What do you LIKE about the EU? — Page 23

I must agree. It was completely forgettable, I read it once, a few years ago and don't remember anything about it at all. The witches of Danthomir don't even ring any bells with me, all I can recall after trying hard  is that there was some prince or something and he wanted to marry Leia. I could retell the basic plots of all the Zahn books, I remember some plotpoints even of the horrible Jedi Academy trilogy (which I read a good few years before this) but absolutely nothing of this one.

Harmy said:

I must agree. It was completely forgettable, I read it once, a few years ago and don't remember anything about it at all.

You sort of owe it to yourself to pick it up every once in a while.  It is so bad, it's almost good.

The part where the Hapans arrive and throw a parade and shower Leia with gifts right before Fabio Isolder proposes is sufficiently mocked on that page I linked to... But there's nothing quite like actually reading it and your brain refusing to believe what you're seeing.

xhonzi said:

Harmy said:

I must agree. It was completely forgettable, I read it once, a few years ago and don't remember anything about it at all.

You sort of owe it to yourself to pick it up every once in a while.  It is so bad, it's almost good.

The part where the Hapans arrive and throw a parade and shower Leia with gifts right before Fabio Isolder proposes is sufficiently mocked on that page I linked to... But there's nothing quite like actually reading it and your brain refusing to believe what you're seeing.

My Favourite bit is when it's announced that Han Solo is a king or something. It made me drop the book laughing when I first read it.

Also...

Tee hee... Fabio

the hier to the empire books was a pretty big deal when they first came out. first new star wars story in years and an actual novel!

never got around to reading it :( but it was the public attention to this novel that made me revisit SW and realize it was still awesome after all these years while other childhood interests (he man, transformers) kinda went away.

i should read it now.  of course it wont be as compelling as the OT - but I am confidenct the storytelling, characters and overall world will be much better than PT.

its too bad most of EU is lousy, bloated, diluted and oversaturated.  Howard Roffman from LF licensing said in 1997 that they wanted to avoid that cuz they knew there could be too much of a good thing.  Guess its another example of someone from LFL telling us what we wanted to hear.

But i remember the Tales of the Jedi comic and that was good.  I also read that KOTOR blows PT away, but i don't have video games.

there is a video game trailer i was hoping to find on youtube but its not there.  Its hard to describe. I think it was around 2000-2002, it was for star wars galaxies.  The commercial starts off with several scenes from the game, set to the music when we first realize ben kenobi is obi-wan in SW.  there was one scene with a young girl running across a grassy field,  the music at this exact moment was the same force theme when obi-wan says "i haven't gone by the name of obiwan so before you were born.  and it absolutely captivated me in a way i wanted TPM.   not long after, i was shaking my head wondering why it was a commercial for a star wars game was more moving to me than one of the actual movies !?

someday I'll find the commercial.  lol, maybe it won't hold up as well but i'll never forget that moment when that girl was running across the field.

Not really hip to any of Zahn's work. To me, Star Wars is a style, a mode of filmmaking/writing/whatever. Tough to put it into words but character development is not usually belabored any Star Wars movie. That's not saying it isn't there, just that it isn't the point of the venture.

Zahn isn't hip to that philosophy, I guess. And whatever, it's his thing. It's not like he's the only "offender" in that category. I'm just not much interested in his SW books.

In fact, I'm not much into most EU stuff. And even the stuff I do like isn't really canon to me. It's a suggestion or an alternate universe thing but not one comma of it is binding in my opinion. But since I'm on the subject...

Daley's Han Solo trilogy- It's just FUN.
Crispin's Han Solo trilogy- The stuff with Bria feels a little too paint-by-numbers but otherwise it's a solid series.
Shadows of the Empire- The most Star Wars-feeling book so far. Feels mostly of a piece with ESB and ROTJ.
Cloak of Deception- Offers some good background into the political situation we see in TPM. It's not for everybody but it's okay.
Legacy- I've only read about 10 or 12 issues but I like concept of the thing.
Cartoon Network Clone Wars- It might've been more enjoyable if the crew could've gotten past their collective boner for ESB but it's not bad to watch once in a while.

Most of the rest of the EU is overloaded with technobabble and character names filled with apostrophes.

I hated Shadows of the Empire. Everything about it. It was too close timeline-wise to the movies that I was like "why did no one mention this?", Leia was portrayed badly ("I want to make out with Xizor because of his pheromones, but I love Han!" was too teen romance), Dash Rendar was Han 0.5, Xizor was too big a player to be never heard about before or since...

Admittedly, I haven't read it since it came out, but I wouldn't want to read it again.

You...you disliked Zahn's books, but you liked Shadows of the Empire? SRSLY??

"Point," thecolorsblend put in dryly. "Maybe I'll give the Zahn books another try."

I love EU. Looking forward to Dawn of the Jedi. I'm reading Heir to the Empire right now seeing as it's practically Episode VII in the eyes of a lot of fans. Love it so far.

From Timothy Zahn's facebook page:

Timothy Zahn said:

While most of the details (including the title) will have to wait until an official announcement is made (which I'm told will be sometime next month), I *have* been authorized to release a few tidbits concerning my now-officially-approved upcoming Star Wars novel.

First, it will be be set in the classic movie era. 

Second, it will be an Ocean's Eleven-type heist caper.

And third, it will star everyone's favorite smuggler, Han Solo.

Sounds great! I like the idea of a non-"epic" heist type novel set in the Star Wars universe. With any luck, it'll exclude any Sith lords/Death Stars/space battles/etc. Also, here's hoping it won't include Thrawn or Mara; as much as I love those characters and as much of a Zahn fan as I am, nevertheless I feel that he tends to go overboard on including them wherever possible.