Good SW books?

[GrimaOllak]

Hi all. I've been reading a ton of the SW books, and I'm wondering if there are any that you folks found to be better than others?

I haven't really been reading in any sort of order, though I did read the Force Heretic trilogy in order. My conundrum is, I'm interested in reading about the Jedi, from Padawan to knight. What I mean is, I want to read about what it's like for one of the chosen children to grow up in the Jedi academy. To learn how to reach out and touch the Force, learn to use a lightsaber, etc. So far, though, I haven't seen any of that in any sort of detail.

Therefore, do any of the books have this? I'm sick to death of reading about aspects of Star Wars that I don't particularly care about (piloting X-wings, solving domestic disputes on foreign worlds, politics, etc.).

[Devilstar2k2]

I just read Dark Lord, it was my first SW novel. I wasn't crazy about it, but it was a quick and fun read. It chronicals Vaders first assignments right after Episode III. There were some pretty cool events and fights in it. It'd actually play out to be an OT type of movie, if it were to ever hit the big screen.

Not quite what you are looking for... I know... But thats all that I got for ya. []


EDIT-

I guess the main reason that I was turned off by it was this one cheesey, and useless plot point. I won't post it (for spoiler reasons), but anyone thats read it should know what I'm talking about.

[Mur-Pa DiLos]

Basically the books by Kevin J Anderson and Timothy Zhan are the best of the best. But basically, if George signed off on it it's pretty good. I haven't found a bad one yet and I'm just going through them in chronological order. BTW does anyone have an official up to date order on these books? I have Tatootine Ghost but I was wondering if anyone had something more up to date than that.[]

[Madcow]

"Shatterpoint" by Matthew Stover.
It's the best one I've read. It's about Mace Windu.

MC



You want to go home and re-think your life

[Mur-Pa DiLos]

Shatterpoint was sweet, totally agree with you on that one![]

[xwingband]

The Stover books are good stuff if you like character development and philosophy. If action is your thing stay away from them.

Here's my recommendations:
For action- X-wing series
For plot (and a good starter if you haven't read others)- Zahn books (Thrawn trilogy and duology)
For characters and Philosophy- Stover's books (Shatterpoint and Traitor in the NJO)

I haven't kept up with the Prequel era books as much as I'd like to, but for the otherwise I've got them all. Look at the timeline in the covers and I have maybe 95-98% of all of them.

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[Nightwing]

Read them in release order, not in chronological order. Sometimes they change little things in the timeline as they write more books, so it's better to just read them in the order they were published. Unfortunately I don't have a release order list handy, but I know that the first ones "officially" released were Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command).
After that, I believe the next is "Truce at Bakura", then, a comic book called "Dark Empire", and then "The Jedi Academy Trilogy".

[xwingband]

Yup, avoid the ones released later in the Batnam years. Darksaber, Planet of the Twilight, Children of the Jedi, etc... They were released in response to the popularity of the earlier books and are subpar.

The thrawn trilogy wasn't the first. It was a rebirth really after a long absence of any books. I agree though that release order is an important aspect.

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[dbraxton9]

scrap the books for a couple of days and get the Star Wars Radio Drama from NPR. It's by far the best star wars ANYTHING ever produced. It's a 6 1/2 hour indulgence with the scene of kenobi training luke on the falcon lasting 25 minutes. if you dig the force and you dig the inner power struggles of the Imperial elite, you really really must check this out. and if you still want a good book, try the old Splinter of the Mind's Eye that everyone thought was going to be the 3rd installment of the trilogy instead of Return of the Jedi.

"Size matters not. Look at me! Judge me by my size do you? And well you should not! For my ally is the force, and a powerful ally it is!"

[Nightwing]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by dbraxton9

and if you still want a good book, try the old Splinter of the Mind's Eye that everyone thought was going to be the 3rd installment of the trilogy instead of Return of the Jedi.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Splinter of the Mind's Eye? Are you sure? That book is set between episodes IV and V...
As far as I know, it was to be Lucas's plan for a TV sequel to Star Wars if it didn't do too well in the box office.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by xwingband

The thrawn trilogy wasn't the first. It was a rebirth really after a long absence of any books. I agree though that release order is an important aspect.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">Yes, I just meant that they were the first officially released ooks to continue the story after ROTJ, and they were a sort of "rebirth". Kind of a "new genesis" for the SW novels.
If you start with those, you won't be at all lost in the continuity, and most of the books (even some later-released prequels) are sort of based off of it. Nearly every novel has some point where the characters shudder for a second as they remember "Thrawn" or "Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic".