper).

HITS:
Thrawn Trilogy
Origin of Han Solo Trilogy
Second Half of New Jedi Order (well, mostly)
Legacy of the Force (cept the last book)
Fate of the Jedi (cept the first two)
Most Prequel Era novels (Dark Rendezvous, Shatterpoint, Labyrinth of Evil, Dark Lord, Darth Plageuis)

MISSES:
Most of the Bantam Era (1991-98)
Crystal Star
New Rebellion
First Half of New Jedi Order (waaaaay too dark and repetitive)

I still think NJO could have been made into a vastly more entertaining series if they cut it down to 12 or fewer novels and eased up on the disfigurement/torture/suicide elements of the Vong. The first half of the series is basically an endless repetition of the Vong conquering planet after planet while the good guys dither and do nothing. That should have been like two books

List fun! Abridged Version of New Jedi Order:
1. Vector Prime Salvatore. 2/3. Dark Tide Stackpole. 4. Edge of Victory Keyes. 5. Star By Star Denning.
6. Dark Journey Cunningham. 7/8. Enemy Lines Allston. 9. Traitor Stover. 10. Destiny's Way Williams.
11. Force Heretic Williams. 12. Final Prophecy Keyes. 13. Unifying Force Luceno.

 

[ryan123450]

Well I've been reading the entire EU chronologically for about the last 7 years and I'm only up to just after Episode III, so my lists will be skewed because of that, but...

Hits
Darth Bane Trilogy
Clone Wars Multimedia Project (Especially Quinlan Vos)
Darth Plagueis (The best Star Wars book ever)
Labyrinth of Evil

Misses
Basically all the inter-Episode-I-to-Episode-II novels. Not a good one in the bunch.

How all this "decanonization" business will work out in the long run, I'm very interested to see. I can't believe they will disavow some the more recent and well received stuff in the Prequel Era like Darth Plagueis, Kenobi, and the recent Maul book and short stories.

 

[Mr Light]

<<Basically all the inter-Episode-I-to-Episode-II novels. Not a good one in the bunch.>>

There's only 3; Rogue Planet, Approaching Storm, and Outbound Flight (which is a Zahn novel that has almost nothing to do with the Prequels). I agree the first two aren't very good but I loved Outbound Flight.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Oh-- the biggest miss was so bad I basically blocked it from my memory-- The Bounty Hunter Wars.

 

[Mr Light]

I haven't read the Fett Trilogy in a decade but I remember really loving the first book, really hating the second book, and feeling so-so about the third. I do recall Fett coming off as very bad ass in it.

 

[FreezeC77]

As someone who played the Tie Fighter/X-wing series of flight sims a ton of time the best thing is the Rogue/Wraith squadron books.

I loved what Michael Stackpole and then Aaron Allston(RIP) did and continuing to flesh out characters.

Wedge Antilles became my favorite Star Wars character because of it and I really hope Wedge shows up again in the sequels even for just a small scene as a high-ranking person, possibly Admiral in charge of the fleet.

 

[Mr Light]

What happened to Ackbar? Did Wedge kill him off? In a trap?

 

[Set Harth]

<<Basically all the inter-Episode-I-to-Episode-II novels. Not a good one in the bunch.>>

There's only 3; Rogue Planet, Approaching Storm, and Outbound Flight (which is a Zahn novel that has almost nothing to do with the Prequels). I agree the first two aren't very good but I loved Outbound Flight.

I thought Rogue Planet was actually fairly well written for the most part; it came off like a watered-down version of Foundation's Edge in places. One part I didn't like was the spaceship construction sequence, though.

 

[PsychoPere]

Hits

• Dawn of the Jedi
• Tales of the Jedi
• Knights of the Old Republic
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• Shatterpoint
• Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
• Clone Wars microseries
• The Clone Wars series
• The Han Solo Adventures
• The Adventures of Lando Calrissian
• Agent of the Empire
• Shadows of the Empire
• X-Wing comics
• X-Wing novels
• Thrawn Trilogy
• I, Jedi
• Hand of Thrawn Duology
• The New Jedi Order (the majority of it, at least)
• Legacy

Misses

• Children of the Jedi
• Planet of Twilight
• The Crystal Star
• The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy
• The New Rebellion
• The Dark Nest Trilogy
• Legacy of the Force (too much of it was a miss compared to what was good in it)
• Fate of the Jedi (same as LOTF)
• Crucible

 

[Stevil2001]

Hits:
- The Thrawn Trilogy
- I, Jedi
- Edge of Victory, Star by Star, and Traitor (even if the rest of the NJO had been dreck, these three stories would be worth it)
- Shatterpoint (the best Clone Wars story ever told)
- Tatooine Ghost (the best Han/Leia story ever told)
- Jedi Apprentice YA series (fueled my Qui-Gon love)
- Yoda: Dark Rendezvous (the best-ever Yoda story)
- Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (the best Star Wars novel ever, bar none; it totally captures everything I love about the films)
- Knights of the Old Republic comics (the comics that most capture that joy of the films)
- Clone Wars Adventures (if you ask me, the Fillbach Brothers should write and draw every comic)
- Jedi vs. Sith (the Old Republic at its awesomest)

Misses:
- The Courtship of Princess Leia (if you're gonna write the Han/Leia marriage, it might help to be familiar with their characterization)
- The Bounty Hunter Wars (I don't remember the events any more, just the pain)
- Legacy of the Force (why, God, why?)
- the Darth Bane trilogy (take an awesome character and water him down completely)
- Coruscant Nights (Star Wars noir should be awesome... this was not)
- Darth Plagueis (who knew the ultimate evil could be so boring?)

You know what? It's been a pretty good run.

 

[AgentCoop]

Hits:

The Marvel Comics series
Most of the Dark Horse comics (special shout-out to Tag & Bink!)
The Thrawn Trilogy
Tatooine Ghost
Dark Lord
Death Troopers
Shadows Of The Empire
Truce At Bakura
The Force Unleashed