Star Wars: Heir to the Empire was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY, just five hears after the events of Return of the Jedi. Heir to the Empire is book one of what’s widely referred to as, the Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The Empire, divided and unorganized is spread throughout the galaxy. The New Republic foundations are sill unstable, as political infighting ramps up. From the outermost reaches of space, the wild, unknown regions, a threat to the New Republic emerges… an imperial Star Destroyer led by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn sets his sights on gaining Imperial control of the galaxy once again. Disorder and the lust for power divided much of the Empire after the death of Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Thrawn devises a plan that could decapitate the New Republic (rebellion) and instill order in the galaxy once again. He seeks out an alien life-form that muffles the force, a wonderful tool to suppress the force in enemy number one, Luke Skywalker. Thrawn also seeks out a man named Jorus C’baoth, a lost Jedi. His plan is to use C’baoth to fulfill his quest, promising C’baoth that he can keep Luke Skywalker to build a new Jedi Order (that’s a bit twisted).
While Thrawn is on the hunt for the tools of conquest, Leia Solo (pregnant with twins) is busy avoiding abduction attempts; Han and Luke wind have an encounter with the Empire. Luke also comes face to face with a mysterious new enemy that burns with hatred.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This novel captured the attention of many Sar Wars film fans as it opened up the universe of the franchise on a grandiose scale. The Star Wars Expanded Universe became a force of its own. This book is highly regarded by the Star Wars reading community as one of the best! This review follows my second reading of the novel. It’s a fine story for sure.
The book is full of action and moves the characters around to many new planets. The characters jumping around from location to location, makes it a little difficult to keep up with where we are in the galaxy. We spend some time on Kashyyyk which was interesting. While this book really pioneered the Expanded Universe and is truly entertaining.
There seems to be a lack of communication between the big three; Luke, Leia, and Han. Rumors of a lost jedi resurfacing are spreading, Leia brings it up casually to Luke in conversation and he had no knowledge of it, How do you not mention this to your Jedi brother as soon as you hear about it? I believe the characters weren’t the most accurate depiction of what we’d seen from them on screen.
The story is cool for the most part, but the execution in much of it is a tad wonky. It seems like everyone in the story just knows a lot about everything, everyone knows too much! There are too many little coincidences that take place throughout the story in an attempt to tie the story into the films. Luke drinks “hot chocolate” – that just doesn’t feel like Star Wars.
Yet, this story has a lot of really cool things in it; Leia being trained, Luke facing new challenges and enemies, the surge of imperial power, and a force user that uses the dark side.
Thrawn, knows too much, and I don’t like it. The “smarts” he has in this book go beyond mere strategic abilities. He knows who’s on what ship, he knows the history of people, he knows everything! If Thrawn had the force, it would be more believable. Thrawn is pretty harsh at times which is a good character trait; he doesn’t tolerate poor work. He has an assistant – Rokh – and when Thrawn needs to remind his crew how the Empire should work, Rokh has no problem executing on Thrawn’s command.
So do I recommend you pick up an dread Star Wars: Heir to the Empire? The answer is yes. This story really does a great job expanding the universe of Star Wars beyond the Emperor and Vader, giving us a fresh new cast in the Empire.
RATING
I give this novel a B+.