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

By: Timothy Zahn

Narrated by: Denis Lawson

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.

More in the Thrawn Trilogy series we have. And download all of our Star Wars titles you can!©1992 Timothy Zahn (P)2007 Random House

Critic reviews

"Well written." (School Library Journal)

skip ahead

I would suggest to skip ahead and get the 20th anniversary version of the book. It feels like he was just reading the book. No real change in voice between male and female voices. Also at times I felt like it was hard to hear what was being said.

Abridged leaves out the good parts

The abridged version leaves out too many of the fun details. And Denis Lawson does a good job but the pronunciation of Chimaera as "kih-moor-ah" and Nkllon as "New Kylon" drives me batty every time. Maybe the abridgment authors changed the spellings.

fantastic!

A much needed continuance between the canon original trilogy timeline and the new movies. Thanks!

it was good. But I like the "New Thrawn Series

the "New Thrawn Seriestthat just came out in 2020. I like it a lot better because because it fits into the Canon storyline of the movies all the way from Return of the Jedi to "Last Jedi".... it was much better with the voices in the new series that came out this year but the music and sound effects are better in the old series here....

Great star wars story!

It was a great continuation story starting after return of the jedi. Thrawn is a great antagonist.

Might've been too hyped for me

Loves many other EU Star Wars books but this one didn't quite do it for me. Didn't care for the voice actors performance at all.

Not as good as unabridged

This was sooo short compared to all the rest of the unabridged novel...a bit disappointing...

Miss that old EU

The novel that brought the Star Wars mythos back to the forefront during the 90s.

That New Republic era was interesting, if not a bit bloated continuity after a while, but it sure was fun to imagine what Luke and Leia and Han were up to after the third movie. In this the beginning of the Thrawn trilogy, much of the mythology was expanded upon well in creating a deeper sense of this world. There was Coruscant, for example!

I just miss the old Expanded Universe... yes I understand that Disney did what they had to, but in my heart this is still what I think happened to these characters after the credits rolled. Thanks for the times, Timothy Zahn.

Heir to the Empire Review

I loved the book. It was well written, the story was unique and a great extension of the the original Star Wars trilogy. The only thing I did not like was a few explanations of things did not quite always make total sense. I would recommend it to any Star Wars fan or fan of the original trilogy. Dennis Lawson did a really good job as the narrator. Timothy Zahn is an excellent author. I loved the character of Thrawn in particular.

great story

but not my favorite voice for thrawn. well else we're.fine but I am a Thronofile he is my favorite character and I think he has an accent. :)