Least favorite Star Wars Novel?

[noctum_carpe]

Hum, i guess i gotta start reading those books so that i know what you are all talking about. Well i guess its the libary after work.
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[LamontCranston]

bounty hunter wars - 1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story 2) Did k.w.jeter even know who the pre-existing characters he was writing about were? Would it have killed him to spend one afternoon reading Tales of the Bounty Hunters?
the truce at bakura
jedi academy trilogy
children of the jedi
darksaber
crystal star
planet of twilight
black fleet crisis - although to be honest I only read the first book, barely
corellian trilogy - dito
new rebellion
new jedi order & everything since - salvatore had the same problem with pre-existing characters as k.w.jeter, plus I found the whole premise rather lame (would what Zahn, Bantam and Dark Horse were trying to develop have been any better?) so didn't read the rest, same goes for what has been published since

I read all these when I was a kid/young teen so I can just barely remember my complaints about these (except bounty hunter wars, I'll take that bad memory to the grave)

[Matthias777]

I'm surprised that some people really didn't like the Jedi Academy trilogy...what did you guys find that you didn't like about it? And I for one, liked Darksaber (although it has been quite a while since I read it, I'll admit).
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Arek | Kage

[Melorn]

Salvatore can't keep his own characters acting like they should.

I dont care for what anderson and alliston write.
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[Gry Sarth]

The Jedi Academy Trilogy was quite mixed bag for me. I loved the overall story and characters, but it's in the details that it annoyed me at parts.

First and foremost, the Star Crusher. Talk about unbalanced. That thing was starfighter-sized, starfighter-maneuverable, launched missiles that could wipe out entire star-systems, but worse of all, it was COMPLETELY indistructible. It could fly right through a Star Destroyer or sit cosily inside a Gas Giant. Exagerations like that pull me completely out of a story.

I found it much more satisfying to see the events from the Jedi Academy Trilogy though a different perspective in I, Jedi.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Matthias777]

Oddly enough, I think the thing that I mentally scoffed at the most in the Jedi Academy trilogy was Kyp crushing himself up and then placing himself in a message pod. And yes, the Sun Crusher was unbalanced, but I think for what it was, it was handled well as a plot device. But it was definitely a bit beyond even the believable scope of the Star Wars galaxy's superweapon repertoire.
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Arek | Kage

[Ankhanu]

[masque]

I think Jedi Academy was a mixed bag, as well, but I enjoyed the places where it connected to the Tales of the Jedi comics.
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Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

[Jedi Skyler]

I agree with you, Gry. While I liked the overall story, details like the Sun Crusher were completely off the scale, and would never make good fodder for the RPG.

I think that overall, I,Jedi was my favorite of all the books. I just loved the way the story flowed, the way it connected to the Jedi Academy trilogy, and also the fact that it introduced a new Force tradition that was close enough to the Jedi to be attractive without being Jedi. Kinda explains why they escaped destruction at Palpatine's hands, because he surely would have seen them as targets had they been completely light-side.

[Matthias777]

For more positive discussion (without derailing this thread), go here: http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=63868
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Arek | Kage

[Doomhead]

I also thought the idea of the sun crusher was Munchkin to the max, star fighter scale, indestructible, capable of destroying an entire solar system! Oh lame... (Although, I like the idea of molecular bounded armor). I also liked the Dark Empire comics series...I can't really say that I've read too many of the other books, any suggestions on picking them up cheap? I’m currently limited on what I can spend, we just added a new edition to the family and we had to buy a gas guzzling soccer mom car for my wife….
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[Matthias777]

For brand new books, get the paperbacks from Wal-Mart as soon as they come out. They run a dollar or two cheaper than the list price. All the other large retailers that I've seen charge full price right from the get-go. For books that have been out awhile, I suggest Half.com. You can usually find gently used books at a discount, and save on shipping if you buy more than one from the seller.

For the comics, I'd suggest getting the Omnibus trade paperbacks if available. Currently all of the X-wing comics are omnibussed (meaning that they combined multiple trade paperbacks into even fewer paperbacks), and they've started doing the Tales of the Jedi comics as well. The Omnibus TPBs are slightly smaller than the original trades, but it's not bad and all the scaling and color is just fine.

Getting back on topic, someone mentioned the New Rebellion. I had almost forgotten about that one...which is arguably a good thing. I don't know how to explain it, but even reading it as a kid, it felt "hollow" somehow. The whole Kueller thing just seemed a bit forced, as well.
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[Hellcat]

[Blacksheep32]

I can't stand NJO or anything "new." Pretty much I stick to X-wings, Tales of... and Timothy Zahn. Splinter of the Minds eye was so so in my opinion. Sun Crusher was definitely a plot device, I think it was to propose a scenario of the man-portable nuke what if??? oh yeah and controlled by a dark spirit of the Sith.

Alot of people didn't like the last x-wing book (Starfighter's of Dumar IIRC) but I loved it. I think the author nailed the attitudes of the characters perfectly. Dark Sabre was okay. I kinda liked the Bounty Hunter wars. (That's the what happened to Boba Fett right?)

Personal preference, but I never really got into Luke Skywalker either. Always seemed kinda whiny and too unbalanced. One minute he's all powerful the next he's knocked around by some teeny bopper.

In short- Jedi shmedi, I's got me a Wookie! 8)
Han shot first!

PS Almost forgot (and this proves I'm a SW superfan) I suggest the complete guides. They introduce you to different characters/ships/droids that might help you figure out what kind of stories to read. Plus they can add flavor to a RPG by including them as an NPC. My old GM ran us through the OT and then beyond and we'd see or help or accomplish missions for canon characters it was really awesome.

[Expendable Hero]

While reading over this post I realized that while I don't hate or even particularly dislike NJO it doesn't have the same feel or pull me in like the other novels I read. In fact by the end I pretty much lost interest in reading star wars books on the whole. I haven't picked up any new books since I finished the last of the books in that series. I guess mostly it was the degree to which they changed everything that had gradually evolved in the way I looked at the Star Wars universe as I read through the books. I guess I never got fully over what they did to Chewie and it just went from there. Its kinda sad because I was obsessive about reading all the books up untill that point even the ones that bored me.
So I guess for me NJO are the worst ones. Not because they where porley written or anything like that but because they tried so hard to come up with something different that they ended up killing most of the things I really like in the books and left me with mostly things I was lukewarm about. If I could go back and not read them I would so that I could still have the same enjoyment I had with the rest.