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Last Night Danyale and I were in the book store when I came across a new Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn, “Allegiance”. I liked the original Zahn trilogy, and a few other hardback Star Wars books, but overall I feel the overwhelming majority of Star Wars book are crap.

I know Zahn made a few other Star Wars books. What’s the verdict this and those books?

I read the books by Ahn (for episode 7, 8 & 9). I thought he did a great job with the characters and kept them more or less true to their nature.

His story telling was good (as for action/adventure sequences). The actual plot was overal disappointing in those books for me. As I recall none of them really hada clean break, except the last book.

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I have read a scwack of his SW books, just can't recall which ones they were for sure. Think the Thrawn Trilogy were by him and I enjoyed those immensely.

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"I built me a bomb and dropped it on every MFer who got in my way!"

Episode 7,8 and 9? Did I miss something?

Zahn is Responsible for the Characters of Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, the Vornsk, The Chiss (G.A. Thrawn) and the Ysalimari. (among Others) He is considered by most folks that have read the EU to be the foremost SW writer.

He set the standard for the SW books that the others want to measure up to. He wrote a Trilogy, referred to as The Zahn Trilogy and a Duology later in the SW timeline. The new one is news to me.

Really great books. If you read ANY EU, Zahn's books are among those you should read. ( also Shadows of the Empire) you should Also read the Rogue Squadron series. Really great. ( Ewok pilot anyone?)

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Thanks for the help!

So is the Hand of Thrawn Duology any good (Specter of the Past & Vision of the Future)? What about Outbound flight? Survivor's Quest? What about some GOOD Star Wars hard backs by other authors?

I know all about Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The last Command...aka the Zahn Trilogy. I read them when they first came out in paperback shortly after getting out of high school. Years later, just before SWG and EpII, I dropped a whole lot of money to get the Hard Back original printing and thus began my hardback collection.

Zahn’s first three Star Wars books were great, but several Star Wars books that came after Zahn’s by other authors pretty much stink. I loved how Zahn created new characters… better in many ways than the ones Lucas created. Other Authors just told stories about Lucas’s characters and generally bored me to death with the same old same old, or shattered what Star Wars was to me. The first X-Wing books were good, but they never came out in hard back.

/Insight into my dilemma

I have the Vader Cinemacast Statue that was behind Lucas in the original special edition VHS intro. On the shelf under the Statue are my Star Wars books. Ep I and II, Shadows of Empire, Zahn Trilogy, Vector Prime. The rest of the shelf if filled up with Anne Rice books. I don’t think it Fitting for the Lord Vader to reside over a mix matched shelf of books. I want more GOOD Star Wars Books to fill up the shelf. I knew Zahn’s fires t three books were great, and I am looking for more to buy.

As above, good = the X-Wing series.

I am reading the series just after it where the Rebels are defending Coruscant and the Empire has some wierd cloaking technology. Fairly decent but I must confess I have been hooked on WoW again and my reading has declined.

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"I built me a bomb and dropped it on every MFer who got in my way!"

So far I like my new book "Allegiance".... although I am only 100 pages into it.

It shows a good look at stormtroopers behind the armor.... their skills, their professionalism, and what is going on inside their head now that the empire is turning bad. I always hated the idea that all stormtroopers were clones, but after the prequels I feel that is a less popular position. Before SWG, I even had a half written, half imagined story about a team of stormtroopers where I wanted to showcase them as honorable elite warriors and not head bumping fools. So far, in many cases, it is like Zahn read my mind with this book, but it is much better than anything I had imagined.

The Mara stuff is also pretty cool. Seems like I get sleepy on her parts of the story, so I am still wondering if it is her, or my bed time.

The fact that Zahn brings up “Targeter” makes me happy. Wasn’t that a character in the X-wing books? I like seeing characters in the future stories blend with the stories of the past.

Well in the X-wing books the name Targeter isn't mentioned too often though the character is a big part of the story.

Sory I can't tell anymore without revealing anything else....

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1st Feb 2008

The Hand of Thrawn Duology is definitely worth getting, although I must confess I haven't finished Vision of the Future yet. Also, I really enjoyed The Courtship of Princess Leia, even though it wasn't the most critically acclaimed EU novel written. It probably had something to do with the wild Rancors and the tribes of Force Witches. Pretty cool stuff before SWG desensitized me to those things.

[quote="Marrok"][/quote]

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Hey Marrok!

I just finished Allegiance and enjoyed it. Maybe it was not as good as Heir to the Empire, but still good. Im about to buy the Hand of Thrawn Duology… just buttering up Danyale before I pull the trigger on two signed copies I am looking at.



Sometimes when I read the same author back to back too many times I start to get restless. Therefore I am thinking about reading Tom Clancy's Ryan series inbetween these other Zahn books. I own all 12 of the Ryan books, but thanks to college I never read them.

I read a lot of SW books back when we were waiting for the game to be released as well as the months we were in the heady Beta days. Marrok pretty much hit it on the head about The Courtship of Princess Leia. Wait a minute...Marrok?? Good to see you here! Where ya been? What ya playing?

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Liro
"The english language is not a wedding gown, it doesn't get better the more lace you add. It is instead a thong. Less is more." From /.
I need to remind myself of this regularly.