Heh heh.
Have to agree with you about the majority of the authors they've got writing. It always amazes me how much some people gush about Kevin Anderson. I read his Jedi Academy and couldn't believe how bad it was.
As far as novels go, "Splinter" was the first. There was also a Han Solo trilogy that was written waaaaaay back when, and details his adventures in a place called the Corporate Sector, and I believe they took place before A New Hope. There might have also been a couple more novels, although I'm not certain.
The first of the 'modern' series of novels (and the first set post-RotJ) was, indeed, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, and imho, they're pretty good books. He was also allowed to write the last two books before the current NJO series started, and I enjoyed those as well.
Unfortunately, those are the ONLY Star Wars novels that I've enjoyed. I've read Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy, Truce at Bakura (don't remember who wrote it), and R.A. Salvatore's NJO book (the first one). I can honestly say that I didn't care much for any of them. And don't even get me started on the Dark Empire limited series from Dark Horse comics.
*shudder*
On the bright side, Episode 2 seems to invalidate some of the stuff from Jedi Academy.
Hee hee.
Coruscant MAY have appeared in the old sourcebooks for WEG's Star Wars RPG. I'm not talking about the novel sourcebooks, but rather referring to the older Imperial Sourcebook, which came out long before any of the post-RotJ novels were written. Either Coruscant is mentioned, or there's a conspicous absence of any mention of the name of the Imperial Capital. I'd have to double-check to be sure which one it was.
IMHO, one of the neat things about Zahn's writing is that he was willing to take all of the pre-existing military ships that WEG had worked into their RPG and incorporate them into his novels. While I enjoyed his books because of his writing, I thought it was also neat to be able to see everything that WEG had created incorporated into the setting. I suspect that if some of the other authors had been allowed to write the first novel, then the military ships of the EU would be quite different.
I also get a kick out of seeing the occasional individual who claims that Zahn invented all of them.
Have to agree with you about the majority of the authors they've got writing. It always amazes me how much some people gush about Kevin Anderson. I read his Jedi Academy and couldn't believe how bad it was.
As far as novels go, "Splinter" was the first. There was also a Han Solo trilogy that was written waaaaaay back when, and details his adventures in a place called the Corporate Sector, and I believe they took place before A New Hope. There might have also been a couple more novels, although I'm not certain.
The first of the 'modern' series of novels (and the first set post-RotJ) was, indeed, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, and imho, they're pretty good books. He was also allowed to write the last two books before the current NJO series started, and I enjoyed those as well.
Unfortunately, those are the ONLY Star Wars novels that I've enjoyed. I've read Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy, Truce at Bakura (don't remember who wrote it), and R.A. Salvatore's NJO book (the first one). I can honestly say that I didn't care much for any of them. And don't even get me started on the Dark Empire limited series from Dark Horse comics.
*shudder*
On the bright side, Episode 2 seems to invalidate some of the stuff from Jedi Academy.
Hee hee.
Coruscant MAY have appeared in the old sourcebooks for WEG's Star Wars RPG. I'm not talking about the novel sourcebooks, but rather referring to the older Imperial Sourcebook, which came out long before any of the post-RotJ novels were written. Either Coruscant is mentioned, or there's a conspicous absence of any mention of the name of the Imperial Capital. I'd have to double-check to be sure which one it was.
IMHO, one of the neat things about Zahn's writing is that he was willing to take all of the pre-existing military ships that WEG had worked into their RPG and incorporate them into his novels. While I enjoyed his books because of his writing, I thought it was also neat to be able to see everything that WEG had created incorporated into the setting. I suspect that if some of the other authors had been allowed to write the first novel, then the military ships of the EU would be quite different.
I also get a kick out of seeing the occasional individual who claims that Zahn invented all of them.