I used to read Star Wars novels

Back when Star Wars was at a low ebb of cultural relevancy and was almost just another sci-fi series. This was in the mid-90s before The Phantom Menace came out and the prequels were not yet something that was guaranteed to happen. It was a very different Star Wars community. Each of these books was a glimpse into a universe that has now largely been overwritten. That version of Star Wars I held in my imagination is no longer being elaborated on.

Did you read these books? Want to talk about it?

An anecdote: I thought Kevin J. Anderson was great and was taken by surprise when I found out the internet hates him.

It's too bad they didn't make movies based on some of the stories in the books back in the '80s or '90s when the original cast was still fairly close in age to when the OT was made. They could've been 'Star Wars Stories' like the current non-Episode films

Thrawn trilogy was excellent

With Star Wars the pendulum seems to be swinging the other way, towards huge but empty spectacles where special effects - like the brilliantly designed space vehicles and their interiors in both Star Wars and 2001 - preside over derivative ideas and unoriginal plots, as in some massively financed stage musical where the sets and costumes are lavish but there are no tunes. I can't help feeling that in both these films the spectacular sets are the real subject matter, and that original and imaginative ideas - until now science fiction's chief claim to fame - are regarded by their makers as secondary, unimportant and even, possibly, distracting.

Star Wars in particular seems designed to appeal to that huge untapped audience of people who have never read or been particularly interested in s-f but have absorbed its superficial ideas - space ships, ray guns, blue corridors, the future as anything with a fin on it - from comic strips, TV shows like Star Trek and Thunderbirds, and the iconography of mass merchandising.

JG Ballard
Time Out
1977

I've read all of and enjoyed much of the entire new canon, AMA

Highlights are the Lando comic, both Darth Vader comic series, the Dr. Aphra comic series, and star wars rebels (although that's a tv show). Most of the actual BOOKS are pretty forgettable, though I enjoyed Dark Disciple, Lords of the Sith, and Phasma.

I just like to pretend that the only Star Wars media that exists is the original trilogy.

As far as I can tell there have been no new mystical elements introduced in the new episodes other than Luke's astral projection, which is more-so just a new trick than an element of Jedi mythology.

But getting back to the novels: I preferred the explanations offered by them. For instance, the original Death Star origin involved two very interesting characters named Bevel Lemelisk and Qwi Xux. In short summary:

Bevel Lemelisk - Brilliant but ruthless engineer tasked with overseering the final designs of the Death Star. When he made a mistake the Emperor had him executed. Then, using dark force powers, he would transfer his soul into a new cloned body, including his memories of his horrific deaths, most of which were some kind of novelty torture like being consumed by ravenous beetles or slowly dipped in acid. Bevel himself was on the villainous side and didn't care at all about anyone other than himself.

Qwi Xux - She was of an alien species that had amazing mathematical and memory capabilities and designed the Death Star superlaser, something considered near impossible for anyone else. She thought it would be used to break up lifeless planets for mining purposes. The person responsible for the creation of the most destructive weapons in Star Wars history was a naive young blue-skinned woman.

All of this above I think gets back to what you are saying where the novels had to focus on original and imaginative ideas to feel more like proper Star Wars through text.

>people are bumping a thread about a culture industry product marketed to children as adults

>tfw the TIE Fighter game is the greatest work in the Star Wars franchise
Pretty sad.

>Back when Star Wars was at a low ebb of cultural relevancy and was almost just another sci-fi series
When was that?

Star Wars is not sci-fi
Yes it is significant since that genre has fundamentally different concerns and intentions

>towards huge but empty spectacles where special effects - like the brilliantly designed space vehicles and their interiors in both Star Wars and 2001 - preside over derivative ideas and unoriginal plots
Damn, prophetic as fuck tbphwy. Except perhaps the pendulum part, because we've now gone 40 years without it swinging back again.

star wars was relevant in the mid to late 90s i remember purchasing special edition vhs box sets and playing with the toy figurines. also they had a bunch of great pc games that extended the universe, and a lot of sci fi books too.

this was before the humanities entered the young adult fiction field and turned it into the faggy shit it is now.

>Back when Star Wars was at a low ebb of cultural relevancy and was almost just another sci-fi series. This was in the mid-90s before The Phantom Menace came out and the prequels were not yet something that was guaranteed to happen. It was a very different Star Wars community. Each of these books was a glimpse into a universe that has now largely been overwritten. That version of Star Wars I held in my imagination is no longer being elaborated on.

This was when Star Wars was at its best. The prequels killed it, and the "sequels" are raping its corpse.

>Did you read these books?

Yes. I spent most of my childhood reading these, and other sci fi/fantasy.

I had something of a epiphany when I realized that I wasn't reading these books because I genuinely enjoyed them, but rather I was just a total star wars addict, and constantly needed star wars to be in my life, whether it was good or bad, i just needed a star wars fix.

I was reading one particular book, I think it was call Crystal Star something or other, and it just kind of hit me like, "Damn...this fucking book is awful."

Then I immediately thought, "Yeah, dumbass, ALL these fucking books are awful! What did you expect when you bought this?"

I probably had about 50 star wars novels, and I went out and burned them all. Shortly after this, the special edition movies came out in the theater, and they fucking sucked. Then the prequels came out, and those were so bad they completely killed star wars for me. I mean those movies literally beat star wars to death, as it cried and shit itself, right in front of me.

I have almost no interest in star wars anymore. I sort of realized the original movies were a special place in time, something that can probably never be recreated with any more movies or books, or comic books, or lightsaber shaped dildos or what the hell ever.

The Star Wars of 1994 was not the Star Wars of today. Star Wars novels were just another branding of sci-fi and fantasy novels, rather than some big tie-in to toys and video games.

Late 80s to early 90s. The long lull between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. During this time Star Wars took a backseat to series like Jurassic Park as a pop cultural phenomenon.

Star wars wasn't even really popular in the 90s. It was actually way out of fashion, almost dead in terms of culture.

I remember being at a party as a young teen, talking to this qt who seemed to be really into me, and she asked, "So what's your favorite movie?" and I told her star wars.

Her face completely soured and she goes, "Oh...you mean that like...space movie...?" and looked at me like I was a fucking weirdo, then walked away.

I kind of get the urge to strangle young women when I see them cheering during star wars trailer reaction vids now.

Several of the Bantam-Spectra Star Wars novels are more on the sci-fi side than you usually see with Star Wars. In the first book of the Jedi Academy trilogy Han Solo gets sent to the spice mines of Kessel. Remember the Kessel Run? Well, Kessel turns out to be a prison colony with a very harsh climate. Not sure it has an atmosphere, but everything is done subterranean. The mines are full of all manner of bizarre alien prisoners and further done spider-like creatures that are native fauna. The miners have to wear special gear because it is so cold and all the mining is done in pitch darkness because light activates the glitterstim spice they're trying to harvest.

Not much of this is explained from any scientific point of view, so it is decidedly soft sci-fi, but it's also not just a redressing of a swords n' sorcery fantasy setting like Star Wars sometimes tends to be.

When I was in middle school in 97 to 98 they would ask us what movies we would like to watch during state testing week when we had finished our exams, and I always cried out "Star Wars!". I was seen as being bizarre and out of touch. The winner was almost always Space Jam.

I read like 50+ star wars books few years ago. It was almost right before they were removed from canon. Most of them were crappy but I found few moments very iconic and memorable

Did you read the aftermath novels?
>Lords of the Sith
While I enjoyed the story we got, the title is clearly misleading

I'm not even much of a fan of the OT. I got into Star Wars by reading the Essential Guides. I picked up the guide to Vehicles and Vessels on a 6th grade trip to the Smithsonian and became fascinated by it. It helped that I was riding on an airplane for the first time in my life in the same week.

I enjoyed most of the books I've read because I'm a Star Wars addict, but that stems from watching the original trilogy a million times, so everything after that movie wise is killing me. The novels fill some of those gaps.

I just counted them and realized that I've read 25 novels. A few of them were great, most of them were good 1 or 2 were tolerable enough to finish. There are some pretty awesome moments in them, but they rely on your love of characters from the movies. They're just pulpy fun to me.

How much do you enjoy sucking on that non-gender specific Disney zhe cock?

>people are bumping a thread about a culture industry product marketed to children as adults

Its funny, because the faggot in your picture probably enjoys soy wars

>I LUB MOOBIE BOOKZ MOZD UB AL I LUB STAWW WAZ VVOOO SPASH SHIT GO VOOO VROOO PEW PEW LITE SABRA GO VRRRE BZZZ

Star Wars back then was "stuff that sci-fi dorks liked but nobody else did". Episode I brought it back to the pop culture standpoint, but that was still before sci-fi and video games were hijacked by feminism.

So, say an user wanted to get the dirty taste of this most recent debacle out of his mouth, which of these trashy books is the least trashy? Is the Thrawn trilogy entertaining?

>Is the Thrawn trilogy entertaining?
You know, I'm not such a big fan of it. It sort of drags in a few places, particularly the Noghri subplot with Leia.

I would recommend Shadows of the Empire as a good starting point. If want something a little more out there the Han Solo or Boba Fett novels. If you want something really different then The Truce at Bakura or The Courtship of Princess Leia.

Truce at Bakura in particular is a really big departure from what Star Wars is usually about, and it takes place right after ROTJ!

They were great. I read at least a dozen in middle school during a free reading period in class. Mercilessly mocked for it, of course.

Which was the one where Chewie had to escape those invisible spider-creatures after being enslaved in the spice mines of Kessel? I think it was a trilogy.

Also the one with the Sun Crusher spaceship that could fly through the heart of a star and release a weapon, causing it to go supernova.

Remember the Ysalamir?

Remember Mara Jade?

I only intend to read one so it's nice to not be recommended a trilogy. I'll give Shadows a go. Thanks!

>Remember the Ysalamir?
>Remember Mara Jade?
I remember them. And Cilghal. And Tenel Ka.

Before TPM most Jedi didn't wear robes. I liked that better.

The Bantam Books of the 1990s were unmitigated trash
There seemed to be no editorial control
Any b-grade author writing generic space fantasy could get a job
Jedi Academy Trilogy? Children of the Jedi? Crystal Star? Planet of Twilight? Black Fleet Crisis? Corellian Trilogy? New Rebellion? Bounty Hunter Trilogy?
This shit was awful
And speak of no editorial control, this shit was internally inconsistent too
Shit was all set around time frames with no connection
Inconsistent characterisation from one book to the next
A neutered empire replaced with Z grade villains that would make a Republic serial seem tame

Del Rey Books and their New Jedi was even fucking worse

The only good thing the expanded universe has produced was the West End Games D6 RPG

>Children of the Jedi? Crystal Star? Planet of Twilight? Black Fleet Crisis? Corellian Trilogy? New Rebellion? Bounty Hunter Trilogy?
>This shit was awful
All of those books were really freakin' weird and felt more like Star Wars to me than anything that came later.

>So, say an user wanted to get the dirty taste of this most recent debacle out of his mouth

Read some proper SF&F

If you would like something like Star Wars, then go to the source: Space Opera and Planetary Romance

>Golden Age
C.L. Moores Northwest Smith stories
Leigh Brackets solar system stories and Erik John Stark stories
>1960s New Wave
Samuel R. Delanys Babel-17 and Nova
M. John Harrisons The Centauri Device
Frank Herberts Dune
>contemporary
Dan Simmons Hyperion
Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space series
Ian M. Banks Hydrogen Sonata
Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin have edited two retro throwback anthologies, Old Mars and Old Venus. And Dozois has also edited a New Space Opera anthology.
The comicbook Sword of Ages

>Waru felt like Star Wars
are you brain damaged?

The tone and style and antagonists are all wrong

>can't escape this shit even on Veeky Forums

>cherry picking the worst book out of the list
Still, that bizarre creature is what I wanted out of the EU. I like to see Luke overcoming all manner of obstacles across the galaxy, not just fighting dark siders over and over again.

i remember reading these when i was a kid
don't remember much about them tho

okay how about Truce at Bakura, the story is about the authors own Evangelical beliefs

Jedi Academy Trilogy? The absurdity of continuing to run a jedi academy in a location you know to contain a dark side presence, or the goofiness of Amidala?

Darksaber? The Hutts make their own deathstar?

Speaking of which what about the overall lack of editorial oversight across the books leading to a lack of cohesion in what is going on with the Empire, when it even showed up, and the resort to new ridiculous villains?

Definitely have a look of C.L. Moores Northwest Smith stories
He basically is Han Solo
On Mars or Venus
Running into Old One horrors

There are also enough sandniggers in the EU. Don't need tobwhorry faggot!

> Ugh. The last thing I want to read about on Veeky Forums is books!

It's kinda sad that 'non canon' games and novels have better lore than all the prequels and the latest bunch of official movies.

They compromised Lucas somehow. He said previously he'd never sell, and was visibly unhappy with the sale and the changes they've made.
He was rich as hell before the sale, so I doubt it was simple greed.

>>>/pol

I read a bunch of the short stories back in the 90's (tales from Mos Eisley, tales from Jabba's Palace, etc.), and they were GREAT.

Recently I found a ton of the novels used at a bookstore for a buck each and bought them all.

Read the first two Timothy Zahn novels from the Thrawn trilogy, and my god they're great. it's like reading dialog from the movies; better written than the new movies desu.

Now I'm reading pic related, and shit is it terrible. I have no idea how the Han Solo movie will turn out, but I can't imagine it being much worse than these pieces of shit.

I read Darth Bane's trilogy and I actually liked it (at least the first book).

why are you here?

Why are YOU here, cuck?

>that moment when you realize that Lucas had not ruined Star Wars but protected it

What about the ones where the aliens from another galaxy invade? I think it's New Jedi Order, is it good? Looks pretty interesting.

honestly

What?

>okay how about Truce at Bakura
Dinosaurs that suck out your soul and enslave it inside kamikaze droid starfighters? Yes, I fucking love that book.
>Jedi Academy Trilogy?
The Exar Kun plot is the B-plot of that series. The Kyp Durron and Maw Installation stuff is great.
>Darksaber? The Hutts make their own deathstar?
Yes, and it is a spectacular failure. Some good critique there on weapons of mass destruction and how they can fall into the hands of terrorists, you know.
>Speaking of which what about the overall lack of editorial oversight across the books leading to a lack of cohesion in what is going on with the Empire, when it even showed up, and the resort to new ridiculous villains?
Doesn't bother me too much as long as the books are internally consistent with themselves. Without being too insulting to you, I believe being overly concerned with continuity is a mark of a younger fan when it comes to these things. If stick around with any franchise long enough and read enough EU materials you'll always run into this problem. Comic books are way, way worse.

Still, I love ridiculous new villains. How ridiculous is Darth Vader, anyway?

They're very pulply or old-fashioned or whatever you want to call it. They have almost nothing to do with the rest of the EU, but they're great to read over a day or two.

The New Jedi Order's quality varies from awful to decent with only a couple of good books in the whole 30+ book saga. It's also up its own ass with EU characters that you may not like very much. And some characters have re-characterizations that you may not like if you are coming in from the Bantram Spectra era, particularly the way Kyp Durron becomes an asshole at odds with Luke Skywalker.

The scale of the Yuuzhan Vong war is also depressing when you realize how all of the main heroes have been fighting all their lives.

However, beyond all that the best thing about the NJO is that is different. Their presence allows the writers to create a lot of new scenarios that end up being very cool, such as the young Jedi Knights stranded on a ruined and terraformed Coruscant fighting a 7 ft. cyborg sith lord controlled by a giant brain plugged into the core of the planet.

why does he has lightsabers on his knees?

The NJO was about being as grim-dark and edgy as possible. So naturally he has sabers on his knees.

>As far as I can tell there have been no new mystical elements introduced in the new episodes other

What trajedy. Sounds like they went from being made in the spirit of Campbell to just engorging and regurgiating itself

Should I feel bad as a Star Wars fan for losing any interest in seeing 8 besides just to say I have seen it? 7 sucked and I was brainwashed on the prequals as a kid, so my standards are not that high. The new one looks like another awful rehash of its corresponding episode of the original trilogy.

Also yes, OP--I read a few of the books but enjoyed them as the only other star wars I had to consume were brief romances with the better games in the repertoire

this thread was a fun read. never knew that SW was in a lull before the special editions

as a kid i was introduced to SW with TPM and had only heard about the franchise mainly from video game magazines, i think. i loved that movie and read the novelization (pretty good), watched the originals etc
sometime later i got what i believe was an EU book about a bunch of kids training to be jedi knights and one of them losing her arm during lightsaber practice or something, that's the only thing i remember. anyone know which one i'm talking about?

I’ve enjoyed the new comics as they’ve been popping up on marvel unlimited. Pretty good desu.

TLJ convinced me to go back to the eu. I’m starting on the Boba Fett trilogy, since I had the first one as a kid.

>Trust no one, not even Han Solo

Lucas had already written 9 movies. Bookfags are cancer to the starwars community.

No he didn't. Besides, his prequel movies were absolute garbage, even compared with RotJ

Are any of the books similar to kotor2?

i like matt stover's novels. traitor had a big impact on me and got me interested in nietzsche and taoism

My friend told me the Thrawn trilogy was the benchmark for Star Wars EU and I started the first book and it was fucking embarassing to read, like something off of fandiction.net, like how do you read this shit.

>made in the spirit of Campbell
No, they just used his work as a crib sheet to map out plot beats.

When will this meme die?
>force repelling lizards

lmao

Yeah I forced myself to finish the first one and had no desire to continue, if that's the cream of the crop then fuck it.

Currently reading them now, just started the NJO. Most of the New Republic books were pretty mediocre, but there were some good ones. Much better than the crap Disney's coming up with.

So George Lucas reviewed the plots of the early Star Wars novels and approved them. As long as nothing in the books contradicted the films they were considered canon.

Disney does not frequently consult with George Lucas and he did not review or know the plot of TFA or TLJ before the films were released. Disney has rewritten the canon established by the EU and has relegated all previous EU materials to the Star Wars Legacy line-up.

So now you have two continuities, one which was overseen by the original creator of the source material, and one which has the official endorsement of the current owner of the intellectual property.

Which one do you regard as the real story? Is there one? What do you think of the whole matter? Does a book need to be canon to be enjoyable?

I see the older EU materials as being much like the silver age comics. Although they are not in the current continuity, they very much "happened". The adventures of the characters in them are no less enjoyable now than they ever were. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Darth Vader and the rest exist in the old EU books as much as Superman exists in silver age comics. No one is picking up a silver age comic book and making a big deal about them no longer being canon or in continuity.

And of course at some point there may be some kind of cross-over crisis type of event that links the two Star Wars timelines.

Star Wars novels generally have shoddy b-plots. It's a side effect of giving everyone something to do. The New Republic era novels also had the effect of turning Star Wars into a sort of Dragon Ball Z-esque story where you had the good guys all sort of sitting around waiting for the next big bad guy to show up and threaten the planet or universe. And you also had about one new character that would stick around after the story arcs, sometimes being introduced as an antagonist. Mara Jade is basically the Vegeta.

>later i got what i believe was an EU book about a bunch of kids training to be jedi knights and one of them losing her arm during lightsaber practice or something, that's the only thing i remember. anyone know which one i'm talking about?

The Young Jedi Knights series. I tried re-reading them a couple of years ago.

Don't.

1988-1998 Star Wars was the best period.

The star wars was already fading away by the late 80s, the thing that made it survive was the d6 roleplaying game and few novels (most novels of this era are better than the later expanded universe shit i'll come to this later) this was a great time for expanded universe, brand new places, people, lore etc were explored but it was not a mess that would tunr out to be

Many itt say prequels ruined star wars but for me it was the overextension of EU, surely you had some jewels here and there I liked Jedi Outcast (Kyle katarn was a 88-98 product though) KOTOR2 and some new lore but boy between 2000-2015 the expanded universe was basically commercialized to extreme novels after novels after novels after comics after comics all altering and shifting and expanding, mostly without a coherent plan. I also did not enjoy most of the works created in this period. Again exceptions were here and there but still.

I have mixed feelings about Disney killing EU on one hand it put an end to the massive loads of crap getting pumped out, on the other hand they still havent allowed 3rd parties to write. I don't except nor want them to let 3rd parties run amok, surely you can limit them lest they go like in 2000s but I feel sad there might never be a new Thrawn trilogy.

Is Rogue Squadron ever worth getting into? I read the first and fifth books and seemed okay for a decent series.