I read the Jedi prince series and then the thrawn trilogy as a kid and teen. Jedi Prince does not hold up as an adult lol but was really good for my age at the time.
One thing I will say about reading EU novels is that it made hate the sequel movies when they came out for just throwing away the beloved characters instead of the expanding on them.
Seconded. If you’re open to it the older/non-canon audio book is amazing way to experience the story as well. Includes musical cues, sound effects, and the narrator does an incredible job of imitating the OG cast.
99% Invisible had a mini-episode about movie novelizations. I think the Star Wars novelizations were mentioned in it, and the whole thing was rather interesting. Particularly where the author has limited info and has to guess about what might happen in the movie.
They aren’t going to change you view on life, but most are pretty solid. I highly recommend pretty much any books in the High Republic era, particularly “Light of the Jedi”. It’s the first of the new era and it’s a great introduction to the setting. It’s all set a few hundred years before the movies, so the Authors were able to pretty much do whatever they wanted within the basic Star Wars universe.
I’ve enjoyed dozens of them over the course of my twenty something years being into SW. Currently I’d recommend the Plagueis, Tarkin, the Thrawn books, and the Bane trilogy. Apparently I like villain books. I’ve also enjoyed the Karen Traviss Clone Trooper books but they got cancelled for canon reasons due to the TCW series.
Authors have plenty of freedom unless you’re talking about novelizations of the films.
I’ve read a few over the years and always enjoyed them. They’re never amazing or anything imo, I’ve never run into one that knocked it out of the park or anything, but I’m not a huge Star Wars fan anyway.
But they also kinda get a baseline level of decent worldbuilding and natural conflict that keeps them from being dull or anything.
If I was, say, in an airport and needed to buy a book, it’s exactly what I would reach for if I saw it. Favorite was the one that followed and explained Mace Windu.
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