I have some free time on my hands. It doesn't matter what era the book is set in. I pretty much enjoyed all the movies. So yeah. What are some good Star Wars book?
I recommend I, Jedi. Its self contained and a nice change from the Skywalker focus of many of the novels out there.
The legacy line is pretty good. Takes place about...20 years after ROTJ? Goes over stuff from Han and Leias kids, to Boba Fett and his family, to the new galactic republic.
Tales of the Bounty Hunters. I liked it. Boba Fett(my favorite), IG-88, Dengar,Bossk, Zuckuss and 4-LOM.
Absolutely. If you are starting from scratch I would say start with Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command.
You really cannot go wrong with Timothy Zahn. Of all the myriad Star Wars novels, short story collections, graphic novels, and comic spinoffs of the movies, the only ones I would really like to see adapted for the screen are Zahn's. It would give me the greatest pleasure to see them produced either in an anime style (like the recent Batman: Gotham Knight) or in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky's vision for the original and far more superior "Clone Wars" series. I also enjoyed the "Tales of the Bounty Hunters," although there were still a couple stinkers in that collection. And Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley was a pretty fun read, as I recall... although it was like 15 years ago that I read it. And it may not be a popular opinion, but I refuse to read anything else SW-related by Kevin J. Anderson. It always seems like his ego comes through in his style and far too many times he tries to one-up Lucas or things that happened in the films. Furthermore, he has taken well-established characters and had them doing things that were totally out of character for them--things I have no doubt that even the actors who originally played those characters would have greatly disagreed with. Shadows of The Empire by Steve Perry (not to be confused with the former lead singer of Journey) was... eh, just okay for me. I didn't care for the author's writing style--it was a little distracting in places. Also couldn't enjoy it as much because Han Solo (one of THE most popular characters in the SW universe) was encased in carbonite the whole book, so the author created another similar "lovable rouge" character which just felt too much like an inferior carbon copy of Han. LOVED the video game though. Certainly wouldn't mind seeing that book in animated or live-action form--Xizor was a very cool villain. And I definitely don't recommend: - Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster Shows Vader on the cover and yet his appearance in the book is so brief you almost miss it, and it's in a dream sequence as well. It also felt a little too kid-friendly and didn't suit my tastes in adult fiction. - The Glove of Darth Vader by Paul Davids Wish I'd been warned this one was mainly for kids too before I started reading it. Continuity errors galore, and character errors too. It would be a fun read for young SW fans though. You do realize he wrote FIVE other SW novels after the Thrawn Trilogy? I'm going to have to give in and finally read that one. Too many fellow SW fans have recommended it to me.
I'll also throw in my recommendation for the Heir to the Empire trilogy and the Jedi Academy trilogy. Personally, I think the works of Timothy Zahn are the best SW has to offer. No disrespect to George Lucas, but the Thrawn series would make awesome movies if he had very little input into them storywise. Stick with the visual stuff, George, leave dialogue to somebody else.
I hate to take away from Jetfireinthesky's original question, but what good novels on the Clone Wars or from the perspective of a Clone Trooper are there? I would hardly call it far superior. The original Clone Wars cartoon was great, but it wasn't as in-depth into the characters like the new show is. Specifically the clones.
Everything by Stackpole is good, everything by Zahn is decent but hella overated and everything by Kevin J Anderson is a piece of shit. The mid to late New Republic era stuff by other folks is much of a muchness. Once you've read a couple of trilogies of movie characters saving the day from villain of the month, you've pretty much read them all. Shadows of the Empire is crap that benefited from a good marketing campaign, don't bother unless you absolutely must read something directly tied in to the movies. If you want a good single book thats self contained and light on continuity baggage, then check out Path of Destruction. NJO is awesome stuff for the most part, it shook the stale status quo to pieces and treated Star Wars like an actual war with all its nasty effects and reprocussions. Allot of people didn't like that thougth and some didn't even get past the first book because they were too busy crying like babies at the death of a main movie character. Post-NJO stuff is mostly wasted potential and rehash. Not read any of the prequal era stuff, so I can't comment on it.
I've been working my way through the Republic Commando series these past few weeks and it's been pretty awesome. Mandalorians and Clones, very kandosii.
I would recommend The Han Solo trilogy. The New Jedi Order series is also really cool (ending is a bit uhm....., bleh though). NJO is also a very intense series.
Yeah I agree with this and I am a huge Gendy fan, but I am enjoying this series a lot more, and it has nothing to do with the style because I love Gendy's style. anyway, back to the books... Although I loved the Thrawn series, I found myself (when all was said and read) having enjoyed the Jedi Search series. It paved the way to the new jedi order and I loved the sheer number of characters in it.
You'll need to read the first 4 or so X-Wing books by Michael A Stackpole first, else much of I Jedi won't make sense. Agreed, a lot of the later NR-era stuff isn't much to write about - The Crystal Star, Darksaber, and the New Rebellion is pretty pointless. Ho yus. It was little more than a video game tie-in novel, and not a particularly great one at that. I'm not familiar with this one, I'll have to check it out. Yes! Vector Prime took some getting used to, especially after the abovementioned death, but I persisted (as a recent newcomer to NJO) and I'm enjoying it. I haven't felt the need to go near it really, especially 'Legacy' which just seems to go back to the Jedi/Sith/Empire stuff that's all been done before. Disappointing after the major upheaval of NJO. Just finished reading Outbound Flight by Zahn. Thoroughly recommended. Found pre-EpIV stuff to be a mixed bag to be honest, I read the first Medstar book (Battle Surgeons) and steered clear of a LOT of Clone Wars-set novels, it was that bad.
Outbound Flight is good, though Anakin and Obi-Wan's presence seems forced. Still...tis nice to have a link from the prequel era to the original Zahn trilogy, which I agree is where one should start if you haven't read anything. If'n you like the prequels, Luceno's stuff is good: Cloak of Deception (immediately pre-TPM), Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader (pre/post-RotS respectively).
