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A nineteen-way tie between all the New Jedi order books. Yes, thank you, you motherfucking assholes. I needed the sanctuary i had in the mid-90's from my emotionally abusive stepfather violated twelve ways from Sunday.


It took ten tons of author fiat for the bad guys to get as far as they did, not to mention the bullshit character derailment. The shock-value deaths, the stupid... okay. I'm gonna stop here before I write an essay. but the NJO?

Yeah, the NJO actually prompted me to push the eject button and get out of Star Wars completely.

In the same vein, the Brian Herbert/KJA Dune books. Even Frank Herbert's novels went steadily downhill in consecutive order from Dune to God Emperor of Dune, but Brian's would have made Frank spin in his grave.

Tyyr wrote:Yeah, the NJO actually prompted me to push the eject button and get out of Star Wars completely.

Ditto. That and the entire Travis debacle killed what remained of my interest in SW.

I never thought of the BH/KJA Dune series as being set in the "Worst Books Ever" list. I took them as I would any Fanfic story. A lot of give so they could come up with their own take on a Universe they enjoyed. That doesn't make them good, just not the worst.

Reading anything by KT though is painful. I've never made it through any of her books. That is really bad because I did finish "Forever Midnight" though that was mostly because I was making fun of it for one of my classes.

Sionnach Glic wrote:

Tyyr wrote:Yeah, the NJO actually prompted me to push the eject button and get out of Star Wars completely.

Ditto. That and the entire Travis debacle killed what remained of my interest in SW.

KT is one thing, but as I've said many times the NJO wasn't nearly as bad. Sure it had some irredeemable shit in it (most of it Vong-related), but it also had some excellent book, SbS and Allston's duology being the highlights, and The Unifying Force would have been an excellent point at which to end the post-RotJ EU.

The problem with the NJO is that its a massive departure from what's come before it, at times far too massive. Since Episode IV Han's entire character arc has been one of a man who thinks less and less of himself and more of others eventually becoming a respectable family man. At the start of NJO he pisses all over that and reverts to a self absorbed jackass. Chewie is killed for no other reason than they wanted to kill a major character (but obviously not too major a one). The Vong just... ugh.

On top of that, frankly I was getting tired of the same cast and crew being right in the middle of everything.

I'm sure the series had its moments but on the whole it's just not what I wanted to read when I picked up a Star Wars book.

Tyyr wrote:The problem with the NJO is that its a massive departure from what's come before it, at times far too massive.

The EU needed something to shake it up from the typical book or three of a minor or localised threat that would be quickly dealt with. You can argue till the cows cow home about whether the NJO succeeded in its aims, but you can't fault those behind it for trying to get Star Wars out of the comfort Zone it had got into.

Since Episode IV Han's entire character arc has been one of a man who thinks less and less of himself and more of others eventually becoming a respectable family man. At the start of NJO he pisses all over that and reverts to a self absorbed jackass.

Given that he'd just lost his oldest and closest friend, he didn't simply go off the rails for no reason.

Chewie is killed for no other reason than they wanted to kill a major character (but obviously not too major a one).

"Not too major a one"? Plan A was to kill Luke, but Lucas vetoed the idea. As for the general concept, they wanted to bring back a sense of threat to the EU, and killing off one of the original big four was the hardest-hitting way to do it.

The Vong just... ugh.

Agreed - their depiction, biowank, Force-hole, masochism and all was utter shit.

Captain Seafort wrote:...Force-hole...

So, that's where George Lucas' dialog comes from.

One of my biggest problems was the slaughter and devaluing of the next generation. Sw does not operate in comic book time, and in the Legacy book series, Luke's dead. So you'd think that the next generation would be stepping up?

Fuck NO! Not a single one has been presented well. Hell, a lot of them are dead or disappeared. Anja Gallandro, where are you? Lowbacca is wallpaper. Jacen Solo, Anakin Solo, Lusa, Lyric, dead. Jaina... dear lord, she's been fridged up to the limit without actually dying.

Seafort... I'm sorry, but I liked and kinda needed the comfort zone. In today's EU, Luke would've killed Vader on DS II and it would've been the right thing to do.

My main problem with the NJO is how it killed off pretty much everyone who I previously thought were going to take over from Luke, Han and co. Let's face it - the guys who blew up the Death Star are getting old now. It's time for them to take a step back and let someone else run around the galaxy defeating the inevitable Sith uprisings. But almost everyone who could take up that role is now dead. It didn't get out of the "comfort zone" at all - it removed everything that threatened the stability of the zone, and has pretty much condemned the EU to remain "Luke Han and Leia solve the problems of the galaxy" for another few series until new characters are brought in and fleshed out.

Sionnach Glic wrote:It didn't get out of the "comfort zone" at all - it removed everything that threatened the stability of the zone, and has pretty much condemned the EU to remain "Luke Han and Leia solve the problems of the galaxy" forever. another few series until new characters are brought in and fleshed out.

Fixed it for you

The YJK, the series before the NJO set up the next generation perfectly to take over. Or at least step up in a serious way. Now... nothing's left.

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolken

and

Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson


I couldn't finish either one. The first was so boring I kept dozing off. The second was depressing.

The Silmarillion? Really? I guess you have to have both an interest in the universe and a taste for mythology, because I couldn't put it down (including The Alkallabeth[/] any of the times I read it.