The New Jedi Order

[theorangemonkey]

If you're reading this, you're more than likely familiar with Star Wars, as a cultural touchstone if nothing more. After the success of the original trilogy, Lucas authorized the continuation of the story in a series of novels, the first of which was published in 1992 and looked at the attempts by the Rebels to build a new galactic

Comments

[citizenofzozo]

This is a great way to not read 18 books. XD I tried reading one Star Wars novel - don't remember if it was NJO or not - but it still seemed too much like fanfiction to me and I just couldn't get into it.

By the way, I'm pretty sure novels started coming out well before 1992. Jans has a Star Wars novel from before Empire came out that kind of contradicts what later became canon. (;

[theorangemonkey]

Glad to be of assistance towards your not reading :o)

I was thinking specifically in terms of the books that continued the story post-Jedi (starting with the Thrawn trilogy); there were some that were published earlier, but they took place before/during the movies, are so non-canonical they'd make you cross-eyes, and weren't very good :o)

Over all, Star Wars novels are a mixed bag. Some are good, some are just atrocious, and some, like you said, read as poor fanfiction. Oddly enough, I've found that the ones that I've enjoyed the most are onces that don't tie into the movies at all - Traitor, which was part of the NJO dealing solely with Jacen Solo, Coruscant Nights, which is a noir-ish detective story set between the two trilogies of movies, and Republic Commando, which was based on a video game but was written by Karen Traviss, and I really enjoy her non-Star Wars sci-fi books, so that last one shouldn't be a surprise.

[citizenofzozo]

Heh, well, didn't mean that it read like BAD fanfiction... it really wasn't that bad - I read it 'cause it's one of Janson's favourites, a trilogy by Timothy Zahn, a personal favourite author of his - I'm just not into tie-in novels like that. (And I still think, canon or not, the novels ARE fanfiction, technically speaking...)

But yeah, I've heard enough from Jans about the varying quality of Star Wars novels. He's reading I think a fairly new series at the moment on recommendation of a coworker. I can't remember the name of it off-hand, though I think it also has a lot to do with Jacen and Jaina, and Wedge and his daughter end up on opposing sides of a conflict. I could get you the name if you're interested, he's been enjoying the books so far.

[theorangemonkey]

The defintion of 'fan-fiction' gets a little tricky once you're looking at professional stuff, I think; most comics, movies, and TV shows end up being written by people other than those that create them at some point.

Sounds like Jans is on the series after the one I just finished; but, to be honest, I need to take a little bit of a break from Star Wars novels after this one.