What's your favourite SW novel trilogy?

[mitchell]

Hey guys, I'm helping a friend out by writing a book review section on his new Star Wars web site he's trying to put together. I dunno if it will get off the ground yet . But we were wondering what was you guys's favourite SW book trilogy is and what your opinions were on the trilogy and all the books in general.<P>May fav was the original X-Wing Series by Michael Stackpole (hence my signature). I didn't like those ones by Barbara Hambly though like Children of the Jedi. And I hated Planet of Twilight!!! :p

[Ol]

As far as I can tell the Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy are the only books to really capture the characters. Beyond that I've read a few of the earlier ones but gave up some time after struggling through Darksaber (quite a good action adventure but just not quite right). I think that the big problem with star wars books is that the movies are very visual which makes it very tricky to write well. How Zahn pulls off a series of space battles in prose form is beyond me but compare the sluis van battle with the one in Truce at Bakura. <BR>Basically I think that Star Wars is very easy to get wrong and so the books have 9 times out of 10 got it wrong (in my experience, but like I say I stopped reding them a while back) <BR>If any really good SW books have been published since those first few I'd love to hear about them.

[mitchell]

Yeah I'd have to agree with you on how Timothy writes the space battles better but I reckon the Micheal Stack does the fighter to fighter battles real well, better than anyone else. Even compare them to the newer NJO books. Michael goes into alot more detail and seems to know how a fighter works.<BR>I feels like I'm playing XWA!<BR>And the Thrawn Triology was the first official SW novels to come out. Not if you count "Splinter of the Minds Eye" though, which was a magazine, which I dont rekon made much sense.

[Major Wes Janson]

Any of the books by Zahn, Stackpole, or Allston even. I like all of those. I also like Truce at Bakura somewhat, it seems to have that feel of being smaller scale like the original Star Wars, not the larger scale epics like the other books. <P>Evil books are anything by KJA, Crystal Star (I practically disown that book as Star Wars continuity) COTJ, and POT.

[DataDroid]

Far and away the original Tim Zahn trilogy. No other SW book has been so "believeable", or has done such a good job capturing the movie characters as well as introducing rock-solid new characters.<P>Grand Admiral Thrawn is defenitely my favorite EU villian, and he rivals Darth Vader himself for best SW villian in my mind.<P>The first KJA trilogy (Jedi Search) wasn't horrible, I put it on about equal footing with the first few X-Wing books (I haven't read past #4, the library doesn't carry any more than that).<P>SW fans seem to be pretty much unanimous that the two Barbara Hambly books (Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight) and Crystal Star are the worst of the bunch. I think I place CS slightly lower than the two BH books, simply because it messes so badly with the SW continuity (not that the Hambly books don't do it either). Another poor series is the Bounty Hunter Trilogy. While I was reading it, I found it pretty entertaining, but when I look back, they're rather ludicrous.<p>[ 30 November 2003: Message edited by: DataDroid ]

[Master Toddy]

No, i think the Bounty Hunter Wars series is the worst of the bunch. Could've easily been written as one book or a duology, and add to that the inconsitencies with Tales of the Bounty Hunters.<P>As to best book/author, I dunno. Tim. Zahn is definitely the best, I think we all can agree on that. But I also enjoy Stackpole's and Salvatore's work. And Troy Denning did a decent job too.<P>I used to not be a big fan of Salvatore, but then I started getting into his other fantasy series and now I wish he'd write more SW books. He did a great job with both Vector Prime and Attack of the Clones.<P>Zahn might do the best with the original characters, but let's not forget that Salvatore really added as much or more to the EU as Zahn did. If it weren't for him, there Corran and the other members of Rogue Squadron wouldn't be as cool. He expaned on several characters that didn't have as much screen time in the movies and turned them into characters who are just as important, and, in my opinion, loved, as the main cast. Like Wes Janson - and even Wedge, who wasn't quite as much of a major character in the movies as he was in the books (not asying that he wasn't important, just not very major - IMHO he should've been used more in the movies). <P>My only complaint with the Children of the Jedi series is that the novels are slow. Of course, I read them when I was like 14 or 15, so of course to a 15 year old they would probably seem slow (I have since read many other slower books, like Dune and The Silmarillion that I have really enjoyed). <P>The New Jedi Order series is kind of hit or miss. Like the James Bond movies - you have really good ones, so so ones, and bad ones. I think part of the problem is that they have like 20 different authors writing the series (Ok, I know that I'm exageratting that number, it's probably more like 10). I think that if they had chosen maybe 3 or 4 authors to do the series (Salvatore, Denning, Stackpole, and Zahn, IMHO), and had them do duologies/trilogies with each other, then it might have turned out much better.<P>NJO kinda reminded me of B5 in that it was a long serialized series (though only three years, instead of 5), it's just the difference is that there was one main guy who was in charge (JMS) but they had other people write. Maybe that's what they should've done - picked one guy to be in charge (maybe Zahn or Stackpole) and have a few other writers writing. Oh, I've yet to read the last book. Read all of the others, though, including the e-novels.<P>If any of you guys are looking for great fantasy novels, I'd suggest checking out Salvatore's work, he has some really good stuff out there.

[Kestrel]

The X-Wing series and Timothy Zahn's books(in that order)

[General_Trageton]

Thrawn Trilogy and The X-Wing Series.<P><B>3000 posts! EEK!</B><p>[ 01 December 2003: Message edited by: General_Trageton ]

[DataDroid]

Congratulatinos Vince!<P>How many 3000-post people do we have now?

[General_Trageton]

Three I think: Forceflow, Darksaber and me.<P>... am I really that talkative?

[Major Wes Janson]

Hey, you ran the bar...of course you will talk.

[General_Trageton]

lol! true again! However, lately it's strange! I have the feeling each post I make is doubled ...<P> oh well. Maybe I'm really such a babbler!

[Master Toddy]

We're getting off topic here guys .

[The Saxman]

BRL get your OWN ass back on topic. You're the LAST person who should be yelling at people because you're one of the worst tangent posters here. This thread has nothing to do with the X-wing series, FASA or BattleTech so DROP IT.<P>Now SERIOUSLY back on topic:<P>Best: Tim Zahn, Stackpole, Luceno and Allston (not necessarily in that order). I thought Hambly (Bakura, Balance Point) was very good as well.<P>Worst: Crystal Star, as mentioned, easily tops the worst list and New Rebellion is probably just as bad. KJA is just plain unnecessary, and Kube-MacDowell read more like Tom Clancy than Star Wars.

[DataDroid]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Black Fleet Crisis (Kube-MacDowell) trilogy. Avoid it at all costs. I don't believe I've ever read a book/series with a worse ending. The rest of it was actually fairly interesting, but the ending utterly and completely ruined everything that was in it up to that point.

[Master Toddy]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by The Lightsaberist:<BR><STRONG>I want to hear about pilots like me who never get mentioned, about the unsung heroes who fought major battles alongside all of the figureheads, but never once got official praise for it.<BR></STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>BRL, the reason that nobody writes about you is because nobody likes or cares about you.

[Corrann Horn]

Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allistions X/W Series is my over all favorite book collection. (own em all)

[K_Kinnison]

Lightsaberist..<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR>FASA was Battletech, Wizkids doesn't know **** about BTech, and even if they did, they will never be acknowledged as well as FASA was.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>you might want to check who is the CEO of Wizkids... Jordan Wiesman, the same jordan Wiesman that came up with the idea of Battle Bots which later became Battletech<P>CBT was dead, Wizkids broght it back to life thru MWDA and giveing rights to Fanpro to re-realease the CBT stuff.<P>Anywaz...<P>Zahn is the best, the Hand of thrawn Dualogy is the best..i really wish it was another trilogy but instead the Hier to the Empire trilogy will ahve to do.<P>The Jedi academy is okay, but KJA takes too many lliberties with superweapons and force powers. he would be nothing of an author without his wife.<P>Stakpole based all of the space combat on the X-wing series of games. That enough should tell you that he never really got a feel for the universe, and what he did with Corran Horn was nothing but an episode of Peggy Sue syndrome.<P>I still do not understand why they let a Fantesy wrier like Salvador due a science fiction story. He is probly one of the reasons why i hate NJO so much<P>-K_Kinnison owner of every SW novel, Graphic Comic, and Manga novel printed before NJO

[Master Toddy]

I enjoy Salvatore's writing. Though I do agree that Vector Prime does seem a bit more like a D&D style book than an SW one (like his Drizzt Do'Urden series), but I think he did a great job on the EpII novelization.

[Ray Borlin]

The Thrawn Trilogy of course. Rogue Squadron was kind of cool, but there needs to be more books published about the war in general after Endor. There also needs to be more before the movies and inbetween the movies. What the hell is wrong with all these books coming out like 30 years after Endor, who the hell cares!?! ughh. Just let it die.

[Warmaker]

I've read very little SW books. I read Shadows of the Empire and wasn't too keen on it. The next set I read was the Timothy Zahn's first trilogy which was a damn good read. The next and so far last SW books I read were Zahn's Hand of Thrawn books.<P>GAdm.Thrawn was awesome as the big villain in Zahn's books. Also in contrast to the usual depiction of Imperial officers, he hates the waste of his men's lives. Not to mention the mere mention of his name made the Republic nervous after his death in the first trilogy.

[General Edor Crespin]

I'm with pretty much everyone else: the Thrawn trilogy.<P>Although the HoT duo is a <B>very</B> close second.

[DanPapua]

I like the Timothy Zhann Thrawn trilogy very exciting books. C'both makes the books so suspensful because you don't know what he'll do next.