The Star Wars Expanded Universe The Best Place to Start for Beginners

anytime talk on this channel about how much love the star wars eu get lot of people be like that sounds pretty cool so where should start well guys think this is great time to go back to that galaxy far far away hey what's up bookworms mike back today to talk little star wars eu because anytime talk about how much love the star wars eu people always ask where should start and always give them the answer and they haven't seem to be very accepting of just that answer so thought the best way to do is kind of be breaking up by arrows and kind of talk about if think that you guys can start there now if you don't know the star wars expanded universe is now called legends it is what was the you know just basically canon before disney acquired the license in what 2015 is how long ago was now so but this universe obviously is not considered can anymore but people like myself that grew up with it and have followed it and honestly think it's lot better than what disney has provided it's always gonna be something that is special to us and we can always talk about why so this was my mcu growing up guys it was really connected universe every three months or so we got you know new book that was you know one connected universe and an overall story with different authors contributing to it like said every couple of months we had new book it was really really great so it was hard for us to let go of it but we're gonna kind of talk about why i've talked about that in the past really about why that will always be you know what consider canon but with this we're going to talk about where think that you guys should start because usually say yeah start with the throne trilogy and people were like but what else so think now is good time to kind of go into it if that isn't just the only answer that you'll want so anytime can drum up some interest in the into you know new readers to get into the original star wars eu understand it can be kind of daunting to look at because there's ton of books there's ton of books and they don't just exactly have that timeline posted for people or if it's something that you feel like you need to read to get the full story so let's go ahead and begin like this we're gonna go by era like said that begins with the rise of the empire era now will be will be honest with you guys haven't spent lot of time in here because i'm really into the new republic which takes place after the original trilogy all of this takes place before and after the prequel series so with this it's about that thousand year stretch before the battle of yev and that's the first death star run in new hope in case you don't know these terms but like said it's stretch haven't explored ton so it's going to be kind of hearsay and some things that just think that would recommend based off of having read them obviously think the the novelizations of the prequels is good idea regardless of how you feel about those movies feel like the feel like the novelizations got the story across little better than they might have gotten on screen but i'm one of those who feel like the the sequels are so bad it's made the prequels great in hindsight so but again that's that's beating dead horse at this point but gotta say my favorites of this whole thing this whole time period is known as the han solo trilogy by ac crispin it's paradise snare the hutt gambit and rebel dawn now what like about these is you get lot of those questions answered that we have in the movies let's hear about han's time actually serving in the empire let's hear about why he has that debt to settle with of the hut let's hear about why chewbacca has life debt to han solo what led him to walking into that cantina on mos eisley it has all those answers in this trilogy so it's really really good read if you are really really interested in finding out about han solo's past and why he was quite more of scoundrel than you know that scoundrel with heart of gold that we came to know him as so it's really good peek behind the curtain like said it leads right into new hope which is just excellent that's good place to talk about guys the rebellion era the rebellion area which is also known as the galactic civil war so roughly about an eight-year stretch that's from the rubble when the rebel alliance was formed it runs little too after the end of return of the jedi so with this think the best place to start obviously if you haven't the novelizations of the original trilogy episode four five and six is still very very good read on how many times you've watched those movies you know what hey you can envision your head look at these kind of like director's cut if you will think that's but they're they're pretty you know much word for word since it was written by george lucas so it's it's not going to be ton of change from the actual screenplay but still it's fun to read some of these things and the next one guys if you could start here think so because think it takes place between new hope and empire strikes back say think so because i've never actually read the x-wing series but plan to guys know people have been yelling at me for this for while didn't read the x-wing books because was like don't need book series about wedge antilles but you know what there's lot more to it now there's lots of luke stuff in here so i'm planning on picking up rogue squadron here sometime this fall and actually starting at myself but this is very very popular series with within the eu fandom they really really do love this series so gotta say yeah think you could probably start there because all you need to see is the first movie so that's very good place to start now think this one shadows the empire this is must read if you've only seen the original trilogy this is must read because you know how you finish empire strikes back and we're just like in this my god what's going to happen next and then you start returning to jedi and you feel like what's going on here how much time has passed this answers all those questions explains everything that happened between episodes four or five and six so betraying return of the jedi and empire strikes back this gap while hans frozen and carbonite that's the only thing about it you don't get hot soul in this book but you get darth vader so that's something you don't get with lot of later eu books you know no more darth vader obviously but this is just great story you get introduced to dash rendar which is one of my favorite like han solo clones think it's done pretty much the best and princess dejor is an awesome awesome villain you get to see how ruthless darth vader can be when his his position is threatened let's put it that way but you give us some insight into how he feels about luke he's you're seeing the internal conflict that luke obviously references in return of judy get lot of that stuff in here so it's very very very good look at what happened during that time span now outside of that think tales from jabba's palace is really really good if you really like that stuff in jabba's palace feel like this is what they wanted to do with book of boba fett they just kind of missed the mark but you're really interested in like the underground crime organization and some of the street level crime think this is really really cool read for you guys it's several stories so it's not going to be too too rough if you just want to split it up and of course the courtship of princess leia and truce backer which actually can't find my paper back up because guys have ton of these and they are very very beat up not like my books now where take super good care of my used to loan these out and just read them like crazy throw them in my backpack in high school but yeah those two courtship of princess leia and true bakura both those you if you want to start there guess you can it kind of ties up everything that happens after return the jedi leading us into the new republic era which we're going to talk about second but yeah that's pretty much everything that would recommend if you wanted to start there you could some of those wouldn't really recommend that you start there but you can if you've only seen the original trilogy think you can go ahead and start over let's go ahead and move into my favorite era of the eu guys this is the new republic era so what is the new republic area you ask now guys this is about that about 30-year stretch that begins about five years after return of the jedi so the empire is still kind of kicking around they're not quite taking as much of threat as you know as they were in the during the during that time but you do see that the new republic that the the the rebel alliance has started to kind of create new government it's not as easy as they thought is it ever you know re-establishing government is going to be really really tough so the best place this is always the answer get when anybody says where should start always say the thrawn trilogy by timothy zahn to my to this day this is still my favorite star wars books that there are i've read them so many times and if you can see how beat up these things are i've read these so many times they're kind of yellowed at this point because they're so old when these came out it was it was just an event so you went to the bookstore and people were like playing like they were playing like the soundtracks of the movies and stuff because this was like the first like real feeling continue know they had like splinter the mind's eyes like that but this is the first time felt like not only are they making new star wars books but this is considered official history by george lucas it was big deal and these books were so so good i've talked before on this channel about the thrawn trilogy and why think it's special and why think it still is great read even if you've only seen those original movies because really it picks up all the storylines that you need you can absolutely 100 start here think this is actually the best place to start because mean if tell you to start with courtship or princess leia or truth or background you're going to be like is this the best that there is no don't think so don't think this is where you should start at all but think thrawn trilogy is the place that you should start because you get introduced to new villain you know we're kind of moving past just reminiscing about darth vader and the emperor and you get to see that the empire is still very much threat and thrawn is no joke he is very different than vader and he is very very good don't want to say more feel like at this point if you haven't heard at least of throne know that they put him into some of the new canon stuff but to me he'll never be the same as he was now know that even timothy's on himself has been the one that's been rewriting him into the new disney canon and it just feels like asking band that had really big hit in the 80s hit album just ask him to write that album again but make sure it kind of can kind of sticks to like what the record company wants them to do here don't know it just didn't feel the same to me so that's why was always saying nah now you're never going to replace that throne after that guys really say the jedi academy trilogy by kevin anderson this is before he decided to go and ruin the dune books with brian herbert he just you wrote these star wars books they're actually really really good it's about luke like reestablishing the jedi temples and trying to really just reestablish the jedi way you know in training new people and things like that just rebuilding everything that had been lost up to that point and you heard you see some things about jason and and you got jaina that's the the solo the solo twins and you get to see lot of things about the training that kind of leads into you know the young what is it called the young jedi knights it's series but it really does get you really introduced to jason and jaina which are going to be huge characters in new jedi order later so if you want to start there think it's great great place if you because you do need to be introduced to those characters before you go into something like new jedi order should be like what's the weight of this why should care about these characters think it gives you lot of weight to them another one that time here that's kind of like one-off is called jedi now this is the introduction of koran horn actually believe he's people told me he was introduced in the the x-wing series so might be wrong on that this was my introduction to koran horn was jedi and this kind of takes place even has some of the same events that take place in the jedi academy trilogy but it's from his point of view so this is very very important character and think that you should definitely pick it up so again if you're wanting to start with like new jedi order think you should pick this one up first because it will give you lot of context to who that character is as for this one the corellian trilogy han solo if my memory serves correctly it's like at this point leia's like big-time ambassador with the new republic and she has to do some things on corellia so she says hey why don't we just turn this into family reunion with han solo who has no interest to go back to where he grew up he doesn't have fond memories there so this any backstory feel like that was left for han solo was kind of covered in this it's one of those where feel like if you read the ac crispin trilogy the han solo ones and you just loved it and you feel like want to know even more about han solo this will scratch that edge but it's one of those don't feel like is is essential to the overall arc of the storytelling to where if you skip it you're not mean it's fun reads all these guys all these are fun reads but if you're just wanting like to main streamline the story don't think this one's imperative but if you're big han solo guy and you should be think that you you probably enjoy what you read here the kalista trilogy is one that i've actually loaned out so don't have it actually to show you right now think that was worth reading just for darksaber alone but like corellia it's it's another one that's just fun adventure trilogy you don't have to read anything else if you want to read it it can kind of stand on its own but it's not imperative to the overall story arcs that were coming new jedi order we're closing off this era so that's why said dark saber is very important obviously they're still using dark saber and the disney canon now is really big on mandalorian obviously so that think it's worth reading just for that one because that's really really good story black fleet crisis think that's one that's another that's just fun it's fun adventure trilogy it's nothing that you have to read this is where we got the point where it's like okay well let's see how many of these like one-offs we can kind of do and but they had to do in trilogy because they were selling so well you know you got it this was the first part where started feeling almost like little bit of exhaustion from what was going on was like okay well it just feels like these could have been you know spin-off movie trilogies we got the characters that we know and love but nothing's really serving an overall arc it's just kind of standalone story which was still fun but it didn't feel like it was actually like tying up anything where felt like at this point this really did feel like series you know think it was going to keep on going now that changed when timothy's on return with more thrawn with with with the hand of thrawn duology as it's called respect for the past vision of the future these were good reasons think that these are absolutely imperative to know more about the relationship of luke skywalker and mara now if you don't know who mara jade is you need to read the throne trilogy mara jade is probably the most popular eu character maybe ever she's very very popular character right there with thrawn think beloved character and again kind of hope they don't ever use mara jade in the disney canon because it just it's not going to feel the same it's going to kind of feel like when they bring thrawn onto mandalorian eventually but again that's just me i'm not trying to just trash the disney cannon or whatever just it's hard for me because you know i've had these characters in my head canon for years and trying to put new spin on them but again you need to read those just because that relationship with luke and mara goes to the next level in that series so how about my favorite guys the new jedi order 19 books guys it's 19 book series wasn't gonna grab all these to show you guys but just thought that would make for fun thumbnail don't know maybe i'll use it maybe won't can't believe didn't drop them surprisingly back in the day when worked at blockbuster video we had to carry all those cassettes at once i'm really showing my age now ain't the new jedi order i've talked at length of the channel did why you should read on the new jedi order should you start here that's kind of tough question because mean while think that you can it's just it's going to be little weird to you because it's going to be so many years after the original trilogy and you're going to be like how do they get to where they're at right now who are these kids characters because this is very much like not the passing of the torch but very much the okay the kids are now central players in this universe but what love about this is are you tired of the empire this is the next step in the evolution because this introduces the yuuzhan vong which are very very very cool villains and it's so different than the empire so so different but also this was the point where felt like star wars grew up it felt like that don't wanna say it went quite grim dark there are some very grim dark moments on think about like star by star and traitor in this series are some of the most dark moments in this entire series but characters die lots of things bad happen to lot of our characters it's mean it kicks off with killing legacy character you know that's why was think that's why put off reading anything by r.a salvatore for while because because he killed legacy character in his first book in this universe with vector prime cried i'm not gonna lie but again starting here mean guess you could you're just gonna be like you're gonna be wanting to look up wikipedia or something like that to find out who are who are all these characters what's going on here so it's kind of tough sell but it's hard for me to say no because love the series so much and think it does kind of have story that stands on its own it's just if you want the back sword for all those characters you're going to have to read some more so think i'll do pin comment down below of if you're interested in reading just the new jedi order here's four or five books think that you really should read before you started just to understand everything that's going on so i'll try to do that for it but it's hard for me to you know discourage anyone from reading new jedi order because love it so much and would love it if more star wars fans read this is where lot of lot of eu fans tapped out like lot of my friends that real big in the eu they tapped out because it got so dark it got so brutal and they didn't like that they liked star wars because it was fun and it got to the point where okay there's serious stuff happening now to me had grown up and wanted star wars to grow up and it was perfect timing for me so it just kind of depends on what you are looking for guys if you want your star wars to be little more serious and the stakes to be little bit higher where you don't always feel like the good guys are going to win because plot armor says they do this is kind of the series where feel like that really started and love it 19 books guys and was sad to see it end and to me unifying force the last book of the series is where it really felt like the end of our original characters it felt like the last time all those friends from high school were gonna be in the same place together it really did feel like the end because the series does really change after this so let's talk about some of those other ones because feel like at this point you might be getting passed if you should start here but let's let's talk about them okay how about legacy of the force now legacy of the force was this eight books nine books nine book series definitely don't think you should start here because think this is when the this is when the kids this is the next generation this is what mean now lukan and leia are still very much prevalent lando's very much there but this is where the kids take the spotlight it really is jason and janna's story at this point think that's kind of where we are headed the solo kids the skywalker kids that's just kind of the next generation so to speak so it would really seem odd starting here because you're talking this is like 35 years after return of the jedi so you're going to be like why are these why are characters all so old it would be really really weird to start here but if you've already read more i'll say definitely think you should read it because think there's some really great character moments in it certain bounty hunter that we all know and love made big deal in this story and when you finally get mean there's crazy can you talk about death's new jet order nothing compared to some of the deaths that happen here and anybody that new jedi ordered didn't break this series did break them and i'll be honest guys this was the last in the eu that read because there's one more series i've got spotlight here but didn't read it and well let me grab them i'll tell you why all right this last series here is called fate of the jedi nine book series has some of the coolest covers in all of star wars mean love these covers think these covers are just excellent to look at but here's the thing when these were coming out was so wrapped up in other stuff and got like three or four behind that was unusual with me with star wars books because always just consider it almost like that like subscription magazine thing that you would read but got so behind on it was like okay i'll just wait for this series to finish and then i'll read it and then we got the news about the eu was being ended and it broke my heart and it took while to get over it so just never got to these and then it had been so long was like well maybe should just go back and just want to reread the new jedi order again you know but just never got to it never have and now feel like if pick it up where it is now just be lost and confused so just never really went back to it so should you start there no absolutely not again this is 40 years after new hope you're gonna be like what what is going on you know so no don't think so and mean i'm well past the point of where said that you know think you should start but kind of want to give reference point so not only if you know where you should start but if you've read some things could should you continue on think that's kind of some of the things i'm going out here but again it's the eu guys could talk about it forever and and know that people always ask me stuff they've asked me to make star wars videos and then make them and they don't do very much but i'm going to keep always you know putting up that fight because star wars is the universe i've spent the most time of my reading life in said i've spent no more time in any other universe fictional universe out there you know it's it's it's amazing it's series that will always love for you know ever since was kid until now sharing it with my kids is something that will never really get old to me so always hear people all the time that haven't read these books or like who cares if disney scrapped the you know the expanded universe books they were anyway and disagree disagree greatly don't feel like any is there in here yeah mean any series that goes this long mean look at something like like dritz or warhammer it's been going on forever sure there's probably some books in there that aren't that good it's gonna happen anytime think about some of my favorite tv shows like x-files that went like 10 or 11 years there's some garbage in there but you know what most of it was amazing you know so that's kind of how feel about the eu but you kind of got to read it in order really think you do or lot of the stuff the emotional moments aren't going to hit because you aren't going to be attached to those characters so know we've kind of gotten this this attitude of serialized television where it's like if it doesn't advance the storyline don't want to read it but you know what you're missing with that is you're missing character development and you're missing that emotional attachment when bad things happen these characters so it really is something guys think at the minimum you got to start with thrawn really do think that you need to start there and if you love it and think you will if you love star wars then keep going and can like said can provide timeline for you guys can provide streamlined timeline if you want to kind of cut out what many would call the fluff or the filler or stuff that isn't going to advance the main storyline can help you out there so hope that this video has made this little bit clearer to you and hope that you will find some interest to get into these things i'm excited to go back and start reading the x-wing series for the first time because guys look when they when the eu got ended was accepting was like okay understand disney doesn't want to have their hands tied to canada that they can't you know they don't want they want to do storyline they want to do and they can't because we can't because it was in this you know volume 72 of something understood why they did it but it was kind of like what said about the new halloween movies if you're gonna scrap the canon you better do something better and they didn't so to me it's made it feel like this is even more exciting to go back and read now reread the thrawn trilogy couple years back now and loved it so was wanted to kind of just start over and start doing it all but you know then started this channel you know and got bogged down with all this other stuff that haven't read yet but man will always enjoy going back to the eu and hope you guys will give it real shot start with thrawn like said if you just don't feel like you need to there are other starting points that mentioned in the video but think that's place where you're gonna be like these are all of the characters that feel mean thrawn trilogy is so much like that original trilogy you can damn hear john williams soundtrack in your head it's so good guys so that's what got guys hope didn't make it more confusing by talking about bunch of books that don't think that you should read right now because that just happens when start talking about the eu can just kind of go off in tangents like i'm doing right now but hey you guys asked for it so hope that's cleared up something so drop in the comments guys let me know have you read the eu do you love it like do do you you have any other recommendations for where people should start start conversation down below jump on the discord we can talk about there we got star wars channel over there where you guys can talk about these things and will talk to you there