Social: Member's Bookshelf

[colls]

September has 5 weekends, so that means we have a FREEBIE.
This weekend I thought I'd make a post to talk about Star Wars books in general. Novels, junior series, comics, EU, Disney canon.... anything goes.

+ What books have you read?
+ Which ones do you recommend?

Our October theme will be "Published in the 00's". Do you have any recommendations that would fit that theme? Or ideas of which book you might select for yourself to read?
For reference, here's a list of novels by release date from Wookiepedia

Comments

[smilebackwards]

I read a ton of the EU novels when I was in high school. The library had a shelf of them and I was like hmm okay I'll just work my way through these. Particularly obsessed with the Heir to the Empire trilogy so I'm watching the Ahsoka series now wondering how things are going to turn out in live action.

[barbiejedi]

I was big into the novels in high school and college, and read as much of the Bantam era as I could get my hands on-- especially loved the X-Wing books, the short story "Tales From" books, and Zahn's Thrawn books-- and kept up with the New Jedi Order in real time as it was being published by Del Rey. I fell out of love with the EU about halfway through Legacy of the Force (they did my baby girl Tahiri real dirty and I'm still mad about it) and the only thing I read after that was X-Wing: Mercy Kill until Disney made it all Legends. Since then I only dip in very occasionally to the new canon when it seems to align with things I enjoyed in Legends, like Zahn's new Thrawn trilogies.

For recommendations, I can always rec the X-Wing series, and the Tales From books. I just love a story that fleshes out more of what the non-Jedi get up to in the Galaxy Far Far Away. Anything Aaron Allston wrote is pretty much going to be a good time-- he's the only reason I got as far into Legacy of the Force as I did, and his X-Wing books simply can't be beat. Oh! Also Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith, and NJO: Traitor if someone decided they were going to tackle the NJO. (I can't rec the whole NJO series, it's just so damn big and had a handful of books that I just didn't vibe with, but there are several books in the series that I really enjoyed. Traitor and the Enemy Lines duology specifically.)


Hmmm, if I were going to rec something published in the '00s... honestly I would love to have a reason to reread the NJO to see how it holds up 20+ years later, but it's nineteen books and that's a LOT, and it's really not designed to dip in and out so it's hard to rec it. Traitor was just SO GOOD though! And so was Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization-- he just has such a way of pulling you inside the characters' moral struggles. (the quote in my icon above is from the opening chapter and it gets me every time)

Oh shit, Zahn's Outbound Flight!!!!! That's the one I would absolutely rec from the 2000s, because it was the first time I saw linguistics and language learning as a plot point in the EU, something that's usually handwaved with protocol droids, and it's still absolutely delightful to me. Plus it's a standalone novel (though there are elements that tie in to Survivor's Quest, it's not essential) so a much quicker read.

[brokenmnemonic]

Before you started the community, I hadn't actually read many of the books at all. I'd read the novelisations of Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back (and Han/Leia may actually have been my first ever ship as a result), and I had copies of the Thrawn trilogy and some of the New Jedi Order novels, so I think I'd probably read them, but they're stickered up by a secondhand book stall in a market I used to go to but which I haven't visited in 25 or so years, so if I have read them, I don't remember anything.

I read the Marvel UK comics that came out when I was a kid for years and years and at least one of the stories really stuck in my head, and over the last 18 months I've been using Marvel Unlimited to read through as much of the Dark Horse-published Star Wars comics as I can; I finally reached the end of that list last month, and I'm now starting to catch up with the Marvel High Republic comics. This is the reading list I used, so that I was reading the comics in in-universe chronological order rather than publishing order: https://comicbookreadingorders.com/other/star-wars-dark-horse-reading-order/. Reading that reminds me I need to go back and read the Republic comics I couldn't find originally because they changed name part way through... (It went from being simply "Star Wars" to "Star Wars: Republic" about 45 issues in.)

I think the Knights of the Old Republic comics are some of my favourites, and I really like the Rebel Heist limited series. The Dark Times stories were often good but also pretty painful in places, as they revolve around the Jedi who survived Order 66 mostly being hunted down by Vader and the Empire. There are also some interesting bits and pieces in runs like the Rogue Squadron and Shadows of the Empire arcs where you get to see stories around people within the Empire, some of whom are loyal and some of whom aren't, and I found I liked some of these stories much more than I expected to. For example, there's an arc revolving around the commanding officer of the biggest Imperial officer academy, a former Clone Wars era general, attempting to lead a coup against the Emperor early after the formation of the Empire that I thought was very interesting, even if you obviously know how things are going to end up going!

[colls]

I tried (unsuccessfully) to get 'Heir to the Empire' as a book-of-the-month here early on - it never did well in the polls. Heh.
I remember reading it when it was first published and actually have a signed copy! But I haven't re-read it.

I didn't read a big chunk of the EU (90's - 00's).

I'm curious as to where the Ahsoka series is going as well. I also am thoroughly enjoying the ride! :)

[colls]

I liked the first "Tales from" book, but it didn't do well in the polls here (when we were doing polls). I'd like to read the second as well.

The X-wing series sounds like it'll be a fun read - I enjoyed the couple we've read here in this comm.

I thought the NJO was all 2000's but see that the first one is actually published in 1999. I might... make a mod decision and read that one next month anyway. I know it's 19 books, but it's the biggest gap in my Star Wars reading and I may as well dive in at some point.

Zahn's books always do well in the Star Wars universe. ;)

[colls]

I applaud your commitment to (and ability to navigate) the comics side of the Star Wars storytelling universe.

The only exposure I've had to the Old Republic is through KOTOR - the only game outside of swgoh on mobile I've played. I know they're a popular setting/subgenre/timeline. If they're in some sort of cohesive set, I might check those out.

[barbiejedi]

I didn't see them listed on the comics reading order list you linked, but have you run across the Star Wars Tales comics? It was an anthology of short comics, most of which weren't "canon" but were fun little stories from all different places in the timeline. I only had a few of the monthly issues but years later I was able to find the big TPB collections.

[barbiejedi]

I liked the Tales books that collected short stories from the West End Games Star Wars Adventure Journal, which I think were just the Empire and New Republic volumes-- I can't remember if I read the Mos Eisley Cantina, Jabba's Palace, or Bounty Hunter ones.

I wish there was some kind of e-book anthology that collected all the SWAJ stories, not just the ones that made it into the Tales From books. I've toyed with creating one based on scans of the old Adventure Journals but I haven't had the time to sit down and actually go through with it.

[brokenmnemonic]

I didn't realise the Star Wars Tales series existed until you mentioned it, but I'm going to have to track it down. I have read some of the Infinities comics though, which are referenced in that article - I've read the Infinities stories that tell different versions of or give different endings for the original trilogy movies.

And this reminds me I haven't done much comic book reading in the last few weeks, which I could make up for...

[brokenmnemonic]

I think it helps that the comics I've been reading are mostly from Dark Horse. The High Republic comics vex me a bit, because I haven't worked out where they all fit in relation to the various novels ;)

The Knights of the Old Republic has a core cast of characters and is a really interesting run. It helps that I like the characters :) It has several long plots, and includes one of the wars between the Republic and the Mandalorians, if that's of interest to you?