Heir To The Empire by Timothy Zahn

Once again I finish a book that has taken me months to read. This time it happens to be a Star Wars book.

Before all the prequels and spin-offs there was only the original trilogy. No one had the authorization to create any stories within the universe that George Lucas created. That changed with the release of Heir To The Empire; the first book of a new trilogy in the time frame following Return of the Jedi. An author by the name Timothy Zahn received the "go-ahead" to create a trilogy in the spirit of the original stories.

Volume 1 finds our heroes (Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, & Chewie) having formed a new Republic and dealing with the remnants of the Empire led by a military leader called Thrawn. Thrawn combines the scattered forces of the bad guys to take back the universe for the Empire. And, of course, he can't do that without the help of some guy who happens to be like a jedi only slightly evil...who wants Luke to become his apprentice. Does this sound familiar?

There are new worlds and lots of space battles, but Heir To The Empire lost it's gold star when it became apparent that Zahn had nothing original to write. (Or maybe Lucas kept him from writing the trilogy he truly wanted to make...)