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3. Han Solo At Stars' End by Brian Daley (1979)

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  Han Solo at Star's End Summary: ~2 years BBY (before the Battle of Yavin/pre- ANH) Han Solo is doing normal Han Solo smuggling things, but the Falcon  can't pass emissions/inspection. He goes to meet with an outlaw tech to repair it, but finds out THE CORPORATE SECTOR AUTHORITY (the tenuous connecting thread of this trilogy) has him in space Alcatraz. He goes to rescue him. What it introduces: There's a lot of minor/name drop introductions here. Marauder Corvettes, the Corporate Sector, and who knows how many pieces of terminology. I think this is the first public-narrative appearance of the word bowcaster for Chewbacca's weapon. We get the first appearance of a "Victory" class, but it's probably not the Star Destroyer we'll get to know and love in later books. Most importantly, we get the first appearance of my favorite snubfighter, the humble Z-95 Headhunter Look at that sexy little number (thanks, as always, to Wookiepedia for images) It's bas
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2. Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker (A New Hope Novelization) (1976) by Alan Dean Foster and the Radio Drama (1981) by Brian Daley

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Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker Cover: That is one intense Darth Vader. From Wookiepedia Summary: So this kid who grew up on a "moisture farm" on a desert planet buys a used robot from these little black mage looking dudes. It has a hologram of a princess asking some crazy old guy who lives near him for help. She's hot, so he goes along with it. The old guy is a space wizard, and he agrees to help save her. They get in a bar fight, but hire a guy (who lasers a bounty hunter under the table) to fly them to the princess, but the evil space empire blows up her planet and has her in their giant evil space station. They get caught, but disguise themselves and break her out. The space wizard fights this evil cyborg guy in black armor, dies, and the rest of them escape. Then the space station is going to blow up the planet the rebellion is on, so the kid goes and shoots a rocket up its tailpipe to destroy it. What it introduces: Everything. Commentary:  There
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1. Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978) by Alan Dean Foster

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Splinter of the Mind's Eye Sweet Ralph Macquarie cover art, courtesy of Wookiepedia! Summary: Luke and Leia crash on a swamp planet. Leia has PTSD. Luke has a crush on her. They go looking for the Kaiburr Crystal with cranky Force grandma and replacement Chewie twins. Darth Vader shows up and mostly kicks their asses, but he falls in a hole. What it introduces: Naming things X of the Y : Which would hold for 4 of the 9 movies, 70ish novels, and numerous video games, comics, etc. The Kaiburr Crystal: Shards of which would become the most desirable lightsaber focusing crystals in the later EU. Kyber crystals would make an appearance in the new canon as both lightsaber crystals and part of the Death Star's superlaser.  Commentary:   Splinter of the Mind's Eye is widely considered the first book in the Expanded Universe. It was published in 1978, about half a year after the original release of Star Wars/A New Hope.  Preceding it are a few of the Marvel Comics (which I'll be
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Intro: May The Force Be With You

 Welcome to StarWarsClassics, the "light" (ha!) sister project to 15MinuteClassics . One day, I decided I wanted to read something easier/fun between THE CLASSICS . So, to keep things low key, I decided to read all* the Star Wars novels in order.** Like I said, keeping it light. It's a fun contrast though. * Tentatively, I'm using this  page as my list of what counts as a novel. This means young readers/chapter books (like the Junior Jedi Knights) series will count, but not pictures books, comics, etc. I'm sure at least some will make appearances if they're relevant/interest me (I gotta do  Dark Empire  and the Shadows of the Empire  tie ins at least). The focus here is really on the golden age of the old EU, which I'm loosely defining as 1991 ( Heir to the Empire) to 1999 ("end" of the X-Wing series, start of the Vong arc, TPM  released).  I'll probably do at least some of the later books, but no promises ** For my sanity, I'm giving my
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