NightlyPoe said:
The X-Wing series was a highlight of the entire EU. Allston's additions to the series were better, Starfighters of Adumar remains the best Star Wars book I ever read, but Stackpole's contributions were excellent.
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Agree to disagree on the Stackpole books. I was reading all the EU books back then, because it was before the prequels, and it was the only Star Wars out there. I read the X-Wing series up to "The Bacta War", and I didn't care for it much. It was full of ridiculously contrived nonsense like mentioning an Alderaanian War Frigate "Another Chance" which was said to be "loaded with all of the weapons of Alderaan". The Frigate was supposedly a "legendary myth" and then Rogue Squadron finds the Frigate a few pages later and adds it to their fleet. After that, "The Phantom Menace" was out, and I could see Star Wars in the theater again. The Kevin J. Anderson and Roger MacBride Allen books are total garbage. I'm pretty sure that one of those 2 authors bragged in the Foreward that he wrote one of the books in a ridiculous short amount of time like it was some impressive feat worthy of bragging about. The novel read like it was hastily written too. Bantam Books didn't even bother to edit it. I found a mistake on almost every page. At one point, they interchanged the name of a planet with one of the main characters stating that the Millenium Falcon landed on her. Another one of the books hopped from planet to planet that were used in the original trilogy to make the reader say, "oh cool it's Endor again!" While back on Hoth, Luke encounters a one-armed Wampa. Yep, the one he cut the arm off of in Empire Strikes Back. In the intervening years, the one-armed Wampa had been teaching the other Wampa's guerrilla tactics and was leading them like a general in battles against big game hunters who had been coming to Hoth for trophies. The only time I want to see Luke encounter the Wampa whose arm he cut off is on Robot Chicken. Because at least RC isn't trying to pass itself off as serious.
The best books in the EU by far were written by Timothy Zahn. The Thrawn Trilogy was so good, it made me want to read his other works. I read his "Conqueror's Trilogy" afterwards and they were equally well written and engaging.
In my opinion, Zahn's books are the highlight of the EU, not the X-Wing Series. Most of the rest of the EU is cash grab garbage that would reach #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list solely by virtue of having the title "Star Wars" on the cover.
