Top 8 of '08: #7 - Mindor & Order 66

Rancors Love to Read was originally created to read all the Star Wars novels in chronological order. One challenge with this was that the order is constantly being realigned, as new novels are published that often fall between existing books. When we started, we decided to read new novels as they were published, rather than trying to force them into the sequence artificially. Over time, this has proven to be the right choice, and the initial list we started with has expanded by over two dozen entries.

Out of all the new novels published this year, there were two clear highlights. The first and biggest barely squeaked into the year at all! Released on December 30, Matthew Stover's Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor is one of the best Star Wars novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading. My full review of it is forthcoming, but in short it was an emotionally-charged thrill ride in the vein of the Original Trilogy. Luke is my favorite film character, and between this novel and Dark Horse's awesome collection outlined in my #8 of '08 blog entry, it was a great year to be a Luke fan. While there were a few points early in the story where I had a bit of trouble fully engaging, once it got going I tore through the book like it was on fire. Del Rey needs to contract Stover for as many future novels as possible, RIGHT NOW.

The other highlight of 2008 Del Rey stories was Karen Traviss' Order 66. Her Republic Commando series has been an unexpectedly deep and innovative take on the Clone Wars and the galaxy far, far away. Over the prior three books, I had grown to truly care for some of her characters, and it was with a mixture of excitement and dread that I opened the covers of Order 66 and began to read. Any fan knows the implications of the actual order itself going in, but the way in which Traviss plays it out was satisfying yet left the reader wanting more. The good news is we will get more this summer as we embark upon the Imperial Commando saga.

For these two particular highlights and for the rest of the largely high-quality stories published in 2008 (including the incredible 3-volume update of the Star Wars Encyclopedia), reading Del Rey books gets my #7 berth for top Star Wars experiences in 2008.