After a Star Wars marathon this weekend, we’re hungry for more, so I’m looking at getting the extended universe novels - or some of them at least. Wikipedia lists them in the order they took place, but it’s still confusing and there are lots to choose from.
I’m mostly interested in stories featuring Leia and/or Han. I’m not interested in stories about the minor characters.
Any recommendations? Other than ‘get a life,’ obviously.
The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) is well thought of among the fandom (I like it myself), and has Han & Leia as major characters.
Anything by Kevin J. Anderson should be avoided like radioactive plague. His stuff is so bad it’s actually impressive.
The Zahn stuff was pretty good. “Crystal Star” which came out around the time of the post-Zahn books is legendarily bad. I personally only got about 50 pages in before giving up in disgust and it’s pretty rare for me to give up on a book.
Anything in the New Jedi Order series is reasonably readable. The only thing to keep in mind is that the first five or so novels are Lucasfilm dousing the SW Galaxy in lighter fluid all the rest of them are just people setting it on fire. You know all that stuff that the good guys spent their time fighting for? Yeah, it all gets wiped.
-Joe
Ah yes, I recall that one. I never finished it either. Which is odd actually, I generally like Vonda McIntyre’s work.
The Thrawn Trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn are both very good series.
Rebel Dream and Rebel Star were very enjoyable, despite not reading the first half of the NJO series.
Legacy of the Force is terrible, as is anything by Kevin J. Anderson and anything after the first couple of books by Karen Traviss.
And, I think, ‘Outbound Flight’ kind of finished off Zahn’s Thrawn stuff.
Well, the problem with them wasn’t the stories as such. In general, the stories were fine. It’s just that the whole series in general was along the lines of picking a planet known from the movies or EU, then pick either genocide or complete destruction. After a while it’s like ‘why did these people even bother fighting in the first place?’ I
Hell, by the time I gave up I think everything outside of Tatooine had been wiped one way or another.
-Joe
Yet another recommendation for the Timothy Zahn stuff. In particular the Thrawn trilogy. I understand he’s written one or two other books but I haven’t read them.
I know you’re not interested in minor characters, but I must admit that I enjoyed the first few books of the Rogue squadron series. Maybe that’s because I always liked Wedge Antilles.
The problem with the expanded universe stuff I found is simply that the books can be so patchy. I gave up on the whole thing after a while, but not before I amased a fair sized collection. (including some KJ Andersen stuff 
)
There was a time when the KJA stuff was about half of what was out there, so, you know, there wasn’t a whole lot of choice.
For the minor character stuff, the three ‘Tales of’ books weren’t too bad. They were edited by KJA, but being short stories he only had so much of a downward pull on them.
-Joe
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is moderately interesting because of where it falls in the continuum. It takes place after a New Hope but was released in 1978 before Empire Strikes Back came out. It’s a pretty quick read, and is more story than just stuff blowing up.
Ditto the Thrawn trilogy recommendation… though admittedly I read them about 15 yrs ago.
I’ve read very few of the Novels, but I really likes the Darth bane series (especially the first volume). It focusses on the Sith and the force and takes place a long time before the movies.
I Jedi is my favorite book and is generally regarded as one of the best by most of the Star Wars fans that I know. The book follows a fighter pilot through his Jedi training(the central character from the Rouge Squadron books) It actually takes place during the Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J Anderson, so you may want to read that one too.
I enjoyed the Republic/Imperial Commando series. It gives you another point of view of events of the prequel trilogy.
Just chiming in to lend my recommendation to this trilogy as well. I thought it was very well done.
Sure, if by “another point of view” you mean “blatant lies and propaganda”. The first book was fine, but everything after that is a madwoman’s attempt to blackwash the Jedi and whitewash the Mandalorians.
For example:
Her “heroine” leaps in front of a clone trooper who is in the middle of committing genocide to save him from the child he was intent on murdering. And this is supposed to be a good thing!
Oh damn, I forgot about that.
Which is now reminding me of…
In the last book when Darman decides not to desert the Imperial army…for some reason
Now I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Aside from the Thrawn trilogy, I quite enjoyed the Corellian trilogy by Roger Macbride Allen. It’s more political than most, but it does revolve strongly around Han and Leia.
Yes, I recall that one as being pretty good.
That one too.
Just for a bit of perspective, I once made a similar decision to the OP. I decided I was being a book snob by turning up my nose at the SW books without having ever read any of them. I skimmed through a few threads like this and found that the Zahn Thrawn trilogy were pretty much universally regarded as the best of the best, so I picked them up and read them. It’s long enough ago now that I don’t remember anything about the books themselves (I did read all three all the way through), but I remember that I thought they were just barely readable enough to not throw them out halfway through. Certainly not good by any stretch of the imagination. YMMV, naturally, but I have firmly retreated to my nice comfortable book snob cushion, at least as regards Star Wars.
Snooooob.
They’re good, but they’re still mass market franchise endorsed fanfiction. There’s not going to be any high-minded themes and motifs flung about; it’s just straightforward adventure.
I remember reslly enjoying Brian Daley’s *Han Solo Adventures *books as a kid. Pf course, I wasn’t a very descriminating 12-year old, so for all I know they may be utter crap.
This is what I came in to recommend. Not great literature by any means, but still pretty enjoyable, and IMO heads-and-shoulders above KJA. I still trot them out on occasion and give them another go-around.
For an early effort into the SW EU, I think they rank up there pretty good with the better EU material.