TAKE A SIP IF...
*Characters from the movies don't act like themselves
*Luke makes a stupid decision
*Luke ignites his lightsaber with a snap-hiss
*Luke stretches out to the Force
*Luke lifts R2-D2 not knowing about the latter's leg rockets
*Wedge Antilles suits actions to words
*Stars burst into starlines
*An incompetent Imperial commander makes a critical blunder
*Kevin J. Anderson assrapes a character or plotline
*The rebels win a battle they never would be able to win
*Somebody says "I got a bad feeling about this"
*Han Solo thinks or says anything bad about C3P0
*There is no reference to the Clone Wars
*Han has a nostalgic memory
*Leia mentions remembering her mother
*Lando flirts
*Mara has a flashback to her time as the Emperor's Hand
*A large dangerous imperial taskforce capable of endangering the galaxy is less than 5 ships. (Such as 4 obsolete ISD's from the maw)
*The New Republic Defense Force, instead of sending a huge fleet with enough firepower to crack open a planet, sends a 'taskforce' that it has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to put together.
*The Empire which said NRDF is supposed to have eliminated by now as a serious contender for title of 'Ruler of the Galaxy' makes a play for Galactic domination....somehow....again.
*The New Republic faces an Extra-Galactic invasion and instead of responding, simply cuts off all news of the event and pretends it isn't happening, until the enemy fleet reaches the expansion region. And THEN it starts debating a POLITICAL response.
TAKE A DRINK IF...
*Wedge gets sent on an Intelligence mission
*Someone says something dryly
*Luke portrays abilities never seen before
*An insanely powerful Jedi threatens the galaxy
*The Evil Overlord has spent lots of time on finding the one thing that will make Luke's abilities with the Force useless in solving the Galaxy-threatening plot.
*Stormtroopers are revered as a horribly elite group of shock troops...then taken down with absurd ease by a bunch of flyboys.
*A bunch of insects on a couple of planets somehow become a deadly threat to the Galaxy...and the NR can't get any heavy ships to deal with the threat for WEEKS.
*Take a second gulp if the book introduces some uber wanked out Sith with powers completely foreign to any Sith before.
*Take a third gulp if said Sith is easily able to fight Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker, the two most senior Jedi with decades of HTH combat experience against the 'outside the force' Vong, as well as absurd amounts of expereince against Dark Jedi, Sith and other general 'bad guys', to a standstill. Easily.
CHUG YOUR WHOLE DRINK DOWN IF...
*Grand Admiral Thrawn makes a gigantic leap of logic
*Grand Admiral Thrawn makes a mistake
*Tim Zahn completely retcons several books worth of lame, stupid plotlines in a masterfully-weaved tapestry of logic
*A Rebel Officer defects or is charged with Treason
*Borsk Feyla does not appear as a evil moron
*The Empire does not have a genius in command or a secret superweapon
*Somebody mentions a Dark Jedi Rebellion
*A major fleet battle involves less than a dozen capital ships.
*The New Republic responds to a military situation in a competent and rapid way that shows it is worthy to govern the Galaxy.
*The Empire is portrayed as a clearly benign and beneficial influence on a planet or region of space compared to the mess the OR made of it.