Where does one even start with the Star Wars Legends books? I have the Thrawn trilogy but wanted to get a few more. What's good, what's trash? Thanks!!!

Im a big fan of the Xwing series and enjoyed the Republic Commando books. I am in the minority in that I actually enjoyed The Courtship of Princess Leia.

I found that the quality of the books ebbed and flowed. I liked some of the later books dealiing with the Vong War and the second Galactic Civil War.

ArmyAg2002 said:

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Im a big fan of the Xwing series and enjoyed the Republic Commando books. I am in the minority in that I actually enjoyed The Courtship of Princess Leia.

I found that the quality of the books ebbed and flowed. I liked some of the later books dealiing with the Vong War and the second Galactic Civil War.

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Agree with all of this. IMO the X-wing books are the best on offer followed by the lengthy New Jedi Order run (Yuuzhan Vong invasion). If you've read the Thrawn trilogy, there is a second duology dealing with more of Thrawn's legacy. It occurs chronologically right before the NJO series. Everything between the Thrawn bookends is of varying quality, but I enjoyed reading them all and many characters make reappearance in the NJO series.

I've only ever read the Thrawn trilogy. It was decent. Got better as it went on. Since that is considered the gold standard by most for Legends it's never incentivized me to read anything else if I just thought that one was decent.

I do love Thrawn's character though. And Talon Karrde. Does Karrde return in any other books?

Most are good, several are great, a few are meh.
TLDR: read Darth Bane series, then maybe Jedi Academy, then X-wing, then....go crazy!

Pre-war
Darth Bane trilogy: phenomenal.
Jedi apprentice and Jedi Quest: good....for a kid. Can't really imagine going back and reading thos now.
The republic commando series: super good. Loved it.

Post-war
The Han Solo trilogy: fun story, don't remember how good of writing.

There's a second Han Solo trilogy that I can't remember.

Post-episode 6
The truce at Bakura: different but fun.
X-wing series: as mentioned above, a great place to start. Great reads from what I've seen.
The Thrawn Trilogy: Do it! Read then!
The Dark Empire Trilogy: Luke plays with the dark side and the plot of the RoS doesn't seem so original anymore.
Jedi Academy Trilogy: I think this is where I first started the non-kids books so I would highly recommend it.
The Black Fleet Crisis, The Corellian Trilogy, and the Hand of Thrawn are all great, but maybe start with some earlier ones.

Much later:
The other series are great and I highly recommend them, although I might start with some I already mentioned to get started. Once you've gotten into it, I would highly, highly recommend the Legacy of the Force series and the Fate of the Jedi series.

Not Star Wars related but, Timothy Zahn (thrawn series) wrote a book series called The Quadrail Series. It's a great read.

I tried to buy every Star Wars novel from kid's Galaxy of Fear to the recent Vong War books for the kids growing up and many in between.
That's why my son HATES the sequel Trilogy movies.
I know my daughter loved the X-wing series the most.

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

The book came out right before the sale to Disney and got moved to Legends. Even thought the movie reference is Canon. Personally, I think it would have been a better Episode I than Phantom Menace.

Playtuagain said:

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Most are good, several are great, a few are meh.
TLDR: read Darth Bane series, then maybe Jedi Academy, then X-wing, then....go crazy!

Pre-war
Darth Bane trilogy: phenomenal.
Jedi apprentice and Jedi Quest: good....for a kid. Can't really imagine going back and reading thos now.
The republic commando series: super good. Loved it.

Post-war
The Han Solo trilogy: fun story, don't remember how good of writing.

There's a second Han Solo trilogy that I can't remember.

Post-episode 6
The truce at Bakura: different but fun.
X-wing series: as mentioned above, a great place to start. Great reads from what I've seen.
The Thrawn Trilogy: Do it! Read then!
The Dark Empire Trilogy: Luke plays with the dark side and the plot of the RoS doesn't seem so original anymore.
Jedi Academy Trilogy: I think this is where I first started the non-kids books so I would highly recommend it.
The Black Fleet Crisis, The Corellian Trilogy, and the Hand of Thrawn are all great, but maybe start with some earlier ones.

Much later:
The other series are great and I highly recommend them, although I might start with some I already mentioned to get started. Once you've gotten into it, I would highly, highly recommend the Legacy of the Force series and the Fate of the Jedi series.

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TL;DR: I would recommend the books listed below, but for an even more abridged version the titles in bold text are probably sufficient.

I've never read much/any of the old republic era stuff, so I can't comment on any of those.

I very much like the Han Solo Trilogy and would recommend it. The second Han Solo trilogy is older (though chronologically later) and comes in a collected omnibus called The Han Solo Adventures. It takes place mostly in the Corporate Sector, a place that doesnt really show up anywhere else. These arent as connected to later events as the Han Solo Trilogy, but if you like Han and stories featuring smugglers, and scoundrels, and want to read some action stories that don't involve jedi, these are a solid choice. I would echo the same thoughts with the Lando Calrissian Adventures published around the same time. They are a little bit more epic/starfaring/treasure hunting in nature compared to the Han Solo Adventures.

For the post rebellion/new republic era, these are my recommendations:

• Truce at Bakura - not the best by any means but as it follows directly from the end of RoTJ I think it sets up a lot of the future dynamics.
• X-wing books 1-7 - in my opinion the best of Legends. Books 8/9 are also good, but occur later. I would probably pick them up after reading the rest of this list as they are mostly isolated stories.
• Courtship of Princess Leia - some dont like it, I do, and it ties up some threads from the X-wing series.
• Thrawn Trilogy - generally considered the best of the Legends, certainly had the most influence on the galaxy and characters for everything to come after it.
• Jedi Academy Trilogy - Kevin Anderson is not my favorite author by any stretch, but there are important characters and events introduced in this series.
• I, Jedi - features characters from X-wing and The Jedi Academy trilogy, occurs during the latter and provides and alternative view point to some events.
• Black Fleet Crisis trilogy - see below
• Corellian Trilogy - see below

After the Jedi Academy, there are a number of single books (3 are sometimes considered a loose trilogy but eh) and a couple additional trilogies. I dont think any of them are that great, but i also still enjoyed reading them. I would probably read the two trilogies - the Black Fleet Crisis and the Corellian Trilogy - because I think it's worth reading something from this time period to get a sense of galactic politics and the current shape of the galaxy leading into the New Jedi Order.

• Hand of Thrawn Duology - sort of the finale of the New Republic era and a return to where it all began with Heir to the Empire.

If you like the characters Zahn created in the Thrawn books, there are two additional books you can pick up at this point - Outbound Flight and Survivor's Quest. Both have to do with the Outbound Flight Project and it's legacy.

With the New Republic era wrapped up, at this point jump into the New Jedi Order series and just read them all straight through. The Dark Nest trilogy occurs after the conclusion of NJO and features some of the fallout from it, but I don't honestly think its all that necessary.

After New Jedi Order is the Legacy of the Force series and the Fate of the Jedi series. I thought Legacy of the Force was pretty good and its a pretty big deal as far as events that happen, so I would recommend reading it. I only read the first couple of books of Fate of the Jedi, so honestly I can't say much about it.

This is someone who is much better at editing than I am! Listen to them!

Darksaber is a good standalone read, and the hand solo trilogy is a much, MUCH better backstop than the crappy movie.

The jedi academy trilogy, any of Zahn's books.... the real turds didn't come until later in the period.

I disliked the xwing books... i know I'm in the minority, but I didnt care for them.

Ag_of_08 said:

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I disliked the xwing books... i know I'm in the minority, but I didnt care for them.

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My only gripe with the X-wing books is that Corran Horn can be a pretty big Mary Sue. I still enjoy the Rogue Squadron books, but it's also why I prefer the Wraith Squadron books of the series.

I'm a liar. I did read the The Han Solo Adventures and Splinter of a Mind's Eye. Forgot about them. I believe these were two of the earliest Star Wars books outside of the movie novelizations.

I thought they were both very average and frankly not worth reading. I read the latter because it was written by Alan Dean Foster who was a decent name in sci-fi back in the day so thought it would be interesting. Meh.

The only thing I remember about The Han Solo Adventures was there being a lot of American cultural references that just seemed way out of place. I don't know why I remember that since I read these books 30+ years ago.

So, an update. Read Thrawn trilogy, it's awesome! Took a step back and read Master and Apprentice about Qui Gonn Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Also read Kenobi about Ben's time on Tatooine. Currently reading The Dark Lord trilogy about Darth Vader, then plan to read Death Star. After that, it's the X-Wing series or the extended Thrawn trilogy (Ascendancy, Alliances, Treason). So far, I have enjoyed these series.

I recall reading the thrawn trilogy and being blown away that there was actually life after ROTJ. I kept reading until that super long series about organic alien invaders. Star Wars novels taught me about the concept of a "money grab." It actually was a valuable lesson and one reason I loathe Hollywood.

Most of the books which are now "Legends" were plug and play space opera fan fiction. Actually that applies to everything Star Wars-related outside the original trilogy.

I, Jedi was pretty decent.

What really pisses me off is that MANY of those legends books would have been better than the sequel trilogy was. The Jaina/Jacen Solo arc is TAILOR made for the sequels, instead we got Kylo Ren, pansy ass Luke and blas characters.

For some reason Shadows of the Empire isn't getting mentioned here. Fun read to bridge Empire and Jedi.