Book 1 - 'Heir to the Empire' by Timothy Zahn  

Bantam Press 1991  

Set 5 years after RotJ 

 book cover
Story -- the Empire is pretty much defeated, the New Republic government is up and running, albeit with a few teething problems (mainly lack of cash). Then Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn shows up - he's intelligent, cunning, and a brilliant strategist. He starts coordinating Imperial forces against the New Republic, enlisting the aid of a Dark Jedi Master (Joruus C'baoth). Han and Leia are now married, and Leia is expecting twins. Luke runs into a powerful smuggler (Talon Karrde) and soon realises that Karrde's assistant, Mara Jade, REALLY wants to kill him. C'baoth wants to turn Luke, Leia and her unborn children to the dark side, so Thrawn sets out to kidnap them, using ruthless alien warriors loyal to the Empire.

Original characters from the movies -- excellent characterisations of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and the droids, although sometimes I got fed up of them repeating lines from the movies. Just about everyone's here, including Wedge, Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, even blue-ghosty Ben. And they don't just have the odd line - these characters are integral to the plot.

New characters -- heaps of them, and they're all great. Zahn has given us Mara Jade, Talon Karrde (and his compatriots), and Borsk Fey'lya; not to mention Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon. He really has a knack for making a character seem so real, you try to picture them in the movies. And it's not just new characters - Zahn introduces new species, planets, starships and even technologies to the Star Wars galaxy.
 
Cover art -- not too horrendous, I suppose, although C'baoth's Force lightning looks unconvincing.

Chicks -- Leia (very believable), Mara Jade (powerful, resourceful, intelligent - this character is so popular she has her own web sites), Winter (Leia's aide - strong, intelligent and very loyal), Mon Mothma (older, but still running the show).

Any good? -- you bet! Plots, sub-plots, battles, politics, friendship, family, vivid characterisations; these books have everything, and Zahn writes very well. If I had to nitpick, I'd say there are a few too many references to the movies, and I got fed up of characters running into each other for no apparent reason (personally, I reckon it's the Force guiding their destiny...) Zahn stays true to the genre - he even reserves the first chapter of each book for the Empire, just like in the movies. But he also expands on Lucas's vision; eg. in this book, Luke toddles back to Dagobah, and there are some nice lightsaber duels/practice sessions.

Read it? -- YES! It's compulsory! If you've never read a Star Wars novel, here's the place to start, just so you can see how well it can be done.

Rating -- 9 out of 10
 

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