STAR WARS: HEIR TO THE EMPIRE $19.95 from Dark Horse

Credits:

Based on the novel by Timothy Zahn

Script by Mike Baron

Pencils & Inks by Olivier Vatine & Fred Blanchard

Art Assists by Vincent Rueda

Colors by Isabelle Rabarot

Lettering by Ellie De Ville

Cover Art by Mathieu Lauffray

I'm one of those few souls who somehow never got around to reading Timothy Zahn's new STAR WARS trilogy when it came out several years ago. If you'll recall, after a few half-hearted attempts at novelization franchises during the release of the first two STAR WARS films, Bantam landed the contract to end all contracts: a new STAR WARS novel series to take place after RETURN OF THE JEDI. The series would be unlike franchise novels of the past: it would be as internally consistent as it would be sprawling. The first to be released was Timothy Zahn's HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. But I didn't read it, for some reason, and now I can channel the great Theodore Cleaver when I say, "Thank God for comic adaptations."

Timothy Zahn earns a grudging respect from other SF regulars because he's a professional who met a staggering challenge. The trick in doing a decent franchise story is to carefully avoid a number of traps: the reader is reading STAR WARS because she likes the STAR WARS characters and universe. But she doesn't want- - doesn't consciously want- - to read the same story again. On the other hand, if the characters she knows and loves go too far afield into a story that doesn't seem to fit with previous adventures, the reader will turn away, feeling betrayed.

(I've seen this first hand. Pity the poor franchise novelist.)

So how in heck do you write a STAR WARS story, featuring Luke and Leia and Han and the droids, when everyone seems to have learned their lessons by the end of JEDI?

In HEIR TO THE EMPIRE, Timothy Zahn finds his answers by going back to the challenges faced by certain characters of the first trilogy and echoing them in other characters. For instance, Princess Leia, now pregnant with Han's children and rising in power and responsibility with the New Republic, wants desperately to go away and work on her Jedi skills. Zahn uses the situation to echo Luke's desire to get away from the farm in STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE. And Luke, her desired mentor, remembers a warning from Ben about what can happen when pride leads you to bite off more responsibility than you can chew. And oh, yeah, there's a new threat: on the edge of the Galaxy, the crumbling vestiges of the fallen empire give rise to Grand Admiral Thrawn, who plans to bring the Empire back to full glory with the help of the ancient Jorus, perhaps the last Dark Jedi.

I won't spoil all the twists, but I will say that STAR WARS fans won't be disappointed by HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. Zahn shows that he knows his source material- -the ins and outs of the curiously habitable Star Wars Galaxy- - well, and knows his characters intimately. Luke is not only still Luke, but he's a five-years-older Luke, a Jedi Master who grows more powerful by the day, and yet still has much to learn. Leia is the ultra-responsible one who yearns for spiritual growth, and Han is, well, Han.

By the way, the cool thing about the trade paperback version is that it's all collected into one 160-page story, with all the lovely original Dark Horse covers shifted to a gallery in the back. (HEIR originally appeared as a six-issue miniseries, but the trade paperback is the best way to read it.)

Of course, this is like crack. HEIR TO THE EMPIRE is itself the first of a trilogy, and then, and then... there's always more Star Wars to read.