First up, books. I want to go on the record here: Aaron Allston writes a damn good space-fantasy yarn.

As a Star Wars fan from way back, I’ve easily read about 30 Star Wars novels, but I’ll freely admit that a lot of them have such horrible writing and characterization that they offended even my junior high school sensibilities. There *are* a couple of well written novel series that I recommend even to non-hardcore SW fans: Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command) and the nine X-wing novels by Mike Stackpole & Aaron Allston. And now add this one: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal.

Betrayal is set about 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi (and about 10 years after the New Jedi Order novels, which I completely avoided due to their massive suckitude). Allston does a great job of wiping the slate clean and starting fresh while still respecting the continuity of earlier (suckier) books.

It’s all and all a great jumping-on point for new readers. I’m on page 250 or so, and unless the story flies off a cliff in the last third I’ll likely be reading the rest of the series.