A War Among the Stars: Top Five Favorite Star Wars Novels

Yo, remember that Star Wars Podcast I'm part of? We've got 11 episodes now!

I wanted to bring special attention to episode 11 itself, where my friend and I discuss our top five favorite Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. Our main focus is on Star Wars before Disney bought it, that bygone time now known only as Legends.

I handicapped myself so that my top five wasn't just a list of The Complete Works of Timothy Zahn. And I still managed to include two of his books. But the one at the top of my list is most certainly a deep cut, as far as the general public is concerned.

Comments

[ShadowLDrago]

I've only read 3 EU books so, in order, it'd be:

The second or first Return of Thrawn (I don't remember which I read)

Shadows of the Empire

Darth Bane Book 1

[howard035]

I was more of a Kevin J Anderson man myself, but Zahn wrote some brilliant novels.

[MyHobby]

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The second or first Return of Thrawn (I don't remember which I read)

Shadows of the Empire

Darth Bane Book 1

Shadows of the Empire is a real fun thing to look into. The whole multimedia push in the nineties gave us a pretty good book, an awesome soundtrack, a neat game, and shelves worth of hasbro action figures. Oh, and the comic was really cool, too. To this day, it's the only comic my grandpa (the OG Star Wars fan) has ever read.

The Hand of Thrawn duology kinda runs together in my mind, too, but just because of how long ago it was I read it. It ended up being one of the last stories I read in the EU, too, barring the Del Ray series that I haven't gotten to. (plus one critical exception).

Darth Bane comes highly regarded by my friend, and I have no reason to disregard him.

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I was more of a Kevin J Anderson man myself, but Zahn wrote some brilliant novels.

I was wondering if your comment about the Shadow Academy was personal experience or the result of a wiki crawl.

Kevin J Anderson (with Rebecca Moesta) has the top spot on my list for a darn good reason. The Young Jedi Knights series is my absolute favorite Star Wars series that isn't the movies. I love the characters, the storylines, the action, the intrigue, it's just YEAH. I'm particularly a fan of the Diversity Alliance storyline, and particularly particularly a fan of the book where the knights get stranded on Ryloth. And particularly particularly particularly a fan of the sequence where Tenel Ka and Jacen have to survive together. Just pure gold.

More than anything, I think the Young Jedi Knights series inspired The Heart's Promise. At least it's a huge contributor, not the least of which is my love of shipping.

I want a Lowbacca plush. Or a Zekk plush. Equally lovable scamps.

One of my greatest book-related regrets, which I am sure to rectify some day, is that I haven't actually read his Jedi Academy series. It's got a lot of important stuff related to the EU as a whole that I just plain missed.

Darksaber was neat. My favorite part was probably little Jacen and Jaina dealing with Brakiss when they were kidnapped. Kinda ran circles around the guy at a couple of points. Brakiss sure was a character that did things.

Nevermind the scribbled out parts. I think I misremembered it. (I mixed up the plot with The New Rebellion)

[howard035]

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I remember when they introduced Kylo Ren, thinking "that's Jacen Solo!"

[MyHobby]

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I remember when they introduced Kylo Ren, thinking "that's Jacen Solo!"

Yeeeep, same here.

Especially since I read the series where he becomes Darth Caedus just a couple years before Awakens came out. They done did my boy dirty across two timelines.