Big shakeup in the Star Wars Expanded Universe [SPOILERS of major proportions]

Those of you still keeping up on the current novel series know that in the Legacy of the Force series, Han and Leia's eldest (and only still living) son Jacen Solo has been dabbling in the dark side thanks to the Sith lady Lumiya, a character who first appeared in the Marvel Comics series back in the 80s. You'd also know that they recently had a contest to pick Jacen's Sith name, which in the newly-released novel Sacrifice was revealed to be Darth Caedus. What you might not have known is that he and popular EU character Mara Jade Skywalker, who's been a fan-favorite since her introduction during Timothy Zahn's first trilogy almost 15 years ago, had a knock-down, drag-out duel across the cosmos resulting in her death. Gee, I wonder how pissed Luke's going to be at his own nephew for whacking his wife and mother of his son.

Just curious but is all that Yuuzahn Vong crap over with? I tried reading those Vong invasion novels and made it through 2 before I had to give up on them. The tone just didn't appeal to me at all. Is it possible to jump back into the EU afterwards? And what book should I start with?

Ok, derail over.

Wow this thread makes me glad I don't read anything Star Wars anymore.

Wow this thread makes me glad I don't read anything Star Wars anymore.

No doubt. (as I finish a painfully shallow WH40K novel. Oh, sweet irony)

LockAndLoad wrote:

Just curious but is all that Yuuzahn Vong crap over with? I tried reading those Vong invasion novels and made it through 2 before I had to give up on them. The tone just didn't appeal to me at all. Is it possible to jump back into the EU afterwards? And what book should I start with?

Ok, derail over.

This Legacy of the Force series takes place a bit after that one. Big difference is that this one actually feels like Star Wars for a change.

buzzvang wrote:
Wow this thread makes me glad I don't read anything Star Wars anymore.

No doubt. (as I finish a painfully shallow WH40K novel. Oh, sweet irony)

Just out of curiousity, which one?

Rat Boy wrote:
LockAndLoad wrote:

Just curious but is all that Yuuzahn Vong crap over with? I tried reading those Vong invasion novels and made it through 2 before I had to give up on them. The tone just didn't appeal to me at all. Is it possible to jump back into the EU afterwards? And what book should I start with?

Ok, derail over.

This Legacy of the Force series takes place a bit after that one. Big difference is that this one actually feels like Star Wars for a change.

The only EU novels I have read and enjoyed were the Timothy Zahn books. How would you say the Legacy of the Force series compares?

oldmanscene24 wrote:

The only EU novels I have read and enjoyed were the Timothy Zahn books. How would you say the Legacy of the Force series compares?

Depends. I thought the whole Mad Jedi plot from the Zahn trilogy was a bit off-putting but the Thrawn and the greater galactic politicking was spot-on. This one feels like the direct opposite; good Jedi/Sith stuff but bad political stuff.

The mad jedi bit didn't bother me too much, but I can see your point. As long as the "bad political stuff" doesn't detract from the rest of the story, I may give these a shot.

Just out of curiousity, which one?

threadjack

False Gods - Second Novel in The Horus Heresy. I enjoyed the first book, but this one was just so one dimensional.

Spoilers wrote:

[color=white]I was really hoping for Horus's fall to be the result a series of difficult moral decisions, as opposed to a petulant "daddy doesn't love me" tantrum. The chapter also kind of decides, "okay, now we're evil," without even thinking about it (aside from a few). It would've been much more satisfying for them to slide into Chaos gradually. Honestly, by the end Horus may as well have been twirling a mustache and going Mwahahahaha! It was really disappointing and represented a hell of a missed opportunity[/color]

/threadjack

buzzvang wrote:
Wow this thread makes me glad I don't read anything Star Wars anymore.

No doubt. (as I finish a painfully shallow WH40K novel. Oh, sweet irony)

Did you ever read the Harlequinn trilogy? I enjoyed that.

Never really cared for the EU though the Cantina and Jabba's palace shorts were really good.

buzzvang wrote:
Just out of curiousity, which one?

threadjack

False Gods - Second Novel in The Horus Heresy. I enjoyed the first book, but this one was just so one dimensional.

Spoilers wrote:

[color=white]I was really hoping for Horus's fall to be the result a series of difficult moral decisions, as opposed to a petulant "daddy doesn't love me" tantrum. The chapter also kind of decides, "okay, now we're evil," without even thinking about it (aside from a few). It would've been much more satisfying for them to slide into Chaos gradually. Honestly, by the end Horus may as well have been twirling a mustache and going Mwahahahaha! It was really disappointing and represented a hell of a missed opportunity[/color]

/threadjack

Ah, I hadn't gotten around to that one. I could see how one would be disappointed by the outcome though, I'm with ya on that. Won't stop me from reading it though.

oldmanscene24 wrote:

The mad jedi bit didn't bother me too much, but I can see your point. As long as the "bad political stuff" doesn't detract from the rest of the story, I may give these a shot.

It's not that it's bad, it's just that at best it's uninteresting and at worse it's really strange. Without getting too much into it, it involves the Galactic Alliance getting into it with the Corellian system and civil war ensues. Naturally, since some of the more prominent members of the larger Star Wars cast are Corellian, certain people had some hard choices to make. Meanwhile, there's Jacen, being torn between this conflict (which parrallel's his grandfather's role in the Clone Wars) and being drawn to the dark side. And it not only parrallel's Vader's path; a lot of Jacen's motivations seem like Revan's from KOTOR, or at least what Kreia told you his motives were.

buzzvang wrote:
Just out of curiousity, which one?

threadjack

False Gods - Second Novel in The Horus Heresy. I enjoyed the first book, but this one was just so one dimensional.

Spoilers wrote:

[color=white]I was really hoping for Horus's fall to be the result a series of difficult moral decisions, as opposed to a petulant "daddy doesn't love me" tantrum. The chapter also kind of decides, "okay, now we're evil," without even thinking about it (aside from a few). It would've been much more satisfying for them to slide into Chaos gradually. Honestly, by the end Horus may as well have been twirling a mustache and going Mwahahahaha! It was really disappointing and represented a hell of a missed opportunity[/color]

/threadjack

Yeah, that one sucked. THe third is much better, and "The Flight of the Eisentstein" was pretty good.

oh yeah...star wars. Just to keep it on topic.

Rat Boy wrote:
oldmanscene24 wrote:

The mad jedi bit didn't bother me too much, but I can see your point. As long as the "bad political stuff" doesn't detract from the rest of the story, I may give these a shot.

It's not that it's bad, it's just that at best it's uninteresting and at worse it's really strange. Without getting too much into it, it involves the Galactic Alliance getting into it with the Corellian system and civil war ensues. Naturally, since some of the more prominent members of the larger Star Wars cast are Corellian, certain people had some hard choices to make. Meanwhile, there's Jacen, being torn between this conflict (which parrallel's his grandfather's role in the Clone Wars) and being drawn to the dark side. And it not only parrallel's Vader's path; a lot of Jacen's motivations seem like Revan's from KOTOR, or at least what Kreia told you his motives were.

Sounds pretty cool. Thanks, RB.

Makes you wonder if humanity should just kill off all the witches, er Jedi, sith or not. The galaxy seems like it would better off for it.