The Expanded Universe

[4815162342 is Francis]

In which we generally discuss the Expanded Universe, covering the thousands of years of history before, during, and after the chronology of the films.Novels, comics, video games, and so on, you want to talk about it then this is the place.I'll start off with the series that started the EU and remains its crowning achievement: The Thrawn Trilogy. An excellent trio of novels that really captured the spirit of the OT with its tone and characters. Unfortunately a good portion of its backstory has been retconned due to events in the prequels and the later elements of the EU that were made in conformity with it.

[DAR]

Hard to believe that 20 years ago Heir to the Empire was released I need to read that trilogy again.

[4815162342 is Francis]

It is hard to believe that's been that long. Yet it also seems too long considering what's happened to the post-ROTJ EU in the past decade. Ugh.

[DAR]

Yeah I haven't really kept with the EU in the past ten years.

[4815162342 is Francis]

The post-ROTJ era of the EU has just become a giant messy slog of WTF events over several story arcs. There have been some pretty good individual novels within those arcs, but the overall arcs are just a poor trend.

[Phil in the Blank]

Yeah I LOVE the Thrawn trilogy. Really should had been made into Star Wars 7, 8 @9!

[4815162342 is Francis]

The Thrawn Trilogy really does capture the spirit and feeling of the OT, with a few wrinkles here and there. As a Sequel Trilogy a few things probably would have had to be changed (such as working in more lightsaber fights for the fans, which would require some character tinkering/adding) but it'd be a kickass series to see on the screen no doubt.But it's just sad how much silly or ridiculous stuff got thrown into the EU without much quality control.

[Water Bottle]

But it's just sad how much silly or ridiculous stuff got thrown into the EU without much quality control.

I have a feeling that's all on Lucas.

[4815162342 is Francis]

I have a feeling that's all on Lucas.

In a sense it is since from my understanding Lucas only steps in if he really disagrees with something. In terms of general storytelling for the EU he has little active role aside from giving a go-ahead. Blaming Lucas still doesn't excuse some of the truly wretched post-ROTJ novels out there, that's on the authors for making up the drek to begin with.The EU from before the Prequel Trilogy has a lot less silly or bad stuff going on, though in part because there's less out there.

[JamesFord92]

There's a few pretty horrible EU books out there, but I think there's enough good ones to make up for it. I haven't really paid all that much attention to the EU the last few years though.

[4815162342 is Francis]

You shouldn't. Some of the stuff from the past few years in the Post-ROTJ era is just baffling.Thinking of the atrocious EU novels (Planet of Twilight, The New Rebellion, The Crystal Star, etc) still gives me shivers. Luckily there's the 8 Zahn novels and the X-Wing series by Stackpole and Alliston to light the way.

[JamesFord92]

Love the X-Wing series. I was always more interested in the average joes who had to fight the Empire without any force powers to help them anyways, so those books we're perfect for me. Too bad Stackpole doesn't write Star Wars anymore, him and Zahn were the cream of the crop.Oh and we can all definitively agree that Crystal Star is the worst book right? Even if you haven't read it just google the plot description and that tells you enough.

Edited November 16, 2011 by JamesFord92

[Kalo]

I'm Trying to read through all star wars novels, so I've read a lot and when i started I started with The New Jedi Order and Young Jedi Knights and i had to back step to read Heir of the Empire and so on and I'm now reading in sereral different places, and Yes some of them are Awful, (Planet of Twilight, Children of the Jedi, Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy,) but most of them are good, some really really good, I'm reading Fate of the Jedi Series right now and it is for the most pert very good and interesting.

[JarJarBinks]

Has anyone read Darth Plagueis? I plan on picking up a copy of that before too much longer.

[75Live]

Has anyone read Darth Plagueis? I plan on picking up a copy of that before too much longer.

Yep, I read it weeks ago. It is pretty good and unlike most of the EU, this is actually considered canon so that's a plus too. It does fill in the time before TPM and even during TPM. I would recommend it.

[4815162342 is Francis]

I heard that the recent novel that concluded the Fate of the Jedi story arc in the post-ROTJ EU era really, really crapped the bed.I mean, the post-ROTJ era has been on a steady downhill track for many years, so not surprising.

Edited March 17, 2012 by 4815162342

[Kalo]

I read it, it Liked it, but It didn't tie off things like a thought it would and could have been quite a bit better, what I loved the most about the fate of the jedi series was the Maturing of Jaina Solo's(for those of you who don't know she is the daughter of Han and Leia solo, and a Jedi Knight) character. she's goes from being a head strong Jedi knight, to a refined master.

[langer]

Like some of the posters here,  I'm a big fan of Zhan books as well as the X-Wings series.  The New Jedi Order was a very good serie with multiple authors over the span of around 20 books.  Aaron Allston is definitely one of the best writers of SW and has been doing it for more than 15 years.  Karen Traviss came in with a point of view of her own concerning clones and Fett and gave us very good books but got screwed over by the Clone Wars series and decided she was through with SW.  James Luceno has not written a bad novel for SW and Mathew Stover probably wrote the best ones with Traitor, Shatterpoint and the novelization of ROTS. 

 

I'm afraid the new movies will destroy the universe that the books created.  I own over 100 novels of SW, but I'm not gonna buy books that are on a parallel universe if they decide to go with a different direction.