[NewChief]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Zahn's original trilogy aside, in which he was greatly restrained story-wise because Lucas planned to explore the prequels at some point, Zahn is, IMO, the best EU author.

He's best when writing about his own characters. Jorge Car'Dass is the single most interesting character in the EU, IMO, and his backstory is explained in later Zahn books. Talon Karde is also a cool character as well.

In most EU stories, Luke, references to Anakin/Vader, Obi-Wan, Palpatine and basically any movie character are boring. There is so much constraint on those characters because Lucas didn't want anyone to contradict his future movies. So Han, Lando, Luke, Leia, et al appear boring and wooden, IMO.

Another of my EU favs was I, Jedi. Very good writing, cool story and very little interaction with the OT characters.

I completely agree on the movie characters being boring. I'll try some other Zahn without so much tie in to the movies.