New Jedi Order books.

[weemadando]

I'm wanting to read these at some point and was wondering 2 things:

1) Should I? I mean, am I going to want to kill myself?

2) What books are essential or recommended, because there seems to be a lot of them.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I'm wanting to read these at some point and was wondering 2 things:

1) Should I? I mean, am I going to want to kill myself?

2) What books are essential or recommended, because there seems to be a lot of them.

Imagine being General of the Army, the Arabs have overrun America and DC is under attack, for some obscure reason the Pentagon doesn't exist and you're forced to conduct the Defense of D.C. from the floor of the US Senate, meanwhile the Senators are for some reason allowed to countermand and debate the validity of your orders. If you can stand that bullshit go ahead.

[Stofsk]

1) Should I? I mean, am I going to want to kill myself?

No you shouldn't.

2) What books are essential or recommended, because there seems to be a lot of them.

I read the 'recommended' book, Star By Star, which some people seem to think is 'decent'. See Schatten's post for a clue as to why it is to be avoided.

[Patroklos]

Oh God, I just read the summary of Star by Star and I must say I do not regret my decision to abandon the EU when I did.

[Darth Hoth]

The New Republic is epically incompetent in all matters political or military, this is not news to anyone even moderately familiar with the EU. Star By Star has its share of idiotic plot, minimalism and general ignorance, but at least it builds up some drama and manages a little bit of epic scope. It is among the better of the novels in the series, make of that what you will.

Of the other books, most people seem to appreciate the Luceno and Allston duologies the most (Agents of Chaos and Enemy Lines, respectively), along with the series ender, The Unifying Force. Traitor is also widely acclaimed, but also hated by many for its philosophy and a plot that "doesn't feel like Star Wars"; I personally did not find it all that good. Also in my personal opinion I would recommend Stackpole's duology (Dark Tide), both for being relatively readable and making a good introduction to the series (much superior to the first book, Vector Prime, in this regard). I am, however, on the record as being a Stackpole fan, which to most people here equals a certificate of insanity, so you might not want to take that up.

If you want a particular book to avoid so as not to incur terminal depression, stay as far away as possible from Balance Point. It holds the dubious honour of being easily the worst in the series, which considering the competition is quite an achievement indeed, and as far as I can recall it does not contain anything of value to the greater plot.

[Captain Seafort]

Imagine being General of the Army, the Arabs have overrun America and DC is under attack, for some obscure reason the Pentagon doesn't exist and you're forced to conduct the Defense of D.C. from the floor of the US Senate, meanwhile the Senators are for some reason allowed to countermand and debate the validity of your orders. If you can stand that bullshit go ahead.

All this does is demonstrate the institutional stupidity of the New Republic - it doesn't make SbS a bad book.

If you want a particular book to avoid so as not to incur terminal depression, stay as far away as possible from Balance Point. It holds the dubious honour of being easily the worst in the series, which considering the competition is quite an achievement indeed, and as far as I can recall it does not contain anything of value to the greater plot.

It's the start of the Vong's effort to split the galactic population away from the Jedi - one of the major plot arcs of the late-middle part of the series. Not that that improves the quality.

[Darth Yan]

Unifying Force is awesome. The final battles kick ass, the action sequences are top notch, and it's a pretty satisfying conclusion to the whole thing. Although the final battle is a little out of left field.

[Crazedwraith]

If you want a particular book to avoid so as not to incur terminal depression, stay as far away as possible from Balance Point. It holds the dubious honour of being easily the worst in the series, which considering the competition is quite an achievement indeed, and as far as I can recall it does not contain anything of value to the greater plot.

Bullshit. Dark Journey rivals if not exceeds Balance Point in being shitty. BP at least is the point where Jacen stands up, kicks ass and stops being quite so wussy.

[Darth Fanboy]

Ask yourself a few questions Ando:

-Are you going on an extraordinarily long trip where you will have little to do but read for upwards of 12 hours?
-Are you obtaining these books for free or at a trivial cost?
-Do you have incredibly low expectations?

If you answered "Yes" to all three of these questions then go right ahead. If you just want to get a picture of what happened though, you could probably save a lot of time by reading Wookiepedia summaries.