What is the Best Star wars book

[Jedi Master Carr]

[ReaperFett]

only read one of them.

My favourites are Darksaber and Rogue Squadron

[Jedi Master Kyle]

I picked Shadows because I've always wanted to know what happend between ESB & ROTJ.

[Aprentize]

I picked SOTE. I just started reading it, have read about 80 pages so far. Its great! I just cant remember if Dash was a pal of Han in the han solo trilogy.... I think he was, but i cant remember. My absolute favorites are The Han Solo Trilogy, wich ROCKS, if you havent read it, READ IT! Darn i love it. Plus, i love I, Jedi. That books is written so well. Just take a detail like this: "... was made of TIE-fighter parts, wich, after oxygen and stupidity, are the most common things in the galaxy..." Just a detail like the oxygen/stupidity thing rocks.

[Hart Kenobi]

I'd have to agree and say SOTE as well.

[Jedimaster Yoda0]

I like Shadows of the Empire most.

[Mara L Jade]

Oh please....SOTE has to be about the worst of them all. Perry has a big problem keeping the characters real - they sound completely unlike themselves, compared to some other books.

I'd have to say the best ones are Stackpole's Rogue Squadron and Dark Tide books, and Zahn's Thrawn books. They're well written, they make it easy to understand what's going on, they maintain a certain standard that other writers have trouble keeping up to.

[Darth Turbogeek]

How can anyone say SOTE is better than Heir to the Empire? Soory, but that just doesnt work. Heir to the Empire is the best book as Zahn captures the thing that is Star Wars so well, great characters as well.

[DvdJervs]

To each his own. Everyone has their own preference.

I have even met some people who absolutely detest Zahn and the Thrawn Trilogy.

[Director Isard]

that proves it to me...there have to be some really sick people out there with bad taste. ;)

[Darth Turbogeek]

No way could anyone dislike Zahn. They are by far the best books of the whole EU - not saying much when you consider Darksabre and Children of the Jedi

[DvdJervs]

No way could anyone dislike Zahn.
Wanna bet? Try checking out TFN and you'd might be able to find one or a dozen. And even some Zahn fans admit that Zahn set a bad precedence with his use of clone characters which have at times plagued the EU for the worse. Some people aso whinge about his use of space fleets but I won't bother going into that or I'd be here all day.

[ReaperFett]

I dont particularly like him. He created Ysalmiri, one of the worst things ever known. They just defeat the fun of things. I don't like the way the oh-so-clever Thrawn kept getting evaded by people hiding 6 foot away. I don't like the way it drags on. I dont like the lack of fight scenes. I dont like the way the last fight happened in The last command. I dont like the idea that some cloning machines 'convenientley' were never found, only to be found and used in mass.

I really think the trilogy could have benn FAR better. I believe part of his fanbase is because he did the first books. He also created the hugh EU basher divide, as people hated bits of his books

I liked Ghent though :)

[DvdJervs]

I understand what you mean Reaper. I personally think Zahn along with Stackpole and Allston is the best but the Thrawn Trilogy does have many flaws. The biggest I think would be making Thrawn so damn perfect. In the end the Rebels really only beat him by blind luck rather than through good strategy. Even in the last battle it was only by a miracle the Rebels won due to Thrawn been murdered and the Imperials whimping out.

[Bromine]

I liked the Zahn books, but one thing about them that bugs me is how everyone copies from them. The above-mentioned ysalamiri is a good example. I enjoyed them, but they didn't really seem rare and in the back of your mind you wonder why everyone isn't just snapping up ysalamiri and putting them everywhere. Plus, every fanfic out there makes extensive use of them.
Then there's the clones, as Dvd mentioned. Zahn had clones as an integral part of his story, and it was neat because it was a secret technology that had been discovered. Now, people act like the technology is commonplace and anyone can be a clone.

[Darth McClain]

I think that Balance Point is almost as good as the Thrawn trilogy.

[Darth Turbogeek]

In regard to the Bilbringi battle - As Thrawn would quite well know, to win a battle does take luck and the ability to use a chance if one is presented. The rebels got the chance and it was uncertain whether Thrawn would have won... the hint is, he may quite well of lost even if he was not killed.

The reason I think The Zahn trilogy are popular is that he does something that few other authors do - he character develops and also gets close to what the characters in Star Wars a re supposed to be. The character that is screwed up the most is Luke - Zahn was the closest IMO.

Zahn also does something called plot well and he has the ability to come up with some real WTF? type situations. Stackpole also understands the concepts of plot and character development.

Whether Yalsalmar are valid or not (I personally think not), the fact is Zahn and Stackpole are far better writers and seem to actually appreciate and understand what Star Wars is about. The other writers, it just seems to be another book.

The final thing that annoys be badly is that a fair amount of the EU reads like Star Trek in concepts and execution, plots, weapory... well, if I wanted Star Trek, I frigging READ Star Trek. I want Star Wars when I read a Star Wars EU book! The worst sinner in this regard is the NJO. Hey, maybe one or two books are a good read. The fact is, it isnt Star Wars in style and that spoils it.

[Hart Kenobi]

I'm not liking Mara Jade anymore. I kinda liked her as a baddie, but having her in love with Luke is just horrible.

[Nupraptor]

Well, even as a "baddie", you could tell that she seemed to be warring against her own emotions. She hated him, yet she would always come up with some excuse not to kill him at the moment.

[Hart Kenobi]

Yeah Nup, that always bothered me too.

[Bromine]

That's so true about some novels reading like Star Trek!
Another important thing that Zahn did (haven't read any Stackpole yet) is that he made some truly original and memorable characters, yet these characters were right at home in the Star Wars universe. If you were asked to name some major original characters from the EU, right off the bat you'd probably think of Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and Thrawn. Most of the novels just seem to contain characters you already know. There might be a few new names, but many of the characters are just copies of Han or Luke or someone else.
That being said, I should mention I haven't read any new EU for a couple years now, so I'm probably behind.:)

[DvdJervs]

If you want memorable characters then you've just got to read the X-Wing series. Using your question of memorable EU characters people would also more than likely mention Corran Horn, Ysanne 'Iceheart' Isard, Garik Loran, Iella Wessiri, Mirax Terrik and so on. And I know he's from movieland but it would be blasphemous to mention the X-Wing series without a token mention of Wedge - the X-Wing series lifted him from hero to legend status. :)

[Bromine]

Wedge rocks! I wonder what the whole story of the Rebellion would look like from his perspective, instead of Luke's.:)

[ReaperFett]

you forgot Kettch :)

[Lucious Zaarin]

Anything by Zhan or Stackpole.

[Figrin D an]

Isn't it amazing how a character like Wedge Antilles, a pilot who has about 5 minutes of total screen time in the original trilogy, has become one of the most revered characters in the SW universe because of the EU and the X-Wing Series? :) I think that is a great testament to how much the Star Wars universe has developed, especially over the last 10 years or so...

Voting on the best EU book is kind of tough... I'm not sure I could pick one that stands out above several others... I personally like Zahn's work because of the wonderful new characters he created... Stackpole does a good job of story-telling... KJA has had moments where he shines, but he's a far too inconsistent with character development, which really bothers me... R.A. Salvatore is a terrific author, but Vector Prime wasn't his best work. I kind of hope he gets the opportunity to write another book, either in the NJO story arc or otherwise, so he can really show his writing skill...

I noticed, also, some comments about Thrawn being written by Zahn to be too perfect... that the New Republic was lucky to defeat him, and that it took his murder to effectively end the conflict...
I don't think Thrawn was any more perfect than Vader or Palpatine, or perhaps I should say that Vader and Palpatine were just as menacing as he was... the NR winning against Thrawn at Bilbringi was in the same mold as the Rebels fending off the Imperial assault on Yavin IV or successfully destroying the second Death Star at the Battle of Endor when it looked like they were dead... all three were amazing feats, and took an incredible amount of luck (or the will of the Force, however you want to look at it). It's one of the themes that the entire original trilogy is founded upon... a tradition that Zahn was able to carry into his books rather successfully...

Anyway, best EU book... I can't pick one... I will say that there seems to be little "middle ground" on EU books. They're either really good, or they totally suck... anything written by Barbara Hambley fits into the "totally sucks" category. :)

[Doc Milo]

R.A. Salvatore is a terrific author, but Vector Prime wasn't his best work. I kind of hope he gets the opportunity to write another book, either in the NJO story arc or otherwise, so he can really show his writing skill...

I believe I read somewhere that RA Salvatore was pegged to do the novelization of Episode 2.

I agree that Salvatore is a great writer. I just love his work in the Forgotten Realms saga.

[ReaperFett]

I think it is EP3. I think the one who authored the original is doing EP2. May have that muddled up

[Doc Milo]

I just remember where I read it. It was on theforce.net. And it was also on the official site -- but I found the article on theforce.net first....

Here's the link: cgi.theforce.net/theforce...oryID=6876 (http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/tfn.cgi?storyID=6876)

Here's the story on the official site: www.starwars.com/episode-...ews1a.html (http://www.starwars.com/episode-ii/news/2000/25/news1a.html)

It is the Episode II novelization.

[Simmo51]

Shadows of the Empire is the best of those listed seeing as i havn't read the others. My all-time fav Star Wars book is Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.

[Coruscant]

Zahn's Heir to the Empire Trilogy. I also like his duology, Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future. I do think though that if he would not have drug out VOTF so much, he could have just put SOTP in it.

[Satine Capashen]

Tales of the New Republic was good too. I liked the stories that were co-written by Zhan and Stackpole.

[Darth Turbogeek]

Who the hell picked The Crystal Star?!?! That HAD to be a joke

[Satine Capashen]

Crystal Star?! I couldn't even get through the damned thing!

[Le Machin]

My favorite series is without a doubt the X-wing novels by Stackpole and Allston. Awesome characters and villains, good action, and no abuse of Star Wars' main heroes, because... they were hardly in it!

Not to mention that I always got a good laugh from those books. Yub yub, Commander!

Zahn's trilogy comes in a close second for me.

[Satine Capashen]

I especially like the part in (I think) Solo Command, where Janson gets embarrassed so badly, when they were hunting for the Kettch Ewok...That was hilarious! I think Wdge sums it up well, "I miss my sanity." :D

[Seth Darkserpent]

Peh, Stackpole must've been on bad drugs when he wrote the Dark Tide duology. Although he did great work with the X-wing novels and a personal favorite: I, Jedi.

[Young Jedi Apprentice]

For me, the best Star Wars novel I have read is Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. I really enjoyed reading it, the book was one non-stop chase almost from the beginning, from Hath Monchar, to Lorn Pavan. Darth Maul was given in great detail, and it really gave him a background to his character, but at the same time, he still stayed the mysterious Sith Lord from Episode I. Like I said, it was a great read, and I had trouble putting it down! There were unexpected twists that surprised even Maul!

I recommend this book to anyone who likes the EU and The Phantom Menace. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I've also started Cloak of Deception, and it has also been great up to now!

[Vchoun]

Heir

[Admiral Lebron]

Personally, I sort of like the NJO books, mainly because I think the Vong are cool. But they shatter the Fantasy genre of Star Wars. It was never really Sci-fi in my mind, seeing how it was fantasy, just modernized.

The best books of Star Wars is the X-wing series. It is hilarious and I have read most of them more then once. The way they made a squadron of weirdos just made me want to scream in joy, because I have always pondered, where do all the crazy pilots go? I also love the plot about Kettch. The greatest warrior of all time.

[Satine Capashen]

Well now we know where the crazies go. As for kettch, I find it funny that there is a real Kettch (The one on Iron fist). It was funny to find that out...not to mention a little ironic. Here Janson and Wedge are using him over, to get back at each other, and Face using him for the Hawk Bats, and there really was one!

I wonder if they're gonna do anymore about Wraith Squad, even if it is now an intelligence squad now.