The 20th-anniversary edition contains a new introduction by Mr. Zahn, a new foreword by Lucasfilm's Howard Roffman, annotations by Mr. Zahn and editor Betsy Mitchell, and an all-new novella titled Crisis of Faith.
I didn't find out about the anniversary edition, until I had already bought the first-run copy from 1991. And no, the annotations aren't distracting; they're limited to each page's margins in smaller print.
10 years ago today, the EU was killed off and the new canon was born. https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-expanded-universe-eu-legends-canon-heir-empir-1851436016
Wow, ten years ago today. I remember talking to my uncle that day, when I told him about this, I said "perhaps you have felt a disturbance in the Force today? It's as though a dozen fanboys cried out in rage and were ignored."
I remember that day too. All my books burst in to flame, and I lost several CDs, and video games. It was a tragic day.
You had spontaneous combustion, huh? I had ninjas break into my home and take all my non-Disney-approved Star Wars merchandise.
Eh, it's just the smallest generic denomination that works with the quote. Saying "a couple" just doesn't flow the same.
Luckily, the Star Trek novel line, faced with a similar situation, took the opportunity to teach us that sometimes dead is better.
And they've yet to produce a single book that is better then most of the old EU novels. They also produce a lot less in general, and what they do produce is usually meaningless "fill in" stories set mostly during the time periods we're already familiar with, with most of it being stories that didn't need to be told and are often poorly written. I may love a lot of the Disney SW stuff (like the new movies minus Solo and RoS, and shows like The Mandalorian) but novel and comic wise its been a huge downgrade. They now mostly produce books for children and YA readers, and when they do give the general audience something its usually something no one really wants like a prequel era book. The High Republic was a good idea, but I found the first book so repetitive and boring that I never continued with the other stuff set there. The comics have been a mixed bag. A few good Vader runs, but the main "Star Wars" comic have suffered really badly from the art style generally being tracing actors face off of movie screenshots, and I think the general writing has also just not been great. Thats not to say there haven't been a few good things. Timothy Zahn continues to be the only person who should be allowed to write Thrawn, even if I did get tired of all the prequels and haven't read the last trilogy yet, and Tarkin was an early high quality book. Still, I'll always love the old EU more when it comes to its novels and comics, sure there were some duds (which is bound to happen with such a volume of work) but overall there was more good then bad and I generally prefer the universe from the old EU to anything Lucas ever did.
I will say in recent years I've fallen away from Star Wars novels. I think the last one I read was book 2 of the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy and honestly was bored by it. I still keep up when plot blurbs are released of upcoming new ones, but I haven't bought one in a while. Oh, just remembered I did get the one that tied in with the first season of Star Wars Visions, but I struggled to make it through the first fifty pages of that and gave up.
The Visions novel, Ronin, and the last two Thrawn Ascendancy books are what I consider valleys in the recent publishing. From Phase II of the High Republic line, I can recommend Convergence, The Battle of Jedha, and Cataclysm. Resistance Reborn was a good one from the sequel trilogy era. Brotherhood, Inquisitor, and The Princess and the Scoundrel are other recent books I have strongly enjoyed. I have high hopes for The Living Force, as Miller's Kenobi book was excellent.
Like is usually the case 99% I feel the complete opposite of Kirk5s, while I enjoyed some of the old EU, I think I've enjoyed a higher percentage of the Disney canon stuff, and I think the best of Disney stuff has been better than the best of the old EU.
I know I'm in the minority with loving the old EU, but I'm fine with that. To put my old EU fandom into perspective, when I was a kid I first watched (or at least first remember watching) the OT through the special editions when they released on VHS, in 1997 at around age 7. I liked them, but they didn't grab me in the same way that Star Trek did even at that age. It wasn't until a few years later, when I first read Timothy Zahn's original Thrawn Trilogy that Star Wars really "clicked" for me and it went from some movies I liked to a franchise I could call myself a fan of. Don't get me wrong, to this day I like or love all but four of the movies (Episodes 1, 2, 9 and Solo being the exceptions), but I'm a Star Wars fan because of the books. I like Luke, Han, Leia, etc a lot, but on my personal list of favorite Star Wars characters they're below people like Mara Jade, Kal Skirata, Corran Horn, etc. If I were to list my Top 10 favorite Star Wars stories they'd probably all be from old EU books (and KOTOR would probably be in there). Even the lesser old EU books I could read multiple times and enjoy, for the most part (except for Traitor, the Dark Nest Trilogy or Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice, which I have various major problems with). To me those Old EU books are my Star Wars fandom. I've long gotten past them no longer being canon and like I've said I love a lot of Disney Star Wars, but the Old EU will always be the Star Wars Universe that made me a fan, and I'll always prefer it.
My favorite Star Wars character is Kyle Katarn. People put way, way, way too much much emphasis on canon status for personal enjoyment.