It christened the capital world of the Republic giving it the name Coruscant and would prove to be influential, much-loved, and ground breaking. Nobody expected Heir to the Empire to be the massive hit that it was, making the New York Times bestsellers list and pulling together Expanded Universe elements present in West End Games D6 releases as well as other pre-existing information and giving us such characters as Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Gilad Pellaeon. It jumpstarted a publishing program that endures to this day and formalized the Expanded Universe - stories set outside of the canon established by the films and TV shows of George Lucas that make the galaxy deeper and richer.

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn brought us into a decade that produced Star Wars Galaxy Magazine, Star Wars Insider, Shadows of the Empire, the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, and The Phantom Menace. But how does it hold up?Īs we move into the next era of Star Wars, easing from the end of The Clone Wars toward Star Wars Rebels and Episode VII, it's an opportune time to take a look back over two decades to a landmark 1991 release that led us out of The Dark Times.

Timothy Zahn's landmark 1991 book kickstarted the Expanded Universe and launched a massive Star Wars publishing program.

Star wars heir to the empire book