Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok it looks like the official star wars movie sequels....were less than universally well received, shall we say?

I read Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the empire" series and felt it superior to the movies in every way. Thrawn by himself was more interesting and memorable than the entire cast of the movie sequels. The space battles were much more interesting than the ones in the movies, and from the first space battle early on in HttE I knew I was in for a good ride.



Anyone here read the Heir to the empire novels and like them?

I managed to lose all of my Star Wars novels in a house move 15 or so years ago.

The only ones that I felt that I absolutely had to replace were Shadows of the Empire, the X-Wing series and 5 Timothy Zahn books.

The most important of the lot were the Thrawn ones. Genius.

Whilst I appreciate Thrawn's appearance in Rebels, he wasn't as interesting as in the old novels. Rebels managed to just turn him into an omniscient smart-arse.

Anyone here read the Heir to the empire novels and like them?

I'd go out on a limb and say they're probably the highest rated novels of any in the EU.

It was a shame that Zahn botched the follow up Hand of Thrawn duology.

I loved them. It's a reason why the EU really took off, and you can find tons of nods to that trilogy in all of later Star Wars work. In The Clone Wars, Ahsoka literally does the same maneuver with a Venator to launch bombers.

Also Rogue Squadron. One of the best space battles is one with a fight between two Super Star Destroyers.

The Thrawn Trilogy is what started the old EU, which is the Star Wars I grew up on and know the best. I love those books, and all the old material honestly (Yes even the boring ones....well, except the Crystal Star). He was an excellent Villain and I wish he had been the main protagonist for the Sequel trilogy.

The way the story ends and his last words remain the most memorable out of all the EU.

Loved the twilight years of the EU where Timothy Zahn, Tom Vietch and Kevin J Anderson and LucasArts made Star Wars that cool underground scene compared to the hyper-obsessive nerd-mania that was Star Trek and The X-Files. We just had our quiet little corner and enjoyed the ride. Star Wars was a reason to be a PC gamer, the novels(mostly) were New York Times best sellers(or so it was said) and the comics gave some idea of how much more awesome Star Wars could have been on the big screen( Battle of Mon Calamari, Luke and Emperor duel ). Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. Nuff said.

It was a very cool time to be a fan. We already had Rogue One and Solo in the form of A.C.Crispin's Han Solo trilogy, Boba Fett was knocking it out of the park with his own comic series and omg we had Shadows of the Empire which gave us the "star wars movie without the movie", complete with a brilliant soundtrack CD.

Heir to the Empire, and its two sequels, was the foundation for everything that came after Return of the Jedi.

Can easily write a book series on what came next, but here is the first part of a series on Youtube that attempts to animate Heir to the Empire...

Heir to the Empire and its sequels are the best Star Wars books ever written. Full stop. The X-wing series was also good, but not as good as that.

Was a bit sad Zahn never followed up on the mention of Zaarin in Outbound Flight. It was a cool shout out to Tie Fighter( best Star Wars game ever! ) but would have loved to have read that story all the same.