vince56

Just finished "Heir to the Empire" last week and I'm currently about halfway through "Dark Force Rising". Pretty interesting storylines Timothy Zahn has come up with for these books. I can see why a lot of fans consider these to be episodes 7-9. The character of Grand Admiral Thrawn is just a fascinating military strategist, and I'm really digging the characters Talon Karrde and Mara Jade. I know Mara Jade eventually becomes Skywalker's wife (from discussing with other readers), and it's interesting to see their relationship as it first starts, where she hates him, wants to kill him, but can't because her life depends on him (when they're stranded in the forest together in HttE).

I'm not a big fan of this C'Baoth character, though, but I figure he's just a pawn and Skywalker will eventually kill him. His path seems predictable, so I'm waiting to see if there's a twist in that somewhere.

It's also pretty cool that stuff from these books has shown up in other EU. For example, the Noghri race, I know what they look like and a little of their history by playing Jedi Academy, and I've seen Lando's ship, the Lady Luck, from playing another video game, Jedi Outcast. It's cool that games and other EU have taken from these books, it adds continuity.

Having said that, has anyone else read these? I'd love to chat about the books. No spoilers, though, please, I'm still only halfway through DFR and haven't cracked open the third book yet

SirChaz

Those books are great.

I first read them years ago and I recently re-read some of them.


C'Baoth is the least interesting story line early but hang in there it does get better.


Have you ever read Shadows of the Empire?




Another interesting set is the Han Solo series. It has some cheesy parts but there is also some excellent background on our favorite scoundrel. How he grew up, how he met Chewbaca and Lando, how he got the Mellinnium Falcon etc.

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Assface

I've read these a while back and I love them. By far the best Star Wars books that I've read.

Excellent book choice.

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Tim Minnick 9/12/1972-3/4/2007
You'll be missed.

vince56

I'm at the point in the book where Luke is en route to Jomark to meet C'Baoth, Leia is on the Noghri planet while Thrawn is investigating her, and Han/Lando just met the Corellian senator on the unknown planet. It's a real slow time in the book, but I'm sure it'll pick up soon. The space battle at the end of HttE with the mole miners and the space troopers was badassed.

No, but I will. I hear it's great. I'm actually looking forward to Zahn's next book, Outward Flight (maybe outbound flight?). It's a project talked about briefly in HttE, about a missing set of ships or something in the prequel era, and Zahn's new book takes place during the prequels, and puts Anakin and Obi-Wan on one of the ships. Should be interesting.

I might, it's just that I don't want to get too much into EU, because it seems there are a lot of contradicitons to the movies and such. I've had to overlook a few details in the books I'm reading so far because the prequels made it impossible for those things to happen.

Still great stories though and it's really easy to overlook the now out-of-place details.

SirChaz

Well these were written before the prequel and the movies are cannon.

What in particular are you talking about?


That is a slow time but much of the second book is that way.

The third book is where all the action is if I remember correctly.

__________________
“votes are collared under democracy, not by talking sense but by talking nonsense.” ~H. L. Mencken

vince56

The entire C'Baoth character

Yoda says in RotJ "When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be."

Also, when Luke meets C'Baoth, he tells Luke that Vader, the Emperor, and a few dark jedi helped take down the jedi knights.

That, so far is not in the movies, but I do expect to see an "Emperor's Hand" type character in the TV series coming out next year.

There's talk about Han in an imperial academy, and the Corellian senator's conversation with him implies that the empire formed roughly 5-10 years before ANH, not the 18-20 or so the movies suggest.

Really, they're not huge deals, but interesting nonetheless. I can make up my own excuses in my head why these characters say these things, so it's really no big deal.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

vince56

I finished the books about a month ago.

Interesting read. The third book was definitely better than the 2nd, but I definitely needed to detach myself from the prequels to get through "The Last Command". All the clone stuff really contradicted the new Lucas films.

Now I don't have a beef with that at all, it was written in the early 90s, so oh well. The character development was great, especially with the Noghri people. Their character arch was exceptionally formed and written and ended appropriately.

Spoiler below...

The only real flaw or problem I have with the ending is how the final fight ended. I see Luke as a very strong Jedi at the end of ROTJ. I don't see why he can't take on C'Baoth alone. He didn't need Mara and Leia there to finish him, and the idea of the clone Luuke (who wield's Anakin's saber and was cloned from Luke's hand that was cut off in The Empire Strikes Back) almost made me throw the book against the wall in disgust. Terrible plot twist, and a real stretch there.

Make that fight a saber/force fight between Luke and C'Baoth. Make it good. Make Mara or Leia get injured or captured or something. Make it intense and emotional.

I guess that's my 1 big beef with it. I do like Zahn's writing style, and as a result I picked up "Specter of the Past" which takes place 10 years later. I'm about halfway through it now, and it's pretty good too.