Shakespearian_Soldier said:

Just, for the love of God and your own sanity, don't read anything Zahn has written since the jump from Bantam to Del Rey. The quality drop for Zahn's novels between the two publishers is ridiculous.

 Noted. :D Thanks for the advice!

 I highly recommend (most of) the comics! Dark Times is fantastic (and still going, mind you). I know it's the wrong time line, but Legacy is amazing (plus it has an interesting balance for all those Empire-lovers). Empire, Rebellion, and Clone Wars were good too, in there own right. I'm actually going back and reading the old Marvel comics from the late 70s and 80s. Dark Horse publishes them in omnibus form for easy purchase and reading. Sure they are terrible in many ways (ie extreme inaccuracies come from being written between the movies, and of course, some wonky story ideas), but they provide great roleplaying ideas that are out-of-the-box. : )

Shakespearian_Soldier said:

NathanPButler said:

While I agree that the writing style is different, I wouldn't go so far to call it a quality drop. The GM in me loved  the setting and story line of Allegiance and Choices of One, and I thought he did an excellent job with Outbound Flight and Survivor's Quest as well. 

Yeah especially his 'Heir to the Empire' trilogy is seen as a cornerstone. It oozes the SW atmosphere and of course… it has Grand Admiral Thrawn ;)

Okay, as much as I'd like to go out and by a stockpile of Star Wars novels, I don't think I can afford to. :P So, can someone recommend to me specific Zahn novels set in the Rebellion Era, with maybe a quick summary of what they're actually about? I'd appreciate it!

 The best recommendation I have for that is the library. Because reading them all for free is the best. Make friends who are nerds with a collection of books.

To directly answer your question… I haven't read any Zahn books set IN the Rebel era. There's no going wrong with the Thrawn trilogy, though, even if it's set s few years later. And it really is the best, and really set the ball rolling for so many other stuff. It'd almost be a crime to skip it and read anything that references it.

Someone mentioned Revan… I read that while playing SWTOR and I will say that ANYONE who has played the old KOTOR games should read this. It is amazing! It is like KOTOR 3 or something.

I would also like to mention Zahn has a new one in December that will fit in nicely with this game called "Scoundrels."

Oh and thanks to all on the Dark Times series info. I am TOTALLY reading those next.

I mentioned it Brash, and good to know it's awesome, because it's the next on my list of reads. :) 

You will love it. It is a novel associated with the game SWTOR, but other than some characters being in it, it takes place years before the events in the MMO. It is really way more about Revan and what happened to him.

I would also like to state… under no circumstances should anyone read the Red Harvest book. It was horrible. Everybody wants to do Zombies… Marvel, etc. I did not really need a Star Wars one… thank you. It is not written well either… just bad all around.

lol. Noted! I'll be sure to give Revan a look at the earliest opportunity.

The Heir to the Empire series by Zahn, as others have mentioned, is great. In fact it is the only Star Wars book series that I have read that I would really judge worth the while. However, it is set 5 years after the original trilogy, so not terribly relevant to the setting of the RPG.

Things I personally like about it:

No "super weapon of the week". There was a spate of books with super weapons in the early 90s. Firstly, this was totally unoriginal, just copying the film series by having a threat that can destroy life on a massive scale. Secondly, it totally undermined the impact of the Death Star. Apparently planet destroying super weapons were almost churned out on a production line. Thirdly, there was a lot of "one-up-manship" with them too. There was the Galaxy Gun, which could fire a missle that could destroy planets across the entire galaxy. Then there was the Sun Crusher. This could destroy entire star systems! And it was barely bigger than a starfighter! And it was near invulnerable! Then there was Centrepoint station. Which could fling planets around from the otherwise of the galaxy, and shut hyperspace off around itself so people couldn't get to it. The Heir to the Empire series didn't have any of this. There were a couple of bits of tech which were out of the norm, but they were relatively low key, and used in a way that made their big impact believable.

It is smaller scale than the modern interpretation of Star Wars. Current Star Wars had millions of ships, with trillions of soldiers, able to travel across the galaxy spanning empire in hours. Things in his books moved more slowly, and a small number of ships and men made a big difference. The entire fate of the galaxy is down to the action of a few hundred ships. Star Destroyers were things to be feared, not common escorts which no one bats an eye-lid at. Much preferred it like this, and it fits much better with the presentation of Star Wars in the original trilogy.

Grand Admiral Thrawn. Cool bad guy.

It just got the feeling of the setting right. Better than George Lucas himself does.

Things I didn't like so much:

The ending. Too… sudden. It isn't quite out of the blue, as it is built up to, but it just didn't feel quite right to me.

The Nohgri. Find every chapter dealing with them a bore. They are a bit too perfect at what they do as well.

Grand Admiral Thrawn. Bad guy who is a bit of a Mary Sue.

Of his other novels the only one I have read is his one about the Outbound Flight (which is actually an event first mentioned in the Heir to the Empire trilogy. Unfortunately, by that point the prequel films had come out, and the universe had been wrecked by George Lucas.Wasn't so keen on it, but that wasn't Zhan's fault.

I am not going to be a loved here, but I cannot stand the Zahn books.

They are slow plodding and even Han Solo is falling asleep from boredom in some scenes (seriously that happens).

Star Wars is supposedly be action packed like the old pulpy serial films. The Heir series is like a low budget 1980's BBC version of Star Wars. I don't even believe the main villain and the heroes even ever meet. Just a bunch of boring "intrigue". (By that I do not mean that intrigue is boring only that this is not very intriguing.)

Plus there are the stupid anti-force space monkeys (which aren't as bad as the even dumber Anti-force Hellraiser-bondage looking Vong race that show up in later series).

Okay enough being an jerkface. I'm not looking to start an argument I just want to warn the guy that although most people love the books don't go into them with high expectations.

Books that I liked.

I remember liking Shadows of the Empire, but I was about 14 years old so I'm not going to say it is the best thing ever. I remember sort of liking Dash Rendar even though he is obviously a Han Solo clone because there is no Han Solo in the book. I liked how it sets up the events to Return of the Jedi and introduced a weird little villain.

Even better though is Tales from Jabbas Palace and if you are looking for game ideas this is the one to read. It is a short story collection the catch is that each story is about someone you see in Jabba's Palace all roughly during the time Luke shows up to rescue Han Solo.

The stories range from humor to mystery to action. There are definitely some bad ones, but even those should have a decent hook to steal for a game. My favorite is humorous story about the dumbest Gammorean Guard that wants to be friendly.

I know they put out a similar book Tales of Mos Eisley, but I have not read that.

I disagree, but I will accept some bits are plodding. As I said, I find the whole storyline about the Nohgri (particularly the bit on Kasshyk and their home planet) an utter drag. However, I like the rest of it. As I said, the more down to earth nature of it is something I actually enjoy.

Also: Jedi are not WTF POWN in it as well. Luke is a significant warrior in his own right, but you don't get the sense that he could hold off hundreds of guys all by himself like they insist on doing in the prequel stuff. Normal people actually have a purpose!