/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.7817278]

I am about to finish pic related and absolutely love it, im new to the old EU, what do i read next??

[Anonymous No.7817284]

>>7817278
i like all the story with sidious, makes like him a lot more as a character, anything more like this? Maybe the intervening years btwn eps 1 & 2?

[Anonymous No.7817296]

>>7817278
audiobook if possible

[Anonymous No.7817310]

>>7817278
Image related is highly recommended.

[Anonymous No.7817320]

>>7817310
...haven't been on /lit/ in a while, used to always got good reccs from here...

[Anonymous No.7817322]

>>7817320

>>7817310 is a good recommendation, anon.

[Anonymous No.7817330]

>>7817284
You started in a good place, the DP novel is basically the only good work that came out of the old EU in its final years.

You might want to see Labyrinth of Evil and the ROTS novelization to see more of Sidious. There isn't much of him in the time around Episode I/II in book form, and of course the cartoons and video games tend to be trash at telling stories.

The Dark Empire comics also cover his return, I don't know if I'd recommend them on their storytelling merits since they fulfill the worst tropes of SW (bigbad with massive super weapons returns!) but the art style was quite good, very 90s.

As for works outside of the Sheev arc, I recommend Shadows of the Empire and the Anthology books (Tales of...). The anthology books are probably the most interesting from a e/lit/ist perspective, the concept is kind of cool. They take random background characters from scenes and give them stories, and were written in a much more free-wheeling time of the EU where authors had a lot more creative control.

The Darth Bane trilogy is also good IMO since it sets up a lot of the logic behind the Rule of Two and whatnot. It's actually written by the guy who wrote KOTOR, laid out some plot elements of KOTOR II and developed the Mass Effect universe (to his credit he jumped off the ship when he was marginalized in Mass Effect II's production). He's not bad for a video game writer 2bh.

As for stuff to avoid, anything with any of the skywalker or solo children in it. Mainline books written in the Jedi Brats era are fucking awful. I've read every single SW novel written up until around 2010 or so, so I know.

[Anonymous No.7817336]

>>7817320
>goes to Star Wars thread
>expects good recs

[Anonymous No.7817344]

>>7817278
Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire/Last Command/Dark Force Rising) is pretty solid, if you want a sequel to the original films that's actually focused on the original characters that's your best bet.

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous is really good, it gets surprisingly deep into the whole dark/light philosophy.

People will try to meme you into Tarkin, but it's not that interesting apart from establishing the name "Sheev".

And since you liked Plagueis, I'd also recommend the Darth Bane trilogy which deals with the same kind of Sith stuff.

In general, I'd say go with the standalones and trilogies rather than big 20-book sagas, when multiple writers get involved it tends to go a bit dodgy.

[Anonymous No.7817361]

>>7817344
i always felt the Thrawn trilogy was highly overrated. It was some of the earliest legitimate genre fic to come out of the universe (unless you count some of the EU apocrypha like Splinter of the Mind's Eye or the Young Han Solo books) so people ate it up, but Thrawn is a little bit of a Stu and the Luke/Luuke stuff is just, well, bad.

But yeah, the only megasaga worth reading is the Rogue Squadron one since it doesn't include main characters. That's a general rule of SW fiction, the farther you get away from the Skywalkers the more artistic liberty the author has, which generally means higher quality work.

[Anonymous No.7817365]

The Republic Commando series is awesome, but be forewarned, it ends on a cliffhanger that was never resovled because they threw out the author's canon for one episode of the 3D animated Clone Wars cartoon.

[Anonymous No.7817366]

>>7817330
everything about DP just blew my mind, i finally understand why ppl get so pissed off about the movies, the story itself can made to be so much more compelling and nebulous than just "good vs evil" and cutsey driod stuff.

cant seem to find any audiobooks for "shadows of the empire" but ill look some more. the development of ppl like nut gunray and darth maul was some of the best stuff i liked from DP (makes some of the movies suck much less too) so the tales of... series should be just what i need

i just beat kotor 2 and am going back to kotor 1, loved ME 1 &2, so i guess im starting with Darth Bane trilogy!

not a big fan of luke so ill stay away. thanks for the reccs m8

[Anonymous No.7817370]

>>7817366

The cancer has spread to your brain, anon. Hopefully you'll have better taste in your next life.

[Anonymous No.7817372]

This board says 'literature' it doesn't say 'good literature' so I suppose it can apply to bad literature, so this thread is appropriate.

[Anonymous No.7817377]

Does all sci-fi fantasy boil down to a battle of good vs. evil?

[Anonymous No.7817380]

>>7817344
the guy who wrote DP does the Tarkin book too, i was considering it next but maybe ill wait, I never heard of "Sheev," outside this thread, is it a big spoiler?

maybe ill do thrawn after bane, thanks

>>7817361
hmm i heard good things about the 3d clone wars, but i only ever watched the tartakovsky one

[Anonymous No.7817383]

>>7817377
not if you let other authors explore your universe

[Anonymous No.7817392]

>>7817377
The Sith of the books aren't necessarily evil, they're amoral. Evil is just what we project onto them. One of the themes in the works that deal with the Sith is the saturday morning cartoon evil verses the power politics, master morality, whatever you want to call it "evil." Lucas much prefers the saturday morning cartoon villain kind of evil (he FUCKING HATED KotOR 2) but the other kind of evil is generally dominant in the literature.

Sith like Plagueis and Sheev don't really give a fuck whether something is perceived as good or evil, it's all about what benefits them, the distinction between dark and light is a meaningless abstraction. Then you have the edgy mallgoth Sith lords who are evil just because.

>>7817365
Please don't tell me you're recommending Karen "Mandalorian anal exploration" Traviss books.

[Anonymous No.7817396]

>>7817380
Sheev is Palpatine's first name. Also the 3d clone wars show being good is one of the worst memes of /co/, do not let yourself be memed into watching that drivel. I'd sooner recommend that ewoks cartoon.

[Anonymous No.7817409]

>>7817380
Sheev is just the Emperor's first name, it became a meme because it sounds so dumb

[Anonymous No.7817417]

>>7817396
I-i guess that's not a big spoiler...anyway, thanks for the heads up

>>7817392
topkek i didnt know Lucas hated KOTOR 2, makes sense so, the HK unit would have never been allowed in his movies

>mallgoth Sith lords
audible chuckle

i liked hearing about the mandalorian wars in kotor 2, is that the book your refering to?
I just found my favorite narrator Richard Groves reading Cloak of Deception, would recc?

[Anonymous No.7817424]

>>7817409
i thought Cosinga sounded cool when i first heard it, guess he REALLY didnt like his

[Anonymous No.7817428]

>>7817424
son

[Anonymous No.7817441]

>>7817417
There are three general epochs of mandalorian related work, one is the mandalorian wars (Exar Kun comics and KOTOR I/II), the next is the Clone Wars era and the last is the post-ROTJ era.

Old era mandalorians are pretty okay, a warrior culture that evolved from the Taung, a species that shared Coruscant with ancient humans.

The clone wars mandalorians are basically there to train the clones in their heritage and fighting styles. Most of it is in comics, but it addresses some interesting topics. How the hell do you get a culture into a mass produced human? How do these mass produced men define themselves, what issues do they have with identity?

Post ROTJ era mandalorians get gay married and most of their story arcs focus on Boba Fett's daughter and granddaughter and their shared daddy issues.

[Anonymous No.7817456]

>>7817441
blah that post ROTJ shit sounds awful

i like the problem of training clones and the inner conflicts, DP kind of when into that when he went to kamino. very interesting, thanks

[Anonymous No.7818758]

>>7817409
not as bad as Snoke from TFA

>>7817278
I thought the Han Solo Trilogy by AC Crispin was real good - Paradise Snare / Hutt Gambit / Rebel Dawn. They flesh out a pretty good history for Han where he's not just "a rogue with a heart of gold"

[Anonymous No.7818807]

>>7818758
I liked the old Han books too, I still remember when he became a prophet for a bunch of bug people.

[Anonymous No.7819562]

>>7817278
anything by matthew stover

[Anonymous No.7819706]

>>7817278
>fanfiction

[Anonymous No.7819712]

>>7817278
reddit general?

[Anonymous No.7819761]

The Lando Calrissian Trilogy is either magnificently good or magnificently awful. If you hate Star Wars, I'd still recommend it because it basically isnt.

[Anonymous No.7819912]

>>7817278
well most of the good stuff has been recommended but I must still give a +1 to Yoda: Dark Rendezvous. I would also recommend tormenting audio books of the stories instead of reading the books.

>Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company
is good in that it shows that there is very little nobility on both sides but it could be bit long for some.

>Star Wars: Kenobi
nice self contained wilde west type story of Kenobi

>darth maul lockdown
it gets bit crazy in the end but its self contained story of maul fucking shit up in prison

>star wars medstar
its kind of boring but it has drug addicted jedi and sabotaging spies

>Shatterpoint
its about windu looking for his half crazed student in vietnam

>star wars red harvest
not a good book but a fun book if you wondered what would dead space be like if it happened in a sith academy

you may also like
>The Rise of Darth Vader
>star wars purge
>star wars darth vader and the ghost prison
>Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Lost Command
>Deceived (Star Wars: The Old Republic, #2)

if you are in it for the long haul than I would recommend books of darth caedus, many of them are not very good but the overall story is interesting and moved me.

[Anonymous No.7819924]

Hey guys! Can I play!

[Anonymous No.7820145]

>>7819912
Thanks, that maul one looked good since i watched some of his fights from 3d clone wArs

[Anonymous No.7820211]

Any thoughts on pic related? The first-person narration intrigues me and is pretty rare in EU books.

Also, I'm looking to get back into SW fic (I used to tear through Kevin Anderson's stuff back in the day). Is the Thrawn trilogy really that bad? Thrawn as a character always intrigued me.

[Anonymous No.7820420]

>>7819924
Sure, why not. Never read that one though, my Trek books were mainly the Captain Kirk fanfic ones that Shatner wrote himself

[Anonymous No.7820460]

>>7820211
I remembered liking it a lot when I was a teenager. Corran Horn is a bit of a stu character in some ways but far from the worst offender in the EU.

>>7819912
I forgot about the Maul novels, I actually liked the other one. Also I thought medstar was one of the worst works in the EU, only behind the Vong/Post vong main storyline books and of course The Crystal Star.

If you want a really fucking terrible book, The Crystal Star is like the Episode II of the EU.

>>7819761
Yeah the Lando and Young Han books were actually great since they were kind of from a time before people had a great idea of what the EU looked like. Magical elements tended to play a much larger role.

[Anonymous No.7820488]

>>7820420
>Play character in television series
>Write licensed tie-in novels about that character

Living the motherfucking dream

[Anonymous No.7820539]

>>7817361
>But yeah, the only megasaga worth reading is the Rogue Squadron one since it doesn't include main characters.
Second for Rogue Squadron. I liked it enough to buy.