i know the OP says to steer away from any star trek/star wars stuff, but any sci-fi fan would do themselves a favor in reading The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. i've managed to convince non-Star Wars fans to give that a try and they were all glad they did, excellent series. a large chunk of the expanded Star Wars universe owes it's existance to that trilogy, better storyline than the prequel movies and right up there with Empire Strikes Back for depth
|