I mentioned earlier that I was drawn to science fiction by Star Trek novels. I quickly Asimov and Heinlein quickly joined the mix, but I continued reading Star Trek novels for quite a while. When I was in high school, my younger brother was collecting comics, while I preferred to spend my money on SciFi paperbacks.

In the early nineties I got quick reintroduction to the Star Wars universe. A friend lent me a group of comics that chronicled Luke's decent to the dark side and involved clones of the emperor and such IIRC. Then Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy really got me interested. I'd seen the movies, but, just like the Star Trek novels before them, the Star Wars novels really brought the universe alive for me. I found the spattering of novels that had been written between the movies and the Thrawn Trilogy and followed the various novels as they were released for a couple years. The release pace soon quickened to the point that I couldn't read everything.

This is all on my mind, because I found the first in the "Legacy of the Force" arc as a free audio book. They really couldn't have chosen a better story to draw me back in.

1. I think this main arc has actually finished. 9 books written by 3 authors ... that's a chunk I can actually read.
2. The interplay between both sides of the force is most interesting when both are richly developed, and following an important character down the path to the dark side will do that nicely
3. The character turning to the dark side is one that I know quite well from the novels, but which is wholly unknown to those that have just seen the movies. I like that insider knowledge.
4. Zhan has more Star Wars books out, so I guess I'm resigned to reading some Star Wars for a bit anyway *smile*

I don't know exactly how I'll fit the other 8 books or the new Zhan books into my reading schedule, but there's a certain warm feeling knowing that they're there.