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Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #1)

Timothy Zahn

Start date: June 1, 2013

Finish date: June 30, 2013

Why we're reading this: Since its release in 1991, this has been an EU classic for almost every one of us. Zahn started lifting t…more
[close] Since its release in 1991, this has been an EU classic for almost every one of us. Zahn started lifting the curtain on the Galaxy far, far away, and we've been loving the stories ever since.

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Jan 20, 2015 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: star-wars, old-canon-legends

11/13/2023 addendum: I just finished the Audio CD version of this classic Zahn novel, narrated by Marc Thompson. I hadn't read this since 2006, so it was nice to refresh my memory with this. A lot of (now-Legend non-canon) characters were introduced in this book, included Grand Admiral Thrawn, the smuggler Talon Karrde, and future wife-of-Luke-Skywalker Mara Jade. It must be said that Thompson does a great job of emulating the voices of the characters. His Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill are prett 11/13/2023 addendum: I just finished the Audio CD version of this classic Zahn novel, narrated by Marc Thompson. I hadn't read this since 2006, so it was nice to refresh my memory with this. A lot of (now-Legend non-canon) characters were introduced in this book, included Grand Admiral Thrawn, the smuggler Talon Karrde, and future wife-of-Luke-Skywalker Mara Jade. It must be said that Thompson does a great job of emulating the voices of the characters. His Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill are pretty dead-on, and his Anthony Daniels as C3-PO is perfect. Fun audiobook with sound effects and John Williams' wonderful score, makes it feel like an old-fashioned radio show. Highly recommended for fans.

9/3/23 addendum: I just caught up with the first three episodes of the Disney + show "Ahsoka", which is everything I expected it to be, namely awesome and wonderful. I love how it brings in a lot of characters from previous Star Wars shows (Clone Wars and Rebels) and seems to be leading up to the reintroduction of Admiral Thrawn, one of the best villains ever to not appear in a single Star Wars movie. It's making me want to re-read the now-classic original trilogy by Timothy Zahn that basically started the whole SWEU and introduced the world to Thrawn.

I came late to the Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU) party. I first read Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" in 2006, roughly fourteen years after it was originally published. Many other authors had already joined in the fun, and the prequel films had already come and gone from theaters. I remember loving the book---the first of what has come to be called the "Thrawn Trilogy"---and thinking how cool it would be if Lucas ever decided to bring it to the big screen. It would, of course, be another decade before "Episode VII: The Force Awakens" arrived in theaters, and many fans of the SWEU would, of course, secretly (or not-so-secretly) be disappointed.

"Heir to the Empire" represents, to fans, an alternative timeline that carried on the adventures of the original cast of characters that have become beloved icons. I haven't read these books since my initial 2006 read, but I have always intended to someday go back and re-read them. ...more

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