Good SW Novels or Films

[NipBiscuit]

I have recently gotten back into Star Wars and was wondering if there are any good series or novels/movies out there that someone could recommend? I just read the Darth Bane series and really enjoyed that, if that helps

 

Thanks.

[bassfu]

The Old Republic series novels, Darth Plagueis, Darth Maul: Lockdown, were all pretty good. Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void was interesting if you want something from before the time of lightsabers.

[Joesixxpack]

Off the top of my head:

 

- Thrawn books are good, and the ones about the Outbound Flight tie in.

- Republic Commando series is pretty good if you want to read more about troopers and Mandalorians, but the last book of the series was never written so expect to get left hanging.

- Han Solo's trilogy if you want his back story and more scoundrelish adventures.

- If you don't mind stupendous force feats all over the place the Force Unleashed books are entertaining.

 

I'm reading through the New Jedi Order stuff now. So far they're better than I thought they'd be but personally I prefer the books set in earlier eras.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Joesixxpack

[DarthDymond]

If you're interested in the continuing adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han I would definitely suggest starting with the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn. It is completely accessible based off of only having seen the movies and introduces some characters who become as important to the Expanded Universe/"Legends" continuity as the movie characters themselves.

 

If you're going to be reading a lot of the Expanded Universe/"Legends" novels, I would follow that trilogy up with Courtship of Princess Leia since it is a decent read (though not as good as Zahn's work) and, like Heir, introduces characters and locations who are featured/referenced repeatedly throughout the rest of the EU (it's actually set chronologically a couple years before Heir to the Empire, but I think Heir is the better starting point just because of its quality and scope).

 

These books and comics form kind of the 'main' storyline for the characters set after the movies (comics in blue, YA novels in yellow, in case you're not interested in reading either of those types of media - I would suggest reading a synopsis of them though):

 

• Truce at Bakura: Set literally the day after Return of the Jedi ends, but not really that good and doesn't have much of an impact going forward, I'd suggest just reading a synopsis.
  
• Courtship of Princess Leia: Continues the Han & Leia romance started in the movies, introduces some 'key players' in terms of planets and governments who show up repeatedly throughout the rest of the EU. Writing is okay.
  
• Heir to the Empire Trilogy: A must-read for a SW book fan. They're well-written and really feel like they progress the story of the major Star Wars characters. (Just ignore some time-line issues regarding Vader/the Clone Wars since these came out years before the Prequels.)
  
• Dark Empire Comic Meta-Series (Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, Empire's End): Definitely a love-it or hate-it series, both in terms of the writing and the plot/concept, but it is an influential one and tells the story of one of the key conflicts of this part of the timeline.
  
• Jedi Academy Trilogy: Another love-it or hate-it series. Not nearly as well written as Zhan's Thrawn trilogy, but noteworthy in that they progress the main story of the characters and set up a lot of the new characters who play a role in this and future eras. An OK read overall.
  
• Children of the Jedi/Darksaber/Planet of Twilight/The Crystal Star/The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy/The New Rebellion/The Corellia Trilogy: In my opinion, these 11 books are probably not worth your time. They fall into the "Status Quo is God" trap in that they really don't feel like they make any sort of impact on the characters or progress their stories. All of them can be summed up as: A random Imperial Warlord/new alien enemy/Han's evil cousin shows up -> causes trouble (probably kidnapping Leia's kids in the process) -> is defeated; rinse and repeat. If you're going to read any of the books set after these, I'd just skim through a quick synopsis online somewhere (or in the Essential Reader's Companion guidebook) to get the jist of what happened.
  
• Young Jedi Knights Series: This is a Young Adult Series, so an adult reader may or may not care for them. I think they're okay, but I may be biased by nostalgia. The first six books, however, set up some key characters and relationships for the adult novels in The New Jedi Order and beyond (and all six combined only takes about as long as a single adult novel to read).
  
• Hand of Thrawn Duology: Another series by fan-favorite author Timothy Zahn, so worth a read on that alone. They also established the Chiss species/government and act as a kind of capstone for the New Republic era of books before the license went to a new publisher and The New Jedi Order started really shaking things up. Definitely worth reading.
  
• Union comic: Actually a pretty optional read, but it does cover a major event in Luke's life.
  
• New Jedi Order series; Dark Nest Trilogy; Legacy of the Force series; Fate of the Jedi series: Just for length, my thoughts on these series (which total 40 novels) are here in another post.
  

Edited December 8, 2014 by DarthDymond

[DeltaEkotte]

Above all I would recommend Darth Plagueis.

Death Star and Allegiance I thought were pretty good as well.

The X-Wing series was pretty good as well in my opinion.

[Kalfear]

My favorites are

 

Darth Bane trilogy for books

and

Tales of the Jedi 1 and 2 (comic)

 

Tales of the Jedi can be found in omnibus (trade paperback form) but that may be changing really soon as was published by Dark Horse and since Disney bought the rights to Star Wars they moved the rights back to MArvel and discontinued those old comics. So suggest looking asap to find it or even look online.

 

Worst novel ever for Star Wars is Fatal Alliance (one of the "The Old Republic" novel)

Worst comic imo was Knights of the Old Republic comic series

So stay away from those two

[Edzew]

anything timothy zahn is good!!! if not great!! then the x wing books are really good. also the Kinobi book was really good. once you get those under your belt i would read the young jedi knights books followed by junior jedi knights (they may be a bit kiddy but they really are good and introduces you to tahiri whom is one of my favorite characters in the EU)

 

im not sure if i would start with Heir to the Empire or outbound flight... but if you want to go chronologically start with outbound flight, kenobi, Honor Among Thieves, Scoundrels, Choices of One, Fallen Empires, The Bounty Hunter Wars, X-Wing, the Courtship of Princes Leia, Heir to the Empire trilogy, the Jedi Academy Trilogy, I, Jedi, The Corellian Trilogy, Spectors of the Past, Visions of the Future, Survivors Quest, The Young Jedi Knights books, Junior Jedi Knights books, then if you so choose jump into the New Jedi Order books (i enjoyed them but others seam to not really like the story) then you have the Legacy of the Force books, Millennium Falcon, and finally you have the Fate of the Jedi books

 

i also liked the Darth Bane books... but you can skip Death Troops... that was not very good at all B^P