Well If you like Marvel check out Civil War that was a good Graphic Novel.
Priestess of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
ol_whatshername, thanks again for helping me out with the Star Wars EU books. I just went out today about bought Survivors Quest and Allegiance. I am still looking for a good deal on the Hand of Thrawn books, and I want to read them becfore I get into the NJO books.
You’re welcome. I just finished reading Survivor’s Quest today myself after blowing through all 5 Thrawn books. Now I’m rereading the NJO.
Mars by Ben bova. I am really digging it
I’ve just started Bear Grylls “Facing Up.” His autobiography about climbing Everest. Only a couple of chapters in so too soon to tell if its going to be any good but so far I’ve no real complaints.
Also just finished the 100 Bullets graphic novel Foregone Tomorrow. Its not a patch on the previous 3. Its ok, and furthers the overall story but its really nothing special. Which is a shame considering its the collection of 10 comics.
I’m reading two books right now. Emma by Jane Austen, and Take the Canoli by Sara Vowell
Have you read the Legacy of the Jedi series? What did you think? I’ve heard a lot of complaints about it, I felt it was a bit rushed personally, but mostly enjoyed it. It did seem a little repetative though. The Skywalker/Solo clan just can’t seem to catch a break.
Personally, I liked it. There were some pacing problems for me, namely Karen Traviss’s books diverting from the plot and turning into a Mandalorian cheer session for a third or so of each book, but I overall enjoyed it. The follow-up series just started last month with Aaron Allston’s “Fate of the Jedi 1: Outcast”, and I loved it. It’s interesting to me, a comics fan as well as a book fan, to see how they’re tying in the current time period to the Legacy era, 250 or so years after the battle of Yavin. (And it really does suck to be a Skywalker/Solo; I love Aaron Allston’s comparison to them and the house of Atrus in Greek mythology. Important and influential, but not a happy bunch.)
I’m currently reading: “Wolf Hunting” by Jane Lindskold, “The New World” by Michael Stackpole, “My Own Kind of Freedom” by Stephen Brust (Firefly novel–more of a fanfic, really, free on his website!), and “Ravenor” by Dan Abnett. And about to start listening to “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood.
Wasn’t the house of Atrus the ancestors of the Atreides in Dune?
I’ve never read any of the Mandalorian books, but the peices circling them in LOTF were actually pretty appealing to me, my favorite NJO book was Traitor, because it gave you SUCH an interesting view into the Vong culture and philosophy. The only parts of the EU I read are those dealing directly with the charcters from the OT. I’ve read the first few of the LEgacy comics, but I’ve had a hard time finding them because I didn’t hear about them till the year after they started being published. It was interesting, but not enough to have me go out of my way looking for them.
Millennium Falcon was an excellent read, kind of a return to form for Han and Leia from the pre-NJO days. Seems to be a bridge and set-up between LOTF and FOJ.
Also - WHAT? Fate fo the Jedi is out? Carp! I’d forgotten about it, too bad my money for books is severly diminished 
I may have to pull an all day visit to B&B to check it out. Could you give a spoiler free review? 
IS it being tied into the Legacy comics?
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I… have no idea re: the Dune connection. I’ve only read the first book, and that was three or four years ago.
Despite my personal misgivings with Karen Traviss, I do find the culture she created for Mandalorians to be interesting (and thus, I’ve been told I’d love Klingon culture since it’s been claimed that she pretty much transplanted the one onto the other. I’m a Trek noob, and can’t say) but they’re pretty infamous for being her pet project, and what should have been a story centering around the Skywalker/Solo clan and the fallout they were dealing with was derailed for Mandalorian politics in her contributions. On the upside, I got to see that two, possibly three characters I loved from her Republic Commando books were still alive and welll before the former series was completed.
Yeah, “Outcast” has been out for about three weeks now! Quick read, I was done with it in one night. The Legacy trades are being released pretty regularly, and the story really picks up in the second arc. The short of “Outcast” is, the Jedi (particularly Luke) have to deal with the public and governmental fallout of Jacen’s little power trip, complicated by some of the younger Jedi (including the son of two of my favorite characters EVER) going bugfrak crazy. And Luke and Ben go on a quest to find out where Jacen went wrong while Han, Leia, and Allana go help Lando on Kessel (where there is an awesome pilot reunion that made me squeal because I freaking LOVE the Star Wars pilots.) There’s quite a lot of hints being dropped about how things lead to the Fel Dynasty (as if nobody saw -that- coming, especially considering Princess Marasiah’s name), the division of the Jedi order from the comics (Imperial Knights and Jedi), and possibly maybe the New Sith Order, though if memory serves that was mostly covered in the preview for the next book, out this summer. I thought it was a strong start for the next few books.
Oh, and somewhat related, Aaron Allston (the author) had a heart attack two weeks ago while on the book tour, but is now out of the ICU and seems to be on the road to recovery. He’s an awesome, awesome guy in person, and if you can donate blood for a voucher for blood-related costs (details are here), please do!
So, um. Wow, I just wrote a lot, huh?
I’m not head-over-heels about Gaiman like many are, but that book had some cool passages in it. There’s one I stuck to my door, when Chernobog is explaining to Shadow why the neutral meeting place is safe, and he says something about there being no more sacred places left in the world.
Right now, I’m reading “Atlas Shrugged,” something I’ve meant to do for a long time. I’m about 550 pages into it, with about 500 more to go. Whew…
I read that last summer, and was making pretty good progress, until I got to “This is John Galt Speaking” It’s the chapter where the guy does a monologue. It took me forever to get through that, but it picked up after that.
I read the Legacy novels as they came out and personally I loved them despite my favorite character dying in Sacrifice. I picked up the first Fate of the Jedi book when it came out but I decided to re-read all the books from the NJO up to Outcast. Personally if it’s Star Wars I’ll read it.
Traviss does tend to turn her books into Mandalorian love fests but I have to give her credit because she wrote Mara better than just about anyone not named Zahn. Her Mandalorian love is why I’m glad she’s one of the authors for the Clone Wars novels and she’s the reason why Captain Rex is my favorite character in the animated series. I’m looking forward to her Imperial Commando series.
Traitor is the best novel of the NJO but it isn’t my favorite in the series for the Vong stuff. I loved Jacen in that book. I’m very excited that they announced Zahn is writing a new book that takes place during the time of the OT.
I don’t know, I think Stackpole did a great job with her in “I, Jedi” and the Star Wars: Union comic. He’s probably my favorite not-Zahn when it comes to Mara portrayal 
I give her lots of props for making people love the clones. I fell in love with them when “Cestus Deception” came out and was thrilled to hear that there was more clone-centric stuff coming out later, and that clonelove is the reason I’ll buy her Clone Wars books and Imperial Commando when it comes out later this year. I can overlook cruddy treatment of fans and spotty portrayals of a fictional religious order in favor of cuddly happy clones
Aw, it wasn’t Rex’s attempt at playing puppet with a severed droid head that did it for you? Rex is so awesome.
Stackpole did do a good job with Mara but after Stackpole’s two books in the NJO series Mara’s characterization was all over the place and Traviss did the best job.
I’ve never really been bothered by Traviss and her preference for Mandalorians because all the SW authors have their favorites. Allston has the Rogues, Stackpole has Corran and Denning has Han and Alema Rar just to name a few.
I read Traviss’ Clone Wars novelization before the movie came out last year so I was a fan of Rex before I ever saw him on screen but that scene with droid head is why Rookies is still my favorite episode of Clone Wars so far. Rex is awesome and I like that we get to see a lot of him.
Loved that book! Next, you have to read Anansi Boys.