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To quote myself from another thread.

There is SOME EU that I do indeed like. There is a book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: The New Rebellion that I really enjoyed. It presents a real situation, with no absurdly overpowered Jedi. I thought it was a very good book. If all EU was written like this, I'd enjoy it. But sadly I find that more of it is not like this and is just too absurd for me to take seriously and therefore too absurd for me to enjoy. Star Wars isn't supposed to be about Super beings who can throw stars and crap like that.

So I was actually wondering if you guys could tell me of some Star Wars books that were not absurd, and were true to Star Wars (The movies). I feel like reading a good Star Wars book, but its not easy to find a good one that isn't just ridiculously dumb. (imo)

So any suggestions? Has anyone read "The New Rebellion"? Because thats the kinda book I'm talking about.

"My good your still alive."

You'd probably enjoy Labyrinth of Evil...

SotE

I would suggest the Clone Wars novel, excepting Jedi Trial, which was horrible.

I just finished "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader" takes place about a month after ep. 3. Alot of cool revelations in it.

I thought it was a good read.

Frankly, I thouroughly enjoyed that one with Warlord Zsinj, can't remember what it's called, but it's with Wraith Squadron, and the Razor's Kiss SSD.

From what I've read, you'd like Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

Originally posted by Nactous
"My good your still alive."

1) My God, you're still alive, Nactous...
2) My God, you still can't spell...

Try Revenge of the sith~ you will love it!

Have a pretty complete list~ if you ever need a suggestion~

Oh, and Shatterpoint.

The Approaching Storm was good.

you would like I,Jedi.

Originally posted by ladyjedi05
Try Revenge of the sith~ you will love it!

Ahhh as good as that book is, I'm not looking for books on the movies. I've seen the movies WAYYYYYY too many times to read about them.

Anyways, I ALMOST bought Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader but I wasn't sure about it.

And I've heard Shatter point and Labyrinth of evil are good as well (as you guys have suggested)

But I was actually looking for non-PT books. Something post ROTJ.

or are most of those not very good?

The post-OT books tend to be very hit or miss, and on the ridiculous end of things.

However, the Thrawn trilogy is very good.

Humm? I'm a huge Star Wars movie buff, but I've been kinda feeling like reading something outside the movies is all. And "The new Rebellion" I've read twice. And it was post OT, so I'm looking for Post OT books mainly because they've given me the best EU experience thus far is all.

But I'll read the for-mentioned books you guy have suggested.

And how long is the Admiral Thrawn series?

A trilogy would suggest that it's three books

Just that when it comes to post-OT books and PT-era ones, the post-OT ones have a lot more crap. And NJO just enters the realm of complete preposterousness.

hahaha, I miseed the "trilogy part"

Humm, a shame though. Oh well, Guess I'll have to read PT stuff. I love the PT but I'm kinda sick of it at the moment, having watched ROTS constantly. Kinda felt like some OT mojo. lol

Anyways, thanks.

Definitely Thrawn Trilogy. And whatever the trilogy was after that....Jedi Academy Trilogy or whatever it was called...that was pretty good. No uber Jedi/Sith in sight.

If you're into comics as well, the Republic series is good. And some of the Star Wars Tales, are good for a 'What if...' story, even if they are completely out of whack canon wise (eg. Darth Maul vs Darth Vader).


I never read the NJO series, the Yuuzang Vong (sp?) were a bit of a put off for me. It sounded like Dragonball Z - the heroes have won and are strong, but then some uber powerful villains will come in, so the heroes will become even stronger....meh, not into that.

But yeah, the Thrawn trilogy is more about tactical strategies using the remains of the Empire's fleet and military, rather than some super weapon of mass destruction.

Originally posted by Captain REX
From what I've read, you'd like Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.



1) My God, you're still alive, Nactous...
2) My God, you still can't spell...

My god, you cant let anything go.....
My god I am off to go post in the Star Wars RPG section......

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
Anyways, I ALMOST bought Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader but I wasn't sure about it.



I almost bought it too but I didn't. Went to the library and picked it up. Finished it in 3days - saved 25 bucks..Got the Ep 3 DVD with the money.

But It should be at your local library. By now at least.

Originally posted by Nactous
My god, you cant let anything go.....
My god I am off to go post in the Star Wars RPG section...... Thanks for teh info.

Hey hey, you were the guy from the "Sidious Debate" thread who agreed with me about portions of the EU being ridiculous, like Palpatine destroying fleets with his Lightning. You're a good guy. =D

Anyway, I highly reccomened the Star Wars: X-Wing series. It's fantastic.

Originally posted by Ganner Rhysode
Hey hey, you were the guy from the "Sidious Debate" thread who agreed with me about portions of the EU being ridiculous, like Palpatine destroying fleets with his Lightning. You're a good guy. =D

Anyway, I highly reccomened the Star Wars: X-Wing series. It's fantastic.

Humm was it me? (quoting the person your responding too helps )

At any rate I do agree with you. And it was my post in the Sidious thread that sparked this thread to come to mind. I kinda wanted to read some good EU, but amongst the masses of horrible horrible overwritten, overpowered, anything goes crappy EU it becomes a VERY difficult task to weed out the books that are not absurd and ridiculous and are true to what Star Wars actually is (which is the movies).

So yea, any suggestions are still welcome.

I just ordered Labyrinth of Evil yesterday off Amazon.ca. It should be here in a few days.

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
absurdly overpowered Jedi.

Define "absurdly overpowered" . Cuz even the movies had some absurd shit: force pushing people, summoning things to your hand with your mind, jumping 50 feet. All of those things are pretty whack, so how is a "thought bomb" so hard to beleive after watching the movies??

So where do you draw the line between believable bullshit and absurd bullshit???

Where do I draw the line.

well Jumping 50 feet is a little less "absurd" then say destroying an entire fleet of star destroyers with force lightning.

Throwing people is SLIGHTLY less "absurd" then throwing a star through space.

Don't try to mock me, there's a clear line in the "absurdity" level of the EU characters and the movie characters.

The difference (just to entertain your obviously annoying question). Jumping 50 feet and picking up objects with you mind EVEN force lightning make more logical sense then what most of these overpowered "Super hero" type characters do. The force makes you more adapt then regular people. You do get some pretty cool (and slightly absurd) abilities in terms of reality but The force should not make you a "Dragonball Z character" Capable of destroying planets and all that crap. Its just retarded. I mean think of how dumb a jedi fight would be when the participants are throwing stars at each other? and yet (for some reason) these "Super Jedi/ Sith" still find it necessary to use lightsabers? why? lol. If you can throw stars around why in gods name would you need to have a lightsaber...lol??

The entire concept of these "Super Jedi" takes away from the whole point of what Star Wars is. It might as well be a different story all together. Why not make a story where the "Super Jedi" battle Goku to see who's the most powerful being in the universe. lol

Gimme a break man.

What constitutes "absurd" is pretty obvious.

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
What constitutes "absurd" is pretty obvious.

No it's not. Supernatural is Supernatural. The only difference between Force Lightning and throwing stars is the scope of it. C'mon dawg, jumping 50 feet is just plain whack, so destroying and entire fleet of star destroyers shouldn't be to hard to grasp.

To answer your post: I think the best EU is anything that pretains to the ancient Jedi. KOTOR, GAOTS, TOTJ, etc. Those Jedi back N the day were ass-kickers that actually got shit done and weren't restricted by pussy politics, unlike the inefective Jedi of the PT era.

I completely disagree with you.

What you are saying is not logical

By your definition if I can pick up a basketball and throw it at you because I can then thats as absurd as if I picked up a planet and threw it at you.

See what I mean? There is a huge difference. Scope is a major issue. Not a minor one.

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
By your definition if I can pick up a basketball and throw it at you because I can then thats as absurd as if I picked up a planet and threw it at you.

Bad example. Shooting lighting out of your finger tips is just as fictional as trowing a star. One is not more realistic than the other, since they are both entirely unreal. (Its just cuz your a Palpatine fan, right???)

btw: In what EU book does someone throw a star anyways? I dont remember that one.

Your wrong actually, Its a perfect example. Despite the Lightning being fictional in terms of our reality in the Star Wars universe it is not a fictional ability. Just as being able to lift up a basketball is a nonfictional ability in our reality. The lack of it being "real" in our reality is merely circumstantial. In logical argument giving arguments based outside of reality is perfectly acceptable so long as the argument points out a flaw in the premises of the previous argument.

So again, you are not correct.

What I am saying is that "Scope is directly related to believability". Thus I could give you any argument that points out this and it would be a valid statement. The fact that it might not be real is not the point. The point is to flush out a logical error you made and in logic I am permitted to do so with any example, which I have done.

As for the person who actually throws stars I think its supposed to be Naga Shadow. I've noted a few times a quote something like "he played ping pong with stars" or something. But I'm no EU expert. I'm sure there's about a million other people who could answer this better then I.

I don't beleive anyone in EU threw stars, and it definately wasn't Sadow. Naga Sadow (who was an actual member of the Sith species) is one of my favorite villians in ancient Jedi EU. He once used the Dark Side to cause a solar flare to rise from a nearby star to destroy a Republic fleet, though. But literally throwing stars? I recall anything like at all, dawg. You probly just pulled it outta yer ass for your argument.

Nope, Palpatine threw stars, in addition to destroying fleets with his lightning.

Not only does that overpower the Jedi/Sith VASTLY from what we see in the movies, (which, in actuallity make "advanced" versions of humans, not Superman versions) but totally undermines what you see. It takes away from the significance of everything. What point is there in having a huge fleet if it can be destroyed in seconds? Or a planet, if it can just have a star thrown at it? Or a lightsaber, if you can just use the force to create another Sith to fight your battle for you?

There are just some plain absurdities in the EU. As the Anomaly said, what is normal in real life is not normal in Star Wars. In the Star Wars universe, what constitutes as normal is NOT the ability to pick up planets and disintegrate them into rocks which you then reform into the biggest capital ship ever, using your force ability, which is shortly thereafter destroyed by a new ship built by the ghost of Yoda which is even bigger and better then your new ship.

(Also, this is why I dislike things like the Sun Crusher and the Eclipse Star Destroyer. They just totally undermine/make so much of the Star Wars universe absolete and pointless, IE, Courscant could be destroyed in a second by a single capital ship, a star system could be destroyed in a matter of seconds by the same capital ship, and so on.

IMO, the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer is "realistic" in terms of Star Wars, whereas the other two are not so much. The same goes for Palpatine closing his eyes and become the center of the universe upon which all stars and planets revolve.

I think the Sun crusher and the Galaxy gun were pretty dope. And ya gotta admit that they aint a very far cry from the Death Star.

Except it's like, playing a video game and hacking to god mode so your character is invincible and stuff like that. That's what I equate stuff like this to.

The Death Star, the Executor, they were realistic (for Star Wars), they had limits, they had weaknesses, and so on.

Sun Crusher? Galaxy Gun? DE Palpatine? In the blink of an eye, they could destroy three Death Stars, plus a few planets and a couple of large fleets.

Heh. Nice, See now what I was talking about DiamondBullets?

Thanks Ganner Rhysode for that. Thats exactly what I was talking about. Except your knowledge of EU Star Wars is obviously more vast then mine, so thanks for proving what I'm saying with valid examples.

Oh and Naga Sadow DID throw stars, Apparently with a kind of Sith artifact or something. I don't know, but I've seen this statement repeated over and over again. Most recently actually. I think Fishy said it. But I cant remember.

Actually, he DIDN'T throw stars, and he was using a ship. Using the Force channelled through his ship (A dark side artifact of sorts) he caused a star to become unstable, and it went boom.

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
Heh. Nice, See now what I was talking about DiamondBullets?

I do now. That godmode example from Rhysode help put things into perspective.

It wasn't who Sadow threw stars, if anyone it was a more ancient Sith Lord who I can't think of.

Anomaly, lemme axe you a question.....don't you think its ironic and little fukt-up that someone with SUPERMAN in his avatar and signature is dissin' on excessive powers? LOL!!!

No, you're wrong. No Sith Lords "threw stars". It'd be nice if you guys knew what you were talking about before you bitched about it.

Originally posted by DiamondBullets
I do now. That godmode example from Rhysode help put things into perspective.

It wasn't who Sadow threw stars, if anyone it was a more ancient Sith Lord who I can't think of.

Anomaly, lemme axe you a question.....don't you think its ironic and little fukt-up that someone with SUPERMAN in his avatar and signature is dissin' on excessive powers? LOL!!!

In Supermans World, His powers make sense. In the SW universe, having powers close to Supermans is just stupid.

I have nothing against powerful characters at all. The problem I have with the Super EU characters is the fact that its 'Un-Star Wars' and takes away from what Lucas intended in his story.

Oh and I believe you about the Shadow thing. As I said I'm just going by what I hear around these forums. I'm no EU expert to say the least.

And Superman isnt THAT powerful. Not in comparison to some Marvel characters. (Cosmic beings and Silver Surfer come to mind)

Yeah. Pre-Crisis Superman was a virtual God, but that's part of the reason they did the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, to rectify that problem and make Superman more "realistic" and "constant."

Now, while those ancient Sith Lord's didn't literally "throw stars," as in pick them up and chuck them at their enemies, the fact that they DID do what they did, using such absurd and illogical (again, for STAR WARS) powers is just plain ridiculous.

They nerfed him quite a bit....

Now he can only fly 99% of Lightspeed and lift 40,000,000,000 tons.

Silver Age Superman could fly millions of times Lightspeed and lift hundreds of quadrillions of tons.

Yes, but that is just dumb. Which is why they did Crisis.

Superman isnt a god, hes an alien.

at the risk of sounding like a broken machine here I'll have to repeat that the thrawn trilogy is a great starting point....NJO's got ups and downs but mostly ups...but if you read alot of other star wars stuff first you'll appreciate all the little referrences to other series and stories

I couldn't find anything to do with the Thrawn books at the Chapters nearest to me. Apparently they have had a "huge boost in sale of Star Wars books" since ROTS came out on DVD. They're SW books are getting low actually. I did however get Labyrinth of Evil and Shatterpoint. But I'd still like to read some post-ROTJ stuff.

Needless to say Shatterpoint so far is pretty damn good. I'm quite impressed. Very dark (and graphic) for a Star Wars book. Gotta say, I thought Mace was pretty lame after his ROTS performance. But this book does a good job at making him look baddass.

Originally posted by Julie
at the risk of sounding like a broken machine here I'll have to repeat that the thrawn trilogy is a great starting point....NJO's got ups and downs but mostly ups...but if you read alot of other star wars stuff first you'll appreciate all the little referrences to other series and stories yeah the Thrawn trilogy is great. I also liked tales from Jabba's palace a lot, but you're looking for post ROTJ stuff.

Originally posted by DarthBanevv
yeah the Thrawn trilogy is great. I also liked tales from Jabba's palace a lot, but you're looking for post ROTJ stuff.
Thrawn trilogy was awesome, although hand of thrawn was an dissapointment. If you want solidly written books, almost any luceno book is good.

I loved Shadows of the Empire, very fun.

Originally posted by Tangible God
I loved Shadows of the Empire, very fun.
That was my first SW book, LOL.

Mine was Darksaber. Good, and post-ROTJ, but since it involved the Force and Luke's order, I hated it.

this may have been said. but do NOT read any of the bookjs made by Kevin J. Andserson. he makes the Jedi PADAWANS look like frigan gods. How the hell can a padawan force push 10 stardestroyers light years away? Even with the help of other jedi thats near close to impossible...

Originally posted by Blaxican_Jedi
this may have been said. but do NOT read any of the bookjs made by Kevin J. Andserson. he makes the Jedi PADAWANS look like frigan gods. How the hell can a padawan force push 10 stardestroyers light years away? Even with the help of other jedi thats near close to impossible...

Are you serious? lol

Why the hell doesn't Lucas not let these people do stuff like that? I mean...what the hell...thats completely retarded...

Originally posted by ((The_Anomaly))
Are you serious? lol

Why the hell doesn't Lucas not let these people do stuff like that? I mean...what the hell...thats completely retarded...


Exactly. Whats even worse is that it's canon now. t is right?

God I hated that part of the book. I mean, come ON. It was like 15 padawans focusing a Force Push into a fleet of Star Destroyers orbiting thousands of miles away.

GOD!

Originally posted by Blaxican_Jedi
Exactly. Whats even worse is that it's canon now. t is right?

Yes, it would be. As long as it does not directly contradict anything from the movies its EU canon.

It's not as stupid as the idea that "midi-chlorians" create jedi. I mean, a person can use the force because of a superpowered amoeba running around in their bodies?

Oh yeah, they also create babies too. Just look at Anakin in the movies....

No, thats not how it works. The midichlorians do not create Jedi. Everyone has them, Jedi or not. We are just born with them. What makes a person a potential Jedi is a higher then average medichlorian count. At a specific number (count) one starts to hear the "will" of the force. So every being in the SW galaxy has midichlorians, but you have to be past a specific count to hear the force, and then you have to be able to hear it enough for the Jedi to consider you as a potential. Anakin was the only one to actually be conceived by the midichlorians themselves, which is why he is the chosen one.

The reason Lucas made up midichlorians is for the prophecy of the chosen one . It would have been stupid/ made no real sense to say "This boy has the highest force I've ever seen in a life form". Lucas needed something to set Anakin apart from everyone else, thats where midichlorians come in.

Rrrrrrrrrright........ "The chosen one". So that must be why Anakin/Darth Vader was never able to beat Obi-Wan in anything. First he gets his limbs chopped off, then Obi-Wan "ascends" to spiritform during their final duel. I'm sorry but as creative as Lucas is, he did have some big holes in his story.

Back on topic....... I really liked the X-Wing books and comics. They had a really good combination of comedy, action, and drama. I really wish they would have did more with Baron Fel from the comic series.

"Anakin was never able to beat Obi-wan in anything"

What? Anakin was more powerful then Obi-wan in every respect. Lucas has said so himself. The reason he lost on Mustafar was because of the arrogance of the darkside. This is the reoccurring theme for Sith lords, they all die to inferior people (except Dooku who just lost outright) because of arrogance, Anakin was just lucky in that he survived. And yea, Sure Obi-wan "ascends" to spirit form, AFTER being taught how to do so. Anakin also ascends to spirit form in ROTJ and no one ever taught him how to. He just did because he was the chosen one.

Big holes? not really...

I never liked the midi-chlorian theory. It really brought the Force down to earth. It had always been this mystical energy field that could only be tapped by certain people. The midi-chlorians brought science into the matter, it really mortalized the Force.

I don't mind it. I think scientifically, so I always liked the idea. Plus I do like sure fire ways to differentiate between how good people are compared to other people.

I think Lucas should release a chart that has everyone's counts. That'd be sweet.

It would be helpful that's for sure.

I think that way too, but in my perspective, I always liked to view the Force as some ethereal and omnipotent mystical energy field that formed the backbone of life and "held the galaxy together."

The midi's dimmed down that view.

Yes but at the same time they gave us a reason as to why specific people are more attuned to the force then others. Without midi's then its just "wow your strong in the force" or as Luke says "the force is strong in my family" which kinda makes sense, but kinda doesn't. I dunno, it hasn't changed what the force is at all. I think thats why people don't like the medi's, it seems like it changed everything. But actually it didn't change anything, its still the "mystical energy field" that Yoda and Obi-wan talked about in the OT. The only difference now is that we know how people can feel the force but the medi's do not in any way change what the force is.

That's EXACTLY why I don't like the midi's. "They've brought the Force down to earth." The Force was... cool when it was unknown as to how the Force worked. It had a certain appeal to it like that. Sure the Force works the way it always has, but now, it's become more realistic, and tangible.

And that bugs you? Cause it doesn't bug me at all...

I like your name

Whos name? My name?

yeah.

Yep, it bugs me. The Force has gone from God-like to Keanu Reeves-like.

Although the starwars books written by Timothy zahn are pretty good. Specter of the past and vision are ok...

I don't like the fact that a lot of Clone Wars EU tends to contradict the Jedi Council's guidelines.

Ki-Adi joining when he was a Knight, Saesee never having a padawan, etc....

Originally posted by Tangible God
Sure the Force works the way it always has, but now, it's become more realistic, and tangible.

With a username like Tangible God, I figured you'd like it.

Originally posted by DiamondBullets
I don't like the fact that a lot of Clone Wars EU tends to contradict the Jedi Council's guidelines.

Ki-Adi joining when he was a Knight, Saesee never having a padawan, etc....

I'd take that over destroying fleets with Force lightning, or manipulating black holes, or blowing up stars. In comparison to the absurd abilities of the NJO/KOTOR/DN/DE era's, a little thing like Saesee not having a padawan seems like a slightly more plausible plot device.

indeed.

Dark Rendezvous is probably the best one ive read so far.