Favorite Star Wars novels.

I know some of you out there read the Star Wars novels.
I know Gazrok does, and so do I.
What I want is people to list their favorties and why.
Here's my list.
1. Cloak of Deception by James Luceno: I love the political overtones of this work. Pretty insightfull considering its a sci-fi novel. Luceno must read up on conspiracy theories.
2. Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reeves: How can you not love a novel solely around the kickass Sith from ep-1. jar jar should've died, not Maul!!!!!!!

3. Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry: My absolute favorite Star Wars novel of all time. Prince Xixor was possibly the coolest villian ever besides Maul or Vader or the Yuuzhan Vong. Vader is a badass in this book. This is absolutely a must read.
4. Solo Command by Aaron Alston: Incredible space battles, hillarity, whats not to love?
5. The Last Command by Timothy Zahn: Admiral Thrawn is possibly the best post episodic Imperial character of all time. A shame he had to go. The Empire rules!!!!! Read this book to know why.
6. Isards Revenge by Mike Stackpole: The best of the Battletech authors makes a successfull foray into Star Wars (he wrote most of the X-wing series before this one) and this book is a good one. Ysaane Isard is a cool female villian. Although her return is a little weak, it was nice to see the finality of her reign.
7. Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore: Salvatore introduces us to the Yuuzhan Vong and the greatest storyline ever in Star Wars. (Yes, better than episodes 4-6)
8. Star by Star by Troy Denning: Gigantic space battles, a fallen hero, drama and the loss of one of the most important worlds in the SW universe to the ruthless invaders. My second fav of all the SW novels.
9. Destinys Way by Walter Jon Williams: Huge, epic space battles, well written politics and finally some hope for the good guys. A major villian bites the dust as well.

Well thats my list. I haven't read all of mthe SW novels (not enough time, still reading the NJO) but this accurately shows my favs.
Hope I'm not the only Star Wars nerd on this forum.

Hmmmmmmmm... Seems I AM the only SW nerd on the site...*hangs head in shame*

Don't fear!

My favorites are...

The Thrawn Trilogy
Star By Star (My favorite Star Wars book ever)
Edge of Victory I
The Unifying Force
I, Jedi
Vector Prime
Shadows of the Empire
Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Tales From Mos Eisley's Cantina
Tales From Jabba's Palace
Destiny's Way
The Han Solo Trilogy
The New Rebellion

*Whew!*
Nice to see I'm not the only one out there, nice list by the way.

My favourites are the Thrawn trilogy and the Jedi Academy trilogy. I also read the Lando Calrissian trilogy and the Han Solo trilogy. (star wars sure loves trilogies...) I have read the two collections of short stories, Tales From Mos Eisley's Cantina and Tales From Jabba's Palace.

I got Cloak of Deception by James Luceno 2 or 3 years ago for Christmas, and I thought it was a pretty crappy book, myself, so I haven't read any of the other ones written in the 'prequel' times, with young Anakin and all the rest.

I've also read the stories for the three original movies, and they are very good, as well, and have lots of extra stuff not featured in the movies. People wondered how I knew that Anakin would fall into a pit of lava fighting with Obiwan in Revenge of the Sith, they thought I must've had a secret wiretap in George Lucas' basement... but no, I had just read those books, where it explicitly told you that. Lots of other goodies in there, too.

Anything with Boba Fett...

Tales of the Bounty Hunters (All of the Tales... are pretty cool actually)
The Bounty Hunter Wars (trilogy)
Vector Prime (Really getting into the NJO stuff)
Like the X-Wing series arc

I've owned the Bounty Hunters Wars trilogy for quite a while yet haven't read them yet. Haven't read any clone wars stuff either. (Pissed that most of it is in comic book form, I prefer in depth epic novels like the NJO)
The NJO is in my opinion the best of all the SW novels to date.

Personally I loved the NJO. Some fans I've talked to disliked it since overall it is much darker than many if not all of the Star Wars novels that preceded this series and they do kill a lot of character, but the series was superb.

By killing off several main characters (won't name names in case there are those who still haven't read the series) the team at Lucas Books who shaped the entire storyline ensured that a sense of realism creeped into the books. And in so doing (IMHO) the gained a lot of newer fans who were more attuend to Military Sci Fi and hard Sci fi then space Operas.
I hope the next series, the legacy of the force, continues this trend.
If not then I hope it's as least as good as the Zahn books in New Republic storylines.

I would love to see more books written on the creation of the Empire and the beginning and early battles of the Rebellion.
In the scroll for Episode IV it mentions a Rebel victory in the asteroid feilds (wherever the hell that is) would love to see books written to link the whole IV-VI trilogy with the rise of Vader storylines.

NJO was a great series my only complaint was that it went on to long. Star by Star, Destiny's Way and Unifying Force were fantastic. I was wondering has anyone else read the Dark Nest Trilogy yet.

One of the reaons I loved the NJO so much was that it did go on for seemingly forever. I would love to read the Dark nest trilogy as its written by Troy Denning, but I'm only on Force heretic I Remnant in the NJO.
(Way behind on my reading.)
My main complaint with the whole Clone Wars saga is that it had the ability to be the greatest storyline in the SW universe.
But in my opinion they boshed it badly by concentrating so much cool story line threads with the damn comic series and the cartoon. Most SW fans read the novels and most of us don't even bother with the comics and the other.

Quite right SpecAgentDW. It really is a shame when an entire saga is blown. Its bad enough to release a novel thats not up to standards but to blow a saga that they've had nearly two decades to develop its as tragic and disturbing as a favorite Jedi falling to the dark side

I finished the last book in the Dark Nest Trilogy. The series was alright. Not my favorite Star Wars trilogy. I have to get a copy of the book on the Outbound Flight Project that came out in late January still and I look forward to the next epic series Heirs of the Force I think it's called. It's supposed to be around 9 books.

And a great exmaple of a novel not up to standards hell trained monkeys could've wrote a betteer novel than this trype would be The Crystal Star by Vonda McIntyre. Never even finished it, should've known better seeign she was a Trek author first. I tired a Trek novel and actually fell asleep reading it! BORING

[edit on 7-2-2006 by SpecAgentDW]

Someone who read the trilogy told (Dark Nest by the way) that in one of the books there was a sugggested orgy involving some of the characters!?!?!?!? How the hell did that get into a Star Wars novel????
I know that there was some suggestive sex in Shadows of the Empire and in Tatooine Ghost (Loved that one by the way) but I'm just curious as to why they did it in Dark Nest. My friend told me it had no point to the storyline.

Well the only thing that I can think of is Jaina Solo and Zekk got a little friendly(friendly cuddling as Jaina called it) but other than that I'm pretty sure someone was pulling your leg or at least didn't read the novels and was misinformed themselves.

I hate to say it, but I found my first gripe with the NJO
I'm a little over halfway through Force Heretic I: Remnant (Very good BTW) and have come across the death of the Yevetha. (The bad guys from the slow moving Black Fleet Crisis trilogy)
I have to admit, I wanted to se the action, the Yevetha were bad asses, I expected more from them.
Anywho, just thought I'd mention that.

I hear the new Legacy of the Force series (Coming out later this year) may tie up the prequal trilogy story with the original one.
Personally I think they need to flesh out the Clone Wars, like that'll ever happen....what do I know, I'm just a fan who BUYS!!!! the product!!!!!!!!

The Dark Nest trilogy had a connection with Episode 3. Luke and Leia finally find out who their mother was. As far as the Yevetha that did blow goats man they threw it out their pretty nonschalant which really pissed me off.

I see no mention of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, one of the first (if not THE first) novel outside of the movies. Semi-entertaining (Luke swimming LOL) and just kind of light-hearted and fun.

I haven't read most of the older novels primarily because I got attached to the younger characters. Like the Solo kids and their friends. I guess because they were suppose to be around my age.