I drifted away from Star Wars tie-in novels in high school, but...

[edenfalling]

I am halfway through reading Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (horrible title, but it's written by Matthew Stover and I don't care), and so far my overall impression can be summed up thusly:

Lando Calrissian is fucking awesome, the end.

I like that in a book, you know?

...

I really need to read Shatterpoint one of these days. But not Stover's New Jedi Order book, because I refuse to wade through the continuity I would need to understand it. I love him, but not that much.

Comments

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

All of Stover's books are favs among the Star Wars fen I know who still read the EU. Star Wars was my first online fandom in fact, from the 90s with the Zahn books (the first three of which I LOVE). Mara Jade FTW. I think he did a Mace Windu one? that they liked a lot too. I really liked his Ep 3 novelization -- it really added something to the film.

[edenfalling]

I was really into Star Wars around the same time I was really into Star Trek -- 1994 through 1999, roughly, or junior high through high school -- and in both cases this mostly meant reading a lot of tie-in novels. I probably would have been in online fandom, too, if I'd had the opportunity, but my family didn't get the internet until 1996, and I didn't discover fandom/fanfiction until February 2002, via Harry Potter, so alas for missed chances! (Or not, because the fic I might have written doesn't bear thinking about. I am glad my writing from those days was all unfinished original fantasy sagas that will never see the light of day.) Anyway, I still love Zahn's first trilogy, but after a while all the other books started feeling kind of thin, and the characterization was not consistent enough for my tastes from author to author.

But Stover has been a favorite of mine since I read Heroes Die, so when I found out he was writing a Star Wars book -- and more specifically writing the novelization of Revenge of the Sith -- I had to buy it. And yeah, I think his work added a LOT to the movie. *grin*

Shatterpoint is about Mace Windu, yes, and I do intend to read it someday.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I had several long exchanges with some women on my LJ a few months ago wherein I discovered they were also Zahn fans. I was deep into SW for a while, but my favorites remain those first 3 books. Zahn captured the gee whiz feel of it all so wonderfully. By the time the Hand of Thrawn duology came out, I was deeply into it thought I liked those books less for various reasons. I never got into the NJO -- it was too grim though I know some fen who enjoyed some of it. I loved Stover's take on the duel between Dooku and Anakin. And I thought he really added terrific depth and internalization to Anakin's fall. Del Rey is releasing an anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire with annotations. Club Jade has been blogging about it. Sigh... the good old bad old days.... and the wretchedness of the Luke and Mara fic was what got me into fan fic in the first place oh those many years ago.

[edenfalling]

Mara Jade is awesome, and I really like how she and Luke play off each other. So why is it that so many people write her (and her-with-Luke) so badly? :-(