SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

So my only venture into the written world of the Star Wars saga was way back when (way way back, to Jr. High . . . late 80s) and a novel of The Empire Strikes Back. I remember liking it lots.

Anyone else ever read any of other meriad of books publish in the SW canon? What's worth reading? Are some better than others? Where do you start? I'm thinking of titles written for a more sophisticated reading audience.

I read some of them back in the mid 90s when they first started coming out. I found the quality to be lackluster. But that's not why people read them. They read them for familiar characters and places to rekindle nostalgia. They are not written for "sophisticated readers."

I revisited the Expanded Universe (EU) for the first time in ~15 years a few years ago when I went back and read Shadows of the Empire. It was pretty horrible.

FYI, the EU is no longer canon per Disney.

I read a bunch of these fan-fic books in the early 90's and the only ones I really remember liking at all were the Thrawn trilogy books beginning with Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. But, like Neal just said, I read them to immerse myself into the universe and they are no longer canon so ... I will say that I just finished Aftermath last month and I was immensely disappointed.

Neal wrote: "I read some of them back in the mid 90s when they first started coming out. I found the quality to be lackluster. But that's not why people read them. They read them for familiar characters and pla..."

That's what I was thinking could be the case with these books. Fun to relive settings and characters, but nothing much else.

These are the only books that matter according to Disney.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/1502...

I read a few back in the day. Most are pretty bad. The only one I liked was Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Of course, the details are divergent from the movies now, because this was before Lucas decided to make Luke and Leia brother and sister and Vader their dad. It was even before he had decided if there were going to be any sequels.

I just finished reading Star Wars: Before the Awakening. I thought it was a fun little book and gave some cool background information on Finn, Rey and Poe from Episode VII.

It's not the best book out there at all but if you loved the latest movie I recommend reading this book :) it's short so it'll only take a couple days max to finish.

I would recommend Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, which is the book between 5 and 6. It has a villain that is just as evil as Vader. And it is the only book I remember they tried to come out with a CD and game at the same time.

Kevin wrote: "I would recommend Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, which is the book between 5 and 6. It has a villain that is just as evil as Vader. And it is the onl..."

I played the game way back when but never read this one. Unfortunately, Disney had decided it's no longer canon. :(

I got into the SW novels in 2002 with the New Jedi Order series. I'm not old enough to have followed the books from the beginning so I had to track a lot of them down and try and read them in sequence from Heir to the Empire onwards. Thank goodness that the books started including timelines from NJO onwards!

I now have a whole bookcase purely dedicated to SW books. I insist on the paperback editions so that they all fit neatly together and that often means waiting months and having to avoid spoilers until the paperback edition is out.

Of course, with the existing EU now being declared non-canon by Disney, that means technically none of those books matter, but I won't be getting rid of them any time soon. It also means having to have a separate section for the new books.

I am still determined to complete the likes of Fate of the Jedi and the Clone Wars books. Next on my "must-read" list are FOTJ: "Conviction", "Ascension" and "Apocalypse". I've got the novelisation of TFA already - I broke my own rule and bought the hardback edition because I'm not sure if the paperback will keep the film photos in or not.

And I haven't mentioned the graphic novels yet...

Basically, I am the sort of nerd who will read anything SW-related.

I find them either hit or miss.. the Timothy Zahn books have all been very good and i enjoyed the Han Solo Trilogy by A C Crispin.

Some of the others ive read havent been all that good.

Toni wrote: "I just finished reading Star Wars: Before the Awakening. I thought it was a fun little book and gave some cool background information on Finn, Rey and Poe from Episode VII.

It's not the best book..."

I just finished Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and while it's nothing great, it's a nice compliment to the new movie, giving extra insight into characters' thoughts and a few extra scenes.

I'm eager to read a couple novels from the new canon, though too much reading in this area will detract from the other things I want to get to.

I'll add my voice in support of The Thrawn Trilogy. Timothy Zahn does such a great job here, I'd probably recommend these books to people who know nothing about the movies, depending on their taste, of course.