Heir to the Empire

Executive Summary: Mostly lived up to the hype for me. Certainly more enjoyable than the prequels that Lucas put out, but that's not hard.Audio book: Do this in audio. Not only is Marc Thompson a great narrator who does a great job with almost all the voices, there is music and sound effects too that makes this more like a radio play than just an audiobook.There was no way I was going to read this after seeing Marc Thompson did this series, and I was not disappointed.Full ReviewThere is a lot of hype from the Star Wars geeks, that if you're going to read EU (now Legend) books, these are the ones to read. I personally was more Star Trek than Star Wars growing up.Sure I watched the original trilogy growing up and loved it. And like most people who grew up before the prequels, I was disappointed with those. So I was content to just consider the original trilogy the only thing I cared about and move on with my life.One of my buddies however is a HUGE Star Wars fan. He'd periodically try to get me to read this series to no real avail. Then earlier this year one of my favorite authors (well it's 2 guys, but whatever) wrote a book about Han Solo called [b:Honor Among Thieves 18050080 Honor Among Thieves (Star Wars Empire and Rebellion, #2) James S.A. Corey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385232527s/18050080.jpg 24581828]. My friend told me it's a pretty good book that could be read without reading other Star Wars books and he was right.I did the audio with Marc Thompson and that finally pushed me over the edge on giving this one a try. I know that Disney decided all the EU are no longer canon (if they ever really were), but I think they'd be stupid to discount this book completely when writing episode 7. If nothing else, Mr. Zahn adds some great characters to already beloved cast of the series.I found Admiral Thrawn a little too smart at places almost to feel unbelievable, but not often. He certainly makes for a great villian.Mara Jade I had heard of before, was not what I expected given what little I did know of her. I'll be curious to see how her character develops in the next two books.Talon Karrde reminds me a lot of Han Solo. Sure he's a criminal, but he's got a code he lives by. He's honorable to a point, and you don't mess with one of his own. It's interesting to see him fill the vaccum of Jaba the Hutt and he couldn't be more different from him.In addition to the great new characters all the big names are here, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, C3PO, and R2D2. Plus others like Admiral Ackbar and Lando Calrissian.The story was pretty good and moved at a decent pace. My only real gripe with it is that sometimes there seemed to be a lot of “coincidences” like characters showing up at the same place at the same time, or some of Admiral Thrawn's insights.Being the first book in a trilogy I didn't expect a lot of resolution, but I thought it stopped in a good place. Of course I don't have to wait and have already jumped right into [b:Dark Force Rising 216442 Dark Force Rising (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #2) Timothy Zahn https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327870067s/216442.jpg 463790].Overall I found it enjoyable and wish I had read it sooner. Better late than never.