you mean instead of i-iii?
Not at all...well OK maybe instead of I!
Loved the Zahn books (my favorites of the extended universe) and thought the stories were a heck of a lot better than trade federation blah blah and any scene with Jake Reed and Hayden Christensen in them.
Especially since if they'd done them a few years ago, they could have rolled with the original castmembers for the first of the series anyway.