So I have begun reading the massive amount of star wars books and as I expected the quality varies wildly. As I like to read things in "order" when possible which old republic era books are either (1) good or (2) essential as back story for good later books?

Thanks!

I would reccomend reading Fatal Alliance and Decived I enjoyed both of them. Though fatal alliance isn't really that important to the overall plotline.

I would recommend skipping Revan, but some people like it.

I have just started Anihilation, so I can't really give any sort of recomendation there.

Well eventhough it is 2,000 years in the future from the events of this game, i would read the Darth Bane series.

Learn how the sith went from many to 2.

Other than that -shrug-

If you've played KOTOR & KOTOR 2 (and you damn well better have, or get out ), then Revan is a MUST!

I have yet to read Deceived, but I hear good things about it.

I liked Fatal Alliance just because, but it was hardly the best of them since it was mostly a thinly veiled excuse to introduce each of the character classes in TOR. I'm not even sure we'll see those characters again, in-game or elsewhere.

Deceived was my favorite of them so far. The focus on the events from the game trailers, plus an expansion on Malgus and his role in the Empire is really fun to read about.

I just started Annihilation, but I don't like the concept thus far.

I've read the Lost Tribe of the Sith books. I didn't really get much out of them.

I think the Darth Plagueis book has some info in it about the Emperor from this TOR era, so that might also make your list?

I would reccomend reading Fatal Alliance and Decived I enjoyed both of them. Though fatal alliance isn't really that important to the overall plotline.

I would recommend skipping Revan, but some people like it.

I have just started Anihilation, so I can't really give any sort of recomendation there.

Disagree about Revan, a little cliche and "easy" at times, but overall not too bad. More importantly, if you are a fan of the games, it ties in the games well. For the tie-in alone I would recommend it.

I did like Deceived a lot, but haven't read FA nor Annihilation - I went back (forward) to the Han Solo trilogy and the Last of the Jedi.

I say Deceived and Total Annihilation as well as Revan.

Revan and Deceived are the only real important ones really. Deceived sets up Darth Malgus and Revan sets up all the events leading up to the game in the Jedi Knight story line as well as the whole Malestrom Prison flashpoint.

Fatal Alliance was ok its just kind of a big action movie from different perspectives. It's actually pretty short but it spends a lot of time doing the same 5 sec fight from 10 different perspectives.

You say essential, so I would suggest Revan, simply because it answers important questions and establishes the basis of SWTOR, especially the JK story. I would also suggest Annihilation because unlike other TOR novels it doesn't give you flimsy one off characters with no real depth who are only really there for the main character e.g. Malgus to bounce off from. The characters are either well fleshed out or already present it SWTOR lore. It also covers some pretty important events that occur soon after the end of Act 3. Basically these two stories complete the current SWTOR tale.

However I have to say they are far from the best. They're good but if you really just want to read good Star Wars fiction I'd highly recommend the Darth Bane Trilogy, Darth Plagueis and Labyrinth of Evil. The first two especially if you prefer the villains to the heroes. And Darth Bane even more especially because it's just plain awesome.

But yeah, hope this helps.