Hotlinking problem with your second pic there Duracell.

I'm not much of a fan of the EU novels, my favorites are the original Han and Lando trilogies. But my favorite kind of EU is the comics. The Marvel comics to an extent, they can be fun but I mean the more modern Dark Horse titles. Stuff like Legacy (not related to the novels by the same name) or my all time favorite Dark Times.

You'd be surprised but the comics actually made the prequel era pretty interesting in the Republic series once John Ostrander and Jan Duursema took over. But if you want some excellent vintage era stories you need look no further than the Star Wars daily newspaper strips by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson published from 1981 to 1984. Fantastically written stories with amazing art to go with it.

Other than that though, I also love the stories in a few of the video games that have come out over the years. The Dark Forces series was great, my personal favorite being Jedi Outcast. So were Bounty Hunter and Republic Commando both prequel era stories that surpassed their source material. Lastly is a sadly overlooked title for the PSP called Lethal Alliance, sure it rehashed an often told story (Death Star Plans) but it did so in an entertainingly epic fashion on a tiny screen.