I'm not the biggest fan of the EU, but there are a handful of good books and comics that capture the Star Wars essence well. To me, they are -

The Brian Daley Han Solo Novels (At Star's End, Revenge, and The Lost Legacy)
Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Academy Trilogy
The MedStar Duology
Boba Fett and Jodo Kast: Twin Engines of Destruction
Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover

Just off the top of my head. I'm sure I could think of more given time, but I thought I'd pose the question.

All of the X-Wing series books are great

Great concept, horrible execution though. I totally disagreed of how Jacen was persuaded by Lumiya. I thought it was ridiculous of how she spouted "The galaxy needs order" and such when she sent Death Squads to kill the GA/Correllian officials AND the Jedi at a peace talks discussion where Jacen happened to be.

I did not mind that Mara died in that series either, but the way they had her die was complete BS. Jacen had the tendons to he knees torn and snapped by a kick that Mara landed on him. She also stabbed him where the collar bone meets the shoulder. Dispite the shoulder injury, Jacen somehow manages to grab Mara's hair with one hand and stab her in the leg with the other.

Don't know about you, but the only person that I know of that could have a funtioning arm after it was stabbed by a lightsaber through a major joint is Darth Sion. They should have had Jacen learn how to manifest Force Illusions and fool Mara into believing she delivered a death blow. Then Jacen walks up and knocks her out and tortures her to death. That, IMO, would have been a better way for Jacen to make his assension to becoming a Sith Lord.

-Jester007

Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader are both excellent books if you haven't read them. I don't know the name of the author off the top of my head, but I'll put the name up later.
Both books have a great amount of action, plot development, and comedy.

I've also heard that the X-Wing series are amazing, but I unfortunately haven't gotten to read them yet. I still promote them though.

I haven't gotten into the novels, but he Dark Horse comics seem to be excellent. The prequel era stuff in the Omnibuses (though I haven't read all three of them, so there could be bad stuff in there) and the Clone Wars trade paperbacks really make you care about both the underdeveloped characters from the movies and what I originally thought were cheesy EU guys like Durge, Quinlan Vos, and Asajj Ventress. I read one expecting to hate it and was very pleasantly surprised.

I'm also pretty hooked on the current series. If you can get past the idea that there's another empire, more Sith, and a Jedi purge yet again, Legacy is a really great story about a three-pronged galactic war and a selfish, immature man slowly fumbling towards heroism at the center. And Dark Times seems great, there's just enough of it yet.

Just as a warning, I also got the Old Trilogy era Early Victories omnibus when I was recovering from surgery, and that one's not nearly as good. I think it's four separate limited series and only one (Vader's Quest, with art by Watchmen's Dave Gibbons) was cool.

I like the Darth Bane trilogy. His raw power and beastly feats is what inspired me to run Sith. If you want a change from your run-of-the-mill novels where the good guys lose in the begining and eventually win this is your series. You will also learn a lot about pre- Trilogy era.

The Deathtroopers audio book made it spookier becuase of the sound effects. I liked Shadows of Mindor, it was kinda cool. Original Clone Wars cartoon was legit, wow, best scenes: 6 Jedi Masters get trashed by Grievous, Grievous beating on Clones and Senate Guard. Fordo defending Coruscant against swarms of SBD's

yep!
I read the 1st book be fore I saw the Bane mini.
Once I saw him, I was like a hormone filled teen chick caught up in Beatlemania

NJO is better than the original trilogy...there...I said it... I LOVED those books. All 3 years it took me to get through them too...

I really enjoyed Yoda: Dark Rendezvous. If you liked Yoda vs. Dooku in Ep. II, then you will appreciate this book.