Heir to the Empire

Title
Heir to the Empire
Author
Timothy Zahn
Published date
19/09/2018
Pages
494
Publisher
Uroboros

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn is the first book of Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy and was published 27 years ago. That’s kind of crazy when you think about it, because it’s as easy to read as it was written recently. I’ve read author’s book for the first time last year and it was recently written Thrawn. I really enjoyed it and I fell in love with it’s main character. My husband suggested that I should read the original trilogy then, which was brilliant in his opinion. So we dug it up from our family house and I finally read it!

After destroying Death Star and defeating Darth Vader and the Emperor Rebel Alliance is trying to bring back peace into the galaxy. The rest of the Imperial forces were driven into the outskirt systems and their influence was reduced to just a fracture of it’s full glory. Leia married Han Solo and is expecting twins, while working hard in the government of New Republic. But at the rims of galaxy the new threat is rising. The last Grand Admiral is taking command of Imperial Army and is determined to bring down the New Republic.

The brightest star of this book is of course Grand Admiral Thrawn. He’s so cunning and intelligent, he can predict everything very accurately with just scraps of information. I have to admit that I was secretly cheering for him, even though he is serving an evil Imperium! I think this character is brilliant and he made a perfect villain. Even though he is not human (and other races weren’t often appointed to high positions in the Imperium) he was trusted with a title of Grand Admiral. From the beginning of the book the reasons behind this appointment become quite clear. If not for extraordinary luck of Luke Skywalker and his friends, New Republic would be crushed under clever tactics of Thrawn.

We have of course all our famous Rebels (now New Republic) personalities: Leia Organa, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, their two lovable droids and the rest of the alliance. But as much as I love Leia and Han Solo I found the chapters with Luke quite boring at the beginning. He is very pessimistic and worries a lot about everything and there were not much interesting action there. But fortunately halfway through the book events get more pace and story gets much more entertaining. There are also new characters introduced: Jade Mara and Talon Karrde, both very intriguing. I’m sure we’ll also learn more about them in next two books.

I did enjoy reading this book although I like new novel a little bit more. I think it’s because there was more Thrawn there and he is the soul for these series. I’m counting on more in next books. More intrigues, more action and more Grand Admiral! If you’re fans of Star Wars I’m sure reading this series will be a pleasure for you!

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