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I think that the Timothy Zahn and X-Wing books are the best stories, though I also quite liked The New Rebellion, The Truce At Bakura and some others as well. They were all enjoyable diversions, though I'm less enamoured of some of the more recent additions to the EU. Perhaps I'm being too nostalgic. I couldn't say. What I really like are the comics that came out after The Phantom Menace, stuff like Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire, Star Wars Tales and the "Star Wars" series (which was eventually retitled Star Wars: Republic). Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 12:38 on Feb 24, 2012 |
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Feb 23, 2012 18:54
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Chairman Capone posted:He did fight the Vong, though. It was in one of the later books. At least he got to win decisively against them.
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Feb 26, 2012 15:55
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thrawn527 posted:Timothy Zahn posted a link on facebook, to someone's suggested viewing order for Star Wars. It starts as something that's been mentioned before here (IV, V, then go back to the prequel trilogy, then finish out with VI), but goes a step further and completely removes Episode I. He does a really good job explaining why this actually makes the series, and the surprises throughout, work much better. Worth a read. This is pretty interesting. I like his reasoning, and I might try watching the films in that order at some point. Still, one issue that stands out is the line in Episode II, where one character mentions that Nute Gunray has been put on trial several times without being removed from his position as leader of the Trade Federation. Wouldn't the exclusion of Episode I potentially make the meaning of this line a trifle obscure? Phylodox posted:It's awesome that Pegg's gonna be on Clone Wars, but are they seriously just gonna cram every single character from the entire expanded universe into that show? I was wondering about the use of Dengar. I thought he was meant to be only a few years older than Han Solo, and that he didn't become a bounty hunter until after the Empire took over. No doubt Wookieepedia will engage in some desperate form of damage control to reconcile the inconsistencies.
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Mar 2, 2012 18:22
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I suppose that's true; perhaps it makes the fictional universe seem a bit more lived-in (kind of like how we don't need to know what the Kessel Run is, just that Han Solo claims he can make it in less than twelve parsecs). It's not so different from the Jedi talking about Dooku at the beginning of the movie in that respect.
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Mar 2, 2012 19:37
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Big Mean Jerk posted:You're assuming TCW gives a poo poo about canon. Normally I don't worry too much about what's canon and what isn't; it's easy enough to pick out the best stuff and ignore what doesn't fit. Unfortunately, The Clone Wars sometimes seems so far removed from everything else that it gets kind of hard to ignore. Speaking of the Tales series, has anybody read Tales From the New Republic? Is it any good? It's the only one I never got around to reading.
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Mar 2, 2012 21:33
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Out of interest, what allusions were made to the Clone Wars before the prequel films were released? What did most of the EU creators assume it involved? The only references that come to mind were Pellaeon recalling how he fought an army of rogue clones in one of Zahn's Thrawn books, and some unreleased RPG material about an evil geneticist who participated in the conflict.
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Mar 3, 2012 11:25
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Oh, I know about that. What I'm curious about is whether any EU writers tried to introduce their ideas about what they thought the Clone Wars were about.
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Mar 3, 2012 18:00
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Huh. Those points actually sound much better than what Lucas decided to go with when he made the prequel movies. They make more sense when you take the original trilogy into account, a good exmaple being the mention of the abolition of the Imperial senate in Episode IV.
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Mar 3, 2012 21:53
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Come to think of it, there was a Tales From the Empire as well, wasn't there? How was it, if anybody has read it? I think Tales Of the Bounty Hunters must have been the first EU book I read. I really enjoyed the Dengar story and the Fett story, didn't like the IG-88 story very much (though a lot of people seem to dislike that one) and I had no strong opinions one way or the other on the rest. Mos Eisley Cantina and Jabba's Palace are probably my favourites, though, maybe the former moreso than the latter.
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Mar 4, 2012 17:28
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Of all the Boba Fett stories written before Attack Of the Clones and the reinvention of the Mandalorians by Karen Traviss, my favourite was the Enemy Of the Empire comic. It was reprinted alongside Outlander in the UK Star Wars comic when I was about seven or eight (around the time Episode I came out) and I thought it was terrific. It's probably nostalgia, but I read it recently and I still think it holds up. Sometimes, it's fun to read about Boba Fett just being a bounty hunter without having to worry about him being a clone or a Mandalorian.
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Mar 5, 2012 02:21
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WhyteRyce posted:Or how he was a moral man with a code of ethics to make him more like those gritty anti-heros that are all the rage among 15 year olds Well, my only defence is that that's roughly the age I was when I read most of the Expanded Universe books available at the time. Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you meant by your post, though. Like I say, my preferences are probably informed by nostalgia.
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Mar 5, 2012 11:41
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WhyteRyce posted:I was talking about that Tales of the Bounty Hunters short story Oh, I see. Sorry about that. I quite like that chart. Regarding The Bounty Hunter Wars, I never quite worked out what was going on in that series. Prince Xizor went to the Emperor and got his support for a plan to hire Fett to break up the Bounty Hunters' Guild because... well, just because, from what I remember.
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Mar 5, 2012 23:51
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Boondock Saint posted:Speaking of his art, did anyone ever have or read that Illustrated Star Wars Universe? I bought it from a goon a few years ago. Kevin J. Anderson, despite all of his lovely writing, did the narrative parts for that book with McQuarrie's art. It was surprisingly really cool and added some subtle depth to the SW universe. This was of course, before the prequels. One thing that I find quite interesting about Anderson is that, the quality of his writing (or lack thereof) notwithstanding, he more or less was the top man as far as the EU was concerned for a short time in the 1990s, immediately before the prequel trilogy was released. Zahn, Stackpole and a few of the others were significantly better writers, but they were nowhere near as proligic. Anderson wrote The Jedi Academy Trilogy, Darksaber, Young Jedi Knights, Tales Of the Jedi and Dark Empire, co-wrote The Essential Chronology and edited the first three Tales Of books. (I'm aware that I may giving him too much credit).
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Mar 6, 2012 00:53
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I see. Something like, "Let's kill off all the weak bounty hunters so we can only hire the strongest ones." That sounds kind of stupid (though it's still not as stupid as the "revenge of the one-armed wampa" scene in Darksaber; very little of the EU has ever been able to match that for ridiculousness).
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Mar 6, 2012 11:44
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Chairman Capone posted:Anderson didn't do Dark Empire, and he also wasn't the original author of Tales of the Jedi. The first two volumes he wasn't involved in at all, the third he co-wrote, the fourth he wrote on his own but incorporating notes from the original author's plan. So he didn't. I see that Dark Empire was written by Tom Veitch (who I think was Anderson's co-writer on some of the Tales Of the Jedi comics). Sorry, I've obviously confused the two, because I think they're both credited on a few of the TOTJ collected editions. Thwomp posted:You are. Well, I never said that any of them were any good.
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Mar 6, 2012 23:01
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moments with stupid superweapons and force ghosts.
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ecureuilmatrix posted:Funnily enough, I've always kinda wondered if Darksaber wasn't an intentional joke about superweapon overuse. I mean, the titular plot device is overtly described as a disaster-in-waiting by the characters themselves. Or I could be overthinking this and KJA was just being KJA. Don't forget the bizarre ending of the Hoth sequence. Wampa hunters trapped by a pack of their intended prey? Fine. The wampa horde being lead by the one Luke dismembered in Episode V? Why?
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Mar 6, 2012 23:21
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I'm pretty sure it was the, "Look, sir, droids!" guy who did that. It was in Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina.
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Mar 6, 2012 23:44
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I imagine that story happened solely so it could end with the scene of Indiana Jones discovering Han Solo's remains a hundred years later.
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Mar 7, 2012 02:55
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Sombrerotron posted:What bothers me more is that it set the standard for using (or rather: abusing) the Force as the ultimate plot device. I think that's one of the issues Zahn tried to address when he wrote the Hand Of Thrawn books; apparently, Luke was unconsciously using the dark side whenever that happened.
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Mar 8, 2012 18:30
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SirPhoebos posted:EDIT2: Sometimes I feel that the EU is one step away from embracing Terry Goodkind levels of absurdity, where the heroes go out and massacre Evil Pacifists armed "only with their hatred of Moral Certainty" "This was no tauntaun; it was evil incarnate." In all seriousness, I think I've read that there isn't really a "light side of the Force" so much as it's "the Force and its dark side", which I suppose is what leads to Lucas's explanation that the destruction of the Sith would bring balance to the Force.
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Mar 9, 2012 19:06
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Casimir Radon posted:So does anyone happen to know of some books similar in tone to the Rogue Squadron series? Obviously off in their own little series or whatever. I feel that The Truce At Bakura is somewhat close in tone. Obviously others will disagree with me on that, but I like them both. Possibly The New Rebellion as well, although that's probably a less likely prospect. Those are both stand-alone books, though, and no side-series come to mind that haven't been mentioned already. I feel that LOTF could have been like this, if they'd asked Aaron Allston to write the whole series himself. He probably would have done a better job of keeping the whole war story angle on track. Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Mar 11, 2012 |
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Mar 11, 2012 20:49
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OriginalPseudonym posted:I felt like TaB was pretty lovely, but then again, the first EU books I read where Zahn, so nearly everything else was a letdown. Alliston's Rogue Squadron books were an exception (Stackpole's were not). I guess my problem is that the majority of the Star Wars books I've read, I read when I was about fourteen or fifteen, so I wasn't terribly discerning as regards the quality of the plot. Nostalgia's tricking me.
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Mar 12, 2012 17:59
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I think it gets kind of an oblique mention in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows Of Mindor, but I might be misremembering that (it's the last new EU book I've read).
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Mar 16, 2012 11:29
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I think the Young Jedi Knights series goes in between the Corellian Trilogy and the Hand Of Thrawn books, but it's aimed at young readers (kind of like Jedi Apprentice, I imagine, but I never read the YJK series).
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Mar 17, 2012 18:35
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Colonel Pancreas posted:At this point, I'd be happy if they pulled a J.J. Abrams Star Trek and managed an in-universe reboot. I say this as someone who fell in love with the EU as a kid because of all the new characters they introduced. In fourth grade, my life goal was to be Corran Horn. I'd be all for an EU driven by the next generation, but at this point they're towing so much bullshit that there is simply no way for that to work. Yeah, I think the next generation is a bit of a mess at this point, and to an extent it's because they weren't able to kill off and replace any of the important movie characters. Jaina Solo, for example, is meant to be about thirty years old or something, but she's still written like she was when she was a teenager in the New Jedi Order series. Furthermore, off the top of my head, Jacen Solo and Anakin Solo (who were both developed as the future leaders for the Jedi Order after Luke either dies or quits) are both dead, while Zekk seems to have disappeared completely, and nobody likes using Lowbacca because Wookiees can be difficult to write for. I'd be kind of interested if they decided to do something like Infinities again, maybe try to set up an alternate continuity and see what happens.
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Mar 23, 2012 00:41
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It's been said often enough that Stover's novelisation of Revenge Of the Sith was better than the movie itself. Admittedly, I only read it shortly before the film came out (and I was fourteen, so I was hardly critically discerning), so I can't remember if that's the case myself, but it seems to be the general consensus.
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Mar 23, 2012 15:28
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The only novelisation of The Phantom Menace that I read was the junior adaption with pictures in the middle. I suppose they didn't name Darth Plagueis in the Episode I novelisation? As far as I'm aware he didn't get a name until Labyrinth Of Evil. Speaking of that book, what's the best lead-in to Episode III? There were three or four, I think; Labyrinth Of Evil, the original Clone Wars series and the Obsession comic book.
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Mar 23, 2012 20:27
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Casimir Radon posted:I'll probably read whatever comes next out of masochistic curiosity, but all the while I'll be swearing up and down that Star Wars ended after Visions of the Future. You'd have to make an allowance for Survivor's Quest, which I think is the only Zahn book so far that's set after the Hand of Thrawn books. Chairman Capone posted:As for ROTS lead-in, I liked Labyrinth of Evil a lot. It really tied in not just the Clone Wars books/comics, but the whole of the prequel era into something that seemed like it was all meant to flow into ROTS. And I liked the original Clone Wars cartoon because it was stylish and had the Tartakovsky flair. But avoid Obsession, I'll say that at best it's not good. I've read Obsession, because I really liked the Star Wars: Republic comic books it's associated with. I'd be inclined to agree that it probably isn't as good as Labyrinth Of Evil. As for Master Bates, he actually predates Obsession by a few years. Randy Stradley created him for Jedi Council: Acts Of War as a small joke which he expected would be edited out.
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Mar 23, 2012 21:02
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Was Zekk's fate even picked up on after his supposed death? I thought the book that was meant to address this plot point ended up being cancelled.
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Mar 24, 2012 17:47
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Oh, I see. I'm afraid LOTF put me off reading FOTJ so I only know the story in broad strokes. I get the impression that I'm not missing a great deal from what I've heard.
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Mar 24, 2012 18:06
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Should Denning be considered the Kevin J. Anderson of the 21st-century, then, or is he arguably worse?
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Mar 25, 2012 00:10
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Casimir Radon posted:The Jedi Academy Trilogy is a little dumb, but readable and kind of enjoyable. The same goes for all the Young Jedi Knights books. Darksaber is loving retarded. My issue with Denning's work on Star Wars is that he comes across as one of those fans who thinks, "How can I make sure everybody knows how adult this is? I know! Bug orgies and violence!" You know, like he conflates "dark" with "mature", if that makes sense. On the other hand, Anderson, for all his faults, wrote Tales Of the Jedi: Redemption, which I think was quite good.
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Mar 25, 2012 15:49
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Does anybody recall the message board on starwars.com? It's since been removed from the site, but as I recall, Karen Traviss used to post there on a semi-regular basis. It was an okay forum as long as you didn't go into the real-world discussion section. There was this one guy I remember who was a blatant, unapologetic Nazi but was never banned.
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Mar 29, 2012 09:22
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Speaking of April Fool's, has anybody seen what they've done on Wookieepedia this year? I enjoyed it, though some people seem to think it's real.
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Apr 1, 2012 19:31
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At this point I'm not entirely sure that even a good writer could "fix" the EU. I think Zahn has the right idea; he's mostly sticking to writing in that particular area which he likes at this point, which is set around the original movies.
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Apr 2, 2012 13:36
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It would be interesting if they decided they were going to restart the EU or make those old Infinities comics a going concern. I'm surprised there aren't alternate universes offering different takes on the characters (like you'd get with comic books; Ultimate Marvel and that sort of thing). In the Star Wars EU it seems like almost everything is (some level of) canon.
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Apr 2, 2012 15:15
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SeanBeansShako posted:But if the EU was utterly wiped what would we complain about pointlessly? Well, they'd probably restart the EU and we'd all complain pointlessly about how it's not as good as the old EU. Basically, it would be the same as our current posiition, except we'd be defending Kevin J. Anderson.
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Apr 3, 2012 18:07
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Casimir Radon posted:I can't decide what's worse. Wookiepedia spergs trying to make every retarded and poorly thought out aspect of the EU fit in one universe, or whatever it is comic book people sperg about. I once tried reading some Marvel comics history before Wikipedia started pruning long winded entries about fictional poo poo and pushing it off into external wikis, what a mindfuck. I'd like Wookieepedia better if it was more like the Transformers Wiki. As it is, it comes across as more like "the Star Wars Wikipedia" rather than "the Star Wars wiki" if that makes sense. Casimir Radon posted:We're already doing that. Believe me, I'd much rather be reading about the superweapon of the week and people kidnapping the Solo kids. Yeah, I guess you're right. I'd certainly prefer to read the Jedi Academy trilogy than the Dark Nest stories or LOTF.
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Apr 3, 2012 18:45
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I got the original Essential Guide To Characters around the time Episode I came out. I think it was a present for my sixth or seventh birthday or something, and it's probably the first Star Wars book I read. It had loads of references to the history of the Jedi and the EU in general before the prequel movies came out; stuff like Jorus C'Baoth becoming a Jedi after going to Jedi university and Pellaeon taking part in the Clone Wars fifty years before the death of the Emperor, that sort of thing. Almost every character who was featured in the Tales Of anthologies had a two page spread; even a really obscure droid called Bollux had a page all to himself. Most of them didn't even get a mention in the "minor characters" section of the second edition. The illustrations were pretty good, though. Wheat Loaf fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Apr 4, 2012 |
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Apr 4, 2012 16:04
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Master Soon Bayts has nothing on Bollux. Even Yarael Poof can't match him as far as unfortunate names go.
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Apr 4, 2012 21:36
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