Luceno writes great prose but of his books I've read (or tried to), Darth Plagueis is the only one I haven't found to have a dull plot line. So I'm hesistant to put him in a top three. Stover is brilliant, RotS is easily the best Star Wars novel I've read, if not book I've read, and the opening is a compete masterpiece. Don't know about Zahn but I look forward to reading Thrawn to see if he's good. I'll get round to reading Dark Rendevous eventually.