People point to the Thrawn Trilogy as the best EU ever but they’re really not amazing, if I’m honest.
Mara is annoying, Thrawn and Kaarde are big 'ol Gary Stus, C’baoth is insane and yet everyone trusts him for far longer than they should, the Noghri and Ysalamiri are awful. Really the only good thing about them is Zahn did a decent job writing the Big Three without making them crappy caricatures, Pallaeon is cool, and the story is overall interesting.