I find myself dissatisfied with the way so many Star Wars fanfics use the Force and characterise the Jedi. I'll looking for novel-length fics in which:

1. The Force is used in a way that recognises that it's more than a combat aid. I want to see the more spiritual side of the Force too, the side we see in Yoda in Empire. Occasional token meditation is not sufficient.

2. The Force is taken into account when Jedi are characterised. They don't have temper tantrums, they don't have emotional breakdowns. The Force provides a certain amount of emotional stability and their training teaches them restraint and moderation. Far too many stories have Jedi going around acting like teenagers, forgetting all of their Jedi training except for when they're in a fight.

3. The narrative and/or characters don't shit all over the code. This cliché seems to me to be the Star Wars fandom's equivalent of Dumbledore bashing. It's fashionable to have the establishment be wrong about everything and humiliated by some annoying Gary Stu protagonist. I want a story in which the Council and the principles they follow are shown due respect.

Secondary preferences:

A. Luke, Anakin or Obi-Wan centric.

B. As little EU (aka Legends) material as possible.

C. No RPG elements like breaking the Force up into discrete abilities. That's fine for a video games, to make gameplay mechanics work, but in stories the Force should be more organic and unified.

 

Well I'm pretty sure you know of them already, but I'm going to recommend them nonetheless just in case.

Sun's Trilogy

and

Empire's Son

They're pretty angst heavy and the Sun's trilogy has a tendency to drag on a bit, in that regard Empire's Son is better. I think the author has a very good characterization of Palpatine as one who wants to control everything and he portrays that very well in his stories.

 

Rigel Kent's Unseen War is pretty solid. It's a Thrawn trilogy divergence though so it doesn't especially meet your minimal EU desire.

 

A Night for Opera and Everything Else was updated not long ago...

 

Care to tell us what it's about?

 

Palpatine is forced to reveal himself as Darth Sidious to Anakin during assasination attempt on himself during Opera if I remember correctly and the fallout from this.

 

So, it's funny, I casually found this shortly after this thread. I'm about three chapters into this which is a new story, but I'm guessing based on what I've read so far that it will predominately deal with the spiritual conflict of the two sides of the force, and what using it must cost on either side.

The Timeless Warrior.

So far I'm enjoying it.

The original author's note worries me, I worried it'd be MoR-style like we often see in HP - where magic is obviously Derp. But so far so good. I actually believe the writings good overall. Some might find it's trying to be too Great with a capital g, or that some things are a bit told, but I think the actually quality of the story and writing are solid and will only improve with time - probably.

 

Yeah, The Timeless Warrior looks really interesting so far. There are some cool, but logical touches like the protagonist using drugs to stave off certain biological impulses to keep in line with Jedi practices and conduct. (To the point where the protagonist effectively swaps between emotional/personality templates on a whim) Nove seems like a really interesting, jaded character and I'd like to see more scenes between Eeso and him.

Oh, and Force Visions are crazy powerful here apparently. That combined with the Brave New World esque vibes I'm getting from a Jedi-controlled galaxy really sell the impression of the Jedi as these nearly untouchable demigods.

Also, there's something that feels somewhat original about the cast of characters... who are all basically Jedi dropouts. Not Sith, not Dark Jedi, just kicked out of the Temple for not having enough Force potential.

Also, the author has a nice way of accounting for the existence of midichlorians that allows to keep with the canon method of estimating Force potential while also keeping faith with the spiritual nature of the Force.