TOPIC: EU Adventure Part 2: Jedi Academy Trilogy

My next venture has begun! I'm excited all over again!

They're pretty decent but a "step down" from the Thrawn Trilogy. This is also an interesting series in that the Tales of the Jedi and the Dark Empire 1&2 series from Dark Horse are almost required reading as several plot points reference those graphic novels.

Certainly not as good as the Thrawn Trilogy, but then again, I don't rate many bits of the EU as highly as that. I very much enjoyed those books as a kid though, probably the first Star Wars EU stuff I read, some very nice plotlines in this one.

That is what I have heard elsewhere. Still others say that Jedi Academy was their favourite trilogy. So it seems opinons are divided. I'll probably prefer the Thrawn Trilogy myself. But it's one of the required ones if I want to experience the EU and get everything I need to know. If it's bad I'll just suffer through it. Though, I doubt it's bad. Poorer maybe. Anyway, we'll see. I have also heard that the graphic novels are required, while others say they're not necessarily. I'll see what happens, anyway.

If been on a EU kick recently as well.
Thrawn Trilogy is definitely my no.1 EU
So far the Bane series is no.2 EU

But I really haven't read nearly as much as others. Perhaps you all can recommend my next series.

Here is what I have read recently (last 2 years)
EU:
Thrawn trilogy
Bane trilogy
Reven trilogy
Other Timothy Zahn books
Courtship of Princess Leia
dark disciple

Canon:
New dawn
Lost stars
Bloodline
Moving target, smugglers run, weapon of a Jedi
Aftermath
Tarkin
All of the new marvel Starwars comics (floppies weekly)

It is certainly not a bad trilogy by any means, like I said, one of my favourites as a child, and I can see why people keep it in their favourite slot still now.

My current EU favourites (although I still need to get round to reading a lot of it) are:

The Thrawn Trilogy (Shock horror )
Outbound Flight (Okay, I'm Thrawn biased)
Jedi Academy Trilogy
Republic Commando Series (The first book took me a lot of tries to get into, but afterwards it was one of the best stories I have read. Ends a little abpruptly as the series was cancelled, but I still reccomend it very highly.)
The Legacy of the Force Series (Never heard anyone else's opinion on these books, but I personally found it a very well done story)

I still need to get around to the new canon, the only stuff I know from there are the films, some of The Clone Wars, and to my shame, none of Rebels or any new comics or books. That will be a while however, I'm currently in the process of digitising my entire EU collection (and adding new stuff to it) which will take a very long time. I would love to have it all physically, but space is an issue, and a lot of the novels are old and hard to find, with the comics being even harder (although it does seem like Marvel is doing a nice job of republishing Dark Horse's stuff)

Hello! I'm new here, but thought that I'd share this for anyone that would be interested. This is an autograph I received from Timothy Zahn, author of the Thrawn Trilogy, while attending a local convention. Funny story- I had no idea he would be there! As such, I totally neglected to bring along my copies of the Trilogy to be signed. *sigh* I did, however, purchase this collector's card from his table. He happily signed it and even answered a few questions! Very nice man.

Finally finished this trilogy. Verdict?

It was ok.

Not really great and not terrible either. It had a very different tone than the Thrawn trilogy, but it was very inconsistent at the same time. In some ways it was more mature than the Thrawn trilogy and in other areas it was downright childish (I'm talking about the constant back and forth of the ownership of the Millennium Falcon). That was just weak and I don't think it added anything to the story but padding. And I don't think it even needed padding. There's so much going on in these books! I counted at least 4 or 5 different villains! The important characters were more or less well represented, though. The chapter length is strange. Some chapters go on and on and others last only 2 pages. Again, inconsistent. I enjoyed setting myself into a setting and locale with Thrawn and getting good mileage out of a scene. You didn't know what you were going to get with these books. The epilogue was also at least 5 chapters long. I think that could have been condensed into at most 2 chapters. But now I'm nitpicking.

It was a decent story even if there were a lot of plot devices. The Sun Crusher, the astonishingly incompetent Admiral Daala and her strike force, the Death Star prototype, Exar Kun and his incredible dark side powers on Yavin, etc. I also like Qui Xux's character. She started out annoying and suddenly she became cool all the sudden. It was a little abrupt I think, but seeing as her character became more interesting I'll let it slide. At least for a trilogy that's more or less necessary to understand what's going on in the legends, it's not that bad to sit through. Some people love this trilogy clearly, and it isn't bad at all. But I found myself just waiting for it all to end. I had a better time with Thrawn.

So I give this trilogy a 6/10. Wouldn't read again, but I had a reasonably enjoyable time reading it, even if there was some excess padding. Now for "I, Jedi"....