Hey guys so I have been wanting to delve into the expanded universe for some time and figured what better place to ask for suggestions then a community site of Star Wars gurus. I was wondering what books you guys would recommend reading first? I've been told the series by Zahn is the best place to start (Thrawn Trilogy i believe the name was). I read a Darth Bane book and found it very fun to read. I am more looking for books surrounding force users at the time as opposed to X-Wing or anything like that, perhaps in the future but I want some Jedi/Sith. Thanks for your time guys and look forward to the advice!

Well, starting at the beginning with Truce at Bakura and going book by book will make you as informed as anyone with the post Empire era.

 

If you want to skip ahead to Jedi/Sith, and be a little lost, start with the Fate of the Jedi series

 

Or go back and read the Bane books, Revan books, Old Republic books.

 

 

I also suggest the audiobooks if you are going book by book. They make the stories10x better and enjoyable.

i liked the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, got like 6 books durning christmas, and i´ve only reed 3 so far

I can't recommend the Thrawn trilogy enough. Not a huge focus on Jedi or Sith really, but Luke does act fairly awesome and you meet some very awesome new force users (some of which are VERY important later on).

 

You -could- read the Jedi Academy trilogy... the events in it are important but, imo, it's not very well written. New Jedi Order series is pretty good overall, some books aren't very good, some are awesome, but it's all about, well, the New Jedi and a pretty epic galaxy-wide war. I would definitely say read all the Zahn books (in order), NJO, and the Legacy of the Force for a decent set of books following the main characters and what happens to them and the Jedi Order.

 

If you are interested in comic series at all, you might try locating things like Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, Knights of the Old Republic, etc. A lot of the comic series are heavily focused on the Jedi/Sith and are pretty good stories to boot.

 

Honestly, there's a lot out there to choose from and it's a lot of personal preference. Some of the books are pretty terrible, some are absolutely amazing. And everyone's going to have a different view of which falls in which category (mostly... some of them do have a near-universal opinion of disdain from readers).

Death Troopers was a cool book. Storm Troopers, Han, Chewie and Zombies! How can you go wrong.

Personally i always liked the X-wing series. And I, Jedi was good as well.

Just started reading the most recent old republic books and in fact just finished REVAN. The book was decent and helped bring some conclusion to what happend to Revan after the original SWKOTOR games. It was well written and held my attention through the entire book. I would recommend it, about to begin reading Deception.

I highly recommend the two Han Solo trilogies. The first trilogy - known as the Han Solo Adventures - were written in the 80's by Brian Daley. They involve Han's adventures in the Corporate Sector.

 

The second trilogy came out in the late 90's and were written by Ann C. Crispin. It basically tells Han's life story (leaving out only the Corporate Sector adventures that Daley covered). It starts with Han as a kid and goes all the way up to the day he met Luke.

 

Neither of the trilogies are "epic" in the way the other books are, but they are most certainly fun and adventurous in a swashbuckling kind of way.

Yes, Timothy Zahn's trilogy after Jedi is basically the opposite of the prequel movies. That is, its entertaining and doesn't suck.

Ulic Qel Droma is by far my favorite character and i found his Omnibus comic book story very interesting.

I personally would read them all.

 

I prefer the OT novels and the world afterwards so I would start with Shadows of the Empire, then move to Truce of Bakura... etc...etc.

 

Zahn's books are great. He created fun characters that were not jedi who were still relevant to the setting and world. He was also very faithful to the characters as we see them in the movies.

 

Plus Talon Karrde, Mara Jade and Thrawn? How can you go wrong!

 

 

I also suggest the audiobooks if you are going book by book. They make the stories10x better and enjoyable.

 

I dunno... I have 120 SW novels on audio... some of them are awesome and they all have the benefit of letting me enjoy them while playing games or working... but some of the abridged only ones (NJO series especially) cut out 2/3 of the book to make them 3 hours long instead of around 9... I mean Star by Star the audiobook cut out the entire invasion of Coruscant which was not only a major part of the book but a major point in the entire 19 book series...

I dunno... I have 120 SW novels on audio... some of them are awesome and they all have the benefit of letting me enjoy them while playing games or working... but some of the abridged only ones (NJO series especially) cut out 2/3 of the book to make them 3 hours long instead of around 9... I mean Star by Star the audiobook cut out the entire invasion of Coruscant which was not only a major part of the book but a major point in the entire 19 book series...

 

Yes I agree. It did suck in that series. I would have liked to read SBS just for the invasion

 

 

But, for the most part, the audiobooks are good for reading all of them for the reasons you stated: at work, exercising, etc

I really liked the Jedi Academy, much better then Thrawn for me, but I would still definitely read Thrawn trilogy.

 

If I were you, I'd finish off the Bane trilogy since you mentioned only reading one book. Then get into the post movie stuff and just follow the time line through everything.

Dont forget Shadows of the Empire...why does everyone always leave it out?