The books were awesome. There were a number of side stories as well as new characters.

They go so much deeper than the movies can. I hope Lucas is smart enough to take his story from some of them. If he does it will be awesome.

I'd love to see Grand Admiral Thrawn throw down in the movie.

The authors weren't afraid to kill off characters. They killed of Chewie, Han and Leia's youngest son (who was a grade 1 azz kicker) and eventually turned their Oldest Twin son to the dark side.

If any of you like to read, and like Scifi. I'd encourage you to pic the books up. There are timelines out there to read them in order, but most are written in such a way as to stand alone.