The Worst SW Novel Awards!!!

[Trejiuvanat]

If the Empire had been in charge, I think, the Yuuzhan Vong War would not have been as long as it was. The Empire would have taken swift action and prevented the Vong from getting to the Mid Rim. There would have still been some nasty battle near the Outer Rim, and in Chiss Space, but they wouldn't have gone past that. Thrawn even may have found Sekot before that and convinced the Emperor in a super-convoluted plan to allow the Vong to settle down in exchange for some technology or information or something...

[Skynxnex]

You're forgeting Bakura, the Ssi-ruvii could have made mincemeat of the Empire if they had been able to get a few seed worlds out on the rim.

 

The empire was not all powerfull by any means, the emperor's cockyness cost them 2 DS and his life.

 

The Ssi-Ruuvi as a threat? HAHAHAHA. They had what, one star system or something. That hardly constitutes a threat. Even if they had gotten Bakura it wouldnt have meant anything if the Emperor was still alive and the Empire intact.

[Mad78]

You're forgeting Bakura, the Ssi-ruvii could have made mincemeat of the Empire if they had been able to get a few seed worlds out on the rim.

 

The empire was not all powerfull by any means, the emperor's cockyness cost them 2 DS and his life.

 

The Ssi-Ruuvi as a threat? HAHAHAHA. They had what, one star system or something. That hardly constitutes a threat. Even if they had gotten Bakura it wouldnt have meant anything if the Emperor was still alive and the Empire intact.

A little round with the DS would deal with things.

[DarthTex]

Trejiuvanat wrote:

 

Thrawn even may have found Sekot before that and convinced the Emperor in a super-convoluted plan to allow the Vong to settle down in exchange for some technology or information or something...

 

In one of the Pre-clone war novels (after TPM), Obi-wan and Anakin were sent to Zenoma to find Vergere (a jedi) under the guise of purchasing one of its "living" ships. A young Tarkin was in command of a Republic task force (under the orders of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine) to secure the planet for The Republic (presumably before a civil/clone war was to break out?). When hostilities with the Republic task force started, Zenoma fled. IMHO had the Republic secured Zenoma, Palpatine would have had the planet churning out warships of interesting design But for Palpatine's overall master plan to work, the Republic couldn't be "too" strong before the clone wars began, otherwise his emergency powers as Chancellor and his military buildup would have been shot down by the Senate. Maybe he would have captured Zenoma, then sent it off to become his "arsenal of tyrrany" when the time came(?). (Zenoma) Sekot was supposedly VERY strong in the Force. Palpatine could have tried to use the Dark Side for something there ... let's see: Darth Maul is dead, I need a new apprentice. Should I pick Count Dooku or this Force sensitive living plate? What would I do with a Force sensitive living planet under the influence of the Dark Side. OOOwww weee!

[SOCL]

I haven't read most of these, but I have read Darksaber and am currently reading Children of the Jedi...perhaps I'm not qualified to vote. Regardless, though, I would have to go with Darksaber. My vote, though, has nothing to do with the story: I can put up with a lot of crap (three of my best friends are Trej, Scath, and Jahled), so I can certainly deal with the superweapon scenario; what I can't deal with, though, is having Jedi Apprentice Trainees in Training flinging a squadron of Star Destroyer across the galaxy and knocking out their hyperdrives in the process, while only losing one person (the fact that Pellaeon--a character I very much like--was commanding the squadron doesn't help their case, either)! Further, I always like to see super star destroyers, but I can not stand seeing one go down in flames because of one damned almost-Jedi apprentice trainee setting off a bomb (the fact that Daala--another character I like more than the Jedi trainees--was made to look stupid a second time for faults not entirely her own pissed me off)! No matter stupid superweapon, Jedi training, Force-using weird-o, or anything else characteristic of Ye Olde EU shows up in the novels, I will not forgive Darksaber for that (despite the fact I enjoyed every other part of the novel).

[Mad78]

Well those books are the only REALLY bad books of the EU. I can live with the others.

[Stellar_Magic]

Personally I think the worst Star Wars Novel of all Time was The Truce at Bakura. It's an underwritten, dabbling piece of junk, I wrote better when I was sixteen then that person!

 

I think you're giving the Black Fleet Crisis a somewhat undeserved smear, as far as writting quality its pretty good but stylistically it isn't Star Wars. The thing reads like a Tom Clancy novel with tons of plots, little character development and very little direct action in combat by the characters themselves.

[Trejiuvanat]

Your comments has just given me a clear simple insight on bad SW books.

 

There are two kind of bad books (three if you want):

 

The first being the poorly written books, the ones where the style is crappy, or huge plot-flaws and they are simply a waste of paper and ink. Darksaber, Truce of Bakura, etc.

 

The second category is for the books that do not feel like SW books. Their style is directed at something else, either too Sci-Fi and too un-mythic... BFC, Crystal Star which feels like a Trek episode.

 

And the third category is for the ones that comply with both of the above categories, the really bad bad bad books that along with the Holiday Special should be boxed up and sent to be burned in the Sun.

[Mad78]

And the third category is for the ones that comply with both of the above categories, the really bad bad bad books that along with the Holiday Special should be boxed up and sent to be burned in the Sun.

We have to find the worse of that category.

[Skynxnex]

Burned in the sun..hahahahaha. An accurate way to sum up my feelings on that too.

[Defender_16]

I still have yet to read The Crystal Star, Darksaber, or The Black Fleet Crisis. BUT! The New Rebelllion would have to rank as the worst I've read, followed by The Truce at Bakura. Granted I never gave Bakura a second chance like I have many other books.

 

There were a few of the NJO books that I didn't like the first time I read them but grew on me a bit the second time.

 

*Won't read Vector Prime* *Won't read Vector Prime* *Won't read Vector Prime*

[DarthTofu]

I'll probably get huge contradictions, and not having read any of the books on that list, I really can't do much to back off hate spikes, but I thought the Thrawn trilogy was terrible. Thrawn just randomly stated "Oh, this is commanded by a Bothan, so it's going to do this". Zahn provided no reason for anything at all: Thrawn was just invincible, and he invented so many stupid things- for instance: The Ysalimari and Vorskners- aside from these names having been created from randomly hitting a keyboard (As I suspect many other names, such as Bppfash were) were completely off the wall. If the Vorskners hunted through the force, but Ysalimari took it out, why didn't the Vorskners lose the ability to hunt in the force? And how did they sense Luke if they had no force, as well? Also: What lead Thrawn to believe that the Ysalimari were on Myrkyrr? Or to know of their power? Then there was the Katana fleet, which other authors (namely Stackpole) were kind enough to reinforce with books set in the timeline earlier, but it just was too random. "The Imperials need power again, so let's give them 200 random heavy dreadnauts". Plus there was the set of History Datacards that really contained a blaster and all (As if palace security wouldn't have found those) and Delta source, which I had figured out from the first time that the trees were mentioned... It was just all-together far too made up to fit his pupouses with no explanation provided at all.

[Mad78]

Actually of the hole EU Thrawn trilogy must be one of the best books. Zahn writes well and he DOES explain Thrawns way of thinking. Try rereading it and reading the books listed in this thread. You shall then see how good it is.

[DarthTofu]

No, he really doesn't. I remember one area pretty well in which the Chimera is being attacked by new Republic Vessles. He sends out part of his fleet, and, for no reason at all, surmises that the Admiral in charge is a Bith, I think. he then proceeds to turn the Hanger bay away from the fleet to launch TIEs, which results in fatality for the New Republic fleet. First of all, how you would react to any situation is affected by a number of things: How you wewre raised, who raised you, if you were given love, ect. Stackpole specifically contridicted Zahn with the Dark Tide doulogy. Admiral Traest Kre'fey is a Bothan who was brought up differently than Borsk, and thus is different than Borsk.

[Mad78]

Strategies may vary but the main fighting style won't change much. For the way of thinking of a specie and its instincts are about the same from a person to another. That way of thiniing reflects itself in the specie's art. Thrawn was capable simply by looking at an art piece to figure how an opponent would react in battle. Mix that with years of experience and you shall see why Thrawn was so good.

[AdmiralToguroAni]

In regards to Tofu's statement, I'm inclined to agree. There were a lot of conveniences in those books, but for the most part I didn't mind them too much. As for Thrawn being able to make an accurate prediction based on species, we can see that it is rather inaccurate just by looking at the last 300 years of world history. The primary ruling force of the 1700s (the British) were defeated, in part because of superior tactics by the terrorists (aka American freedom fighters. We have to use current terminology). Since that war, most countries now adopt the more stealthy type of combat when engaging wars. The point is that if humans are capable of creating strategy that totally breaks away from what they usually do, then we have to assume that the other species can do it too.

 

to be fair though, most non-humans in the SW universe are usually stereotyped. Almost all Chiss are cold and calculating, almost all Trandoshans are viscious, etc.

[DarthTofu]

I can see the whole Chiss thing, Trandoshans... Well, yeah, Trandoshans are jerks. but I noticed that many of the stereotipical species (Not all) have only one real point of origon. I guess I can see how that works... The other thing in Zahn's writing that annoyed me was really how many "Oh my gosh, that was right under my nose, i should have seen it!" things in there that were beyond easy to figure out. Still, I guess compared to some who throw all laws of physics and such out the window (Cough *Vector Prime* cough) it was decent enough...

[Defender_16]

The Thrawn trilogy was written in a different era. Readers back in the early 90's wern't so cynacle and paranoid to suspect every little thing. Besides he probably WANTs the reader to have a good inkling that this thing might be the listening device. It's called foreshadowing.

Foreshadowing is a literary device in which an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in his story. -From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

Anyways before that trilogy came out none of the books had any effect on one another. So really he didn't have to worry about plot points that might not add up in other Star Wars books. Just that his books went together.

[DarthTofu]

Yeah, I guess... Still, it wasn't just foreshadowing- it was increadibally obviouis. He always made a point of the trees for Delta source in Coruscant.

[adthrawn]

I hated Darksaber. Hutts wouldn't be smart enough to build or gather the resorces to build such a weapon. And if such a weapon was possible, why didn't the Empire build it instead? It would seem more logical. A ship with the firepower of the Death Star. You wouldn't need all the costly hull with the huge amount of people if all you wanted was to be able to destroy a planet. And I hate Hutts.

[DarthTofu]

It still kind of annoys me that the planet ship-shooter described in "Isard's Revenge" was never implemented- that thing would be way better than the Death Stars!

[Trejiuvanat]

It still kind of annoys me that the planet ship-shooter described in "Isard's Revenge" was never implemented- that thing would be way better than the Death Stars!

 

Pulsar Station was not that different from the Darksaber. SO you could say it was sort of implemented.

[Defender_16]

Actually the Pulsar station fired (would have if it had been built) shots that could take out a Super Star Destroyer not a planet. But the gravity well generators arround it's equator could stop traffic through an entire star System.

 

And no more exhaust shafts for torpedoes to go down, unless the torp is 1mm. lol

 

So anyways are we all agreed that The Crystal Star, The New Rebellion, and Darksaber were all crappy books to end this?

[Mad78]

I agree. They were all crap.

 

I for one am happy they didn't make a book with the Pulsar station. Simply because we would of had another lets-make-a-book-where-the-new-republic-destroys-an-imperial-super-weapon books. And i am sure it would have been bad.

[DarthTofu]

Even if Michael A. Stackpole wrote it? In my opinion, he and Aaron Allston are the all-time-most-awesome Sci-fi writers ever- primarily because they leave out all of the main characters from the movies except for Wedge and, on ocassion, Ackbar... Anyway, I think that Stackpole could have done something with the Pulsar Station that would have been better. And by the way, Defender 16, when I said that the Pulsar station was better than a Death Star, I knew that it wouldn't take out shields, but it woould beat the crap out of anything in range, would have camoflauge, and way better armor. Plus it has an option that the Death Star never had- to bombard a planet with one hell-uva blast and then laugh at the huge smoking crater int he ground... Well, I guess the Original DS could have, but it wouldn't have been as gÂUÙÇSFX wise...