Fantasy-Faction Book Battles: Favourite Sci-Fi Series Bracket & Discussion

[Revan]

Hyperion only in the eleventh place? What is wrong with people?

And how on Earth, 'The Thrawn Trilogy' didn't get enough votes to get into the voting stage  ? I thought that we had some Star Wars fans here. Shame to you all!

I love the Star Wars films, but I've never read a single SW book... 

Fix. That.

No idea where to start though... a lot of the books sound pretty awful to be honest. 

Haven't read them. My recommendation:


1) The Thrawn Trilogy - Absolutely brilliant, with the events of it happening 3-5 years after Return of the Jedi. Easily, the best Star Wars novels and IMO a must-read regardless of what happens with them. I doubt that the new movies will be near as good as them.

2) Darth Plagueis - a novel which gives the backstory of Plagueis, but also Palpatine. Fantastic novel and a must read for any Star Wars fan.

3) Movie novelizations - the prequel books are better. Revenge of the Sith is brilliant, while the other 2 prequels are quite good. The novelizations of old movies are skippable considering that there is no new info there.

4) Darth Bane trilogy - easy to read. It happens a thousand years before the movie events, and it tells the story of the Sith Lord who made the Rule of Two. It also explains a bit about Ruusan Reformation (why the Jedi aren't politicians and why the Republic doesn't have an army)

5) Revan - if you are into Old Republic stuff (have played KOTOR/TOR) then this is a must read. There another few books in Old Republic era. But if you haven't played the games, then skip it.

6) Kenobi - it tells the first 6 months of Kenobi after he goes into exile. Not much new info, but I love Obi-Wan

7) Labyrinth of Evil - it happens in the end of the Clone Wars. You'll learn how General Grievous got Palpatine.

Tarkin - from James Luceno. It is alright, though not as good as Darth Plagueis book.

Thrawn trilogy, Plagueis, Revenge of the Sith novelization and Darth Bane trilogy are the best in this list.

The novelization of the new movie is shit, though better than the novelization of the original movie. That sucked!

[Hedin]

The problem with that list of SW is I'm not really sure any of that is still canon.

[JMack]

The problem with that list of SW is I'm not really sure any of that is still canon.

Meh. Who cares?
It's like any other religion. We can create our own canon. Who's to stop us?
Disney?
I think not.

[Yora]

Thrawn Series really is the Gold Standard for Star Wars outside the movies. It established the Expanded Universe that existed in the 90s before the Clone War period was introduced. Even being the very first proper novel series for Star Wars, it has never been surpassed.
And it's self contained in just three books, drawing only from the first three movies, which makes it very accessible for people who merely like Star Wars but are not super Star Wars fans.

[Hedin]

The problem with that list of SW is I'm not really sure any of that is still canon.

Meh. Who cares?
It's like any other religion. We can create our own canon. Who's to stop us?
Disney?
I think not.

On one hand I agree, I good book/series is a good book/series.  On the other hand I do like consistency and I would be annoyed to some degree that if I read these and then the new "official" canon didn't line up with them at all.

[Raptori]

Hyperion only in the eleventh place? What is wrong with people?

And how on Earth, 'The Thrawn Trilogy' didn't get enough votes to get into the voting stage  ? I thought that we had some Star Wars fans here. Shame to you all!

I love the Star Wars films, but I've never read a single SW book... 

Fix. That.

No idea where to start though... a lot of the books sound pretty awful to be honest. 

Haven't read them. My recommendation:


1) The Thrawn Trilogy - Absolutely brilliant, with the events of it happening 3-5 years after Return of the Jedi. Easily, the best Star Wars novels and IMO a must-read regardless of what happens with them. I doubt that the new movies will be near as good as them.

2) Darth Plagueis - a novel which gives the backstory of Plagueis, but also Palpatine. Fantastic novel and a must read for any Star Wars fan.

3) Movie novelizations - the prequel books are better. Revenge of the Sith is brilliant, while the other 2 prequels are quite good. The novelizations of old movies are skippable considering that there is no new info there.

4) Darth Bane trilogy - easy to read. It happens a thousand years before the movie events, and it tells the story of the Sith Lord who made the Rule of Two. It also explains a bit about Ruusan Reformation (why the Jedi aren't politicians and why the Republic doesn't have an army)

5) Revan - if you are into Old Republic stuff (have played KOTOR/TOR) then this is a must read. There another few books in Old Republic era. But if you haven't played the games, then skip it.

6) Kenobi - it tells the first 6 months of Kenobi after he goes into exile. Not much new info, but I love Obi-Wan

7) Labyrinth of Evil - it happens in the end of the Clone Wars. You'll learn how General Grievous got Palpatine.

  Tarkin - from James Luceno. It is alright, though not as good as Darth Plagueis book.

Thrawn trilogy, Plagueis, Revenge of the Sith novelization and Darth Bane trilogy are the best in this list.

The novelization of the new movie is shit, though better than the novelization of the original movie. That sucked!

Thanks! I'll start with Thrawn and then see how it goes!

[JMack]

The problem with that list of SW is I'm not really sure any of that is still canon.

Meh. Who cares?
It's like any other religion. We can create our own canon. Who's to stop us?
Disney?
I think not.

On one hand I agree, I good book/series is a good book/series.  On the other hand I do like consistency and I would be annoyed to some degree that if I read these and then the new "official" canon didn't line up with them at all.

Yup. Got'chya.
And that's is totally going to happen.
I understand that Disney didn't want its hands tied by all this other "stuff."
Though I'm sure they'll accept any royalties that come their way.

[Hedin]

New polls are up for the Round of 16.  Had two ties the last round, hopefully as we're now getting into the top seeds we'll have a little bit more participation.

[DrNefario]

I must confess I didn't know this had started up again until I chanced to scroll down the other day. I normally only go in the Fantasy Book & Author Discussion forum, even though I also read a lot of SF. I go to SF Faction for my SF needs. (OK, I made that up, but I do come here to talk fantasy and get my SF fix elsewhere. There doesn't seem to quite the critical mass of SF fans here, which is entirely reasonable given the name of the site.)

[ScarletBea]

@Arry, could you please make this thread a sticky?
Thanks!

[Arry]

@Arry, could you please make this thread a sticky?
Thanks!

Done

[Hedin]

Semifinals are now up a little early than the poll ending time since because of daylight savings I won't be awake (at least I hope) when the others expire.  Should any unlikely changes happen I'll edit those in tomorrow morning.

[Hedin]

Got busy last night and didn't get the final up but is now live.