Best Canon books/ comics so far

Darth Vader edges out Kanan due to assassin droids. A New Dawn bored the hell out of me and I've heard mixed reviews of the novels that followed, but fingers remained crossed for Aftermath.

 

I have started with the comics but for the books should I start out with Tarkin?

 

I'm waiting for the Rise of the Empire collection with both Tarkin and New dawn. I want to get the short stories and I do not want to buy them twice

 

Just got started on the comics, and i have to wait a week or so for a reprint of Star Wars #2 unless I find it somewhere else before then.

Haven't read the servants of the empire, wasn't that one of the young adult or jr novels?

Also, should Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir be in the list? It is canon and I believe was Dark Horse's last release from the Star Wars universe.

I'm going with Lords of the Sith for now, although Tarkin and the Vader comic are up there with it. Haven't really seen enough from the other comics yet to really rate them.

 

Lords of the Sith is my favorite so far!

 

In terms of the novels, I would probably order them thusly:
•Tarkin
•Lords of the Sith
•Heir to the Jedi
•A New Dawn

In terms of the comics:
•Kanan
•Vader
•Star Wars
•Leia

I'm yet to read the Insider short stories, although they're waiting for me at my parents'. I have to say, I did read the first two Servants of the Empire books because of the way they tie into Rebels and my curiosity led me to them and they aren't terrible, although they do read verrrrry simply as one would expect.

 

I'm not a comics guy, so I can't chime in on those. But with the novels, my order would be:

1) A New Dawn
2) Tarkin
3) Heir to the Jedi
4) Lords of the Sith

A New Dawn spends a lot of time painting portraits, both of characters and of locations, than engaged in action. The result was the most vividly imagined and detailed of the novels so far. I can understand why that would turn some people off (as evidenced by some of the other opinions in this thread), but the result for me was that I didn't want the book to end because I had gotten to know that universe so well.

Tarkin was another great book, and masterfully details the relationship between Vader and Tarkin. I believe that it helps with their on-screen chemistry in A New Hope. A little too many flashbacks, and a relatively weak second half of the plot causes this book to slip to #2 for me.

Heir to the Jedi was a little clunky at first, mainly because it was hard to get accustomed to the first-person perspective. But once I did I thought it was a fun adventure with engaging new characters. Definitely more fun than deep.

Lords of the Sith wasn't so much about Lords of the Sith as it was the Twi'leks of Ryloth. The book suffers from typographical errors, a strange continuity error and the misnaming of an important character from the Clone Wars, and is generally not about what we, or at least I, thought it was going to be about when it was released. I'd still suggest to anyone that they should buy it, but I'd recommend reading some reviews first beforehand so you know what you're actually getting into.

 

I missed the misnamed character, which one was it?

 

Sixes?

I missed it when I read it, too.

 

Ahh, will have to look for that when I read it again. Although since I have the kindle version, who knows, they could have corrected it.

 

You're one of the first people I've seen to say AND was their favourite! I'm a big fan of Gorse, Vidian and a lot of the other characters and their development. I might give it a reread soon to see if the pacing still bothers me.

I think you found the word I've been looking for to describe HTTJ, which is "fun". I think the other novels so far (AND to a lesser extent) are quite dark and gritty, but HTTJ seemed a little bit more OT era than ROTS-level darkness. I think it had some great locations, tension and characters and did feel like an adventure!

 

I think the difference in feel could be attributed to the time period of each. HTTJ is between ANH and ESB where the other three are between RotS and ANH, during the earlier part of the "dark times" before the rebellion had a major victory, like the destruction of the first Death Star.

 

You're probably right there! Not only that, but the other books are a third person perspective and generally follow mature characters with a fairly dark objective. Meanwhile HTTJ follows Luke first person when he's still fairly young and inexperience.

Not to mention you have the romance subplot which sort of enhances the light feel. Arguably you could say the same for AND and LOTS, but the romance involved in them is much more minimal and restricted.

Another fairly obvious factor is that 50% of the books so far primarily follow anti-heroes such as Tarkin, Vader and Palpatine, but obviously AND primarily follows Hera and Kanan, so this is sort of an anomaly (although AND is arguably lighter than LOTS and Tarkin).

 

Alexandra Bracken's ANH adaptation seems excellent from the previews.

 

I've always liked this one.

 

Read the novel that kicked off that series and enjoyed it, but I'm fairly certain that one is not canon.