Star Wars Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars hype is everywhere and I am shocked at how many retailers and products have shelled out big bucks to just have the Star Wars name in their commercials in hope of cashing in on some of this hype. I am slightly guilty of falling for the hype. As of the time I am writting this I still haven’t seen the Force Awakens. I really want to and I can’t wait to take my son to see this movie. I am a fan of Star Wars but not near as devoted a fan as most. I’m more of a Trekkie but even that is a bit of a stretch for me. 

Anyway, Since the new movie is out I was curious as to what happened to our favorite characters after Return of the Jedi. I googled, I Binged, and Wookieepediad (Apparently that is a thing) to find out what books picked up after the movies ended. This trilogy was sanctioned by Lucasfilms Ltd to continue the saga of Luke, Hann, Leia, Chewbacca, R2, and C3PO. This book picks up 5 years after the end of Return of the Jedi. We have a Grand Admiral who is controlling the Empire I think. Not sure if he is on his own or actually stepping into the Emperor’s shoes and pulling the strings.  2 New Jedi are making their way into the world and Luke seems more distracted than normal.

I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book for several reasons. When an author takes over someone else’s characters it usually isn’t a good move. I tend to be over critical and end up not liking the work. I also am not a a fan of the science fiction genre. I read a few Star Trek books when I was a kid and I love the Dresden Files but this is my first Star Wars book. I am happy to say that I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to continue the trilogy. By the way in case you didn’t know this is a trilogy so don’t expect a resolution in this book. As a matter of fact the story really built right up to the end and then it sort of abruptly stopped and we are left with …To Be Continued. That was a little annoying but I was impressed with how much I enjoyed this book.

The book was very well done and the story grabbed my attention very early on. It was also fun to see all of my favorite characters back in a new adventure. I listened to this in audio book form and the guy who read this did an amazing job with the different voices. He really sounded like Harrison Ford and Antony Daniels who plays C3PO. I easily give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Really it is more 4.5 stars. The only thing that kept this from being  5 star rating is that even though I expected there not to be a resolution but the ending could have been handled a little better and not feel like I hit a brick wall.