Anything by Timothy Zahn is solid gold, but I'd start with Heir to the Empire. It was one of the earliest Expanded Universe works, so you don't have to know a bunch of obscure backstory to read it. It's also notable for creating a lot of the canon that appeared in later EU stuff and even some stuff from the prequels.

DRASTIC SPOILERS

Inside the cave Yoda had a fight with a powerful Sith master during the time of the old republic. Yoda won, but where the sith master died, a powerful dark side echo formed. It's possible that Yoda used this as a sort of camoflage to hide from the Emperor's force sensitive agents. The only surviving equipment he left behind at the scene was the sith's old summoning beacon. 1

When he considered Luke ready, he had Luke venture into the cave to face the dark side. He didn't want Luke to bring his weapon because Yoda knew that it was no true threat, just an echo.

Luke, while he was in the cave, saw that the true threat to the galaxy was himself. If he could not master himself, he would become a worse threat than his father ever was.

Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn. It's where I started, and in my opinion some of the best published. What it did better than anything else was capture the adventure and excitement of the star wars movies. It also introduces a good number of characters that you will end up reading about later if you continue to read the books. After that you can read Kevin J. Anderson's trilogy, and then start picking up the singles, like Truce at Bakura, Courtship of Princess Leia, the one with the jedi hutt and luke has a girlfriend ghost. If you decide to skip all those and only read the Thrawn books also read the Thrawn duology which ties up a lot of the stuff from the trilogy that is left open. It isn't left open in a bad way, there is just more stuff that could happen. You will eventually get to the New Jedi Order stuff and then everything else that happened after that, but that is beyond the scope of my recommendations. Also, the links are for the first books, I figure you can figure out the sequels if you end up buying the first books. Also, you can get them for like a dollar at your used book store so don't get them from amazon.

edit: Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask, I read all of the books published by bantam as a child and half the new jedi order series before I gave up and started reading "real" science fiction. Don't take that the wrong way, I enjoyed the star wars books, sometimes one just needs to diversify! I should re-read the thrawn trilogy. :-D

The Timothy Zahn books are really good. You can get all 3 on Amazon for about 23 bucks: http://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259835520&sr=8-1

Tales from Jabba's Palace was entertaining. My Mom got me the Millennium Falcon novel last Christmas, it was pretty interesting.

The New Jedi Order was good, but I stopped about 5-6 books into it. I read the summary on Wiki/Wookiepedia, and it sounds like they kind of jumped the shark. I might try to finish it up eventually though.

Best place to start is the Timothy Zahn series. It picks up shortly after Return of the Jedi and is some of the best writing you'll find. It has possibly the best villain in the Star Wars universe hands down, I found myself hoping the bad guys would win about halfway through.

https://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124

Definitely watch the movies first.

As to books, The Thrawn Trilogy is my personal favorite Star Wars book series. It's set about 5 years after Return of the Jedi. Luke is a Jedi trying to figure out what that means and one of my favorite villains in pop fiction is the antagonist.

The Jedi Academy is another great Star Wars trilogy. Pretty much anything by Kevin J. Anderson in the old Star Wars cannon is great.

When you're tired of reading about Luke, check out the Darth Bane trilogy. It's a look at how the Sith came to be the baddies they are today.

If you're interested in the the story behind the prequel movies, Darth Plagueis is an excellent book that fills in some of the plot holes from those movies. If you're interested in post-RotJ, I'd recommend starting with the Thrawn trilogy.

The Thrawn Trilogy:

1. Heir to the Empire
   
2. Dark Force Rising
   
3. The Last Command
   
   The Hand of Thrawn duology:
   
   
4. Specter of the Past
   
5. Vision of the Future

That looks like the comic book adaptation , the novels are still in print for normal paperback prices:

First book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0553296124/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527435281&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=heir+to+the+empire&dpPl=1&dpID=51Q-Rpnu3-L&ref=plSrch

Heir to the Empire picks up five years after Return of the Jedi. It has probably been 10 years since I've read those though.

The Thrawn trilogy books. If you haven't read them I would strongly urge you to.

1

2

3

Heir to the Empire is under $5 new right now on Amazon.

I've been buying used from there and from Powells (and a local shop) for a while, though, and the quality is almost always totally fine. Most of the time you spend about $4, shipping included.

1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
   
   
2. Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn
   
   
3. Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
   
   
4. All the Sweet Promises - Elizabeth Elgin

I was introduced to her by the Trawn trilogy.

https://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124

After loads of reading on the bus to work every day, here follows my reading list for military aviation:

Modern

• Viper Pilot - memoir of an F-16 Wild Weasel pilot who flew in both Iraq Wars
  
• A Nightmare's Prayer - memoir of a Marine Harrier Pilot flying out of Bagram.
  
• Warthog - Story of the A-10C pilots and their many varied missions in Desert Storm
  
• Hornets over Kuwait - Memoir of a Marine F/A-18 pilot during Desert Storm
  
• Strike Eagle - Story of the brand new F-15C Strike Eagle pilots and their time in Desert Storm
  
  

  Vietnam
  

• The Hunter Killers - look at the very first Wild Weasels, their inception, early development, successes, and failures
  
• Low Level Hell - memoir of an OH-6 Air Cav pilot
  
  

  WWII
  

• Unsung Eagles - various snapshots of the less well-known but arguably more impactful pilots and their missions during WWII (pilot who flew channel rescue in a P-47, morale demonstration pilot, etc.)
  
• Stuka Pilot - memoir of the most prolific aviator of Nazi Germany (and an unapologetic Nazi) who killed hundreds of tanks with his cannon-armed Stuka
  
• The First Team - more academic historical look at the first US Naval Aviators in WWII
  
  
  

  Overall/Other
  

• Skunk Works - memoir of Ben Rich, head of Lockeed's top secret internal firm and his time working on the U-2, SR-71, and F-117 including anecdotes from pilots of all 3 and accounts of these remarkable planes' exploits.
  
• Lords of the Sky - ambitious attempt to chronicle the rise and evolution of the "fighter pilot" from WWI to the modern day
  
• Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs - the story of the long-top secret group of pilots who evaluated and flew captured Soviet aircraft against US pilots to train them against these unknown foes.
  
• Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage - story of the US submarine fleet starting at the outbreak of the Cold War and their exploits
  
  
  
  

  Bonus non-military aviation
  

  I highly second the recommendations of Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, and Diamond Age. I would also recommend:
  
  

• Neuromancer - defined the cyberpunk genre
  
• Ghost in the Wires - memoir of prolific hacker Kevin Mitnick
  
• Starship Troopers - nothing like the movie
  
• The Martian - fantastic read
  
• Heir to the Empire - first of the Star Wars Thrawn Trilogy and the book that arguably sparked the growth of the Extended Universe of Star Wars
  
• Devil in the White City - semi-fictional (mostly non-fiction) account of a serial killer who created an entire palace to capture and kill his prey during the Chicago World's Fair
  
• Good Omens - dark comedy story of a demon and an angel trying to stop the end of the world because they like us too much
  
• American Gods - fantastic story about how the old gods still walk among us
  
• Dune - just read it
  

Reading this from my inbox I thought you wanted to get into Europe. Awkward.

In chronological order (and I'd very much recommend reading them in this order, it can be rather confusing trying to understand events and relationships you've never heard of). Please note these are all Post Endor; there are also many good books prior to the events covered in these, and there are certainly excellent books that have slipped my notice. I'd suggest going to your local library and searching there if you want even more.

• Anyway, I'd highly recommend Heir to the Empire to start off, since it very much popularized the EU. There's three others to the series, all of which I'd recommend.
  
  
• My other favorite is The X-Wing series, beginning at "Rogue Squadron" The series is great, but its pretty long at around 9 books. I think the most interesting aspect is how multiple authors contribute to the series, so there is a variety of style.
  
  
• And I'd say the longest, largest, most comprehensive, and best series is the Yuuzhan Vong Series (actual name is New Jedi Order I think). Starting at Vector Prime (written by R.A. Salvatore, whose other works I'd also recommend), it details a galaxy-wide war against a strange extra-galactic race intent on total domination.
  
  
• If all of that still wasn't enough for you, "The Legacy of the Force" series, beginning at "Betrayal" carries the story on. Personally I'd recommend against reading these. I found them kinda depressing in how the story progresses. That and I don't particularly like the authors' writing style. Still, if you must have more, then this is next in chronological order.
  
  I apologize if that was too comprehensive.

Comic or novel? This is the first volume right?

http://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394743625&sr=8-1&keywords=Thrawn

I'm sorry to say the full trilogy is a little too pricy for me but i think this would be a good way to get him started

This Star Wars book can be shipped using fancy-pants Prime, and I hear that Sandhouse just got prime! Thanks!

Plus, if the KOTOR 2 canon is taken into account, there will have to be some grey areas.

Let's also not forget the Hire to the Empire Zahn novels. It adds a level of grey that could be used as well....also IMHO should be made into a movie ala the Clone Wars animated film.

Why wouldn't you want to read Star Wars novels? Is it because the new films have disregarded the expanded universe? Some of the novels are absolutely brilliant. This one is my favorite. It begins about five years after Return of the Jedi:

Heir to the Empire

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482353642&sr=8-1&keywords=heir+to+the+empire

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Books/267/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=heir+to+the+empire

My personal favorites (although note, neither are canon anymore):

1.) Shatterpoint: follows Mace Windu, and is essentially Star Wars' take on Heart of Darkness.

2.) The Thrawn Trilogy: Widely hailed as the best of the Star Wars EU. In my opinion, it has some of the best and worst elements. The good: a brilliant, nuanced antagonist; the bad: evil clones (a terrible subplot).

I haven't read it yet, but Lost Stars has been very well received (despite being billed as a young adult novel). I'd recommend it if you'd like a new canonical novel.

I'd definitely recommend starting with the Thrawn trilogy, here's a link to the first book: http://www.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124/

Both your links go to the same page, but this is the one I was recommending

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn 1993

Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Vol. 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553296124/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_T70lub1CFBDKQ


Han Solo Adventures Brian Daley 1992
Includes adventure in which Chewbacca vests wookie servitude unto Han and Kessel Run

The Han Solo Adventures: Han Solo at Stars' End / Han Solo's Revenge / Han Solo and the Lost Legacy (A Del Rey book) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345379802/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_F90lub1EAG30Q

Start here: http://smile.amazon.com/Heir-Empire-Star-Wars-Trilogy/dp/0553296124/

That's the first book of 3.

You need to read the Thrawn trilogy. It's fairly epic, and since it was one of the first pieces of EU literature to come out a lot of the later stuff draws on it. Heck, it was the first place where Coruscant was named and described as a city-planet.

The Thrawn Triology by Timothy Zahn. They're set after the Return of the Jedi-period. Great stories and well written too. Start off with the Heir to the Empire, the first in the series.

a good place to start