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Timothy Zhan Writes the best Star wars Novels.
Especially The Thrawn Trilogy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chuck Sonnenburg.

LoL 50/50. I voted Luceno. Zahn is a great writer, but come on, Ysalmari, negating the force. Luceno man. All three books I read just screamed Star Wars. I wish they'd let him write something like BFC or Jedi Academy trilogy

Zahn is tops for me..by a large margin.

How can someone vote for anyone other than Zahn or Denning (who, BTW, is not up there, but isn't as good as Zahn anyway, so it doesn't matter). Zahn is the best plot writer, by far, and Denning writes the best combat. There.... really are no two ways about it. Zahn also has the best characters.

Master of Ossus wrote:How can someone vote for anyone other than Zahn or Denning (who, BTW, is not up there, but isn't as good as Zahn anyway, so it doesn't matter). Zahn is the best plot writer, by far, and Denning writes the best combat. There.... really are no two ways about it. Zahn also has the best characters.

Then you've never read Cloak of Deception or the Hero's Trial duology.

my fav author is Michael A. Stackpole. Maby he dosent have the best plot lines or the best action but its very close to being the best. But Stackpole is great in both plot lines and action. And Corran Horn has to be one of the best EU characters. Stackpole is the master of putting spies into books and gives them human characteristics that dont give them superhuman luck to get out of sticky spots

What did Luceno write? And isn't he one half of the duo that wrote under the pseudonym Jack McKinney, who wrote the Robotech novels, among others?

DG_Cal_Wright wrote:

Master of Ossus wrote:How can someone vote for anyone other than Zahn or Denning (who, BTW, is not up there, but isn't as good as Zahn anyway, so it doesn't matter). Zahn is the best plot writer, by far, and Denning writes the best combat. There.... really are no two ways about it. Zahn also has the best characters.

Then you've never read Cloak of Deception or the Hero's Trial duology.

On the contrary, I have read every SW book ever published, with the exception of the Galaxy of Fear series (I have not read the comics). I found them to be okay, and I liked the metaphor for the Jews in the Hero's Trial... but...it...was...so obvious and it felt forced. I actually did not much care for cloak of deception, but I would love to hear what you particularly liked about those books.

Mike Stackpole. Absolutely.

IG-88E wrote:Mike Stackpole. Absolutely.

He has seemed to me to be really inconsistent. Some of his books are very good, but others seem to fizzle on me. Maybe I'm just weird. Can you tell me what you see in him?

First, he writes about X-wings, which I love.

Second, he's got Corran Horn, Mirax and Booster Terrik, Ysanne Isard, Ooryl Qyrgg, Iella Wessiri, Asyr Sei'lar, the list goes on...

Third, he gets in a lot of new perspective. I, Jedi has literally pages of debating about morality and the light/dark sides of the Force. It was the first such SW book I read, and i loved it.

Fourth, The Bacta War has a lot of SW symbology in it that I appreciate.

Fifth, you never know how he'll solve a problem. Just look at Corran's Lancer trick in Rogue Squadron, or the planetary mirror in Wedge's Gamble.

Sixth, in Isard's Revenge, he revived characters from the Rogue Squad comic series.

There are other reasons, but I can't think of them rite now.

Stackpole is the shmit, Zahn has the best storylines, and KJA introduces the some good concepts.

IG-88E wrote:First, he writes about X-wings, which I love.

Second, he's got Corran Horn, Mirax and Booster Terrik, Ysanne Isard, Ooryl Qyrgg, Iella Wessiri, Asyr Sei'lar, the list goes on...

Third, he gets in a lot of new perspective. I, Jedi has literally pages of debating about morality and the light/dark sides of the Force. It was the first such SW book I read, and i loved it.

Fourth, The Bacta War has a lot of SW symbology in it that I appreciate.

Fifth, you never know how he'll solve a problem. Just look at Corran's Lancer trick in Rogue Squadron, or the planetary mirror in Wedge's Gamble.

Sixth, in Isard's Revenge, he revived characters from the Rogue Squad comic series.

There are other reasons, but I can't think of them rite now.

The X-Wing novels were inconsistent. I liked some of them, including The Krytos Trap, but I could not understand the characters in the first one. They were weak, and felt like cut-outs. The characters you mentioned were okay, but they paled in comparison with some other EU characters. To be honest, I find Corran to be rather annoying, rather than strong. I do not like his morality plays, and I did not like I, Jedi in the least. I found it to be about fifty pages of information crammed into six hundred. "The Bacta War" has a lot of "symbology," and you appreciated that. Many posts have correct "terminology" and I appreciate that. BTW, what "symbology" did you note in the Bacta War? To be honest, I have yet to notice a SW book as a strong symbolic novel, although small forays have been made. Can you give me some examples of the symbolism that you noted in the book? I do like the way that he deals with problems, but again, I find him to be inconsistent. I also do not find that particularly striking in his work. I do not find it any stronger than Zahn or Allston or Denning. I really think he's just an inconsistent writer. Sometimes he'll write a book and I just LOVE it, but then he comes out with a ho-hum one and I can't help but feel he cheated me out of a good story. He is obviously capable of writing top-notch work, but not all of his books are very good. I think he just needs to focus more on what makes some of his books so good in order to improve himself tremendously.

Since your biggest nitpick is the symbology of TBW, I'll start with that.
I was actually going to start a thread about this, but you've forced me to start here.

A lot of this symbology is incomplete and probably accidental, but it is substantial enough that its up for debate. And BTW, I mean symbology: Bacta War in relation to the movies as a whole.

Movies/novel

Empire/Thyferra
Rebels/Rogues
Several comparisons are made here. A small guerilla force able to strike at will against a strong force that must wipe them out. Lots of people who don't seem to care, as long as they get their supplies (bacta)

Destrution of Alderaan/Destruction of Halanit
This one is deliberate and is brought up in the novel. An innocent world without and real defenses takes a minor stand and gets wiped out by the Empire. There's also a bit of the Battle of Hoth mixed in, since Gavin has a limited time for fighting before he has to run.

Death Star/Corrupter
The Corrupter was actually the most aggressive ISD in Isard's force. Having attacked the Rogues and one of their own convoy ships. Its leading the Halanit force makes it the Death Star, which brings us to our next comparison:

Battle of Yavin/destruction of Corrupter
The "superweapon" is detroyed in a battle with all odds against the small force. They win through surprising and unaniticipated luck and tactics.

Battle of Endor/final fight at Thyferra
Obviously the Lusankya represents the DS2, a mighty weapon the small guys throw everything they have at. Captain Drysso being killed by a subordinate represents the Emperor being killed by Vader. On the ground, Iella's group gets in through a poorly guarded "back door" and overruns the capitol buliding. (the shield generator)

ISDs Errant Venture and Freedom
These represent the Empire's assets siezed by the Rebels (EV) and the defectors (Freedom)

There's more, but I think you get my ideas
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As for the characters, well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you don't like Corran, or others, fine.
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How do you find him inconsistent? No, really, explain this to me.

Now I know why that book never set well with me. It's a KJA novel in disguise. It's nice that it seems like he actually drew from the movies for a Star Wars story, but instead of making interesting characters and killer story, he just switched names around. How many ISDs took on the SSD? All the Lusankya had to do was concentrate fire on one ship at a time and they would have gone up like smoke.

HA! And there you have another connection: Imperial arrogance!

Did Palpatine allow the Imperial fleet to come in and pound the Rebs? No! He ordered them to stay away while the DS2 shot skeet and wasted time until it got blown up.

Dryso looked at Wedge's 'fleet' the same way. He didn't concentrate his firepower at all! He totaly ignored the Valiant, which basically sat back and nibbled away at his shields until they were gone. He treated the ISD like they were harmless even though they both pounded on Lusankya, which added to the damage all the torps were doing. It was a battle he easily could have won, but was blinded by his own arrogance.