Monthly Archives: August 2013

Most popular Star Wars novels

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Based on this list, I pulled Goodreads ratings for over 350 original Star Wars fiction releases and re-ranked them by the cube of the rating (expressed as a percentage) times the log of the number of raters.

By that metric, here are the 50 most popular Star Wars novels:

 1. Timothy Zahn, The Last Command (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #3)
 2. Timothy Zahn, Dark Force Rising (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #2)
 3. Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #1)
 4. Drew Karpyshyn, Path of Destruction (Star Wars: Darth Bane, #1)
 5. Drew Karpyshyn, Dynasty of Evil (Star Wars: Darth Bane, #3)
 6. Karen Traviss, True Colors (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #3)
 7. Karen Traviss, Order 66 (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #4)
 8. Karen Traviss, Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #1)
 9. Karen Traviss, Triple Zero (Star Wars: Republic Commando, #2)
10. Drew Karpyshyn, Rule of Two (Star Wars: Darth Bane, #2)
11. Timothy Zahn, Vision of the Future (Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn, #2)
12. Aaron Allston, Wraith Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #5)
13. Timothy Zahn, Specter of the Past (Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn, #1)
14. Michael A. Stackpole, I, Jedi
15. Karen Traviss, Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #5)
16. Michael A. Stackpole, Rogue Squadron (Star Wars: X-Wing, #1)
17. Aaron Allston, Iron Fist (Star Wars: X-Wing, #6)
18. Aaron Allston, Solo Command (Star Wars: X-Wing, #7)
19. Michael A. Stackpole, Wedge's Gamble (Star Wars: X-Wing, #2)
20. Matthew Stover, Traitor (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #13)
21. Karen Traviss, 501st
22. Michael A. Stackpole, The Bacta War (Star Wars: X-Wing, #4)
23. Timothy Zahn, Allegiance
24. Aaron Allston, Starfighters of Adumar (Star Wars: X-Wing, #9)
25. Troy Denning, Star by Star (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #9)
26. James Luceno, The Unifying Force (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #19)
27. James Luceno, Darth Plagueis
28. Troy Denning, Invincible (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #9)
29. Michael A. Stackpole, Isard's Revenge (Star Wars: X-Wing, #8)
30. Karen Traviss, Revelation (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #8)
31. Aaron Allston, Fury (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #7)
32. Troy Denning, Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #6)
33. Michael A. Stackpole, The Krytos Trap (Star Wars: X-Wing, #3)
34. Timothy Zahn, Survivor's Quest
35. Troy Denning, Abyss (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #3)
36. Karen Traviss, Bloodlines (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #2)
37. A.C. Crispin, Rebel Dawn (Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy, #3)
38. Timothy Zahn, Outbound Flight
39. Aaron Allston, Outcast (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #1)
40. Steve Perry, Shadows of the Empire
41. A.C. Crispin, The Hutt Gambit (Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy, #2)
42. A.C. Crispin, The Paradise Snare (Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy, #1)
43. Troy Denning, Apocalypse (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #9)
44. Aaron Allston, Betrayal (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #1)
45. Aaron Allston, Backlash (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #4)
46. Christie Golden, Allies (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #5)
47. R.A. Salvatore, Vector Prime (Star Wars: The New Jedi Order, #1)
48. Timothy Zahn, Choices of One
49. Troy Denning, Vortex (Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi, #6)
50. Aaron Allston, Exile (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, #4)

Most popular Warhammer Fantasy fiction

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Based on this list plus some hunting around on Goodreads for the omnibus editions, I pulled 199 Goodreads ratings for various Warhammer Fantasy fiction releases and re-ranked them by the square of the rating (expressed as a percentage) times the log of the number of raters. The results require finer distinctions than usual to describe them, because of the omnibus editions and the way that series ratings are inflated the deeper you go into the series.

Out of the top 55 titles, these are the most popular Warhammer Fantasy series with omnibus editions, ranked most to least popular:

 
1. Dan Abnett, The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade (Vol. 1 / Vol. 2).
2. William King, Gotrek & Felix (Vol. 1 / Vol. 2).
3. C. L. Werner, Brunner the Bounty Hunter.
4. Nathan Long, Blackhearts.
5. Gav Thorpe, The Sundering.
7. Graham McNeill, The Legend of Sigmar.
8. Jack Yeovil, The Vampire Genevieve.
9. Steven Savile, Vampire Wars.
10. Nick Kyme (et al.), Dwarfs.
 
And here are the standalone novels and series firsts with no omnibuses that managed to rank among those having omnibus editions in popularity:
 
1. William King, Blood of Aenarion and Sword of Caledor from the ongoing Tyrion & Teclis trilogy.
2. Nathan Long, Bloodborn, Bloodforged, and Bloodsworn from the as-yet uncollected Ulrika the Vampire trilogy.
3. Sarah Cawkwell, Valkia the Bloody, a standalone from the Warhammer Heroes line.
4. C. L. Werner, Dead Winter from the ongoing Black Plague trilogy.
5. Josh Reynolds, Neferata from the Blood of Nagash series.
6. Ben Counter, Van Horstmann, a standalone from the Warhammer Heroes line.
 
The book by Sarah Cawkwell may be notable not only for being well-ranked but also for apparently being the only title out of 199 that was written by a woman.