Sharing Heir

No spoilers





No, I don't mean Heir to the Jedi (which I haven't read yet), or even Heirs of the Force (which I have read), but Heir to the Empire, by Timothy Zahn.

Up until the announcement that VII, VIII, and IX were actually going to be made, the Thrawn trilogy was fans' VII, VIII, IX.

Because of that, it's not only a good story, but a valued part of our history. The Force Awakens is not going to be Heir, it will be new, and that is wonderful. But so is where we've come from.

I have started reading the Zahn books to my Mom now, so she can experience them too. Heir was the 7th Star Wars book I'd ever read, and it was hard for me back then. I didn't know who Wedge was, was fuzzy on who Mon Mothma was, and Karrde, Mara Jade, and all the others made it beyond confusing for me. My Original Trilogy knowledge wasn't very strong. At all. You could say it was almost nonexistant.

Now, as I'm reading it again, I'm picking up on so much more. I know who these guys are. And the fun thing is, that means I can help my Mom figure it out too.

We're using the 20th anniversary edition, with all of those wonderful margin notes, and we're about 200 pages in.

I confess to being a big Thrawn fan. What can I say? He's good at what he does. Of course, because of the Prequels, I've grown to like Luke too... and then there's Mara.... and Karrde is fun and who could hate Lando? And in the wake of reading the first few X-Wing books, Wedge is awesome too.

It may no longer be canon, but it's fun, it's intricate (the whole Thrawn legacy, over all his books and short stories), and it's well loved. I don't like the legends of King Arthur any less because they aren't acurate history, and the same can be said here.