Best and Worst Novels (Canon)

My three best are:

Thrawn
Thrawn: Alliances
Leia: Princess of Alderaan

My three worst:
Aftermath
A New Dawn
Aftermath: Life Debt

 

I haven’t read enough to give a full answer, but ‘A New Dawn’ was so awful, I was actually angry!

I have read ‘Ahsoka’ - and while it was certainly better than the aforementioned novel, it wasn’t exactly a dazzling read.

‘Catalyst’ - this was probably the “best written”- (imo) -of the three canon books I’ve indulged in, but the subject matter wasn’t quite my thing.

Lest I come off as a complete sourpuss, I’d genuinely like to catch some opinions here on some better options— as I’d really like to indulge in some qualitative SW tales collectively suggested by you folks!

 

Try "Lost Stars". For me, it's easily a top 3 contender (have to think about the other two).
It's an original story, with the two characters on opposing sides of the war, while also letting the reader revisit familiar events through (and beyond) the OT.

 

Worst:
1.) Heir of the Jedi (by far the worst in my opinion)
2.) Canto Bight (took me months to finish it)
3.) Aftermath (the interludes annoyed me)

Best:
1.) Lost Stars (if you haven’t read it, go try it now!)
2.) Afthermath: Empires End (yes, the interludes still annoyed me, but Rae Sloane is one of the best non-movie characters)
3.) Dark disciple (a well written story)
4.) Tarkin (it was my first SW novell, not the best one ever, but it has a special place in my heart)

 

best:

• Guardians of the Whills (still think this is just a really underappreciated gem)
  
• Bloodline (an obvious choice? but a deserved one)
  
• Aftermath: Empire's End (though really, just read it all as one trilogy; it has warts, but i love Sinjir!)
  
• runners ups: Lost Stars, Catalyst, Inferno Squad & Last Shot

worst:

• Phasma (though the Hux thing in this is mightily gratifying, i have to admit)
  
• Thrawn: Alliances (though i still bust out laughing when i think of it, so maybe there's value in that?) XD
  
• Cobalt Squadron (what a disappointing ya novel!)
  
• runner up: Thrawn (yawn)

 

Idk about top 3... but Lost Stars would be an awesome movie. That's my favorite!

 

Weapon of the Jedi sounds intriguing I'll pick it up. I read all the Aftermath books, I really don't know why so many fans hate it so much. It contained some really great characters like Sinjir, Norra, Temmin, Jas Emari ( Zabrak bounty hunter), and of course Mister Bones, any who; to each their own. My personal opinion is that fans wanted more Luke, Han, Leia, and what happened after ROTJ, and they got characters they didn't care about.

One of my favorite books is Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu. It might satiate any void that Aftermath couldn't fill.

I just finished Lost Stars. I'm so desperate to know what happened to the main two characters afterwards. Were they ever mentioned in any other books? I'd like to know...

 

Ok this is actually quite hard to list because even the novels am not that keen on have plot elements and parts I like and I still haven’t read everything ( might be an idea to make this an annual list thing as it can change according to the more canon books you get to read ).

So from what have read so far :
Worst :
1) Aftermath trilogy - way it was written but the plot elements with battle of Jakku , Rae Sloane and Emperor’s whole contingency plan with the observatories was really good .
2) Canto bight short stories book
3) Star Wars - from a Certain Point of View short stories
To be honest am not that keen on the short story books - prefer the novels so that may be why two of my entries are short story collections

Favs so far :
1) Dark Disciple - plot, pacing and twists were so good
2) legends of Luke Skywalker- beautiful book- the prose in this was just gorgeous- it was more like reading Rumi or Kahlil Gibran in parts - really poetic prose
3) Anything by Claudia Gray - love her writing- whether it’s lost stars , Bloodline or leia princess of alderaan. Am sure I’ll feel the same about her new Obi wan and Qui Gon book Master and Apprentice when I read it .

 

I had a hard time finishing the first Aftermath, but the pay-off in Life debt and Empires End was worth it for me. But I agree the first one goes slowly, in Life Debt the story picks up the pace, but I don’t know if you want to read 1 book as a setup for 2 other books

 

Cardinal may be hands-down my least favorite novel-only character as well. he's 100% pure foil for Vy to bounce off of and it makes him look terrible and diminishes her as well.
the whole framework for that story is really terrible and nonsensical, unfortunately.

it's true, it takes some initial investment to get this story rolling (and i know some people find the present tense narrative to be off-putting initially), but man, once it gets going, it's pure roller coaster.
i think i read Empire's End in one sitting of about three hours (devoured it). : D

 

Not yet, but I’d imagine we get a sequel that takes place after the Battle of Jakku since Lucasfilm will be more willing to have stories set in that era once the Sequel Trilogy is complete. We did get an easter egg in the Battle of Jakku level from the Battlefront 2 campaign where Thane Kyrell’s name is stated on rebel comms.

I’ve been a bit behind on Star Wars books as of late, but from all of the books I’ve read, here’s my two cents:

Worst (In No Particular Order)
1. Heir to the Jedi - I kinda have a soft spot for this book, as it was one of the first Star Wars books I read back in fall of 2016 and I’m pretty sure it was the first that I owned and didn’t borrow from a library. It was ultimately just a dull, forgettable read and having Luke narrate it was an odd choice.
2. Lords of the Sith - Again, it was a dull, forgettable read. There was some cool Vader/Palpatine moments, but the title was misleading as the book mainly focused on Cham Syndulla and the Twi’leks. I enjoyed them in The Clone Wars and Rebels, but this book was just so boring that I’d mostly skim over their parts.
3. Aftermath - What can I say that hasn’t been said already? Terrible present tense wording, dialogue was bad, some awful lines, space diapers, and just an overall dull read. Fortunately, the trilogy got better with each installment that I’m going to try to reread before The Journey to The Rise of Skywalker line comes out.
HONORABLE MENTION: From A Certain Point of View - It was such a mixed bag of short stories. Some were great and thought-provoking, some were dull and forgettable, and some were just bad and don’t exist in my headcanon. I was sort of disappointed with this one to be honest.

Best (In No Particular Order)
1. Dark Disciple - I love The Clone Wars, so I’m slightly biased, but this was just a great story. I can definitely imagine how it would’ve played out in the show and was very satisfied with everything, other than Anakin dueling Dooku for like the 10th time in between AOTC and ROTS.
2. Thrawn - Really engaging book. I got bored here and there, but it was still a great read and look at Thrawn and the Empire in general. I loved the connections to Star Wars Rebels and I still need to pick up Thrawn Alliances sometime in the near future.
3. Bloodline - This was a great Leia story. I think that anyone who wants to know more about the backstory of the Sequel Trilogy needs to read this book. I also think that this book has the more gorgeous cover out of any of the canon books that I own currently.
HONORABLE MENTION: Inferno Squad - While the Battlefront 2 campaign felt rushed and was ultimately just okay, this book did a better job handling the characters and their devotion to the Empire. Has some nice connections to the game, Rogue One, and The Clone Wars as well.

 

Speaking of the Bloodline novel which I still need to read sometime this year, do I need to read the Phasma novel also or not?

 

Honestly, if you read the Captain Phasma book and comic, you’ll probably be disappointed that her character in the movies isn’t as badass.




I don’t know if we’re including novelizations in this thread, but I just finished reading the Solo: A Star Wars Story novelization not too long ago and it was the weakest of the movie novelizations I’ve read so far. I feel like the final act in many Star Wars novelizations feel rushed, but to me, the entire book felt rushed. I also didn’t like how short and simple the writing itself was. Can’t say I’d recomend it, unless you really enjoyed the movie (though I don’t know why’d one would be reading it if you didn’t like the movie) as it expands on some of the characters, namely Qi’ra.

 

Just finished Lost Starsits the hands down the best star wars book i've read since the original Thrawn Trilogy & the first of the new cannon books I've been desperate to know what happens on the next page, rather then reading just to fill my knowledge between the films.

Really hope there is a sequel, i'm desperate to spend more time with the characters.

 

Cobalt Squadron was a quick read that adds a little more to the story.