Star Wars: My Top 10 Expanded Universe Novels (aka Legends)
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- Mike talks about his 10 favorite trips through the original Star Wars EU. And he still refuses to refer to it as "Legends."
I get asked constantly where to start, and my answer will always be The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. You can purchase that here:
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0:00 Disclaimer & Introduction
1:15 Background Info
2:46 Top 10
23:47 Final Thoughts & Future Plans
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#MikesBookReviews #StarWars #StarWarsEU - Розваги
I highly recommend the Darth Bane trilogy. Those books are better than they have a right to be in my opinion
I heard those were awesome!
No shade at all but they weren’t really my thing. Felt a little too much like a d & d campaign and that kind of took me out of the Star Wars vibe but I’m glad you enjoy them.
Those three books are the best Star Wars novels period
💯 ! Great Books
I was a huge fan of the films growing up, but the first time I read Heir to the Empire, it took me to that next level of fandom. I agree with you 100% that the Thrawn trilogy is the true sequel trilogy.
100%.
As much as I love the original trilogy and with a comparison between the two hard to quantify...personally, I Love the Thrawn Trilogy even more. Star Wars at It's absolute Peak Best ;)
My favourite 10 EU novels I've read so far:
- Dark Tide duology
- Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
- Tales from Jabba's Palace
- Jedi Academy: Dark Apprentice
- Darth Plagueis
- Splinter of the Mind's Eye
- Agents of Chaos duology
- Vector Prime
Though I'm a fan of the original films, I've never read the Star Wars books, so it's cool to hear you discuss them! Thanks, Mike!
You beat me to it! 😊
The books actually made me more of a fan of the films
Don't mean to beat a dead horse, but read Thrawn Trilogy!!!
Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, Daley’s Han Solo trilogy, etc. Do it!
@@ImTheReverse dew it
I love the Thrawn trilogy I read it for the first time recently and those books now hold a very special place in my heart! Especially Mara Jade :)
I'm right there with you Mike! Similar in age, so I remember what a HUGE deal Heir to the Empire was, walking past the Waldenbooks and doing a double take. More Star Wars??! Yes please. (They were sold to me as canon, maintained well in continuity over years, so they will always be true Star Wars to me.)
X-wing would definitely crack your top 5, if not top 3. Stackpole did a great job, then Allston cranked it to 11.
I just love it that you are providing booktube content on Star Wars EU in 2021. I'm here for it.
I’m just glad I’m not alone. Seems like it is starting to fall into obscurity.
Yes more Star wars content! The Thrawn Trilogy is how I originally found your channel.
Same here! Along with his Stephen king videos and WOT.
Man the Yuuzhan Vong are straight savages with the grafting and self-mutilation. Scared me silly. Their organic tech was awesome as well
Basically depowered the Jedi and made the villains threatening again. Such a neat idea.
@@mikesbookreviews I agree
@@mikesbookreviews Still baffles me when people hate on the Vong for “not being Star Wars”.
The X-Wing novels were a big part of my childhood. They are easily some of the best _Star Wars_ novels ever written.
Love the EU books. X-wing was fantastic.
This came out just as I was looking for books to read in the Expanded Universe/Legends, so that is awesome.
You need to read the Darth Bane Trilogy. Path of Destruction is incredible
Such a good series! Highly recommended.
Agreed, my all time favorite EU series.
Agreed I think path of destruction is easily the best of the trilogy
The illest shit.
I LOVE shadows of the empire! My fav Star Wars book, it just fits so well between the movies
Me too😊I don't get the flak!!
I bought Heir to the Empire when it first came out in paperback before we went on a weekend camping trip. My wife was so pissed because I spent almost the entire time with my nose in the book. I really think they were beyond foolish to not adapt The Thrawn Trilogy for the sequels.
Maybe you could have read aloud to her, she might have been happier. ;)
I haven't read any star wars yet, but do you think they could have adapted Thrawn with the actors 30 years older rather then 5? Could the story adjust to being that much later? Cause it would probably cost a fortune, even for Disney, de-aging all of your leading actors for 3 movies.
Loved the list and the love given to NJO. It's my favorite series I've ever read.
Same NJO is awesome it has some of the best stuff in the EU imo
Stover's Acts of Caine series is so good. I can't wait to hear your take on it.
Thanks for the comments on the series. I haven't read any of these books yet, but I've been collecting them on my Kindle over the last two months. Looking forward to getting into the series next year.
I'm glad a day you put this out I've been wanting to start this.
I was a big fan of the EU back in the day, and I devoured a great many of the books back when they were originally being released, but I fell off at some point. Recently I've been slowly rebuilding my collection, and it's great to hear about some of the volumes I never read and it's getting me excited about these books all over again. Great video, thanks Mike.
My pleasure! Thanks for watching.
I got introduced to this franchise two years ago and I fell in love with it. I want to get into the novels but it has so many titles that I find it overwhelming, don't know where to begin
Start with the original Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn: “Heir to the Empire,” “Dark Force Rising,” and “The Last Command.”
You did it again. Now I’ve got to finish the NJO. my TBR list grows some more.
I love the EU books! They are currently releasing some of the EU books in a larger format, like a trade paperback, called The Essential Legends Collection. The first round was: Heir to the Empire, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, and Shatterpoint. Second round is: Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Darth Bane: Rule of Two, and Rogue Squadron. Third round comes out next year with the last book of the Darth Bane trilogy, I believe the 2nd book in the X-Wing series, and 1 or 2 other books.
This is awsome to see what your top 10 are as I'm working my way through the EU right now!
Corran Horn did indeed debut in the first X-Wing book. I read a couple of them back in the 90s when they first came out but unfortunately never kept up with them. I stumbled on your Thrawn trilogy last night and I have to thank you because you inspired me to order the first book of the trilogy. Thanks to amazon prime I will be starting the book this evening. This will mark my return to Star Wars expanded universe in at least 23 years! Thought I would give you a shout out on that!
You should do individual Star Wars book reviews
I love this idea, but It'll never happen. The sw vids don't get the views.
Thank you so much for this video! I've been looking for something like this video for a while. I even asked ppl on facebook for their suggestions but this epic! Thanks!
Ooooh I am so excited to watch this!! Thank you. I didn’t know where to start.
Hope you enjoy, if you do start.
As a piece of literature, nothing beats Stover's Revenge of the Jedi novelisation. But my personal faves are the Han Solo trilogy by Crispin.
As a fellow SW-EU fan, I truly admire that your collection appears to consist of mostly/only pre-Disney prints. Hats off to you, good sir!
I definitely have a lot to look forward to. I started the slow journey to start from
The beginning of “Legends”. Only 5 books in but excited for more.
I picked up the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn just a few days ago and I am already 160 pages into the first book. It feels like a true sequel trilogy. I love it so far.
Kurt Russel is perfect visual for Dash Rendar, thanks for that, haha
awesome video, love your Star Wars EU content!
Glad you like them!
HIGHLY recommend X Wing, especially with the movie coming out. The first four are like a stand alone story and then the next three focus on a different group. Good stuff!
I probably only read ten of these total, but the ones that particularly stand out to me are The Paradise Snare, Darksaber and The Mandalorian Armor
Darth Plagueis and the Darth Bane trilogy are highly recommended
Awesome to hear you're going to give the X-Wing books a read. Tip: After you're done with them, do Courtship of Princess Leia. The story with Rogue Squadron's chief antagonist Warlord Zsinj ends in 'Courtship'
My biggest problem with NJO was how many stories were split into two books (or three, in one case). That was the first time I remember thinking that Lucasfilm was just milking it.
Michael Stackpole is great. I love most everything I've read from him.
Heir to the Empire and Shadow of the Empire are my 2 favorites. I would put Shadow above Heir but not by much. Loved the list thought it was solid.
Mike I started reading the EU because of an older video you did that mentioned them. I've been surprised how good they are.
I love shadows of the empire too! Love how it answers so many things between ESB and ROTJ and how Luke made his lightsaber. And Xizor!
I'm a huge Star Wars fan, Books, Comics, Games, and of course the movies and TV shows.
Great list.
I’ve read most of the same books you have. Star Wars was so amazing. I was known as the Star Wars girl in elementary school in the 90’s. I was odd but always had a Star Wars book in hand. NJO was gut wrenching. Star by Star was 😭😭😭😭 I stopped for a bit after that. I read them as they came out. So MANY tears. Zahn will always have written episodes 7-9 for me.
Great list! Honestly, there aren't as many continuity errors are people make there out to be, especially with numerous retcons that (largely) serve to smooth things out, deepen the lore, and don't feel cheap. And...yes, you should definitely read the X-wing books (I'm getting there, myself, in my reread), but Fate of the Jedi, despite a couple of sluggish plot threads, is worth reading, as well. Beyond that, some other must-reads are the Darth Bane trilogy, Republic Commando, Jedi Apprentice/Quest/Last of the Jedi/Rebel Force (the connecting story legitimately made me tear up at its conclusion), and Young/Junior Jedi Knights. A lot of them are for young readers, but I honestly don't understand using that or "YA" as a negative with Star Wars. I honestly think the saga is at its best when it's embracing the PG/TVY7 feel that can appeal to all ages. Anyway, my top ten, as of this moment, would be...
10. Inferno
9. The Hutt Gambit
8. Heir to the Empire
7. I, Jedi
6. Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
5. Apocalypse
4. Revenge of the Sith (totally counts, with all the EU material)
3. Patterns of the Force
2. Vector Prime
1. Traitor
Apparently I'm a sucker for Matthew Stover's take on Star Wars.
I like the dark stuff and the politics, but I also like the PG Star Wars. Both work really well.
My top 3 looks like yours except that Traitor and Heir to the Empire are switched. I simply adore the depth of Stover's characterization of Jacen that made him my all time favorite EU character.
Hey Mike
I love Star Wars and I finally decided to start reading the books, I also didn’t know how to start the whole thing to get a better understanding of how it all starts.
Until a friend of mine introduced me to the
Star Wars high republic series then gave me a list of all the other books that follow all the way through the rise of skywalker.
It’s a lot of reading
It actually felt kind of intimidating lol
I don’t know if you have made a video on these books, but if not are you willing to make one?
It could help myself and other new Star Wars readers in the same situation.
Thank you
And keep up the good work 👍
My favourite part of this video was Andrew’s face when you said people dislike Shadows of the Empire. 🤣
We had a great time watching this one! He got more out of it than I did, but I’m going to start my EU journey with Thrawn this year and I’m looking forward to it ☺️
I know. It stunned me when I learned fans didn’t like it.
I just started reading Star Wars novelizations and Truce at Bakura is my first book. I'm through ch2 and gotta say, I love it so far
Haven't read any of these, but I guess I could try the Thrawn stuff.
As a big Star Wars fan, it’s great to have this kind of content. Thanks Mike, enjoyable video.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming anime?
I’m skeptical of any Star Wars Disney is doing. But I won’t ever trash something without watching it.
One thing I think that stands out from legends as opposed from Disneys books is the fact that Disney reserve all the big, consequential stories to their movies and shows. Even their more modern books like the high republic I feel they won’t do anything special because they probably will end up making a movie or tv series about it. The old legends books told some great stories that could easily be movies or shows and it made it fun to read and follow. The modern books focus more on characters and they won’t even touch the original characters from the films.
Too funny. I have been thinking about jumping into this universe and lo and behold.
Enemy Lines and I, Jedi? A man of culture I see! A fine list Mike, Star By Star would probably be my number 1, just so good!
Ha ha I don’t think anyone else I knew enjoyed Enemy Lines as much as I did. It felt like a throwback to A New Hope for me.
I just started my great star wars re-read. I recently finished the thrawn trilogy last month. Not reading quite one a month, but a solid pace. Next is Truce of Bakura by Kathy Tyers. Never read it.
Gonna read the stuff from before the movies later. I dont own any of the old republic books
I spent a lot of my teenage years reading these books. I really enjoyed the Thrawn Trilogy and the Rogue Squadron books.
There was a Trilogy of anthologies about The Cantina, Jabba's Palace and the Bounty Hunters that I really enjoyed.
I never got into the New Jedi Order for a variety of reasons. I was some what curious to go back to read them but finding out there are 19 books in the series sours me on that.
Vector Prime was a gut punch 👊
Star by Star was super heavy and also showed the kinda true sacrifice that heroes make.
Traitor is one of my all time star wars favorites, Ganner Rhysode is possible my favorite Jedi Knight.
I really loved Karpysian's Darth Bane trilogy as well 🖤🖤🖤
I was hoping you’d drop in. I knew you were a Ganner Geek like me.
@@mikesbookreviews hells yeah!!! The Ganner is an absolute legend 🙌
Add me to the fan list!
Just getting into Heir to the Empire and I am LOVING IT! So I am looking to what else to read…
Original Star Wars EU books are awesome 💯
Matched my top ten pretty closely. Especially Traitor being so high. I actually stopped reading the EU when I heard the follow-up to NJO ditched the unifying force thing and had Jacen fall to the dark side. I bet that story was interesting too, but I thought the idea of the unifying force was so much more so it just bummed me out. Vergere was clearly not a good person, but I liked the ideas Jacen carried through to the end of NJO because of her.
Jacen & Jaina were pretty good through LotF, but everyone else was so watered down and yeah, it took some of the emotional weight of NJO away. Also hated what they did with Mara Jade. Wasn’t nearly as earned as it should have been.
Agreed I really didn’t like the way they took the story after NJO to me jacen falling to the dark side just seems completely out character
I recently purchased Heir to the Empire, after watching last episode of Mando, and this will be my first actual Star Wars read. However, I feel that I need to watch the original three movies again as a refresher
I just read Heroes Die by Stover, I highly recommend it! It's a great sci-fantasy grimdark with some really cool concepts.
I just started rereading the EU. Haven’t touched them in a long time and feeling nostalgic. I spent an entire family beach vacation as a kid reading Heir to the Empire and being antisocial. Good times. 😉. Thanks so much for this list!
Man we have all the same interests. It’s wild, all of the book you show in your intro I own and have read. Have you read name of the wind? Huge fan of that one
Corran Horn had a short story in SW tales from the Empire called Missed Chance 97'. Not sure when I Jedi came out.
I hope you do a read along with some of these books. Maybe videos similar to the Stephen king ones. Love the star wars content
I enjoy the movies ( to varying degrees!) but haven't readl the books. Aside that is, from a novelisation of A New Hope that I read before the first movie released here in Scotland!
Thanks for the video, I really needed a whole new TBR 🙄😉
I haven't read all of the books, but I do love the Anthony Zhan books. I enjoyed the recent book about Darth Plageus (sp?). There are some excellent books. I don't understand how they haven't made movies from some of them. Also, a fun book was The Courting of Princess Leia, which was mostly about Han Solo.
I don't have specific books ranked, but the following series are musts, imo.
The Thrawn trilogy, and to a lesser extent the duology set a while later.
The Courtship of Leia.
The threesime of:
1. Labirynth of evil
2. Ep 3 novelization
3. Dark Lord Rising
New Jedi Order(highlights Vector Prime, Star by Star, traitor and the last 2).
Legacy of the Force
(Fate was also good, but I think the 3rd book was one that had some Jacen stuff).
Republic/Imperial commando books.
Dark Nest Trilogy
Darth Bane Trilogy
Shadows is the empire.
I loved scoundrels when I was younger, a han solo and lando heist story
Great video! I have been interested in the expanded universe for some time, but I have not dipped my toes in it yet. After this video, I have decided that I will read Heir to the Empire between some of the Malazan books.
Have you read the Dark Empire comics? If so, what are your opinion on those? I read them as a kid and was quite fond of them back then.
I think you should definitely look into Legacy as the consequences of Ver'gere's influence on Jacen has massive repercussions. You also get some great Madalorian action as well. (some seriously great Jedi/Mando face offs.
there so many Star wars books and now some are canon and some are legends; thanks for video
Yea!! Looking forward to the video. Thrawn trilogy was so good. Need to reread
Good list, Mike! Traitor is an amazing book and is set up well with Star by Star. It's probably my favorite Star Wars book but Unifying Force was a great conclusion like you said. Legacy of the Force was good but I wanted a darker ending, lol. Please do some videos when you read Fate of the Jedi. There's some things I don't like in that series and others that I thought were rather cool for long time EU fans.
Legacy of the Force felt so watered down after NJO. I still liked it, the bar was just set a little too high, I think.
@@mikesbookreviews I hear you there. Did you read Swarm War?
Never read any of the EU, but I played the hell out of the EU games - I especially adore the Dark Forces / Jedi Knight series with Kyle Katarn.
I loved outbound flight. But for the most part a agree with your list.
Loved the Jedi Apprentice series when I was growing up. The series that took place before episode 1 with Qui-gon training Obi-Wan. Not canon anymore but canon to me.
I never liked the starwars movies when I was a kid. I read Maul: Lockdown because he was my favorite character in the movies. I am now on the Bane trilogy and loving ever second! I also rewatched all the old ones and watched the new ones for the first time. The world is much more dark with super interesting political intrigue than I remembered. It's incredible and I'm excited to read so many of these books!
I have the exact same leatherbound versions of Necronomicon and Chronicles of Conan next to each other on my bookshelf 👍
I'd have to say some on my favorites would include the Republic Commando series. Mandalorian culture wouldn't be what it was with out Karen Traviss at the pen. I even took a hand at learning Mando'a because I enjoyed the series so much. It's the perfect series for those who love clone centered stories and in my opinion has one of the best secret Jedi romance plots ever. Tailing behind would be Deceived by Paul S. Kemp starring one of my favorite Sith Lords in the Old Republc era in Darth Malgus who truly feels like a prototype to Vader in some ways.
I have the Thrawn trilogy and the book Ken Liu wrote in my TBR pike. I've only read some of the newer books like the AFTERMATH trilogy by Chuck Wendig & SOLO movie book by Mur Lafferty.
I'm currently reading (most) of the EU novels and comics in chronological order, and I'd say my favorite (so far) is the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover. The film I think was great (blasphemy, I know) but the book made it so much more real and believable, literally putting yourself in the place of various characters as the story progresses.
I just passed the Kenobi novel by JJ Miller (19 BBY, just after ROTS, novel also great), to give you a reference of where I am so far in the timeline.
Glad you love the NJO as much as i do. Seems to get a bad rap at time. Have you read Rogue Planet? Its a prequel novel based on Zonama Sekot.
Darth Bane and Fate Of The Jedi are my favorite series.
Ok Mike so you pretty much had me at Hello on this one. Always been a big fan of the movies, especially Episodes 1-6 and Rogue One, but never took the plunge into the novels until now. After watching you’re vid I was Uber-stoked to find a set of 53 novels for about a buck a pop on FBM. So now I need to make sense of what I bought… your vid was great for motivation and suggestions for some possible starting points, but then I took a peek at ‘Book Series in Order’ for SWEU, and just about had a heart attack.
So I’m wondering if anyone in UA-cam Land can point me to a good link or two that can provide some simple reading orders that I can mull in my pondering, plodding way. I’m talking like something that treats me like I’m about 9 years old 😳
1. Jedi academy
2. I, Jedi
3. X-wing series right after ROTJ
4. Unifying Force
5. Thrawn trilogy
Thrawn
Mara Jade
Jaina Solo Fel
Jacen Solo
Anakin Solo
Lumiya
Abeloth
Revan
Bastila
Hk47
T3m4
Mission Vao
Zaalbar
Carth onasi
Canderous
Juhani
Darth Malak
Darth Nihilus
Visas Marr
Kreia
Darth Sion
Valkorion
Vaylin
Darth Talon
Darth Krayt
Kyle Katarn
Darth malgus
Satele Shan
Yuthura Ban
Uthar Wynn
And so many others are some of the best characters from THE EU
I'm highly offended that you implied Kurt Russel is the poor man's Harrison Ford. 🤣
My favourites are the Darth bane trilogy. Big fan of the old republic.
i think disney shouldnt have stopped doing the eu books, i think they should"ve countiued doing them and stuff like that, but then they could've also started there own canon and have them by like parrallle timelilnes and stuff like that, i think that would've made a lot people happy by not excluding EU fans and also they could"ve done there own thing with the movies and shows and new books and comics and stuff
Great video but dude, Darth Plagueis? It's by far my favourite but you didn't even have it in the top 10! Anyway thanks for the recommendations. I need to start reading the New Jedi Order books.
Read Darth Plagueis if you haven’t. Great choices for your top 10!
I have only read 1 or 2 Star Wars books, even though I was around 14 when the first movie was released in
I've been listening to the. audiobook version of. Hair to the empire. It's amazing I'm gonna listening to the last 2. In the thrawn trilogy
Okay Iver never read any star wars always been recommended to start but, question, where is best to start? And is there a best reading order?
I too have somehow not read the X-Wing books (and most of the Clone Wars era books), but read most of them over the course of the 90's - 2014 release period! I'm currently slowly knocking out ones I haven't read, though part of me wants the comfort of knowing that I still have new unread Star Wars books from the true canon, because Disney is now so divorced from everything I loved that it holds no weight or interest for me.
Okay and yeah, the Darth Bane trilogy would make my top 10, and I'm so glad that someone else has appreciation for Traitor because that Jacen story blew me away, my favorite NJO book. And yeah Heir would be #1 too. I remember getting that book not long after having finally seen the full SW trilogy in middle school, it was in paperback at the book store and when I saw it on that table my eyes widened. I read those books, I could hear the music, I could hear all the characters with their own voices, it was absolute love. The SW books for me are where my true love of the franchise is, along with the comics and some of the games like Dark Forces and KOTOR. The movies were the solid foundation, but it was the structure that was built on that foundation that I truly lived in.
Thrawn Trilogy is by far the best. The Hand of Thrawn duology is a fantastic continuation and should not be overlooked. I will admit I'm biased since for me, if it's not Zahn, I probably won't read it.
I have only read some star wars books I really enjoyed the ones that claudia gray wrote and the one about padme and light of the jedi
As much as I love the original trilogy and with a comparison between the two hard to quantify...personally, I Love the Thrawn Trilogy even more. Star Wars at It's absolute Peak Best ;)
X wing and fate of the jedi are incredible.