The Expanded Universe discussion

I must confess, when it comes to the new Star Wars canon adult novels, the only book released thus far that I have managed to read completely is Tarkin. This leaves me curious to know if other Expanded Universe readers, those who are avid fans of the now designated Legends, are experiencing the same hesitation. For those who have read A New Dawn, Heir to the Jedi or Lords of the Sith.... I appreciate any insight you may have. No spoilers, please, but I would like to know if you found the books enjoyable and worth your time and money. Thanks!

It's been a bit of a mixed bag for me, but that was true of the old stuff too. In quality nothing's really changed for better or worse. It is nice to know I can read a book, and not have it contradicted by two other books, a TV episode, and a greeting card a year later though. Though even that only bothered me if it mean a series would go unfinished, republic commando anyone?

I also felt the hesitation of reading the new canon books. That being said, I have read all of the canon books and been able to read them for what they are. Since they have taken place during the movies I have felt no contradiction with the Legends timeline yet (I am sure that will change with books that tie-in with the new movie). As for the enjoyment factor, I have not been that impressed. The only one I truly liked was "Lords of the Sith".

I've read A New Dawn and Lords of the Sith now as well. Working on Aftermath currently. I've also kept up with all of the new comics released from Marvel, which is an area I never ventured into in the past. I appreciate that they are trying to quickly rebuild the Star Wars universe in an effort to help it fit in with the new direction they're going with the movies, and while I do mostly enjoy what I'm reading, there isn't the same attachment as I previously felt. Hoping this will improve with time.

Half way through Dark Disciple (Taken a while to get into it). Started Heir of the Jedi but really wasn't feeling it so given up for now. Tarkin was good. Lords of the Sith was alright but a missed opportunity. Just started Aftermath (the writing style is a little jarring, but I'll bear with it).

A New Dawn is the best so far, imo.

So far I've read A New Dawn, Tarkin and Lords of the Sith. All have been good reads, but I felt they lacked something. The tone of the storyline all seemed similar; adventure/mission in some obscure part of the Galaxy, involving a major character(s) but doesn't really have a major impact on anything else. Nothing wrong with that, EU is full of these type of novels, but it doesn't have the same feel like books in The Thrawn Trilogy, The New Jedi Order, or some of the movie tie-in novels like Cloak of Deception. Is this to be the common theme going forward? I hope do not.

But then I decide to pick up the young adult, Han, Leia and Luke novels. I normally stay away from them, but with the new film on the horizon I just couldn't help myself, and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
I've only read Moving Target, A Princess Leia Adventure, but so far it's my favourite Star Wars canon novel. The only down side to it that it is a short book, word count probably half of a normal Star Wars novel (Don't let the 220 page count fool you) so the authors don't really have the chance to delve into the supporting characters. But for the prologue and epilogue alone it's worth a read, and there's some interesting references inside to Return of the Jedi.

Lost Stars was good. Not really going to bother with many of the rest. They all seem like nothing stories.

I've read Aftermath (It is awful!) and Dark Disciple (meh). I feel like the books are being very trepidatious about stepping on the movies' toes so in general are shying away from changing the status quo of the main characters (or even featuring any of them in some cases) .

I have been pleasantly surprised with the Marvel comics though. I didn't read many of the Dark Horse ones (it got overwhelming to try and keep up) but the Marvel Star Wars and Darth Vader comics are both top notch. Eventually I'll get around to reading the rest of the new canon when I need something to read, but it's not a must like it used to be.

Lost Stars and Bloodline were fabulous. Dark Disciple was good until the ending, IMO. Aftermath and Heir to the Jedi were pretty bad, which bummed me out because I like those authors. :(

Give Lost Stars and Bloodline a shot.

hi all. Idk if this question has been asked but where do u all recommend one to start, with the new cannon? Ep. 7 novelization? I'm currently reading Legends books now.

GodzillaGus wrote: "hi all. Idk if this question has been asked but where do u all recommend one to start, with the new cannon? Ep. 7 novelization? I'm currently reading Legends books now."

What's your favorite Legends book? The TFA novelization wasn't bad, but it was essentially the movie. If you want to reset your brain from legends, Heir to the Jedi and Bloodlines re-build where the world is at.

Thx for the input, Melissa. Interesting description, regarding it as a "reset". I think I try to approach the new cannon from that angle. Still, to answer ur question, some of my fav books are: Outbound Flight, Ep 2, and the Darth Bane series. In no real order. At the end of the day, I'm a Star Wars fan, through and through.

Gus, sounds like you like troopers and Jedi -- I'd rec Dark Disciple and Battlefront: Twilight Company.

Lost Stars was perfect for 400 pages then fell apart in the last 150 to the point where the ending was horrible. Overall I enjoyed it though, but it really went downhill fast.
Bloodline is one of the worst books I've ever read in my life.
I'll probably read Lords of the Sith but I'm just not interested in this new Canon. It seems rubbish so far. I'll only bother to read them from the library not actually pay for them.

I'm down to library reads as well with the New Canon. What I've read is poorly written and barely features the main characters. Plus they've changed to those taller but thinner paperbacks and I refuse to buy them. They're a pain in the ass to read because the words are too close to the spine.

So far, I would only really recommend Lost Stars. Tarkin and Kenobi were ok. The other new canon books either seemed like cheap attempts at a cash grab with no substance or in the case of Aftermath, were absolutely worthless. The quality is just not there when compared to the Legends books.

Did you hear Thrawn is now canon and will be played by Lars Mikkelson in Rogue One?

Lars Mikkelsen is the voice over actor for Thrawn in the Rebels cartoon series (worth watching). They have not announced Thrawn or Lars for Rogue One. Mads Mikkelsen, Lars' brother, will play Jyn's father in Rogue One.

Oh -- bonus round -- Timothy Zahn will be authoring a new Thrawn novel in 2017.

I'm so excited about the new Thrawn material! Out of all the Legends characters that could have been made canon, I think fans were most pleased with his addition, and I can't disagree. He's a great character!

I know I'm probably just beating a dead horse, but out of the few canon novels that I've read so far, Bloodlines has been my favorite. Grey's writing is fantastic! I loved her treatment of Leia as a sassy old war hero. Tarkin was okay--as one reviewer said, it doesn't so much add dimension to Tarkin's character as it does just emphasize qualities that are already present in A New Hope. There were things I liked about Lost Stars: it did a good job conveying the moral complexity of the Empire's reign. But for the most part, it was just the OT events told from a different perspective with some major character cameos and some Post-Ep III and Pre-VII events thrown in.

Overall, things are looking generally good for the new canon so far.

Ah! Thanks, Mel - I got mixed up and didn't realize they were two brothers. New Thrawn novel?? EEE-hee-hee! I want it to be something like a Talon Karrde / Grand Admiral Thrawn buddy flick with a roadtrip car chase and a case of mistaken identity... Lars could play Thrawn and Mads could play Karrde!

Heck yeah...

Is there anything like that in the new books, Josh?

(I hope nobody here thinks I was being sarcastic...)

You mean like the Thrawn/Karrde roadtrip?

Yes. Though probably nothing like that will happen now Aaron Allston has passed away...

Josh wrote: "I'm so excited about the new Thrawn material! Out of all the Legends characters that could have been made canon, I think fans were most pleased with his addition, and I can't disagree. He's a great..."

See, I feel just the opposite. I feel the 'new' canon screwed up the characters terribly and undid a lot of development. Legends is much more true to the characters. Han and Leia wouldn't have fought all the time and been bad parents and Luke would't have disappeared. I'm sticking firmly with the six films and EU as my only canon.

I also don't like the Rebels stuff with Thrawn because Disney's just trying to appease the EU fans by taking bits and pieces. It's not the same characters when they're finished. They need just just listen and give us NEW Legends books. #GiveUsLegends

Hang on, I'm still stuck on Thrawn/Karrde roadtrip fic.

But I'll sidetrack from that fantasy a bit to say that I really love the fact that Han/Leia didn't get to stay together. I feel it's more relatable than spending 40 years running the galaxy from the Falcon's cockpit. I also love that the new EU has made Leia into something of a cool and calculating scoundrel and card sharp, instead of the mom figure that is always trying to glue the galaxy back together. I also have a soft spot for racecar driver Han? And his little gaggle of aspiring racecar misfits?

I'm also way way way too into Snap Wexley having three moms and two dads. (Although, I'm still really distraught about Wedge/Norra, since I can feel it ripping apart my lifetime of Wedge/Iella. Poof. There goes Syal. Poof there goes Miri. Hi Snap. How are you doing? Where are my girls?)

But I agree that there should still be some new Legends material. It's established. Let people play in both sandboxes.

Speaking of Thrawn, how does he fit in?

Thrawn is being brought in as an Imperial Grand Admiral advisor to assist in bringing down the budding Rebels. It appears as though they are going to use his interest in cultures through artwork to do a character arc for Sabine (she's a Mandalorian street artist), while Ezra goes through his lightside/darkside arc with Kaden and Darth Maul. I suspect Hera will also interact more with Leia and -possibly- Rogue One characters, since she's set up to be in the heart of that (we'll see).

There hasn't been much word on what Thrawn is doing, but they've shown teasers of baby Wedge Antilles (and what looks like Sabine?) defecting to the Rebellion as part of the new season.

Hey guys I read the book Star Wars Empires End and I was super excited because there was some old Star Wars game stuff connected to it which connected to Star Wars the Force Awakens. Get ready for a ramble folks because when I ramble I really ramble. Alrighty here is some older game and book background on the end of the book. Please read all of it or you will not understand. If guys catches on to the last part, the first order finds this eclipse class dreadnaught Star Destroyer. Now to get how big the Eclipse is. It is 2 times longer than Darth Vader personal Super star destroyer. The Eclipse was going to be te Emperor's personal flagship. It was being built in the shipyards of Kuat right around when the 1st Death Star was destroyed. This Pirate Tyber Zann searched the wreckage for data pods which are launched the minute a disaster happens of an major explosion happens. So he stumbles on this Eclipse Flagship design. It doesn't tell him where it is just the design. So he breaks into the Emperor's archives and retrieves the data which tells him it's located at the Kuat shipyards. When Tyber Zann gets there. The 2nd Death Star was destroyed. Tyber Zann wanted to test his new toy. But he could not since there were 3 heavily armed supersize space stations. So he baits the rebellion and gets them to take out the space stations while he gets on board the Eclipse to take control of its reactor firing weapon. The Eclipse practically had a mini Death Star on it. He gets it fired up and destroyed the space stations as well as the rebellion fleet. However the real test began when another Sunper Star Destroyer jumped in. He destroyed it instantly with one shot of the Reactor. The Eclipse was only half complete when Tyber Zann captured it. After the battle of th Eclipse Tyber Zann steals extreamly deadly weapons and billions of credits from the Eclipse. The video game Star Wars Empire at War Forces of Corruption is the only reference until now of the Eclipse. The game did not say if Tyber Zann took the Eclipse somewhere or even finished it or even salvaged powerful weapon from the battle. However all weapons were built when Tyber Zahn captured it. The Eclipse is 17,500 meters long, maximum exceleration is 940 G and equipped with 1 super laser(reactor), 550 heavy laser cannons, 550 turbo laser, 10 gravity well generators, 100 tractor beams, and 75 ion cannons. It has a crew of 708,000 people, 4,175 gunners, and 150,000 passengers. If the Emperor or anyone finished the Eclipse there would have to be a heck of a fight to stop it. So if the First Order got the Eclipse and repaired it that's the main fleet of the first order. Who says the First Order has to have a base. That Eclipse is the base. That is also where probably Snoke is at. The books are the fillers on the plot holes of the movies. Movie fans don't really understand the new movies without reading the books. The Eclipse may be in the Force Awaken the second movie of maybe even mentioned. They might mention a great battle and the Republic lost a lot of ships. Look hard in the next movie. The observatories that are mentioned in the Unknown Regions are where the Chiss are at as you can remember Thrawn sent Eli Vanto as a representative of the Empire. Also in the older books the Empire was highly involved with the outer regions. The darkside users are the lost tribes of the Sith but are more likely the remains of the Acolytes in Palpatines Archives. Tyber Zann encountered them and mentioned they haven't faced a worthy opponent in a long time. The Emperor also had Force trained assasins like Mara Jade. But remember Disney will not use older characters like Thrawn in the Movies. In the books Thrawn was the remaining Leader of the Empire after the Emperor died and the remaining Grand Admirals were killed by the rebellion. Thrawn was not known as a Grand Admiral because his promotion was a secret that is mentioned by Mara Jade. But however the book also mentioned that after the Empire Surrendered which is around 15 years after Thrawn Downfall that the First Order was the rest that didn't surrender. Pealleon was in charge however of a region given to the Empire by the Republic to honor their treaty. But Disney said they would not use the Old Books for the plot of the movies and mostly the new books. So that's your Empire background of the book. I have read a lot of info on the Old Star Wars so I know what I'm talking about just if your wondering. If you have any questions please ask. There's nothing I love better than talking about Star Wars to someone's who loves it to.

P.S: I like to ramble about Star Wars. Mostly how Disney got it wrong. If you didn't notice people who read the old Star Wars books know what's going on in the movies and in the new books. If you read the books and play the games you will know almost know everything that's going on in Star Wars whether it doesn't or does include the old books, games, and movies.

-Caleb Hobbick

Brianna wrote: "I must confess, when it comes to the new Star Wars canon adult novels, the only book released thus far that I have managed to read completely is Tarkin. This leaves me curious to know if other Expa..."

Brianna I ve been trying to read Heir to the Jedi for the last 5 months or so and still have not finished it. It lacks soul and depth and pains me to even try and finish it and that is the 1st time reading any Star Wars novel that this has happened to me. Disney got it wrong in a very big way by giving the middle finger to All Expanded Universe fans and ceasing any future "Legends" material if they continued and then said we are introducing a new timeline in line with the story we want to tell. That would have been fine its new material for us to get behind but some idiot thought otherwise and now we have this crude that they are pouring out.
In this universe for years the universe at large doesn't know that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker or that he is Leia's Father an issue that is dealt with early on in the EU and this only strengthens Leia's character where is in Bloodline which ive only read snippets its nearly as big a secret as Anakins marriage to Padme or take Lukes Disney Version after the setback of his nephew Betraying him and help wipe the Jedi he goes into Seclusion mmm Obi Wan & Yoda strike a cord with anyone.
Basically we are getting rehashed versions of IV,V, VI which has no personal growth in the 30 to 40 after ROTJ for at least 3 of main characters Basically Han ,Leia & Luke ran away
from their problems and each other. Luke continued down the path the Jedi of old followed which led to their downfall by the hands of Sidious & Vader but in this continuity no lessons have been learned. So getting back to what i was originally saying i am struggling to even read Heir to the Jedi ( No Soul, No Depth And just very bad storytelling)

As a Star Wars EU fan who's just been getting back into collecting lots of 'Legends' books, thus far, and for several months I've been hesitant about jumping into the new canon. But breaking the ice was purchasing a copy of the new book 'Thrawn' which I thought was fantastic, and since then I bought 'Catalyst', the tie-in to Rogue One, haven't read it yet, but I hear it's pretty good backstory, and a friend let me borrow a copy of Heir to the Jedi which, I didn't think was terrible, but very much underwhelming more than anything.

I was excited to jump into the Aftermath trilogy....Before I read the reviews, and even some of Chuck Wendig's own reactions to said reviews, and I have to say I probably will not be buying those based upon his rather immature attitude toward the people who disliked his books. So, i'll probably get Lords of the Sith, Tarkin, and Battlefront: Twilight Company, which I've heard nothing but good things about.

However, like I said, Thrawn has been the most enjoyable for me for the new canon thus far. Dare I say it was on par with Outbound Flight, but not as thrilling as Heir to the Empire, but all in all definitely worth the money.

The BookHunter. I, like you, was swayed by the negative reviews to Aftermath. But the curiosity got the better of me, and I'm glad to say I've been pleasantly surprised. Worth a read

I was all excited because it was supposed to feature the original characters and read Aftermath when it came out. It felt like a bait and switch. That book is terrible. If I could have thrown darts at Chuck Wendig, I would have.

Frank wrote: "The BookHunter. I, like you, was swayed by the negative reviews to Aftermath. But the curiosity got the better of me, and I'm glad to say I've been pleasantly surprised. Worth a read"

I've heard positives from other Star Wars fans, and I think I could forgive it because I think i'd like to have them for the key plot points and things that could come into play in this sequel trilogy of movies. But I'll wait for cheap used copies, lol.

Chad wrote: "I was all excited because it was supposed to feature the original characters and read Aftermath when it came out. It felt like a bait and switch. That book is terrible. If I could have thrown darts..."

I was really under the assumption when it first came out that it was going to be a trilogy that'd focus on a series of events post-Battle of Endor with the characters we know and love as well and then transition into newer characters Pre-The Force Awakens.

TheBookHunter wrote: "I've heard positives from other Star Wars fans, and I think I could forgive it because I think i'd like to have them for the key plot points and things that could come into play in this sequel trilogy of movies. But I'll wait for cheap used copies, lol. "

I highly doubt we see any key plot points from the sequels in any of the New Canon books, at least not until the movies are already released. I feel like the current editorial team at Disney will never let anything of importance happen in the books that could possible affect any future movies. Because of this, I think the books that work best are the ones that occur no later than Return of the Jedi. Which if unfortunate since they have a 30 year gap of stories I'd love to see told between episodes 6 and 7.

TheBookHunter wrote: "I was really under the assumption when it first came out that it was going to be a trilogy that'd focus on a series of events post-Battle of Endor with the characters we know and love as well and then transition into newer characters Pre-The Force Awakens. "

That was my understanding as well. Now, I've only read the first book, but it had very, very little to do with any characters we know and love. I think Han and Chewbacca were flying through space for 2 pages (which had nothing to do with the plot of the book) and then Wedge makes a small, pointless appearance.

Chad wrote: "TheBookHunter wrote: "I've heard positives from other Star Wars fans, and I think I could forgive it because I think i'd like to have them for the key plot points and things that could come into pl..."

Yeah, we can only hope for new books in that 30 year period. The one good post-ROTJ story I've read thus far is the "Shattered Empire" comic book. Also I've heard tidbits of the characters in the book, but it makes me sad that characters like Han and Chewie and Wedge are not involved more.

I really want a new series of books that could focus on Rogue Squadron with Wedge in it or having to do with another group of pilots.

TheBookHunter wrote: "I really want a new series of books that could focus on Rogue Squadron with Wedge in it or having to do with another group of pilots. "

A new Rogue Squadron series would be fantastic. And Wedge is a character minor enough that he's probably never going to be in any of the new episodes. The Legends series from Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston was fantastic.

I feel like the Marvel comics are the only place they are really killing it with the New Canon.

Chad wrote: "TheBookHunter wrote: "I really want a new series of books that could focus on Rogue Squadron with Wedge in it or having to do with another group of pilots. "

A new Rogue Squadron series would be f..."

Indeed the old series of Rogue and Wraith Squadrons were awesome, I've been on the hunt to collect all of those for a while now but I've read the first four books.

Also yeah, the new Star Wars comics are fantastic. They're the only current Marvel comics I purchase from a local store lol.