Heir to the Empire (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Aug 07, 2014 emily rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011-to-2015, sci-fi

It takes some doing to take the fun out of Star Wars, but man, Timothy Zahn made it happen. I was so disappointed by the way this book lived up to its considerable hype- or more accurately, how it didn't. Almost every Star Wars fan I know says this trilogy is the best contribution to the EU, yet to me it fell incredibly flat. From reusing pieces of dialogue straight from the movies, to a huge overabundance of telling rather than showing, I didn't find it to be particularly well written. And fran It takes some doing to take the fun out of Star Wars, but man, Timothy Zahn made it happen. I was so disappointed by the way this book lived up to its considerable hype- or more accurately, how it didn't. Almost every Star Wars fan I know says this trilogy is the best contribution to the EU, yet to me it fell incredibly flat. From reusing pieces of dialogue straight from the movies, to a huge overabundance of telling rather than showing, I didn't find it to be particularly well written. And frankly I expected way more from sanctioned fanfiction- for starters, that the characters would at least resemble their canon counterparts. But while Zahn does a fine job with Luke, I found Han and Leia almost unrecognizable, and really lackluster to boot. I never bought any of their emotions as real, possibly because the only emotion either of them displayed for most of the book was worry over the situations taking them constantly by surprise. Leia was little better than a stick figure, constantly wringing her hands in fearful concern and happily ceding control over her life to the men around her. Where did "from now on you do as I tell you" go?? And okay Mara Jade wasn't so bad as the book wore on, but she was pretty one-note. The action scenes were good, but then with such a cinematic canon to draw from I'd have been surprised if they weren't (and frankly if Zahn sucks at writing people so much, one would hope he'd be good at action scenes). There was just enough meat in the book's latter half to keep my interest, but the jury's still out about whether I'm willing to risk the sequels to find out if any of it gets better. TBH I'm likely to read them just to find out where fandom's obsession with Mara comes from (other than the fact she's a sassy redhead badass) bc I can be suckered in just by the promise of a well written female character, but if Zahn' treatment of Leia is any indication I might be signing myself up for more disappointment. Only time will tell.

2.5 stars, rounding down for the letdown factor. Sorry SW fans. Maybe next time? ...more

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Sep 07, 2015 Bradley rated it liked it

Excellent story. Highly recommend it. =)

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Nov 03, 2023 NebulousGloom (FK) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm on the border between four and five stars for this one. It is a great story with all the characters from the movies without the sometimes terribly cheesy elements that some other books have. Zahn also does a really great job of buildin tension. ...more

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Jan 25, 2018 Tracey rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, recommended-idm, silver-screen

Finally making a foray into the Star Wars AU/Legends 'verse..... the enhanced audio (music and SFX) of the 20th anniversary edition audiobook is quite entertaining, and the narrator (Marc Thompson) does a very credible Luke imitation! ...more

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