Are Star Wars books any good for adults?

[Gramm838]

I've always assumed that since the SW films are really kids films (although they are some of my favourite films), that the books are also aimed at kids or young adults...am I correct, or not?

Can anyone recommend some good SW books?

 

[Bick]

I have actually read a few of these. I quite liked the ones I read, and while i'd agree that they would probably appeal to the YA market, they're not exactly kids books. They are, of course 'fantasy in space' as opposed to SF, but that is understood with SW I guess. There are various books that slot in before or between the prequel film trilogy and I've read these. James Lucino has written a few (e.g. Cloak of Deception and Labyrinth of Evil) which are very readable. Lucino is not a bad author. I've also heard good things about many of the books that come after the films too, most notably The Thrawn books by Timothy Zahn and the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin Anderson. These come recommended by many and may be worth checking out (though I've not read them).

 

[Rodders]

I wouldn't read them all, but they are pretty entertaining, although they're never going to be high literature. I very much enjoyed Timothy Zahn's Heir To The Empire series.

 

[Grunkins]

You can pretty well start and finish with Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, starting with Heir to the Empire. It's a great series. That's the high water mark for SW books. There are a few other good books in the EU, but none are as good as those.

 

[Alex Mason]

I agree with @Rodders and @Grunkins that the Zahn trilogy is the best (HttE, DFR, LC), but there are some other good ones sprinkled about. I would highly recommend the "Tales of ..."
books if you can find them. They are great fun anthologies about lesser original trilogy characters.
Also, if you are heavily invested (or want to be) in the original main characters, try their arcs like Jedi Academy etc. I am reading the "Fate of the Jedi" series and am pretty happy with most of it (mainly the Republic Capital story arc). I would also suggest "Vader" as an interesting glimpse at the crumbling Jedi order right after the "Revenge of the Sith" movie.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

As mentioned above, Zahn's books are really well done. Some of Stackpole's X-Wing books are well done, as is "I, Jedi".

 

[Grunkins]

I liked the Stackpole books, though they got a bit stale by the end. Matt Stover wrote a good one. I have to say the Kevin J Anderson Jedi Academy books were awful. He's arguably the worst writer in the world.

 

[Nerds_feather]

You can pretty well start and finish with Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, starting with Heir to the Empire. It's a great series. That's the high water mark for SW books. There are a few other good books in the EU, but none are as good as those.

Second that. Most Star Wars books are horrible, whereas the Thrawn trilogy has the honor of being decent-ish. It can scratch the Star Wars itch for you, and not exact too terrible a price...

 

[biodroid]

I read Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, not a bad book, it didn't have that Star Wars feel to it and it did have a lot of "Chewie said something" because obviously you cant really put the sounds Chewie makes into words. It wasnt as adventurous and swashbuckling as the movies were.

 

[Huttman]

There are at least three 'tales of' books that I rather enjoyed; Tales of Jabba's Palace, Tales of Mos Eisley and Tales of the Bounty Hunters. All three books center around a handful of background characters during a certain time in each of the films. Each chapter flushes out a characters story and sometimes scenes are repeated albeit from a different perspective.
They contain a lot of humor and since it's based on scenarios and characters from the films it feels familiar. Each chapter is written by a different author telling one story. I thought they were very well done. The books were written before the prequels told Boba Fetts backstory, too.

 

[RoninJedi84]

To basically repeat what's already been said, the Heir to the Empire Trilogy by Timothy Zhan is a great place to start. He also did a duology right after that, the Hand of Thrawn series. Highly recommend for all five books. They go in this order.

Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command

Specter of the Past
Vision of the Future

I haven't really read any other SW books. When I see one that looks/sounds interesting in the book store, I'll pick it up and read the first chapter, or at least the first few pages. In all honesty, I haven't found one that has hooked me yet.

 

[Mariella]

James Lucino's Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader was a good Episode 3-B type of story. Also good was Timothy Zahn's Allegiance.