Is anyone else on this board just starting to get into the EU now? Having previously had no experience with it, save perhaps a few video games or comics? I'm finding you can get everything used, picked these up cheap (less than five dollars for all three of them) and I've been avoiding any reprints with the "Legends" banner as the money would be going to the Mouse, and putting that label on them seems to be devaluing what they actually are. May as well put a label that says "Bullshit" on them. The fact that Disney continues to sell what they've disregarded says to me that they know their own stories are inferior but they're not going to give up on a chance to make a few more shekels.
All that being said, I'm finding the EU to be a mixed bag. All of it is better than what Disney has put out, but it still isn't perfect. Being as I have no nostalgic attachment to any of it, I wonder what other people who have no nostalgic attachment, who are just getting into it, are thinking about the various stories and plotlines. My favorite stuff are the things that expand the universe, without touching on the primary characters of the movies, that's why I really enjoy these three books, and I find the stories in these books that tie themselves to either the Death Star, or the Rebels, or the main plot points of the OT are the weakest.
My absolute favorite story so far is The Tale of Muftak and Kabe by A. C. Crispin. It made me care about both of them and had cool world-building in the form of Talz biology and genetic memory. I would have loved to have seen a story set on the lush planet with giant flowers and pools of sweet nectar that Muftak described. I found myself quite disappointed when I checked wookipedia and saw that other media ignored those features for the Talz homeplanet.