Star Wars books (Blidd?)

[Cop]

Which ones should I read? I heard you talking about Timothy Zahn before, but which ones?

I suppose this trilogy is essential:
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command

But I was wondering whether I needed to read Dark Force Rising and Spectre of the Past too before (or after) reading that trilogy...

And are those the best, or are there others that are even better?

[Indolentron]

all i've read are the tales books.
and a long time ago the young jedi knight series.

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

Which ones should I read? I heard you talking about Timothy Zahn before, but which ones?
He hasn't written all that many Star Wars novels (I believe he did quite a number of short stories, though), so I'd suggest you read all of them. ;)

I suppose this trilogy is essential:
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command
Definitely. Very accessible books and just great reads. They're drenched in Star Wars, plus they introduce arguably the most popular EU characters.

But I was wondering whether I needed to read Dark Force Rising and Spectre of the Past too before (or after) reading that trilogy...
Er, DFR is the second book in the Thrawn trilogy, maybe you mean Vision of the Future? That's the sequel to Spectre of the Past. And I'd very much recommend you read the trilogy first, as it's set some 15 years before Spectre and many things just won't make much sense otherwise: lot of events and characters being referred to and reappearing characters that were important in the former books.

And are those the best, or are there others that are even better?
Well, I haven't really bothered with the prequel-era novels or the New Jedi Order series yet (personally, I think the whole idea behind NJO is rather suck), but as far as the New Republic series is concerned the Thrawn trilogy remains my favourite and the Hand of Thrawn duology is probably a close second. The X-Wing books (by Michael Stackpole and someone whose name I forget) are quite good also, though they only really pick up with the third novel I think.

There's more good novels around, but I think Zahn's trilogy is best to start out with. Well, either that or Shadows of the Empire - which is actually set between ESB and RotJ. Fun book, puts Vader in a bit of a spotlight and Leia gets sort of fruity if that would interest you. ;)

[scottg26]

Shadows of the Empire was good :bigthumb:

[Cop]

I'll start off with the trilogy then. I have to order them online anyway, and I guess those 3 books will last me quite a while. I'll see where I'll go from there. Thanks dude...

And yeah, I did put in the wrong title there ;)

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

No problem, I'm always happy to sing poetic love songs about Timothy Zahn. :bigthumb:

[darkadun]

Actually I've enjoyed the New Jedi Order series quite a bit. The books that come out in hardcover are always pretty darn good imo. Some pretty big surprises in a few of them too.

[DUKE HARDKNOCK]

I'm sure they're good books, but I just dislike the whole Yuuzhan Vong thing - it sounds more like something out of Babylon 5 or Star Trek than Star Wars. They just feel completely out of place to me. Of course it doesn't help that I really didn't like Vector Prime, either.