Star Wars Books Reviews & Recommendations

[Dasquian Belargic]

There are a lot of SW books, thought we might as well have a thread to review and recommend any we read - whether they be old or new :)

Has anyone read Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil? I know it came out at the end of last year, but with it only being in hardcover so far I haven't ponied up the cash for it yet :uhoh

[Lykaios]

I just got it as a gift last week. But I haven't actually read it >.< If it's anything like the previous two it should be good, I enjoyed them!

Currently reading Backlash from the Fate of the Jedi series.

[Tycho Auriville]

Oooh I like this thread. I've never read any of the SW books (augh terrible fan right here :cry) except for briefly looking at something that one of my brothers had - something set in the future, there were twins?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Yeah, it was a pretty long time after starting writing here that I actually read my first SW book :uhoh

Lyk - Fate of the Jedi? Which chars is that??

[Darth Turbogeek]

Oooh I like this thread. I've never read any of the SW books (augh terrible fan right here :cry) except for briefly looking at something that one of my brothers had - something set in the future, there were twins?


You should read the Thrawn trilogy, I, Jedi and maybe Rogue Squadron and leave it at that. No, you arent a terrible fan, you are very wise fan because the majority of the books and comics are stinking purile utter crap with utterly no value at all that will get you furious at the liberties they take and how they simply dont get what Star Wars really was about.

The average RP here has more worth than the best of say the NJO series, which was the most mind bending piece of shit to be exceted from the buttocks of someone and committed to page. Some veer into Twilight type of pure stained crazy and unreadability.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have read some great, some crappy.

Cloak of Deception is the worst so far. So blaaaand.

[Lykaios]

Like Jen, I've read some good ones and some crappy ones, even within a series since they tend to be written by different authors.

Jen, Fate of the Jedi, happens after Legacy of the Jedi some 40+ years I think ABY.

If you haven't read it, Legacy of the Force revolves around Jacen Solo's fall to the dark side, very Vader-esque but entertaining at times

Fate of the Jedi deals with the fallout of Jacen's fall. The Galactic Alliance now longer trusts the Jedi and as a consequence Luke is exiled and his exile he tries to explain why Jacen became Darth Caedus and why some Jedi are behaving weird

Both series are entertaining by no means the best SW books I've ever read. Those would have to be any of Timothy Zhan's books. Allegiance is probably my favorite of his outside the Thrawn books.

[Anna Fernandez]

Allegiance is an awesome book. :thumbup I also enjoyed Outbound Flight quite a bit.

[Saladin]

Oooh I like this thread. I've never read any of the SW books (augh terrible fan right here :cry) except for briefly looking at something that one of my brothers had - something set in the future, there were twins?

No, I'm pretty sure I'm a terrible fan because I tried the Thrawn trilogy and couldn't get through it.

Thrawn himself was okay, but the whole clone thing was... eh. And the characterization of the OT characters just felt forced to me. :\

[Dasquian Belargic]

I have only read (listened to, on audiobook) Heir to the Empire. I haven't felt the need to read any others yet, but I did think Thrawn was a pretty interesting... villain? Anti-hero?

[Ezra Na'chtion]

The only Star Wars books I have ever read was the entire NJO series from Vector Prime to The Unifying Force. It was so so.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I read Vector Prime and Dark Tide 1: Onslaught. Not too bad, though I do have a particular soft spot for Michael A Stacklpole.

[Park Kraken]

If you were to take the entire NJO series and apply it to a real-life situation, it would probably go something like this - A meteor shower obliterates half of the nations of the Earth. Half of the remaining nations are conquered by some weird alien lifeforms emerging from the meteors. The remaining half of surviving nations band together and defeat the aliens. The surviving aliens go to live on a previously long forgotten Hippy nation that has all the SAS commandos awed at it. The remaining nations take a few moments to assess the devastations before going at each other's throats again.

[Darth Turbogeek]

I read Vector Prime and Dark Tide 1: Onslaught. Not too bad, though I do have a particular soft spot for Michael A Stacklpole.

Not too bad I hope is code for the paper felt good on your ass as you were using the pages as toilet paper.

The entire NJO is the biggest insult to SW and is even worse than TPM. In fact I will watch TPM over and over again before I will allow myself to even touch an NJO book again. The whole Vong bullshit is enough to stir real Star Wars fans to mass murder of anyone involved in that series.

In fact I would rather read anything to do with Callista and I have a legendary hatred of that crap. Fuck, I hated Callista so much I wrote a 500 page character assasination!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I don't think I've ever encountered Callista in any of the books I've read so I couldn't comment on her.

I like Mara Jade though :)

[Taataani Meorrrei]

I liked Truce at Bakura and the Courtship of Princess Leia, but I didn't really get into a whole lot of the Post-Endor stuff. It seems kinda slapdash.

I do keep hearing a lot of good things about the prequel-era books and rise of the empire timeline stuff. Any recommendations there? Perhaps chronological recommendations? I'd love to start reading those.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The full chronology of the SW novels is: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_adult_novels

I have read two of the three Darth Bane books and would recommend those, heartily.

As for prequel books, of those I have read:

Cloak of Deception - boring
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter - not bad but very little focus on Maul
Outbound Flight - fun

I like the Rogue Squadron books, and the Thrawn trilogy seems pretty solid.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I read Rogue Planet - I recall it being written well enough but the plot was eye rollingly bad.

Outbound Flight is pretty awesome. :thumbup

The Han Solo books are all pretty good.

Allegiance was awesome. Recommend highly for Stormtrooper lovers and Mara Jade fans.

The X-Wing books are all good too. Actually I don't think I've read them all.

[Atreyu]

TheForce.Net has done reviews for all the novels, and has them listed in chronological order (you can also arrange them by release date or alphabetical order if you wish):

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

[Zeke]

If it has "Wraith Squadron" or "Aaron Allston" printed on it, it's gold. I got started on Star Wars books with his Wraith Squadron series and loved it far better than anything focusing on Rogue Squadron.

Shatterpoint was a slow grind til the last half, but was a good read all-around.

I liked the Darth Bane books, but I didn't make it all the way through the second due to work and a move.

The Cestus Deception and Dark Rendezvous were both amazing reads about Obi-Wan and Yoda respectively, taking place during the Clone Wars. I'd recommend them to anyone who loves those characters.

I tried one of the Republic Commando novels, but Karen Traviss is so busy getting herself off on Mandalorian Mary-Sue crap that I barely finished. I'd avoid anything in this series or by this author.

[Vaikhari Twiceborn]

I can't get away with Karen Traviss either. I've tried to read her books a few times and always lost interest.

[Korax]

Love the Bane Trilogy, probably my favorite set of Star Wars books. More recently, the Revan novel isn't quite what I was hoping it would be. I mean, who isn't a fan of KOTOR right? Well, besides the fact that all of KOTOR 2 was retconned, the whole book felt like a prelude to SWTOR, which I'm pretty sure that was what it was intended to be. There's even an add for the game in the back of the book :/ Coulda been so much better I think.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Love the Bane Trilogy, probably my favorite set of Star Wars books. More recently, the Revan novel isn't quite what I was hoping it would be. I mean, who isn't a fan of KOTOR right? Well, besides the fact that all of KOTOR 2 was retconned, the whole book felt like a prelude to SWTOR, which I'm pretty sure that was what it was intended to be. There's even an add for the game in the back of the book :/ Coulda been so much better I think.

So true. A disappointing book.

I should have expected that, really. Having a novel about Revan is like having a novel about Commander Shepard: it feels like reading about a stranger, because it's not *your* Revan!