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

Timothy Zahn

Why we're reading this: #88 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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[close] #88 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...

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Oct 05, 2012 Alex rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars, fiction

Back in 1992 when this originally came out the only reasonable response to it was "WOAAAAH MORE STAR WARS. AWESOME!!" It's perhaps hard to imagine a pre-prequel, pre-Star Wars EU world now but, other than another movie, this is exactly what us young and naive Star Wars geeks had been craving.

Re-reading this in 2012 my response is perhaps a little more muted. I'm actually how surprised at how much I did actually enjoy this, particularly considering what a muted novel it is. Zahn is certainly a j Back in 1992 when this originally came out the only reasonable response to it was "WOAAAAH MORE STAR WARS. AWESOME!!" It's perhaps hard to imagine a pre-prequel, pre-Star Wars EU world now but, other than another movie, this is exactly what us young and naive Star Wars geeks had been craving.

Re-reading this in 2012 my response is perhaps a little more muted. I'm actually how surprised at how much I did actually enjoy this, particularly considering what a muted novel it is. Zahn is certainly a journeyman author, one of those safe pairs of hands publishers hire in order to establish a franchise in a comfortable none-too risky way. His writing style is so easy to read it could leave you comatose if you're not careful (but maybe that's the point of a book like this?).

For a journeyman Zahn actually achieves quite a lot. He does a bang up job of establishing a situation, propelling the narrative forward at a brisk pace and never leaving the reader frustrated or confused as to where its going next. It's exciting and fun, there are tons of enjoyable characters, lots of life-and death situations and outlandish conceits. And light-sabers. Pretty much what you'd want from Star Wars really.... If you want a light-hearted space-operatic romp, be assured that you get a fun light-hearted space operatic romp.

Only not quite. The bestselling author mentality holds this book back as much as it propels it forward. It's an easy read but this means it does a fairly poor job of pulling us into the minds of characters we've come to know and love. Han, Luke and Leia (and Lando) could be anybody. here they're mostly names on a page referring back to a movie trilogy that we all love, the whole thing relying on the good will of the reader not to notice that as characters they've failed to mean anything. Likewise Grand Admiral Thrawn, the villain of the piece, fails to leap off of the page, and whilst I found some of his characterisation amusing it's also a little absurd (Zahn likes to imagine him as a military genius, but he really can't write him convincingly as one) Also, we know that Mara Jade is angry with Luke because Zahn tells us so, but the explanation she gives for such anger doesn't really tie up psychologically ..

It seems harsh to lay into a novel that was never meant to be anything more than breezy time-killing fun and to be clear, I think that Zahn has really succeeded well here. It may not be Star Wars of the movies but it's a Star Wars that I quite like and enjoy spending time with. I couldn't in all consciousness recommend Heir to the Empire to anyone except teenagers, although for them I think it would still work as well as it did for me back in 1992. This book found its niche (on the bestseller lists) made sure that the Star Wars EU was a success and the Prequel Trilogy quickly followed. Whether that turned out to be a good or a bad thing in the long run is another matter, but there's still fun to be had here. ...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Raquel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: star-wars, scifi

This was the third (or fourth?) time I read this novel. The last time was probably seven years ago and, partly due to having forgotten some details about what happens, this was a great re-read.

A detail that made this 20th Anniversary Edition worthwhile to me was the annotation by the author. When I was reading the regular version, I did't realize how much thought was put into decisions on how the story and characters evolved. This edition clarified that, and while doing so made the book seem eve ...more

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Dec 29, 2016 WhatShouldIRead rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2016, star-wars

This is the first Star Wars pastiche I've read and really enjoyed it. I think the author caught the character's personalities exactly and I look forward to the next in this series. Also, the audio was outstanding with sound effects, John Williams' music and the narrator taking on the voices of each character. ...more

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