Warding off Star Wars

[Stoppy2000]

I still love them all (apart from ep 1). I second the notion that you should read the Timothy Zahn trilogy, its really good. I also enjoyed the tales from Jabba's palace book. But maybe that's just me.

[sj33]

On the subject of the Expanded Universe, I assume the aforementioned books are the best way to access this? Where should people go from there in terms of books? I do still love Star Wars, in spite of Lucus's nonsense and the prequels.

[cutmymilk]

Not a problem for those who watch them starting from 1 but if they start there they may never watch another Star Wars film, or indeed any film, again.

Genuine LOL!

[Guts]

On the subject of the Expanded Universe, I assume the aforementioned books are the best way to access this? Where should people go from there in terms of books? I do still love Star Wars, in spite of Lucus's nonsense and the prequels.

The problem with Star Wars Expanded Universe is, that there's probably a few hundred novels (and most likely plenty of crap in there) from probably any single character/period/what ever, so it really comes down what interests you the most in Star Wars universe. The Thrawn trilogy which I mentioned is generally well liked and takes place a couple of years after Return of the Jedi. I'm quite out of the loop, as I haven't read anything SW related in years, but internet is probably your best friend.

Found this list of the chronological order of SW novels if it helps any:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_books

[Stoppy2000]

There are plenty of crap expanded universe books. Shadows of the empire is terrible. The Zahn books are the best i think. Though I haven't read any of the sw books for about 5 years now.

[Dazzyman]

Wife likes the films as do I but can't say were religious with em, not for 60 notes! Be picking em up on the cheap. They were good when I was a kid (never saw first one till it came out on video) but I dispise Jar Jar in the new ones. Don't find the prequel charming either. I'm sick of Lucas messing with em as well, leave em original

[noobish hat]

If he did have a vision which he was trying to perfect, that would be understandable. But a. he could have made plenty of changes in one go, a few years ago, if he'd wanted, but no, he likes to space them out (so it's probably more about money than perfectionism), and b. he actually changes things, then changes them back (like 'who shot first'), and makes changes for no good reason AT ALL (like adding extra rocks in front of R2D2 when he's in the cave on Tatooine). He's a talentless fiend, who got unbelievably lucky, and has been trying to squeeze as much money out of Star Wars as he can ever since.

Glad to see you back Dazzyman, hope you had a good honeymoon

[randombs]

Just flicked through the thread as it seems a bit similar to the other Star Wars thread so I'm wondering:

Do you think doing other Star Wars stuff would encourage you to buy the BR set? When I have moods like this, I find going for alternatives in the same universe as whatever it is I'm ignoring tends to make things worse - if it were me, I'd worry that doing random Star Wars stuff would just lure me towards it and would do something completely different.

I'm in a sort of similar boat with the LOTR BR's that came out recently - part of me really wants them but the other part convinced the first part that a) the extended DVDs(which I already have) aren't too shabby to begin with, and b) I need to start sticking to my guns more when I make a decision. I said I wouldn't buy them and now I feel a personal responsibility to stick to that decision, even though I didn't post it in capitals as a Facebook status or on here, although in mentioning it now I've done exactly that. Hilariously, I'm reading the books at the moment(not as an alternative to the BR's) so I'm going against my own advice.

If I had to find alternatives to the Star Wars BR, I'd probably play the old PC games like X-Wing and stuff. That way, I could use the "they don't make them like they used to" line and just watch the old ones on DVD(quality issues aside), thus taking the retro high road.

[Dazzyman]

Thanks buddy. You know your new wife is amazing when she says cant believe Gears Of War 3 is out on our honeymoon, cant wait to get back and play it pmsl ;-) And I only got her into the series last month!

Only thing that would convince me to buy it is price. I have em on THX video, 1997 gold box set, then all of em on DVD box set when that got released (as well as the prequels individually) so they had there cash. I picked up LOTR for ?20 on BR so for me ?40 no more for this lot (and I prefer LOTR ayway).

[mekanor]

The problem with Star Wars Expanded Universe is, that there's probably a few hundred novels (and most likely plenty of crap in there) from probably any single character/period/what ever, so it really comes down what interests you the most in Star Wars universe. The Thrawn trilogy which I mentioned is generally well liked and takes place a couple of years after Return of the Jedi. I'm quite out of the loop, as I haven't read anything SW related in years, but internet is probably your best friend.

The Thrawn trilogy is indeed fantastic, as is the Jedi Academy trilogy. In my experience, despite there being lots and lots of books, they're usually consistently pretty good. The only dud I've come across so far is Shadows of the Empire, which certainly isn't awful, just not very engaging I guess.

Anyway, that list guts posted of books is handy. I recommend going for the novels in the New Republic era for starters.

[Guts]

Me and my friend think that some talented director actually should have made a new set of films from the Thrawn trilogy in the 90's with Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams etc. Would have certainly been better than the prequels Lucas made.

[k0pp0]

I put Empire Strikes Back on for my 3.5 year old at the weekend. He loves it like I did/do.. That's all that counts.