” It’s five years after the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and drove the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting Jedi twins. And Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights.”
Always curious about the expanded universe of Star Wars, and admittedly a little disgruntled with the handling of some iconic characters by Disney in their new main story-line trilogy, I decided to take the dive into the now non-canon story-line begun in the late 80s and early 90s. To say that I was pleased with this novel is more than just a fair assessment of its merit. This novel, to me, was the direction the new trilogy should have taken from the beginning, even if it meant recasting the roles of Luke, Leia, and Han. This isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy many of the new characters Disney has created. I just feel the new writers either relied too much on paralleling the old story-line, or created a pile of inconsistent bantha poodoo with regards to the force powers.
Love or hate the new movies, they often struggle to create the same kind of iconic and powerful characters the original trilogy boasted. This novel does not. The new characters of Mara Jade and Talon Karrde are brilliant and complex, but better yet, the villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Dark Jedi Jorus C’baoth, are many notches above those in the new trilogy. On the one hand, you have the brilliant tactician; while not so dark a figure as the emperor, he is shrewdly diabolical and evil. On the other hand there is Jorus C’baoth, the half-mad dark jedi, a figure whose true menace grows with the novel.
There is a lot of lore and backstory filled out by this novel, including allusions and connections to events from the original trilogy, with some references to events that would later be taken up by Lucas’s prequel trilogy. The book even explores matters that I often found myself wondering about Luke by the end of episode VI, such as just how much knowledge of the force has Luke acquired by the end of the movie and how does he begin to approach rebuilding the jedi order. Let’s face it, Luke has had very little training from either Obi Wan Kenobi or Yoda. While he has certainly learned a lot between IV and VI, there are vast amounts he would not know or have learned by his experiences in that trilogy. As a Star Wars nerd, that proverbial itch was thoroughly satisfied by this book.
I wouldn’t put the writing up there with my favorite author (J.R.R. Tolkien), but it was definitely a fun read, and if you enjoy Star Wars, but like me, were not completely satisfied with some of the decisions made on characterization or story, I would highly recommend picking up the Heir to the Empire, or better yet, the trilogy. It is certainly worth a read through. If you prefer and have access, you might try the audiobook version of Heir to the Empire on Overdrive.
“Before the Internet was commonplace, William Gibson showed us the Matrix–a world within the world, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace. Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he’s ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.”
“The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything–instead, they “check out” large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele’s behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore’s secrets extend far beyond its walls. Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.”
“Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men’s solicitude and the money that goes with it.”
“Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.”
“This is the riveting first-person narrative of Kvothe, a young man who grows to be one of the most notorious magicians his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard.”
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