Heir to the Empire

I wasn't thrilled with Zahn's ability to detail a mental image of the action and characters, but I must admit I've gotten into the story. It's very cinematic, and I'm enjoying continuing the series.

Once again I finish a book that has taken me months to read. This time it happens to be a Star Wars book. Before all the pre-quels and spin-offs there was only the original trilogy. No one had the authorization to create any stories within the universe that George Lucas created. That changed with the release of Heir To The Empire; the first book of a new trilogy in the time frame following Return of the Jedi. An author by the name Timothy Zahn received the "go-ahead" to create a trilogy in the spirit of the original stories.

Volume 1 finds our heroes (Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, & Chewie) having formed a new Republic and dealing with the remnants of the Empire led by a military leader called Thrawn. Thrawn combines the scattered forces of the bad guys to take back the universe for the Empire. And, of course, he can't do that without the help of some guy who happens to be like a jedi only slightly evil...who wants Luke to become his apprentice. Does this sound familiar?

There are new worlds and lots of space battles, but Heir To The Empire lost it's gold star when it became apparent that Zahn had nothing original to write. (Or maybe Lucas kept him from writing the trilogy he truly wanted to make...)

I've read many of the Star Wars books that tried to carry on the dream world that was so great for many of us from the movies. Of all the stories I've read, I believe whole-heartedly that this trilogy is the best. I love how it picked up immediately after the Emperor's fall and how high commands of the Empire had not gotten word that the Empire was defeated and could not/would not believe it. Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the greatest characters I know of in the entire Star Wars universe. His character and command was amazing and seemed to show how even without the Emperor or Darth Vader the Empire was still quite capable of defeating the Rebels. I remember reading these books years ago and after the new movies (I, II, and III) came out I was hoping someone would see the potential of this storyline. Even if the story by Timothy Zahn is never brought to the big screen, it is worth the read. But I imagine afterwards you too will wish it was in the works in Hollywood.

This book is a wonderful extention to the original trilogy. I just cant wait to read the rest of this trilogy. Timothy Zahn is just as brilliant as George Lucas.

I still remember the day I saw this books release, I actually had finished seeing the first star wars(Episode 4) and was at the mall when I looked inside the book store and saw a poster of Luke Skywalker and the star wars cast as the bookstore was advertising the release of this new book called "Heir To The Empire". At first I thought it would be a stale try at storytelling of this sci-fi universe and amusingly bought the book, and I have forever thanked karma for making me get that book. This was the introduction of most of the characters we've grown to love, hate, respect, and cherish throughout these years, and I think most would agree that the most known character created from the star wars books is Mara Jade(R.I.P.). I've reread some of these older novel sagas especially after the recent two sagas which killed off many of our favorite characters which I find somewhat unforgivable. So if your just starting your sci-fi book collection or a new star wars fan I'd say start the book collection with this great trilogy and if you don't mind I'd like to give you a little list on some othe great star wars trilogy books and singular novels that would be a great buy for any sci-fi/star wars fan to get.

SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE
HEIR TO THE EMPIRE
DARK FORCE RISING
THE LAST COMMAND
CHILDREN OF THE JEDI
DARKSABER
PLANET OF TWILIGHT
THE CRYSTAL STAR
THE NEW REBELLION
AMBUSH AT CORELLIA
ASSAULT AT SELONIA
SHOWDOWN AT CENTERPOINT
SPECTER OF THE PAST
VISION OF THE FUTURE

These are some of the earlier books but I feel are probably the best in the star wars universe, after these books we had the star of the Yuuzhan Vong saga which was probably the longest so far in the star wars universe and which also sadly saw the death of a few of our longtime characters we grew to love deeply. So if you're a great fan of Star Wars or just a sci-fi geek like me I say again star the collection today with this great trilogy as a star than try out the rest, you might be surprised at how many hidden diamonds you find with these books...