I feel like it will be bad because authors won’t have freedom to make things their way.

Should I spend my time reading it or look for a long series of a single author?

  • HamsterRage@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I always thought Timothy Zahn was an above average author, and to wrote more than a dozen of them.

    • SmellyNinja@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Seconded. If you’re open to it the older/non-canon audio book is amazing way to experience the story as well. Includes musical cues, sound effects, and the narrator does an incredible job of imitating the OG cast.

  • Computerchairgeneral@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Maybe? There are a lot of them and the quality varies depending on the book. You can’t go wrong with the original Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and Last Command were considered the unofficial sequel trilogy by some fans and they started off the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, which got rebranded to the Legends continuity when Disney took over. Besides the Thrawn Trilogy, I’d also recommend the Revenge of the Sith novelization. I went in not expecting much, but it really expands on a lot of things the movie brushes over, and witnessing Anakin’s story from his viewpoint was a lot more compelling than what we got in the movie. From there, it really depends on what you want to read about.
    The Star Wars book finder is a neat tool that lets you search by author, topic, or genre if you’re looking for something specific.

  • Havoc8154@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    They aren’t going to change you view on life, but most are pretty solid. I highly recommend pretty much any books in the High Republic era, particularly “Light of the Jedi”. It’s the first of the new era and it’s a great introduction to the setting. It’s all set a few hundred years before the movies, so the Authors were able to pretty much do whatever they wanted within the basic Star Wars universe.

  • TheMinions@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I read several of the Rogue Squadron books while on a long vacation and enjoyed them a lot, but they weren’t anything life changing.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I read every Star Wars novel there was in the mid 90s. I don’t regret it. It’s cheap sci fi, in a framework of an established universe. There are some cool stories.

    Unfortunately, the stuff I read now isn’t canon (I think?). I read Timothy Zahn’s and Kevin J Anderson’s series, that took place 5 and 7(12?) years after Endor.

    The Adventures of Han Solo is dope as fuck, and I still use the dogfighting strategy I learned in that book when I play anything with dogfighting. Same with The Adventures of Lando Calrissian, though it gets a little funkier with the sci fi elements. There’s a whole thing with teleporting space whales talking about pooping in battle.

    Tales from Jabba’s Palace, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, those are fun because they give every character in the background a backstory. All the stories intersect then go their separate ways at the moments appearing in Episodes 4 and 6. Like you learn the happy puppy love between the rancor and the guy in the hood, and it makes it sadder when you see him cry.

    • aedyr@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      This is me. The Heir to the Empire trilogy is one of my favorite book series. I read every bit of the old EU I could get my hands on in the 90s. Quality definitely varies across different books and authors, but I think that era of content is worthwhile if you’re a Star Wars fan.

  • crowebear@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I remember reading Timothy Zahn as a teen and not being able to put the books down. Tbh I think his plotlines are better than the movies.

  • zeekaran@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I’ve enjoyed dozens of them over the course of my twenty something years being into SW. Currently I’d recommend the Plagueis, Tarkin, the Thrawn books, and the Bane trilogy. Apparently I like villain books. I’ve also enjoyed the Karen Traviss Clone Trooper books but they got cancelled for canon reasons due to the TCW series.

    Authors have plenty of freedom unless you’re talking about novelizations of the films.

  • smstnitc@lemmy2.addictmud.org
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    1 year ago

    Any Timothy Zahn books are quite good. I love Thrawn.

    iirc, in the 90’s the older books had a set of guidelines they had to adhere to, like no stories that take place before episode 4, or Luke couldn’t have sex, I don’t remember much more than that, but I think they were pretty free to tell any story if they stayed within the guidelines.

    TBH I have no idea what the rules are now.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve read a few over the years and always enjoyed them. They’re never amazing or anything imo, I’ve never run into one that knocked it out of the park or anything, but I’m not a huge Star Wars fan anyway.

    But they also kinda get a baseline level of decent worldbuilding and natural conflict that keeps them from being dull or anything.

    If I was, say, in an airport and needed to buy a book, it’s exactly what I would reach for if I saw it. Favorite was the one that followed and explained Mace Windu.

  • Digital Mark@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Alan Dean Foster’s Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was the original sequel, before they had budget. The Brian Daley Han Solo books, L. Neil Smith’s Lando Calrissian books, and Mike Stackpole’s X-Wing books, are all pretty good. Daniel Keys Moran of The Long Run and more recently AI War/Time War fame, wrote a few short stories.

    Almost everything else I ever even read a couple pages of was so awful I threw it down. These were all written long before Disney got hold of it, and nobody really cared much about canon. Modern stuff would be corporate pablum.

  • fritz@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    I very highly recommend the republic commando series by Karen Traviss. It is so well written and gives a lot of context to clones in general and commandos. Honestly some of my favorite books ever. The game is fantastic too of course.