Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Book 1: Heir to the Empire

By: Timothy Zahn

Narrated by: Denis Lawson

Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Heir to the Empire begins five years after Return of the Jedi. The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet back into a quarter of the territory it once controlled. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and have shouldered heavy burdens in the government of the new Republic, and Luke Skywalker is the first in a hoped-for new line of Jedi Knights.

But thousands of light-years away, where a few skirmishes are still taking place, the last of the Emperor's warlords have taken command of the remains of the Imperial fleet - and have made two vital discoveries that could destroy the fragile new Republic. The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale: in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars.

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©1992 Timothy Zahn (P)2007 Random House

Critic reviews

"Well written." (School Library Journal)

Great

Great story wish Star Wars would adapt these EU books more into cannon great listen

GREAT BOOK - Wish it was unabridged though

I own all three of these stories in first edition hard cover and love reading them - great story. Last month I listened to a serious book so this month I wanted something lighter. The read is enjoyable and the soundtrack audio is well placed. My only frustration is that the audio book is abridged. There isn't anything in the description that says that it is abridged. This was very frustrating. Still a great audio book - so I would recommend it - just be aware it is not the full book.

the narrator is pretty awful.

names mispronounced, planets mispronounced and generally "meh" character voices. I started book two narrated by Marc Thompson and he is much better....get that version of book 1

Worth listening to.

I read this book when it was first released, and loved the series. It's nice to finally find it in audiobook format. I am disappointed though, because it seems to be an abridged format even though it was not described as such. Much of the description and detail has been removed compared to the print version in order to move the story along. I am not sure if this is specific to this book, or if it is an attribute of most audiobooks. All in all though, I would suggest this book, and in turn the whole series.

short but good

too short for a full credit. otherwise a very good book. narrator hard to understand occasionally

The true sequel movie

A very cinematic reading, with the musical cues being quite exceptional for an audiobook. The abridgment makes the story move quickly as well. For people who didn’t like the sequel film trilogy, I highly recommend.

Great story, poorly read

Very monotone reading that sometimes made it hard to distinguish between characters. Plus the mispronounced names and places like Han Solo and Coruscant took a lot away from the story. The reader should have done his homework.

Story was good, but narration was far from it

I normally don't write reviews say for 2 occasions:
(1) it's exceptionally good and worth supporting);
(2) it's so bad I have to say something.

In this case, it would be the latter.

The narrator did a terrible job which made me felt like putting down the book (figuratively. Rather, stop listening). It became a pain to listen to before 1h into the book.

Every sentence trails off like a hasty whisper, which made it extremely hard to catch what the entire sentence was all about. I am on max speaker volume (which works for most books. It's pretty loud) but I could barely make out a lot of the sentences.

Every character's dialogue felt like they were all Han Solo sitting in the cantina with his legs on the table - relaxed, chill, casual.

Even the star destroyer "Chimaera" was mistakenly pronounced "Ki-muu-ra"(?), and the planet Coruscant became "Ku-ra-scorn".

Battle scenes were overwhelmed by the background music. It did add some dramatization but the narrator was far too lifeless and soft.

Go for the Clif notes back for the full story.

when I started to listen I was invested. when I leaned how much I missed I was disappointed and honestly a little pissed. If I shows ahead of time this was a shortened version I think my adatude would be different.

For what it is it's a good slice of what lies within the starwars Legends Canon.

the horrible reading shadows over the story

I absolutely love this story it's compelling even though it's shorter than most of his books but reader is absolutely the worst decision ever for this book