Star Wars Canon Trilogies Ranked!

[@Voxorius]

The Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy is a masterpiece.

[@angelearichardson5555]

I think the reason the Ascendancy Trilogy did so well, was because it was set in unknown space. He was able to basically do whatever he wanted because we hadn’t had any books where the major setting was unknown space. Ascendancy is my favorite trilogy as well!

[@michaelmartinez3893]

I think I'm going to have to read the Alphabet Squadron books. They seem right up my alley.

[@jonathankoan]

I hope you enjoy them, they unfortunately didn’t work well for me, but I do know people who loved them.

[@michaelmartinez3893]

@@jonathankoan only one way for me to find out. My library has the first book so no purchase is necessary :)

[@cartermyers6441]

Great video! And congrats on 1,000!

[@jonathankoan]

Thank you!

[@benstump7453]

“He laid pipe”…nice

[@jonathankoan]

I was referring to the television term for how writers will set things up in one book to pay off later. I didn't hear the double meaning when I said it.🤣

[@_Mike.85]

Dying at this 😂😂

[@johnsolo-858]

congrats on 1k!

[@mikewelch6192]

I also loved the aftermath trilogy, it really fleshed out the character of Snap Wexley. What is more Star Warish then telling the story of a small background character.

[@carcass2886]

Nice video, I’ve recently found your channel The only trilogy I’ve read thst you said was the thrawn trilogy(loved the first, didn’t like the second, the third was ok) but hearing what you had to say makes me really want to read the ascendancy trilogy (congrats on 1k btw)

[@jonathankoan]

Thank you. I think that having free range really helped the Ascendancy trilogy

[@whitlocktherevanchist5236]

i'm with you on aftermath! i know it wasnt the favorite of a ton of fans but i genuinely loved it. the writing made me fall in love with ALL of the characters. mr bones and senjir are two of my favorite star wars literary characters of all time. i felt like it was incredibly under rated and i just enjoyed the story from start to finish. also, as a fan of the old rogue squadron and wraith squadron books from legends, i absolutely loved getting something in that same lane in alphabet squadron. now dont get me wrong, its no where near as good as those xwing books were. but it was nice to get to not only jump back into the cockpit of an xwing, but we also got to imagine the inside of a bwing awing ywing and uwing from the pilots perspective. it actually made me like bwings and uwings far more than i did before. i really enjoyed these even though i completely understand the criticism of them. i think i just missed the space dogfights from my youth i cant argue the thrawn books and timothy zahn is one of if not the greatest writer of star wars literature. my only problem with the canon thrawn novels is that i have a really hard time pushing aside the thrawn that was already in my mind from legends or even rebels for the thrawn that is in these new canon novels. as far as tactics and cleverness thrawn is amazing and that didnt really change. hes like a military sherlock holmes. not to mention i went to school for fine art and art history so i have a special love for the character and his love of art. but i do have a hard time thinking of thrawn from these books as a totally different character from the thrawn i knew before. i think its really almost the change from an antagonist to a protagonist and my mind has trouble accepting it. great review though. love your channel and your analysis of novels

[@jonathankoan]

Thank you for watching! You make several great points about all of the series!

[@brettwyman2984]

Keep it up. Congrats on 1k subs. My list: 1) Ascendancy 2) Thrawn 3) Padme (Only read 2 of 3) 4) Amber Heard's feces 5) Aftermath (Only read 2 of 3) Haven't read any Alphabet Squadron books yet I honestly think Alliances gets a little too much hate. While it is one of his weaker novels, I found it to be a fun read. It didn't tie in well to the rest of the trilogy, but Zahn tied it in to his Ascendancy trilogy quite nicely.

[@ErikBricks]

Nice Video, make some over the high republic. Tipp, get a new camera.

[@jonathankoan]

I have made one video Ranking the Phase 1 books of the High Republic. I might do a Phase 2/ updated one later. I just use my phone camera at the moment. I might be able to afford another one eventually, but at the moment this is what I have. I bought a 75 dollar camera a year ago, and it looked worse than the current one and took way longer to transfer data. 😅 Can’t win. Probably need to save up for a professional one.

[@ErikBricks]

@@jonathankoan Yes, good cameras are not so expensive any more. Use the money where you need it most. You Tube is now not as important as e.g. your family. The Videos are still good, It doesn't matter if you have a good or bad camera

[@Revan-sk4qx]

Well, I haven’t actually read any of these as all canon books I’ve read outside High Republic have been standalones. However I am very interested in checking out Alphabet Squadron and Aftermath at some point. I wasn’t too interested in the Thrawn books, but your praise for the Ascendancy trilogy is making me think I might want to read them

[@jonathankoan]

The thrawn books are closer to Sherlock Holmes novels in design, but the ascendancy Trilogy really is an epic military sci-fi series. Well worth it. And if you take out the expectations of what people wanted the aftermath Trilogy to be, I think it’s actually quite impressive.

[@whitlocktherevanchist5236]

i felt exactly the same way about the padme trilogy. i gotta say i love padme as one of my favorite characters in star wars and i actually really loved the highlighting of the handmaidens as i think sabe is a badass. but it felt like a slog to get through. it felt to me like instead of reading about enjoyable political details like i hoped, it wound up being personal drama and simply political detail without consequence. i think the mistake was making this a YA trilogy. i think star wars politics are incredibly interesting, but it felt like they were trying to explain them to young people who arent really well versed in political ideas, and because of this the politics just became overly simple.

[@jordanmarcial3670]

Do you plan to review Shadow of the Sith that came out today? Obviously you probably can’t do it all in a day, but I was just wondering if you intend to?

[@jonathankoan]

Oh yes. I got my copy today and am reading it now. Should have it read this week and have the review sometime next week.

[@jordanmarcial3670]

@@jonathankoan awesome, thanks for responding.

[@jamiehenry3568]

Just got in the alphabet squadron trilogy. Hoping to be able to keep up with the space battle scenes. By far my weak spot in readying star wars books. ✌️

[@jonathankoan]

Space battles in books are my weakness too. I think it’s doable in this trilogy though.

[@wilhufftarkin8543]

What a shame that the Padmé trilogy isn't so good. I'm still reading through Legends, so I'm not really interested in Canon stuff, but when I heard about the Padmé books I thought about making an exception, since there is so little stuff about Padmé in Legends. Could you explain what exactly you meant when you said that the author narrowed the audience? I don't mind spoilers.

[@jonathankoan]

As the books went on, they started being almost exclusively for one audience. Anyone could read book one, but really it was girls/women who liked it, and it was harder for male readers to get into it. It didn't help that Johnston specifically dedicated and thanked female fans in the acknowledgements of the books, but didn't acknowledge the male fans. Then book two blatantly started going into the senarios that are just uncomfortable and not appealing to the general star wars fan (periods, teenage sex, etc), and the third book began introducing several political aspects. Including politics is fine, and actually can be great if done right but the last book included political issues in such a way that you can only really enjoy it if you agree with it, not if you disagree with it, and thus many fans feel alienated and feel like they can't read the book. Now the books are not only for female fans, but female fans of a certain political worldview. Other authors have tackled political issues like Chuck Wendig and Claudia Gray, and even Cavan Scott and Charles Soule, but even though they have a political worldview, it doesn't feel limiting to the audience and they're more ambiguous with their statements and points. I would still encourage everyone to read a lot of the Canon books, as there have been many wonderful ones, I just think that this trilogy isn't that good.

[@wilhufftarkin8543]

@@jonathankoan Thank you for your detailed answer! Again, it's a shame, because I was really looking forward to a novel about Padmé, even though I'm almost exclusively a Legends fan. I really dislike it when authors use their licensed work to preach about their political views, especially if it's current political squarrels. I'm not even American, so I would probably feel even more alienated. I think the strength of Star Wars is that its themes, if done properly, are timeless. If you introduce current political discussions into Star Wars, you cheapen it and make it instantly dated. Palpatine for example could be an allegory for any current tyrant, but also for Hitler, for Napoleon, for Julius Caesar, or rather for the concept of tyranny itself. If you narrow it down to one current politician you don't like, you make it boring and take any nuance away from it.

[@sane8176]

I have two questions for you and would appreciate if you could answer them: 1. Should I read the canon Thrawn trilogy before the Ascendancy trilogy? 2. I'm thinking of buying only one book from the Queen trilogy and after reading it, decide if I want to read the rest. What would be the best book from the trilogy to do that?

[@jonathankoan]

1. Definitely read the Thrawn trilogy before the Ascendency trilogy. There are things specifically placed that will not work if you don’t read in publication order. That said, it’s not earth shattering, so you could read out of order and still enjoy it, but you’ll like it better if you know Thrawn and his the other books better. 2. The best book in the trilogy is the first one, but also it’s the one that sets the tone. I’d read that (Queens Shadow).

[@sane8176]

@@jonathankoan Thanks!

[@adrianojeda8332]

I loved Alphabet squadron trilogy 👌

[@chevalierdulys]

Yeah. Bleak and gritty are a must. Eheh

[@PepsiPepe]

Yesss ! Ascendacy was the only trilogy on here that I read. I haven’t read too much of either legends or the new canon Could you suggest some good starting points for the new canon ? The only thing I’ve read was the Ascendacy trilogy Other than that I’ve read The original 4 books for the X-Wings in legends And dark force rising trilogy

[@jonathankoan]

I do have some videos talking about recommendations, but I’ll eventually make a video with specifics. If you like an era, read books from that era (OT, PT, ST, Clone Wars, Old Republic, etc). Read what you’re interested in, and then you’ll get more into other things.

[@PepsiPepe]

@@jonathankoan I’ll continue scrolling through your videos and find them ! 😄 there’s already so much you’ve shown me and I can’t wait to get to them all

[@tyleryates8508]

Nice video