The New Jedi Order was perhaps the biggest project embarked upon in the EU since Star Wars began, with the initial plans including more than 20 books and 12 authors to span the years 25-30 ABY. The hardbacks were to be a year apart, with the time span between publication roughly representing the timespan of the era itself.

Publication began bag in October 1999 with the first book Vector Prime by R A Salvatore being the first novel to be announced at Starwars.com here. There was even a television promotion, with narration by Mark Hamill, for the beginning of the series, linked onsite here (although for some reason the video won't play on my computer).

More information about the series was contained in this sw.com article, and eventually Vector Prime was released on CD with the hardback edition of the final book in the series, The Unifying Force and was made available online in pdf format to hyperspace members here

Vector Prime is being discussed in the BC&T forum here, but for reasons that escape me I have not posted my thoughts in there.

It is some time since I last read VP (I've read it twice) but I recall thinking that I was glad I actually started the series in the middle (Dark Journey was the first NJO book I read - for reasons I'll explain when I get to that blog - not because this book was bad, but because it was so dark and sad. It was very well written, introducing us to a significant new species, the Yuuzhan Vong, and their belief system and biotechnology with a minimum of difficulty in understanding.

I was very sad to hear sometime after first reading the book that RA Salvatore was given a hard time by many fans who blamed him for some of the plot twists, almost as if he had actually gone out and perpetrated the acts himself. This is an appalling way for fans to behave, not only because it's fiction but because the authors in this series were required by Lucas Licensing (with GLs approval) to include the significant points.

The second entry in the series was the Dark Tide duology by Michael A Stackpole. The first book, Onslaught, was published in February 2000 with an excerpt available on sw.com at this link. The conclusion, Ruin was published in June 2000 with the blurb being published here and an interview with Stackpole and and excerpt from the book here.

This duology is being discussed in the BC&T forum at this link but again for reasons that escape me I have not contributed to this thread either.

Dark Tide featues, as would be expected from Stackpole novels, Corran Horn and some other members of Rogue Squadron, including their new leader Gavin Darklighter. Where Vector Prime was dark and depressing, this duology left the reader with a sense of little hope - there were successes and defeats on both sides, but even in success there was significant defeat.

The duology was very well written, although it did drag in places, but it is notable for bringing us a more grown up Jaina Solo and introducing Jagged Fel. We also get to see Admiral Pellaeon again with Ruin in particular featuring cooperation between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant.

It should be noted that Stackpole published a short story about Corran Horn, Missed Chance that provides a part of the backstory of his involvement on Garqi. It has been reprinted here for hyperspace members.

The first year of the NJO was concluded with the Agents of Chaos duology by one of the series' instigators, James Luceno. The books were announced here with the first book being Hero's Trial published in July 2000 with an excerpt here, followed by Jedi Eclipse in October 2000. An interview with James Luceno regarding the duology was published on sw.com here.

These books are being discussed in the BC&T forum here and my limited input into that thread makes me think that the reason that I had not posted in any of these threads was because they were not on the boards at the time that I read the books and for some reason I did not want to start the threads myself.

This is what I had to say about this duology (half way down the first page of the thread):

The first time I read these books I did not really appreciate them - I thought that the Han/Leia rift seemed somewhat forced and that there were too many loose ends.

When I went back and re-read the books after the series had concluded (and after reading the Han Solo Adventures for the first time) I enjoyed them much more. An awful lot of what was to come later was set up in these two books, and in retrospect was done very well.

I recall that like many of Luceno's books these took a little to actually get going, but they introduced us to the Ryn species, and in particular Droma, who were a fabulous addition to the Star Wars Universe.

They also brought us a return to Centrepoint Station and the beginning of Jacen's real philosophical crisis, which at the time seemed over the top but, as with the Han/Leia rift in retrospect was also done very well.

The first year of the NJO was all in all a great success for the EU but left the New Republic facing very dark times of their own...


Links to all of my reviews/overview blogs can be found in this blog.