After 11 years I'm almost through The Mandalorian Armor Book One of the Bounty Hunter Wars.
It took many tries to get into it because it jumps around quite a bit. A good author can do this, a hack writer getting paid by the page to complete a specified criteria not so much.
Published in 1998 it has not a tinge of prequel tainting it which is about the best thing about it.
While it has many fan favorite characters, Bossk, Boba Fett, Dengar, Zuckuss, IG-88, Darth Vader, the Emperor, the characterizations it creates for them are for the most part awful.
Major Characters:
Boba Fett - as one of the main characters fairs pretty well. Very efficient, dangerous, cold, calculated, universally acknowledged as the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. No mention of Jango, clones or any of the prequel crap, possibly why this series of books was never expanded on any further.
Bossk- young, hot headed, excessively violent, dimwit, impatient.
Zuckuss- Inexperienced, somewhat cowardly, a willing pawn. No mention of his Gand Findsman meditation. He just casually fell into being a bounty hunter in this book. No mention at all of 4-LOM- they must be saving that for the next book.
Dengar- Semi successful bounty hunter, smart enough to get by, trained killer, scavenger and love lorn for his beloved Manaroo.
Minor Characters:
Darth Vader- Dangerous, Palpatine's servant
Emperor Palpatine- rules his empire with fear, allows free thinking agents to further his cause knowing that at any time he can use his immense power to destroy anything
IG-88- efficient, precise, cautious, agreeable
New characters invented and only appearing in this story (easy to see why these were abandoned)
Kuat of Kuat, the Shell Hutts, D'Harhan the Laser cannon headed cyborg, Ku'dar Ma'bat a space spider, Craddosk-Bossk's dad