I demand the Thrawn trilogy be put on the big screen!

Timothy Zahn sucks and Thrawn sucks (in all his... numerous incarnations). Well the Thrawn books were ok but dude Outbound Flight was just the bad.

Outbound Flight was meh, but I love the original Thrawn books. I prefer Zahn's writing over a lot of the other's works. Stackpole was hit-or-miss.

Stackpole was consistent. The X-Wing books were alright, I really enjoyed them back in the day, and Aaron Allston was the man... he had the humor down.

Aaron Allston is definitely the man. I'm a big fan of Zahn's Star Wars work, too, but Outbound Flight was only okay. But I heard Zahn came up with the NJO idea, which I didn't really care for. The Vong just don't seem very Star Wars-ish to me.

Kevin J. Anderson and Tom Veitch have some awesome, awesome ideas, but they don't always work. Which is too bad, cuz I'm a big fan, especially of Dark Empire.

Michael P. Kube-McDowell and Vonda McIntyre just don't get Star Wars, period. Barbara Hambly's alright, I enjoyed Planet of Twilight quite a bit.

Aside from the novelizations of the films, Shadows of the Empire, the first DF book (Rebel Agent?), the last Timothy Zahn book and like 1/3 of the first two, I haven't read any SW books. Not many more comics either, though.

In fact, that pre-Vong era is where the Star Wars EU really ends for me. I mean sure, there must be some nice books there and there but I really can't get myself to be interested in all that 80-year-old Wedge Antilles blowing up Galactic Federation stuff or Cade Skywalker looking like a 1980s rocker stuff. OH NO NERD RAGE.

<insert NERD RAGE here>

I enjoyed mcintyre's novels but they really don't fit.

Also, remember that Splinter of the Mind's Eye was the first EU novel written. Ever. And it blows.

JM - it was unauthorized, too. Alan Dean Foster wrote it.

As far as AUTHORIZED EU expansions, I believe Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" was the first.

I remember enjoying "Splinter", although it's been ages since I read it.