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Summary: why did everyone enjoy this book so much?
Review: I had read this book before I looked at all the reviews on this page and was astonished to discover that most people absolutely loved this book. I couldn't stand it. Given Zahn knows a lot about Star Wars but this book lacked action or believable plot. How is it that Grand Adml. Thrawn can deduce the exact plan of whomever is opposing him by simply studying the artwork of that culutre? The one thing that bothered me so much, though, was that he constantly refered to characters as "the other". We're not stupid, Zahn. You can give us the actual name of the character, especially if there's only two people talking to each other. For example on the very first page Cpt. Pellaeon is talking to a young Lieutenant: "I heard him," Pellaeon said. "You have an order, Lieutenant." "Yes, sir," the other said carefully.And Zahn writes like this all the time. For all we know "the other" could have been Luke Skywalker. Mara Jade a! nd Talon Karrde were the only characters with any life to them. I sincerely hope the rest of the trilogy is better than this first book.
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Summary: Best Star Wars Author To-Date
Review: Heir to the Empire, the Thrawn Trilogy, and the Hand of Thrawn Duology are the greatest books in the Star Wars Series because Timothy Zahn is the only author that can make the characters seeme truly real and bring the magic of the movie ino the bok, which is NOT what I can say for KJA. And Mara Jade is the best character a Star Wars author has created so far.
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Summary: This is a great book!!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Out of the however many SW books I've read, (and that is a lot), this one is right up there. I highly suggest not only this volume, but the whole trillogy, not to mention any other Timothy Zahn books that are out there.
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Summary: List why I did'nt like this book
Review: 1)sophisticated unnatural sounding language (ie."indeed", "agreed" etc..) 2)the empire , apparently , consists of a dozen Star Destroyers , and every imperial officer died at Endor(?). 3)Thrawn almost beat the Rebellion , what? , did I miss something? 4)how did the New Rebublic "Account" for the other twelve Imperial Grand Admirals? 5)what the heck does "cocking an eyebrow" mean and how do you do that? 6)these glaring mistakes , unfortunately , set the standards for the rest of the Star Wars novels. shame on you Zahn.
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Summary: A Star Wars story worthy of waiting eight years for!
Review: Timothy Zahn did a great job on this book. With HTTE, Zahn put Star Wars back into the minds of former Star Wars fans that forgot the Trilogy during the '80's. Zahn did a good job of capturing the Star Wars characters' essence into the book. He also made some great new characters. Grand Admiral Thrawn was a great villain. I mean, how can you beat someone who can triple-guess you or tell about you from your art? And Talon Karrde's organization was a good group of characters. Look at Mara Jade. She has been in at least half of the following novels and stories, and the main character in a LucasArts computer game (Mysteries of the Sith). I also liked his talent to describe places or ships. I did think it was a little hard to keep track of where the constantly moving characters were. If you like SF, read this book and the following sequels.
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Summary: A Very good book.
Review: This book, and the other two, are the best one's i've read... so far. the only thing is that i would like to see more books on Mara Jade.
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Summary: Put Simply - Thrawn is the greatest SW writer today
Review: This series is the best SW series so far. And I have read a lot of them. The story keeps your attention, and unlike many SW books, the technical portions aren't cheesy and unbelievable. If you are a star wars fan and have not read these books -- do.
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Summary: Star Wars is back!!!
Review: Introduced is a servant of the Empire who rivals the might Darth Vader in terms of command and cunning. As the Empire begins its new campaign the fragile Republic begins to fall apart... again. My one problem with the story is that in EVERY SW novel, the New Republic is on the verge of falling apart. Otherwise, this is an GREAT story when combined with Dark Force Rising and the Last Command.
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Summary: Zhan carries on the legacies Lucas began...
Review: Zhan, unlike a good number of the newer writers for the Star Wars series, knows what he's doing. In comparing this book and Zhan's rendering of the characters, to the over forty other Star Wars novels I've read, I have to say Heir to the Empire to by far one of THE best books in a glorious series of books, worthy of a sixth star. It is well written, well thought out, and the characters are true to themselves, a quality of writing many authors lack, including many of the other Star Wars authors.
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Summary: Excellent, Astounding, Zahn captured Lucas' Universe to a T
Review: This book is quite possibly the best work of fiction to come from the Star Wars universe. The characters that are created in this book i.e. Thrawn, Pellaeon, Mara, Karrde, and the Nohgri, are used throughout the Star Wars universe in many books to come.
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