Star Wars Expanded Universe (1 Viewer)

[Michael Fennessy]

Does anyone know the "reading order" of the Star Wars Novels. I have only been able to find a list of them in Chronological order and that may not be the correct order. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

 

[GARY C]

http://www.theforce.net/timeline/
Try here, it has a timeline for the movies, comics and books.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Does anyone know the "reading order" of the Star Wars Novels

define "reading order"? if by publication order, then that might be a bit rough, don't think anyone keeps such a list, but a look at the year of publication (inside cover witht the copyright information) would give you an idea, bearing in mind each "group" or "trilogy" should probably be read in one go.

but as a starting point, just read Zahn's trilogy first. then you can decide whether to go into the EU headlong. IIRC, the next "group" published was the Jedi Academy trilogy. the others set in that time period (chronologically) are one-shots anyway, so you can probably read them in any order, e.g. Courtship of Princess Leia, Truce at Bakura.

actually, why not just read them in chronological order anyway? I don't think there are any major spoiler problems.

 

[Jon Bell]

If you check in the back of many of the novels you'll see a one-to-two page preview for several other books. The previews will also tell you when the story is set (in terms of X number of years after the events in Return of the Jedi). I agree with Yee-Ming's advice-- read the first Zahn trilogy, which I really liked. A lot of the others are pure crap (which didn't stop me from reading them).

Others that I liked are the Corellian trilogy, Darksaber and Vector Prime. The X-Wing books are supposed to be good, but I haven't read any of them (there are at least 8 of them out by now).

 

[Jeff Pryor]

If you can find a copy, start with Alan Dean Foster's 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye', the VERY first SW EU novel published, takes place after ANH.

 

[Dave E H]

Zahn's definitely the best - though I like the new series based off Vector Price. Pretty good.
Some are definitely nto very good. Check a used book store - that's where I sold all mine.

 

[Rob Lutter]

Zahn's EU books are awesome... read those first. I also like Kevin J. Anderson's work (Darksaber [about the Hutts creating a new Death Star], Young Jedi Knights series [about Luke's Jedi Academy])

 

[Clinton McClure]

My favorites are the Tales books (IE: Tales from Jabba's Palace, Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, etc...)

 

[Yee-Ming]

if anyone want's my 2-cents' worth, my thoughts on selected EU books appear below. for the record I have just about ALL the EU books (excepting childrens' books such as the Young Apprentice series, but including Young Jedi Knights).
IMHO, Zahn's books are among the best, both the initial Thrawn trilogy, as well as the later Hand of Thrawn duology (Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future). but the subsequent two are set much later in time, so it might be more enjoyable to read other books set in between before tackling these two.
the X-wing series are, IMHO excellent, running Zahn's books close for being the best in the EU. part of the reason is that the characters are not necessarily "inviolate", in that many of the new characters can be -- and are -- killed off if necessary, adding an element of trepidation when you read them. it's pretty obvious that the likes of Luke, Leia, Han, will NOT be killed in any of the books (I am aware of Vector Prime -- obviously! -- but let's not get into that right now...)
I had mixed feelings about the Jedi Academy trilogy. these were published relatively early, so I wasn't as critical of them since I was just happy to have something SW to read (this is years before Ep1, remember). in retrospect they were perhaps all right, but not excellent.
the Han Solo trilogy (set before ANH) is also quite good, expanding his backstory. as are the two collections of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian short(er) stories. as well as the Bounty Hunter Wars, not relevant to the main plot so a pleasant diversion.
for the standalones, Courtship of Princess Leia is interesting, considering that we know how it ends up. IMHO, the low points are books like Crystal Star, and to a lesser extent Truce at Bakura, Planet of Twilight.
the New Jedi Order books are also good, though there are high and low points: Vector Prime set it up, but itself was so-so, Balance Point a bit blah, Star by Star and Dark Journey are quite good, as is the latest Rebel Dream 1. but IMHO if you're tackling everything for the first time, leave these until after you've exhausted the rest, and there are some 30-40+ books set prior to NJO anyway, so that'll keep you out of mischief for a long while...
and let's not even go into the Dark Horse comics -- which I also have :b

 

[Dave E H]

I really thought the Jedi Academy was the weakest of the series in the EU.
And the only book I didn't read was tales from Mos Eisley - as I didn't really get into the first tales book (which basically means that my 2 hours of reading didn't go as quickly as they usually do.)

 

[Matt Krapf]

Jon Bell, makes a great point about previews in the backs of books.

Also, an EASY move is to goto a book store and in any SW book currently published...in the first page or two is a (more or less) complete chronology and where the books fit into it.

By looking at 2 or 3 of these chronologies, you can see every book written, and where it happens in the SW-EU.

Good luck, and enjoy. I'm waiting for Rebel Stand right now. (Due 5/28)