The New Jedi Order

[Sauganast]

Ahhh.. Yeah, i sorta already posted this message in the sci-fi room, i didn't see this forum, don't know how, but i missed it. But basically i wanna talk about the New Jedi Order series. From Chewbeccas death to the Yuuzhan-Vong's funky religion (hating droids and the embrace of pain) to Mara's sickness to the Vong's immunity to the force to any other topic from the series, i think this is one of the better series. All they need is for Kevin Anderson to write some of the books.

[Elbreth of Carhouth]

I don't know if I've read them yet, what about them? They sound interesting. Actually, I may have read the one with Chewie's death, cause I think I didn't believe it was true.

[Sauganast]

They are really good books, if you haven't read them yet, you should. Its pretty much about an alien race from another galaxy that come to take over the new republic and eradicate droids and turn everyone over to their "religion". If you had read them you would know for sure, they say the New Jedi Order on the cover of everyone.

[Miralys]

Yeah these books are pretty cool (nothing can beat the Thrawn Trilogy though!!!). I especially like the discussions on the philosophy of the Force. I used to complain that the SW novels were too saccharin and that nothing bad ever happened to the major characters. Oooops.:eek: : Salvatore kinda proved me wrong there. Chewie's death was totally unexpected and for a while there it made for some good action, what with everyone's reaction and the tension it caused between Han and Anakin. But then in the following books it was kinda dropped. Now Han makes a perfunctory appearance now and then to go "wah wah wah" and that's it. What's the deal with that? Can't these people go into more detail?

::rant mode off::

[Sauganast]

I don't know, I am kinda glad that they dropped Han crying over Chewies death. Think if Luke had mourned over all the people he ever lossed forever? or Leia? or any other character? you'd have books going on for ever and ever. People are always dieing, if you mourn and mourn forever you never get anywhere. Have you not read all of them? han realizes why chewie had to die, i won't tell you why so that you can find out for yourself.

[bmilder]

I had read the entire Bantam series, and yet I was unable to finish the first NJO book (the name escapes me at the moment). I also never finished Starfighters of Adumar. That could be partially due to the fact that Entmoot was taking off when I tried to read it. Perhaps I'll re-start it soon.

[Sauganast]

I would definitly recommend reading the NJO series, they are fantastic. And you should finish starfighters of adumar just so you can say you have read the entire series. The X-Wing series aren't really my favorite, but you can't like everything. But if you haven't read the NJO series then you are missing out on a big event in the star wars galaxy. So read them, and may the force be with you!

[Darin Halcyon]

As an X-wing series fan, I can't say I agree with you, but to each his own. :P
P.S. I'm not sure what I think of the NJO though.

[emilsson]

NJO has started out good, but I have only read the first two books ( Vector Prime and Onslaught ). I will soon read Ruin and A hero's trial. They are not up there with Zahn's books, but they are better than most of the Bantam books.

[Sauganast]

Is it even fair to compare another book to something written Zahn? honestly, what kind of statement is that? It would definitly help the NJO series if they had zahn write a book for them, even though it is out of his style. He writes more of the warship strategy books, not the spiritual jedi books. Well thats my story and i'm sticking to it.

[Darin Halcyon]

Well said, Zhan is an superb author. But I realy can't compare His with the NJO. Even though I have extensive SW knowlage (accent included) I've only read Onslaught, in that series.

[emilsson]

If it was possible I'd love to see Zahn write a book for NJO. I was stating my opinion and I think it is possible to compare Zahn and NJO. They are different but sometimes a comparison can be enlightening. I welcome this way of publishing because it could be much better, plotwise.

[Sauganast]

I think that Zahn and Anderson should join up and write some NJO books. Zahn is a superior author when it comes to the military and diplomatic part of SW but Anderson is by far the best author when it comes to the Jedi. So theoretically speaking these two should make the ultimate team. nuf said?

[Elbreth of Carhouth]

That would be interesting, though I don't know how feasible.
Zahn and Anderson have different writing techniques. And I know from experience how hard it is to co-write a book. Unless of course you are absolutly and stubbornly determined to finish it.

[Darth ATAT]

I loved it...finally the kind of adult-aimed fiction we need in SW. Far better than anything else in the EU IMO...I'm nearly at the end of Vector Prime.

I hate X-wing...because they're unrealistic, making X-wings far far far too powerful...but there goes.

[Film Hobbit]

Well I started reading Vector Prime about 2 days ago... I'm now 3/4 of the way through... which is a good indication of how good it is... I can't put the dang thing down. Next to Zahn's books, it is definently the best Star Wars book I've read. I gotta say I am NOT happy with the way Chewie was killed... I mean the death scene itself was well written, but his death otherwise really was almost senseless... there was no reason he couldn't have been saved. Anakin should have been able to use the force to lift him into the Falcon... I mean just minutes before he was using the Force to throw around giant pieces of concrete, I don't think 1 Wookie would have been much problem for him. Not to mention the fact that I really didn't see the need to kill of one of the most beloved characters in history AT ALL anyway. But otherwise I'm loving Vector Prime.

[Sauganast]

Am I the only one here that thinks Kevin J. Anderson is pretty much as good as Zahn? C'mon, you have to like Anderson, he's the one that made the Jedi Academy series!! Which is a very critical point for the reestablishment of the Jedi. These were probably the hardest to write and actually make them good!!

[Elbreth of Carhouth]

No, your not the only one. I like Anderson too. He did a really good job. I just don't think Zahn and Anderson can be all that much comparable. They have such different writing styles. It's not really fair to their individuality.

[Aara Hakey]

I just love the books period!!! I did cry when Chewie died, and my heart aches for Han...but they make him seem so whimpy right now. I see Han mourning sure...but to this extent...you'd think he would pull himself together a little easier.
and yeah the x-wing books are awesome!

[emilsson]

I finished reading A Hero's Trial a week ago and it made my opinion of NJO much more positive. I liked how the author handled Han's grief, but maybe there were too many references to earlier EU stuff. :) Now I got to find the other books.

[Grand Admiral Reese]

I'm a little over halfway through with Jedi Eclipse. Its a very good continuation to the NJO and a good sequel to Hero's Trial.

[SarahStar]

(oops, sorry, my web browser is doing weird things and apparently I'm not allowed to delete?)

[SarahStar]

:eek: I just typed out an incredibly long, articulate post. And then I hit backspace. Sometimes when I hit backspace it makes me go back a page in the web browser instead of just deleting the last letter I typed.

Darn it. Now you'll never believe I can be articulate! ::sigh::

Anyway, essentially, I didn't say a whole lot. Wait, that's a lie. I said a lot, but it was mostly just my thoughts on the differences between the Star Wars forum here as part of a Tolkien community and the Star Wars message boards I had been frequenting since, well, before we actually knew there would be an Episode 1! The main differences I noted were as follows:
1) Here, Kevin J. Anderson does not appear to be seen as The Great Enemy. This is somewhat difficult for me to understand. You do remember Daala, right? ;)
2) Never before have I encountered anyone who did not love the X-wing books. Literally. I find this even harder to believe than item #1. You mean there are actually people out there with opinions different than my own?!?! Inconceivable! :lol: (No, seriously, though, this is a new one for me. What's not to like? I want to know. 'Cause then I can convert you. :evil: )

Then, I proceeded to ramble about my experiences with the New Jedi Order, as follows:
1) Vector Prime was generally received as a disappointment everywhere I was posting at the time. We were all about ready to give up on Star Wars books, period. I remember especially vividly the yelling matches (I don't know who we were yelling at---no one was taking the other side) about exactly alien invaders with different technology had to be superior just because they were different.
2) Onslaught was typical Stackpole. Again there was hope. (Not a lot, but some.) Even if Han was still treated poorly and the Vong were still annoying, at least we could fight them with X-wings, see Mara Jade acting like Mara Jade, and hope against hopes that we might encounter one or two of the Wraiths. (This last one didn't happen. ::sigh:: )
3) At this point I stopped being able to keep up. Don't know why. Mostly because I stopped trying. TOO MUCH STRESS!! ARGH! Anyway, a close friend tells me that Hero's Trial has the best characterization of Han Solo since Ann Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy. That is high praise indeed!
4) The newest NJO book comes out very soon. It might even have come out today. I don't remember. I think it's by Kathy Tyers, and it's in hardcover, like Vector Prime. I hope these are not bad signs.

On a more cheerful note, the TPB version of Union is supposed to be out this month! Yippee! (I can't afford it but at least I can dream! ;) )

http://www.geocities.com/shadowstarsrpg/sarahsig1.jpg

[Film Hobbit]

Your Star Wars people must hate Tim Zahn then. It sounds to me that you've been hanging around in a lot of forums populated by kids... who generally like the X-Wings books because most of them are really written for a younger audience.

Personally I like some of the X-wings books... the first one for example is spectacular, the dogfights are extremely well written, but they QUICKLY go downhill from there. It sound to me like the forums you've been hanging in are more interested in X-Wings and Smugglers, while the people here are more interested in the Jedi.... me I want both.

[SarahStar]

What??? :eek: Hate Zahn?!? You're joking, right? Zahn is the absolute master of Star Wars novels!

While the particular message board I was talking about was techically dedicated to some of the young adult Star Wars books (::shudders:: please, don't get me wrong---we were only very, very rarely on topic ), and there were a few younger members, most of us were in our later years of high school and quite a few were in college. (I suspect there were a few who were older, but they weren't admitting it. The community was at least mature enough to go for years without a moderator.) That is one of the differences between a Star Wars-based community and a Tolkien-based community---the Star Wars fan community in general is much younger. Anyway, I'm not going there now (AOL message boards requiring access to AOL, and all the good boards being taken over by lunatics these days), so most of my Star Wars discussions have been with my friends, some of whom are quite excellent judges of literary merit, at least in science fiction. (But don't tell them I said that. They would hate me for it. ;) )

I don't have any problem with Jedi. I am actually very interested in Jedi. Unfortunately, so is every 12-year-old kid who read a couple of KJA young adult novels and now figures he's a Star Wars fan because he thinks Darth Maul is too cool to really be dead. Therefore, there's bound to be a lot of fluff that is supposed to be about Jedi.

Also, I am not as militant about disliking Kevin J. Anderson as I may have sounded. (This is one of the risks one takes when one tries to summarize a long post.) I think that probably he gets a lot of criticism that he doesn't deserve simply because his trilogy happens to come right after the much-celebrated original Zahn trilogy. It really isn't very fair to judge him compared to Zahn---I mean, seriously, a lot of fans practically worship Zahn, or at least his books! Is it really KJA's fault he had such an impossible act to follow?

I like the X-wing books because they are fun and don't pretend to be philosophical. The Jedi no not exist. They are not real. The philosophical aspects of the Force are very interesting---up to a certain point. After that point, however, it just gets ridiculous! And that's what so many authors seem to do! If I want philosophy, I'll read Plato!

(Okay, so I have very strong opinions about mixing philosophy and science fiction. I read Star Wars for fun and nothing else, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Tolkien I will analyze to death, but Star Wars is my refuge from Deep Thought. Everyone needs one of those.)

[Film Hobbit]

Ok, as long as you like Zahn you are OK. :)

He is da man.

[Lief Erikson]

Yeah, Timothy Zahn is the best. I've read sample books from many Star Wars authors, but his books definitely come on the top. I haven't been reading the New Jedi Order because it has Chewbacca's death in it. But on most of the message boards that I've been to, they are counted as second only to Timothy Zahn's. I decided they might be good after all, if they've got such high praise, and a couple days ago, I bought Vector Prime. I hope I made the right decision.