102 replies to this topic

[Devon]

yes, the expanded universe is huge right now i think theres approximatly 90-100 books. Its really awesome to read, since the big plot is the same, and many, many times lots of the characters and things that happen in one book are seen again in another one later by a different author, even they may have been published 30+ years later and be 60+ years apart in the EU. There are lots of parallels to the movies too, later on. Basically its like reading one big series with 100 books that just keeps growing bigger

[Bebbe]

Artemis Fowl ... hmm , I think I've read two of the books , never really liked them.
But Harry Potter , oh man , my mom read the first book for me when I was little , since then I've stuck with them.

[Nertea]

EU is a mess imo. I haven't read anything that's post RoTJ that's any good since the first few NJO books... of course, I haven't read any Legacy yet, though I hear it is pretty good. I read the warsie stuff for... I don't know why really. Allaston, Stackpole, Luceno and Zahn are hands down the only good authors of the bunch, a good deal of the rest are just painful to read (oh my god the Jedi Academy trilogy is a travesty to canon and writers everywhere). Karen Traviss is ok too, I had my doubts about books based on a computer game, but they turned out pretty well.

Redwall was also fun, last I read of those was nigh on 8 years ago now. I wonder if they'll have appreciated over time...

Seconded. I'm frequently looking at George Martin's page for updates on the next book. smile.gif

Solinx

It's so sad... apparently we're looking at mid-2008 now :(.A Feast for Crows says 2005 or something .

[Allathar]

You should read the Thrawn trilogy too.

[Nertea]

*points at comment about liking Zahn* his non-Star Wars stuff is also good

[Devon]

oh god...jedi academy...

yeah, those 5 are god, but my favorite has to be the one who wrote traitor and shatterpoint...can't think of his name atm. dark rendezvous is also very good.

and as a side note, legacy does own

[Nertea]

Stover - yeah, Traitor was the last good NJO book. I haven't read Dark Rendezvous, is that the clone wars era one with Dooku?

[Devon]

ah yeah mathew stover. dark rendezvous is with yoda and dooku, and its the only sw thing that really captures yoda's character in the way it should be (imo) except for episode 5 and the book of episode 3 (which also happens to be by mathew stover )

[Bart]

Has anyone read the His Dark Materials trilogy? Is it good?

[Devon]

yep, quite good actually. didnt like the first movie as much. the books have a refreshing take on things though

[Dain Ironfoot]

Dark Materials are very good. Movie sounds as if it's been Ruinified. Oh the things they do to make things sell in America.. (How the hell are they going to keep the anti-religion thing out of the next 2 movies?)

I avoid SW novels for the same reason I avoid bad commercial fantasy.. plus the way the plot has gone is utterly rubbish. Everything essentially makes the OT a mere hiccup in history. Why bother fulfilling that prophecy, sacrificing your life and destroying the sith when he just comes back as a clone. What a stupid idea.

Some good sci-fi out there though. Dune and Ian M Banks stuff is good.

[Nertea]

Ian Banks wrote the Wasp Factory, which disturbed me so utterly we set fire to it. Literally.

And really Dain, are the SW books any worse than the prequels? And the cloned Emperor was an idiotic construction of the comics, which are lumped in there with around half of the books as "not canon because Nert said so and they suck and are dumb"

[Bebbe]

Oh , have anyone read the books by Robert Shea ? The books I have are in swedish , but I can guess that the books are called something like :
"The age of the dragons" and "The storm and the sword". Yes , something among those lines.
Anyway , they're about a Ninja-monk called Jebu , if my memory is correct.
Great books. And I think there's another book in the series. Just haven't found it anywhere yet.

[Devon]

tbh, i found the golden compass movie too anti religion for the first book that stuff really started in the 2nd and 3rd books when they started figuring out what was going on. I wasnt really fond of the first dune, and the rest just got worse imo. wasp factory sounds interesting

[Dain Ironfoot]

Well as far as I can tell in all the post-ROTJ EU "omg the remnant is building teh new superweapon, lets get the cast of the OT and some rather boring made up characters with silly names to stop them" or "omg the organic borg ripoffs have destroyed everything!"

And the PT isn't as bad as the books for destroying the magic of the original movies.. so no..

Gods yes, Ian Banks non sci-fi stuff is bloody weird. His sci-fi stuff is great though, I love the Culture.

Dune is the LOTR of Sci-fi without the cheap rip-offs (They like their spaceships, laser guns and robots too much to completely reimagine a future society, hehe) Though yes, it does get a bit weird in the sequels. But I find the best sci-fi is based on developments of human culture rather than the technobabble behind it... Culture novels, Dune and Asimov are all good examples of that.

[Nertea]

I've been reading this chap, Ken Macleod (might not be exactly how to spell it), he's a very good modern sci-fi author. He seems to have an actual grasp of temporal paradoxes and the kind of problems inherent with interstellar travel, which makes it a refreshing read - plus, since it's modern there's a lot of interesting extrapolation from today's trends in technology instead of the robots, lasers and warp drive of most everything else.

also YV would own the borg. Though they've got their similarities - both started out as relatively good ideas (wow, complete technophobes that are invincible) and became crappy (omg teh borg queen) after a couple seasons/books. YV would have worked so much better in the end if they had actually developed the culture properly instead of scattering in all directions and somehow bringing in a completely new angle in the last 3 books to beat them.

Though what really pisses me off about the EU in general is that there are millions of planets in the galaxy and Lando or Han ALWAYS happen to turn up in the SAME CITY on the SAME PLANET at the SAME TIME. Authors have no scope - you have to limit things, not magically have everyone coincidentally meet like the SW universe is Canada and everyone keeps appearing in the one pub in the village of Alert.

Edited by Nertea, 01 January 2008 - 09:55 AM.

[Bart]

Just finished Eragon a few days ago, and I liked it very much. I don't see why people think it's such a LOTR rip-off. Sure, it takes place in a similar world and has elves and dwarves, but that's about as much similarity I can really find. The actual storyline is a lot different and works out very fine for me
Can't wait till my copy of Eldest falls on the doormat.

[Nertea]

sizzle sizzzle.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Dain Ironfoot]

*joins in the burning*

Ye gods. You KNOW what's going to happen in the next one, just look at Empire strikes back. The rebels will suffer a major loss, the hero will go off to learn stuff and then get a shocking revelation at the end. I've never read them, but I BET you thats true.

LOTR rip-off it is indeed. Even dungeons and dragons makes an attempt at changing the races and things somewhat, as far as I can tell the author of these has made no such effort.

Yeah, I'm jealous that a kid who has re-written SW in the LOTR universe is succesful. Blaarg.

Edited by Dain Ironfoot, 07 January 2008 - 11:06 AM.

[Taralom]

Nertea,

there is a type function in paint you know.
if you use it, people like me can read it as well xD