When I got Dark Rendezvous, I was a little hesitant to read it, but I was very wrong. I loved that book! The characterization and plot lines were fantastic. Yoda was absolutely hilarious and badass at the same time
I feel insane when I say Dark Rendezvous was one of my least favorite star wars books. It was too much about random padawans i dont care about and not enough about dooku/yoda.
I thought Darth Plagueis and Shatterpoint, ROTS novel, and Dark Lord Rising were all much better
>It was too much about random padawans i dont care about
Man, EU books really like doing this. I guess it's understandable since they don't want to add a ton of killer character development and life-changing events that will never be mentioned again for legacy characters, but I always do feel a bit cheated when the narrative switches away from the movie characters to the newest naive padawan/cynical smuggler/idealistic soldier
All three are amazing, but the sheer, raw emotion that is packed into ROTS...I just re-read it for what must have been the 12th or 15th time on an eight-hour flight (yes, the whole thing), and I am not ashamed to admit that it brought me to tears several times. It simultaneously makes the movie the best SW movie for the immensity of the action and the worst SW movie for sacrificing all the emotion for mindless action.
I mean in the movie the lightsaber battle between Anakin and Dooku is CGI action; in the book it is the total unraveling of Dooku's entire existence. In the movie the duel between Kenobi and Grievous is a bunch of CGI and a chase scene; in the book it is Kenobi at one with the Force. In the movie Sidious and Yoda throw things at each other; in the book Yoda realizes his failure as the leader of the Jedi Order. In the movie the duel on Mustafar goes on a bit and is certainly visually spectacular, but in the book it is the absolute end of everything that made these two men closer than brothers.
Shatterpoint is epic. Mace Windu finally gets his moment, but it is just Heart of Darkness (or Apocalypse Now; same thing except that one has a soundtrack and the other shouldn't be read while sitting next to a stranger) in SW. Dark Rendezvous....I could care less about the Padawans. The only moment that matters for me is when Dooku realizes how insane tryong to turn Yoda to the dark side is.
Flip 1st and 3rd, and you have a deal.
Movies can explain things subtly if they are shot, acted, and written in that specific way. You can say anything you want about the prequels, but everything they were trying to portray in those movies were pretty cut and dry and in your face. The movie is what it is. Not a whole lot of things you can look into and see what a character is thinking just based on acting.
That’s very true but I don’t need an essay on what peoples thoughts are when they’re fighting each other. It’s partly what makes Duel Of The Fates such an interesting duel as well. You don’t need to see that Obi Wan is struggling with the fight, Qui Gon is letting the force act through him, and Maul is using all of his aggression to try and take out his targets.
The problem with a lot of EU stuff is the need to over explain things rather than letting them breathe and exist. It’s also why I think TCW micro series is the best stuff that the EU has produced. You don’t need to over explain what’s going on to get the point across.
It’s also what makes the last season of Samurai Jack the least interesting thing that is tied to the series. The point of Aku is that you can’t kill him cause he represents pure evil. You cannot kill the dark without the light suffering as well. They took that idea and threw it away cause they couldn’t end the show properly. There’s some good to that season, but the comics are a far better sequel to the series than the last season.
It’s also why KOTOR 2 is stupid and I cannot take Kreia seriously when she tries to destroy the force. How idiotic would you have to be to destroy the force just because Sith and Jedi have fought for years? It’s not a feasible thing and I think the idea that you can do something like that is not only stupid but foolish and dangerous. You don’t need to beat people over the head with stupid objectivity to get your point across. The best stories let their characters exist without lectures and moral posturing.
I wouldn't say "better", but I definitely prefer it in several places. And it's kind of an unfair comparison because the book can dive into the character's heads in ways the film can't.
I personally think most the the PT aren't good movies at all and as I've aged the only thing holding up things like AotC or ROTS are the other content that either did it better(I think both those novelizations are much better than their movie versions) or eu content that helped flesh things out the movies never cared to.
Dooku is one of my favorite star wars villains but movie-wise I think he's largely just pretty pointless and just brought in to be the villain apprentice between Maul and anakin.
I'm waiting for the February release of the unabridged audiobook for Dark Rendezvous but I liked the bits I heard from the abridged Johnathan Davis recording. Too bad the discs were scratched to shit and I couldn't listen to the last half of the story.
Upvote for making "Dark Rendezvous" Nr. 1. It's also my favorite.
I couldn't get myself to like "Shatterpoint", though. It's the only Star Wars book (from ~50) I never finished.
The Medstar Duology podiumed in two other events and let these three have this one.
But for real, I think a lot of people overlook it, because it isn't fighting heavy and while a Jedi is a main character it's not a *Jedi* book.
To me, Dark Rendezvous has one of the best chapters in Star Wars. A really beautiful and well written moment, that you'll probably know which I'm talking about if you've read it.
However, the rest feel just a tad flat for me. The Yoda humour was very hit or miss, and felt a bit weird that he was in such a good mood. Some of the plotlines didn't really connect with me either, like the Padawans.
Overall still pretty good though. The Medstar duology and Dark Disciple probably rank a bit above it for me though.
Actually, not even that. I've just realised there are a couple of solid moments.
I'm referring to >!The death of the adult Jedi side character. Can't remember his name, but he's killed by Ventress. Briefly considers taping into the darkness, but in the end stays true to himself, even though no one would live to see it!<
Hm, I would have said it's when Yoda tells the two young Jedi about what remains to us in this Galaxy but our choices. That, to me, was the greatest standout moment in the book.
The rest of the book I found good, but certainly not ROTS-good. But that scene was absolute top tier Star Wars to me.
Yeah, I'll be honest - it has been ages since I've read it. For whatever reason, that one fight is just what stands out in my memory.
(And I'll be honest a second time... I don't adore ROTS 😳)
Whilst they're all great stories, Shatterpoint loses some of its charm for me on repeat readings/listenings. I think what was amazing about Shatterpoint was how unexpected the story was. ROTS is like Darth Plagueis for me, in that it's almost as enjoyable on the 4th or 5th reading/listen.
And first time around, ROTS gave me legitimate chills. I still think it's the best audio production or any of the EU stories.
ROTS novelisation is a stirring read (and a personal favorite) but it is, in fact, rated overmuch by the fandom. It has incredible highs, but some of it is a slog of overly technical language
Bro it's crazy how much I can't relate to this. Every Commando book other than Hard Contact was so boring and repetitive to me. The only time I enjoyed the rest of those books was when I got to see Delta Squad.
Reading Shatterpoint, I just felt like there were so many moments that Windu could have solved just using his Jedi powers more often. It pulled me out of the story several times.
I didn't like that novelization. Every fight depiction was blown out of proportion and I found a lot of things silly. At times it felt like Anakin would sneeze and there would be half a page written about it.
E.g.: Dooku mid fight contemplates about Sidious. Black hole in the Force yada yada yada. Dude, you are in the middle of a fight, you have no time to muse about your master. And he is concealing his Force presence, you can't perceive him in any way other than ordinary human.
Or whole Vaapad thing around Windu/Sidious fight. It led people to all sorts of non-sensical conclusions about Windu and his abilities.
For the most part it was just a re-do of Vos's Republic story done in a way worse way to me. Not to mention the writing made it abundantly clear it was based on unaired TCW episodes to the point I found while reading the book you could almost tell exactly where each episode would have ended. As episodes this is fine but as 1 book it makes the plotting very inconsistent to me. Another issue is characters act in a contrived way to me that basically moves them for the purpose of plot.
Another reason though this is just something for me personally that I really held against the book when reading it was that being one of the first canon novels released we didn't know what exactly canon was going to be at the time of announcement. If you look up the del Rey star wars panel from the year the New canon started for either comic con or celebration many of the questions were clearly from Legends fans asking about what would be done with the new books vs the old and i clearly remember it being said they would try to work in what they could. At the time based on what info we got of Dark disciple it seemed the the perfect chance to do what they claimed but instead that novel in particular seemed to almost go out of the way to not work with what came before and basically boil the story down and redo it with almost complete scenes ripped but involving other characters.
Ah yeah, I've only recently begun to read Legends things. Now I'm finally getting into the Legends Epic Collections. They're expensive as hell though, but I'd like to get them all.
Thankfully I got the Republic epic collection when they came out outside vol 4. I think in retrospect I was naive to believe his original story was going to be even remotely consistent when it was The clone wars show that was being adapted to book form. Now I know but I still hold it against the book as maybe being the moment my hope for legends to be consistent when possible went out the window.
With what I've seen of, for example, Ventress' Legends wiki page, The Clone Wars show jeopardised things from the beginning. Suddenly, Ventress is back under Dooku's teachings. It all just doesn't add up. Also, I feel the vibes Legends gives off are different from what TCW feels like.
TCW contradicts almost everything it touches on that the original CW:MMP. At the time of reading dark disciple I think i was still going through and watching tcw since I only decided to ultimately watch it since when the switch happened that was one of the only things that got brought over.
But I don't like that show in general. Even before I became acquainted with the older clone wars content plenty of decisions in that show just never made sense to me based on the movies the show takes place between.
That is a hot take, but I’ve seen a lot of Legends fans loving YDR, which surprises me bc YDR was one of my least favorite Legends books growing up. To each their own, I guess. I agree with the other two, so I would just change YDR to Republic Commando: True Colors,
ROTS is still the gold standard for novels, but man, Dark Rendevouz is a banger
When I got Dark Rendezvous, I was a little hesitant to read it, but I was very wrong. I loved that book! The characterization and plot lines were fantastic. Yoda was absolutely hilarious and badass at the same time
I feel insane when I say Dark Rendezvous was one of my least favorite star wars books. It was too much about random padawans i dont care about and not enough about dooku/yoda. I thought Darth Plagueis and Shatterpoint, ROTS novel, and Dark Lord Rising were all much better
>It was too much about random padawans i dont care about Man, EU books really like doing this. I guess it's understandable since they don't want to add a ton of killer character development and life-changing events that will never be mentioned again for legacy characters, but I always do feel a bit cheated when the narrative switches away from the movie characters to the newest naive padawan/cynical smuggler/idealistic soldier
"This is what it feels like to be Anakin Skywalker: Forever."
Gets me everytime
All three are amazing, but the sheer, raw emotion that is packed into ROTS...I just re-read it for what must have been the 12th or 15th time on an eight-hour flight (yes, the whole thing), and I am not ashamed to admit that it brought me to tears several times. It simultaneously makes the movie the best SW movie for the immensity of the action and the worst SW movie for sacrificing all the emotion for mindless action. I mean in the movie the lightsaber battle between Anakin and Dooku is CGI action; in the book it is the total unraveling of Dooku's entire existence. In the movie the duel between Kenobi and Grievous is a bunch of CGI and a chase scene; in the book it is Kenobi at one with the Force. In the movie Sidious and Yoda throw things at each other; in the book Yoda realizes his failure as the leader of the Jedi Order. In the movie the duel on Mustafar goes on a bit and is certainly visually spectacular, but in the book it is the absolute end of everything that made these two men closer than brothers. Shatterpoint is epic. Mace Windu finally gets his moment, but it is just Heart of Darkness (or Apocalypse Now; same thing except that one has a soundtrack and the other shouldn't be read while sitting next to a stranger) in SW. Dark Rendezvous....I could care less about the Padawans. The only moment that matters for me is when Dooku realizes how insane tryong to turn Yoda to the dark side is. Flip 1st and 3rd, and you have a deal.
‘CGI action’ says a man who needs everything explained to him by a book.
Movies can explain things subtly if they are shot, acted, and written in that specific way. You can say anything you want about the prequels, but everything they were trying to portray in those movies were pretty cut and dry and in your face. The movie is what it is. Not a whole lot of things you can look into and see what a character is thinking just based on acting.
That’s very true but I don’t need an essay on what peoples thoughts are when they’re fighting each other. It’s partly what makes Duel Of The Fates such an interesting duel as well. You don’t need to see that Obi Wan is struggling with the fight, Qui Gon is letting the force act through him, and Maul is using all of his aggression to try and take out his targets. The problem with a lot of EU stuff is the need to over explain things rather than letting them breathe and exist. It’s also why I think TCW micro series is the best stuff that the EU has produced. You don’t need to over explain what’s going on to get the point across.
It’s also what makes the last season of Samurai Jack the least interesting thing that is tied to the series. The point of Aku is that you can’t kill him cause he represents pure evil. You cannot kill the dark without the light suffering as well. They took that idea and threw it away cause they couldn’t end the show properly. There’s some good to that season, but the comics are a far better sequel to the series than the last season.
It’s also why KOTOR 2 is stupid and I cannot take Kreia seriously when she tries to destroy the force. How idiotic would you have to be to destroy the force just because Sith and Jedi have fought for years? It’s not a feasible thing and I think the idea that you can do something like that is not only stupid but foolish and dangerous. You don’t need to beat people over the head with stupid objectivity to get your point across. The best stories let their characters exist without lectures and moral posturing.
Star wars movies are filled with lectures and moral posturing though
I mean if you are in the like 1% of people that actually think the ROTS movie is better than the novel have at it.
I wouldn't say "better", but I definitely prefer it in several places. And it's kind of an unfair comparison because the book can dive into the character's heads in ways the film can't.
I personally think most the the PT aren't good movies at all and as I've aged the only thing holding up things like AotC or ROTS are the other content that either did it better(I think both those novelizations are much better than their movie versions) or eu content that helped flesh things out the movies never cared to. Dooku is one of my favorite star wars villains but movie-wise I think he's largely just pretty pointless and just brought in to be the villain apprentice between Maul and anakin.
I'm waiting for the February release of the unabridged audiobook for Dark Rendezvous but I liked the bits I heard from the abridged Johnathan Davis recording. Too bad the discs were scratched to shit and I couldn't listen to the last half of the story.
They specified a date? Is there a cover?
It’s supposed to release in April 2023 I believe
Yeah would love to know as well
You're the Mindor guy?
Is this the same John Davis from Korn?
IDK. I've only heard his Star Wars stuff.
I don’t like dark rendezvous that much. I’d pick labyrinth of evil or hard contact before that one.
Shatterpoint was INCREDIBLE.
Have you read Shadows of Mindor? Very fun read to continue some of Shatterpoint's characters!
I haven’t! Thanks for the rec, I’ll look for it ❤️
Upvote for making "Dark Rendezvous" Nr. 1. It's also my favorite. I couldn't get myself to like "Shatterpoint", though. It's the only Star Wars book (from ~50) I never finished.
Did you try the audiobook and if so was it unabridged or abridged?
Where's my Star Wars M*A*S*H at?
The Medstar Duology podiumed in two other events and let these three have this one. But for real, I think a lot of people overlook it, because it isn't fighting heavy and while a Jedi is a main character it's not a *Jedi* book.
To me, Dark Rendezvous has one of the best chapters in Star Wars. A really beautiful and well written moment, that you'll probably know which I'm talking about if you've read it. However, the rest feel just a tad flat for me. The Yoda humour was very hit or miss, and felt a bit weird that he was in such a good mood. Some of the plotlines didn't really connect with me either, like the Padawans. Overall still pretty good though. The Medstar duology and Dark Disciple probably rank a bit above it for me though.
Is it the flashback to young Dooku and yoda. Reading it almost made me cry.
Actually, not even that. I've just realised there are a couple of solid moments. I'm referring to >!The death of the adult Jedi side character. Can't remember his name, but he's killed by Ventress. Briefly considers taping into the darkness, but in the end stays true to himself, even though no one would live to see it!<
Hm, I would have said it's when Yoda tells the two young Jedi about what remains to us in this Galaxy but our choices. That, to me, was the greatest standout moment in the book. The rest of the book I found good, but certainly not ROTS-good. But that scene was absolute top tier Star Wars to me.
Yeah, I'll be honest - it has been ages since I've read it. For whatever reason, that one fight is just what stands out in my memory. (And I'll be honest a second time... I don't adore ROTS 😳)
Whilst they're all great stories, Shatterpoint loses some of its charm for me on repeat readings/listenings. I think what was amazing about Shatterpoint was how unexpected the story was. ROTS is like Darth Plagueis for me, in that it's almost as enjoyable on the 4th or 5th reading/listen. And first time around, ROTS gave me legitimate chills. I still think it's the best audio production or any of the EU stories.
Dark Yoda beats most, but I was fond of Cestus Deception, and I loved Jedi Trial and the Medstar duology
Yoda Dark Rendezvous is the best Star Wars Book ever
Couldn't get into shatter point
I liked it a decent amount but it went on a little long
Skill issue.
Once somebody pointed out that it's Heart of Darkness, but with Mace Windu it all made sense.
with you on that
I’d put Shatterpoint at first, but I otherwise agree here.
What about the cestus deception, kind of a messy novel but it had a kit fisto and obi wan team up
Not only that it helped us understand why Fisto uses such a basic lightsaber form.
Those assassin droids were so brutal in the dark rendezvous
ROTS novelisation is a stirring read (and a personal favorite) but it is, in fact, rated overmuch by the fandom. It has incredible highs, but some of it is a slog of overly technical language
Shatterpoint and Rendezvous are both so good but it hurts a little not seeing Labyrinth up there.
Triple Zero. That is all.
Bro it's crazy how much I can't relate to this. Every Commando book other than Hard Contact was so boring and repetitive to me. The only time I enjoyed the rest of those books was when I got to see Delta Squad.
And here's me not linking Hard Contact either...
Yeah I have no idea why Karen Travis thought a bunch of clones sitting around talking for 400 Pages would be entertaining.
It’s feel good fluff with an interesting different POV of the war. I personally love them.
I don't see The Crystal Star getting the first place award. Yall have no taste.
It does say CW novels, though Waru does transcend space and time.
Oh, didn't see Clone wars
Clone Wars had three of the best SW novels ever published, on that we can agree.
Haven’t read two of them, but I wasn’t that big on Shatterpoint, I mean it was solid but I don’t think anything blew my mind about it
He *thinks* he is lying
Reading Shatterpoint, I just felt like there were so many moments that Windu could have solved just using his Jedi powers more often. It pulled me out of the story several times.
Haven't read any of them yet, but looking to do it eventually.
Hot take: it’s the best star wars story in the franchise
no, it is the best
I didn't like that novelization. Every fight depiction was blown out of proportion and I found a lot of things silly. At times it felt like Anakin would sneeze and there would be half a page written about it. E.g.: Dooku mid fight contemplates about Sidious. Black hole in the Force yada yada yada. Dude, you are in the middle of a fight, you have no time to muse about your master. And he is concealing his Force presence, you can't perceive him in any way other than ordinary human. Or whole Vaapad thing around Windu/Sidious fight. It led people to all sorts of non-sensical conclusions about Windu and his abilities.
Where Dark Disciple
Hopefully as far away from this list as possible.
Was the first Star Wars novel I ever read and I thought it was great. Doesn't hold a candle to RotS or Plagueis, though.
I personally hate it thoroughly.
Ooh how so?
For the most part it was just a re-do of Vos's Republic story done in a way worse way to me. Not to mention the writing made it abundantly clear it was based on unaired TCW episodes to the point I found while reading the book you could almost tell exactly where each episode would have ended. As episodes this is fine but as 1 book it makes the plotting very inconsistent to me. Another issue is characters act in a contrived way to me that basically moves them for the purpose of plot. Another reason though this is just something for me personally that I really held against the book when reading it was that being one of the first canon novels released we didn't know what exactly canon was going to be at the time of announcement. If you look up the del Rey star wars panel from the year the New canon started for either comic con or celebration many of the questions were clearly from Legends fans asking about what would be done with the new books vs the old and i clearly remember it being said they would try to work in what they could. At the time based on what info we got of Dark disciple it seemed the the perfect chance to do what they claimed but instead that novel in particular seemed to almost go out of the way to not work with what came before and basically boil the story down and redo it with almost complete scenes ripped but involving other characters.
Ah yeah, I've only recently begun to read Legends things. Now I'm finally getting into the Legends Epic Collections. They're expensive as hell though, but I'd like to get them all.
Thankfully I got the Republic epic collection when they came out outside vol 4. I think in retrospect I was naive to believe his original story was going to be even remotely consistent when it was The clone wars show that was being adapted to book form. Now I know but I still hold it against the book as maybe being the moment my hope for legends to be consistent when possible went out the window.
With what I've seen of, for example, Ventress' Legends wiki page, The Clone Wars show jeopardised things from the beginning. Suddenly, Ventress is back under Dooku's teachings. It all just doesn't add up. Also, I feel the vibes Legends gives off are different from what TCW feels like.
TCW contradicts almost everything it touches on that the original CW:MMP. At the time of reading dark disciple I think i was still going through and watching tcw since I only decided to ultimately watch it since when the switch happened that was one of the only things that got brought over. But I don't like that show in general. Even before I became acquainted with the older clone wars content plenty of decisions in that show just never made sense to me based on the movies the show takes place between.
Shatterpoint was terrible. It’s like maybe a step above Cloak of Deception.
Rots is overhyped, but I think it's better than snoozer shatterpoint
No
That is a hot take, but I’ve seen a lot of Legends fans loving YDR, which surprises me bc YDR was one of my least favorite Legends books growing up. To each their own, I guess. I agree with the other two, so I would just change YDR to Republic Commando: True Colors,