Given all the hype and praise TFA is getting, let us step back and look for something else that isn’t overhyped or overrated. I give you: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command; otherwise known as the Thrawn Trilogy. A fine set for anybody who really wanted to know what actually happens with Luke, Han, and Leia; a carefully constructed plot and villain, new characters who are truly alive and breathing, and an excellent continuation of our three heroes.
Other recommended books are the Hand of Thrawn Duology, consisting of Specter of the Past, and Vision of the Future where it talks about how vulnerable republics can be, as well as the end of the Galactic Civil War; the Bounty Hunter Wars, with the books The Mandalorian Armor, Slave Ship, and Hard Merchandise, which tell stories about the bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back, how they got to come together, and where they went after Return of the Jedi; the Tales of the Jedi which tell the legends of the Jedi 4,000 before A New Hope; the Darth Bane trilogy, Path of Destruction, Rule of Two, and Dynasty of Evil which talks of the destruction and rebirth of the Sith Order in the hands of Darth Bane, and why the Jedi presumed them to be extinct; and Darth Plagueis which tells of Plagueis’ role in training Palpatine, his apprentice’s rise to power, the experiments on the midi-chlorians, and Plagueis’ death at Palpatine’s hands.