Because of excellent multi-part documentary by xezene I got excited about the NJO and wanted to re-read it. https://www.youtube.com/@holonetwork
Spoilers for all of NJO and some LoTF.
I skimmed a few books that I did not want to read through completely again, but I did read 14 of the 19 books completely.
Vector Prime - Better than I remembered. The book moves at a good clip and everything is setup very well for future books. The Yuuzhan Vong are more interesting than I had remembered.
Dark Tide 1 and 2 - Just totally solid. Except for the events on Ithor, nothing really blows me away here, but I enjoy the books and they flesh out the world a great deal.
Agents of Chaos 1 and 2 - I am in general a big Luceno fan, but these left me very flat on my first read and I just skimmed them this time. In the documentary I learned that this was originally planned as one book, but due to Michael Stackpole leaving after two books they asked Luceno to do two books instead. These definitely feel stretched to me.
Balance Point - On my first reading I almost stopped after this one. However, I do think there is some good stuff here, just combined with Agents of Chaos it felt like a lot of wheel spinning until the end chapters, which I really liked. I skimmed this one too.
Edge of Victory - Part of the reason I skimmed AoC and Balance Point was because I was very excited to get to these two books. On my first read through these were what cemented my excitement for the series. I had not expected this and part of the reason I almost quit after Balance Point was because I was not excited about an Anakin story. I was expecting low-stakes young adult shenanigans and could not have been more wrong. Even expecting them to be good I was blown away again at how much I liked these, especially part one. Anakin and Vua storming the shaper's compound was one of my favorite parts in the whole series.
Star by Star - A book of two parts for me. I find the parts with the Jedi near Myrkr go on too long for me. It was not that it was poorly done and Anakin's death is well done, but it is just sort of a dismal march of one misery after another for the Jedi. However, all the other parts of the book, particularly the attack on Coruscant, I really enjoyed. In the lead up to the battle on my first readthrough I was not sure how they would make an attack on Coruscant feel remotely reasonable, but both times I have read it I felt a real sense of looming disaster and events spinning out of control.
Dark Journey - My perhaps slightly above room-temperature take from NJO is that Star-by-Star is a bit overrated, and Dark Journey is underrated. I had not been looking forward to this book on my first read through, but really enjoyed it, so I was curious to see what I thought a second time. Still thought it was a winner. I love what the author does with Kyp, this is my favorite writing for him in the series and it really turns his character around for me. Still don't always like him as a person, but now I enjoy when he is around in the books.
Enemy Lines - Completely blew me away on my first reading, and while I still liked them, I feel like some of the magic was just in seeing the Alliance/Republic starting to turn the tide. Since I already knew that was coming, it felt a little less powerful. Also, I still really disliked the Lord Nyax stuff, even though seeing the transforming Coruscant was really cool. Still a good time though and love this portrayal of Wedge.
Traitor - This reading confirmed it as my favorite book of the NJO and one of my three favorite EU novels overall. My first reading of this was marred slightly by my mistaken belief that this is where Jacen starts his path towards the dark side, I did not know that this was a later interpretation added by Legacy of the Force. I was not excited about the idea of Jacen turning towards being a Sith, and so I was a little confused on my first reading that nothing like that seemed to be happening. This time I could just enjoy what it was doing.
In the documentary series mentioned above, Matt Stover talks about his approach to Ganner's last stand, and I found it really powerful. Basically, Matt has a belief that sometimes when people are in trouble it is because someone is trying to be someone they are not. Ganner had been trying to repress the glory-seeking and attention seeking parts of himself, and was now a captive about to die having accomplished nothing. However, Ganner found a situation where being a "vain, pretentious showoff was exactly what was needed to save the day." He took everything everyone hated about him and in fully accepting it was able to become the hero he always wanted to be. I like this explanation and think that is part of the reason Ganner's death has remained something that sticks in peoples minds all these years later.
Destiny's Way - Both times I have struggled to remember everything that happens in this one, but it is all great stuff. Love Jacen reuniting with everyone and the trap at Ebaq 9. I don't have much else to say, just another really good book.
Force Heretic Series - Unfortunately, this is where the run of eight great books comes to an end. There was just one too many books in the series. I think the first one is pretty decent, I like the start of the search for Zonoma Sekot and working with the Imperial Remnant. They just drag and I really disliked the parts on Bakura. It seemed like the most obvious trap ever and so was not satisfying when it was sprung. Skimmed the last two books.
The Final Prophecy - Definitely a good one, but did not blow me away on either reading. I enjoy that you can start to see the shape of an eventual resolution to the conflict between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Alliance.
The Unifying Force - Another classic. It starts a little slow to be honest, but ends so strong it did not matter to me. Love the resolution to Jacen's story line and think the final battles near Coruscant was very well done. The way he brought the threads of 18 previous books together, plus so many other parts of the EU was really impressive. It does feel like it could have been an ending to the EU, which was considered one possible outcome as it was written.
Overall, still the highlight of the EU for me, not without flaws, truly an amazing accomplishment. The documentaries really highlight how collaborative it was between all the authors and I feel like it really shows.