Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
Posted December 15, 2012
on:- In: Star Wars | Timothy Zahn
- 16 Comments
Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn
published in 1991
where I got it: that bookshelf where my hubby’s favorite books are
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Taking place 5 years after Episode 6, Heir to the Empire follows Luke, Leia and Han while they try to pry themselves away from the developing government of the New Republic. Leia and Han have married, and Leia is expecting twins. As Luke works with Leia to train her Jedi powers, they learn the unborn twins are strong with the force as well. As much as the three of them would prefer to spend their time together, the demands of the New Republic often have them at opposite ends of the sector, with Leia handling diplomatic concerns, Han trying to get his old smuggling friends to do legit shipping for the New Republic and Luke investigating rumors of other Jedi.
Meanwhile, the dying Empire is pulling itself back together, mostly with the help of Grand Admiral Thrawn. He’s not a Sith, and he doesn’t really care about the Force. Grand Admiral Thrawn is cold, calculating, and intensely intimidating. He studies his enemies and his victims, waiting until he’s sure of their reaction before attacking. Thrawn puts two and two together to manipulate the ultimate stealth weapon against Luke Skywalker and the future of the New Republic. I’m not going to tell you what his weapon is, but it’s brilliant, and truly stealthy.
Another important plot line involves Mara Jade, a conflicted woman who was once close to the Emperor, and now works for a smuggler. She dabbles in the force and has a burning hatred for Luke Skywalker. Thrawn may prefer to take Skywalker alive, but Jade would rather kill him. Why does she hate him so much? Luke has no recollection of ever meeting her ,what could have he possibly done to her?
While reading Heir to the Empire, I felt like I was reading the novelization of an unmade Star Wars movie. Characters say and do things that you’d expect from them. Han is snarky but sometimes nervous, Luke sees the good in everyone will little regard for his own personal safety, Leia is slow to trust but quick on her feet. There are action sequences with the Millenium Falcon outrunning a Star Destroyer and Tie Fighters firing on X-Wings. The action flies along at a fast clip and we never spend too much time, or too little, with any one character. There’s even the situational humor we’ve come to appreciate when no one but Han can understand Chewbacca or C3P-0 doesn’t understand some idiom. A few dialog lines are actually cribbed directly from the movies, and slyly referred to as inside jokes between the characters. The first in Timothy Zahn’s trilogy, Heir to the Empire is the book every Star Wars fan should read.
This might not be the deepest book in the world, but it was a heckuva lot of fun, and sometimes I need a book that’s going to entertain me without asking for something in return. I couldn’t put Heir to the Empire down, and I didn’t want to. It was a highly enjoyable and satisfying read. What better way to destress after a tough day at work than by spending an hour with my favorite people? I was a kid in the 80s, I grew up watching these movies (taped off of tv, of course!).
When it was recently announced that Disney bought LucasArts and was starting work on additional Star Wars films, fans immediately hoped these Zahn books would be the plot lines the screenwriters would use. While I doubt that the writers will go the direction that Zahn did, it will still be a shame if they don’t. Zahn has provided an intelligent, non-Sith villain, an intriguing plot, and some new twists in the Star Wars universe.
16 Responses to "Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn"
Zahn does a marvelous job with capturing the voice of the actors who made the Star Wars characters come to life and his imagination makes for some really entertaining tales in this universe.
I was working in a small bookstore when word was out that this book was being published. I remember getting this large display with the cover image on it, that I promptly claimed for my own after it was no longer needed, and I snagged the book and started reading it the second I got home.
I was going to say that seems like a long time ago but there is no *seems* about it. 20 years ago *is* a long time!
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I have been wanting to read this one for quite sometime now. I am not that sure why I have not sat down to read it yet.:)) Great review as always.
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It’s been so long since I’ve read these – I think I was ten or eleven, and definitely not old enough to tell the difference between good and bad writing..I really should go back and give them a shot. Have you read others of the star wars novels, and how do you think these stack up against them?
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You have some great reviews here Redhead.. keep up the good work!
P.S. Have you read the latest Star Wars novel, Darth Plagueis, by James Luceno? It’s pretty freakin’ awesome!
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1 | Michael
December 15, 2012 at 9:08 am
Read this one when it first came out many, many moons ago. I’m now so far behind on Star Wars universe reading that I’ve given up trying to catch up.
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