Everyone is gushing over Thrawn, and I agree, but I want to give some attention to how Luke, Han, and Leia all acted and talked like they did in the movies.

The books captured Luke’s optimistic and patient attitude, Han being clever yet rash and coating it all in a veneer of half baked one liners, and Leia seeing right through Han’s BS and in being very practical.

Being very early EU material, the books have such a different tone than works made after the universe was fleshed out. The Jedi order was treated as something so long gone that even records of it were hard to come by, the clone wars were vague and the implications about them set a very different picture than what was later established, and even the sith as a coherent order weren’t thought of yet- instead there were Jedi and fallen Jedi.

The feel of the books rode such a perfect line, being easy to follow but compelling.