3 years late but I just bought the heir to the empire audiobook and am excited to listen to it at work today! Thanks for the love you clearly have for this franchise, definitely earned a sub 🤞🏼🤞🏼
I remember when these came out. The buzz over the OT was almost dead. George Lucas had stated that he was not going to make any more Star Wars movies. Available merchandise was limited. Heir to the Empire really breathed new life into the franchise. At the time, this really did feel like an official continuation to fans. Great trilogy.
Thank you so much for not spoiling these books, some people on RUclips assume that everyone knows the plot to every Star Wars book, and as someone who didn’t grow up reading the books I appreciate this video so much
"There's always a bit of truth in legends." - Ashoka Tano and then we get Thrawn in Rebels.....Dave Filoni is truly the master now. Love that Timothy Zhan Trilogy, remember visiting my Grand Parents in Florida the summer the first book came out. Saw it at the mall and grabbed the hardcover, read the dust jacket...insta buy, sold. Read the first one over the next few evenings after doing all the theme parks. Maybe it's the rose colored nostalgia glasses but I seem to remember looking forward just as much to reading the next chapter as I was to going to the next theme park/beach. Definitely should be on any true Star Wars fans shelf. Disney may call them Legends now, but I stopped buying the books the moment they drew their line in the sand and called them legends. It was good to see them reach out to Zhan though and reintroduce Thrawn into the "new" cannon. It was a no brainer than not even Disney could screw up. Even better that they let Filoni use him in Rebels to the extent they did. Still hope Ezra and Thrawn kinda team up as I think it is safe to say they both survived the jump to hyperspace with the space whales. No way Disney is killing off those two fan favorites off screen. Anyways, great video, liking the book segments. Thanks. Edit: Spelling/Grammar.
I bought the first Thrawn novel today and started reading the first couple chapters. I haven't known about these books for very long, but I'm looking forward to getting more into these.
Currently reading through the old EU. Loved the Thrawn trilogy, although it was a bit slow in some parts. Now reading the sequel series Hand of Thrawn.
The Thrawn Trilogy was the original Sequel Trilogy it also brought beloved characters such as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade Skywalker the former was so popular he even managed to become a prominent character in Star Wars: Rebels and a new Thrawn Trilogy published with the same author Timothy Zahn.
I always loved these, they're what got me into the expanded universe. A good suggestion for anyone wanting these stories and dont necessarily have time to read the novels, if they pick up the star wars epic collection 'new republic vol 4' it includes the 3 comic adaptions of the books.
I feel like mentioning, however briefly, West End Games' Star Wars D6 roleplaying game from the 80s would have done a bit of background on that era, including it's extreme influence on the expanded universe (and Disney Canon as well). Timothy Zahn credits the roleplaying game's lore as his source material for The Thrawn Trilogy, as Lucasfilm sent him the game and sourcebooks when he asked for material. The game really kept Star Wars alive, albeit in a small way, until the 90s explosion before The Phantom Menace. Regardless, great deep dive you've done!
Having just watched Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance where all of the post film cannon was in some way shape or form referenced across the 10 part series was a revelation (and honestly one of the best things I’ve seen on “TV” this year) it made me realise that Disney did the entire SW universe a disservice by throwing out anything beyond OG trilogy or Prequels...the expanded universe of any property is always there no matter how much you try to marginalise it...Disney was simply insulting fans and making more of the EU than it ever needed to by making the point of dismissing it publicly ... The con of it all is also that Disney then cherry picked things from the EU anyway, and look where we are today.
Agreed, it’s really unfortunate. I’ll be honest, I think there are some bad Star Wars novels out there, and the expanded universe was beginning to collapse upon itself from the weight of all those 20 book events, but almost nothing from the Disney era has even come close to the level of storytelling that we saw before the Disney purchase.
Cereal At Midnight I was talking about this with someone and we said because the books were written by fans of the films they will always resonate better than a trilogy being pulled together by executive vote. 👍🏼
I became a Star Wars fan during that dark time, via the public library having copies the original trilogy available to borrow. (prior to that Star Wars to me was the Droids and Ewoks Cartoon). Anyway I was super hooked into Star Wars during middle school and this book Trilogy was amazing! I loved the entire story, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and of course Thrawn were great characters. Even my neighbour and myself were hoping we'd see Thrawn in the Force Awakens. Jorus was kinda lame. It's funny too my Star Wars Epic Collection: Infinities arrived in the mail today and it's collection of the the old Dark horse "What If" style Star Wars comics, including my favorite a comic series based on Lucas' original "The Star Wars" screenplay. I wish that universe was expanded upon.
I agree that Jorus was kind of lame! That's one of the things I was referring to in this video about not loving. Wouldn't it have been cool if Disney had incorporated more of these elements into their movies? It's a tragedy to me that we have a whole bunch of new Star Wars movies, but the continued adventures of Luke, Han, and Leia are all in books and comics. These books were huge. I even remember Micro Machines making toys based on them.
You know what I'd love it if Disney gave the entire trilogy an animated treatment. They could Disney + to show it on. It would be in a similar vein to DC's animated movies. I'd even be fine with a live action movie of each film with new actors for Luke, Han and Leia. Oh micro machines, they had so many franchise. I still wish they were around.
I would love that too. For any of that to happen, Disney would have to acknowledge that Star Wars existed before they bought it, but they’ve tried hard to pretend it didn’t. Maybe once the sequel trilogy is in the can, they’ll embrace the classic stuff and all the fans they’ve pushed away.
Yes great books. Disney’s version of what happened after ROTJ is embarrassingly bad in comparison. Mara is cool, Rey is boring. Oh how I wish the Thrawn Trilogy would have been the spring board for the Disney trilogy. Oh well 🤷♂️
Tom Ffrench I don’t think you have watched the new movies. The sequels are so bad a lot of people don’t consider them canon I bet you didn’t even read the books because it’s not cRiNgE like you say.
The idea about coming more one with the force and losing access the physical world was actually in the original script to Return of the Jedi. In the making of book of that film the riginal draft has Obi-Wan tell Luke that if he did not return to physical world he would never be able to. I think that might be worth Timothy got the idea from.
I remember when Dark Force Rising was in hardback and I begged the publisher to put out a reasonably priced paperback. I think I had to wait 6 months to a year to get it.
I barely remember these books and I'm not sure what one I read but I remember Han and Leia had twins but I was young but this makes me wanna find these and read them and I have the original 3 books well from the original 3 movies but I've probably seen these countless times but now I really want them so thank you for this incredible video.
These hit around the same time Star Wars comics reappeared at Dark Horse with Dark Empire, which were set 6 years after ROTJ, and at the time I couldn't decide which I liked more. I think I got the comics first (I didn't get Heir to Empire right away, I got it shortly before the second book came out because I remember the wait for the third book seeming interminable in comparison) because I think I learned of the book in the letters/page back matter of the comic where it was hyped (my memories could be off, it was right around the time I graduated from university and the whole period is a bit hazy and a long time ago). I really loved these books and have revisited them a few times over the years, but it's been a while since I have.
Dark Empire! In my humble opinion, that era was such a fantastic time for Star Wars fiction. I think it's great that Star Wars has continued to thrive so that new generations can discover it, but there was a purity and magic to those stories in the early-to-mid nineties that I genuinely believe we haven't seen the likes of since.
I love those books. I have always loved them. His new Thrawn series which is official is truly excellent. I was fortunate to meet the man at C2E2 and he is a very nice person. Haze you ever read Kenobi? I enjoyed that one by John Jackson Miller. You and I think alike on these issues!
I read part of Kenobi on an e-reader years ago when it was new, but I never finished it because I didn't enjoy the paperless experience. Recently I found a paperback copy at a thrift store, so I'll be giving it another crack.
Cereal At Midnight I think you will enjoy it! I do not like paperless books either. I just need to feel the book in my hand. I do have a fondness for audio books!
I started reading the Star Wars books with the Thrawn trilogy. Most likely i got them when they came out in french in my part of the world (i didn't understand english at the time).I had to read everything after that Also, they brought back Thrawn in the series Star Wars Rebels. It's decent, but he felt more badass in the books
Thrawn in Rebels felt like a shadow of the character to me, but I guess it was a nice nod to the history. I hate that Timothy Zahn has had to basically start over in the novels by reinventing a character he already created once. He created Thrawn, built him up for 20 years, Disney buys Star Wars, wipes cannon, reinvents Thrawn, and Zahn has to write someone else’s idea of his own creation. It would be funny if it wasn’t so unfortunate.
@@CerealAtMidnight well, it is basically a kids show, so no surprise there He would've been better in The Clone Wars series, which was a bit more mature show. They could've done justice to the character in there
I agree that Rebels was a kid's show, but it was capable of some absolutely incredible storytelling when they really went for it. The Vader/Ahsoka confrontation is a powerful piece of cinema. Maybe I was just bothered that he'd been rebooted, and also grossed out at how I felt like Disney had repackaged something I loved and tried to re-sell it to me.
@@CerealAtMidnight don't get me wrong, i loved Rebels, and it did do some great things. Season 3 in particular was great, and did some dark stuff. But i think it would've been better in the Clone Wars series, which had some very light and very dark storyline. I also think Rebels could've integrated to Clone Wars and we would've get something more varied. I'm sure Thrawn will come back in the rebooted Clone Wars series (i don't remember if he dies in Rebels)
Agreed, and worth mentioning also that Clone Wars might have gotten to him if Disney hadn’t pulled the rug out from under Filoni when they bought SW. I think that show had a lot of life left in it. My understanding is that the upcoming Clone Wars episodes are the ones that had been in the pipeline. It’s a chance for Filoni to finish what they’d been working on. One batch of episodes and that’s it. Filoni has moved on to much bigger things, and is working behind the scenes on the movie arm of SW.
I don’t know how deep into Star Wars tie-ins you’re interested in going but there’s a 2008 novel by Matthew Stover called Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor that was deliberately written as a stylistic throwback to the pulpy adventure novels of Brian Daley and Alan Dean Foster. All four of Stover’s Star Wars books are pretty interesting and don’t neatly fit the conventional tie-in novel mold.
With time I’ve come to terms with the Disney universe But the biggest missed opportunity for me was not having Mara Jade in the sequel trilogy Disney wanted strong female characters in the sequel trilogy- no one is more bad ass than Mara Jade Just imagine her in the sequel trilogy - it would have been awesome and could have unified the fan base Old fans like me would have loved it and newer fans would have appreciated an amazing strong female character Missed opportunity!
One last point Imagine a Last Jedi film with Mara Jade training Rey The ‘Emperor’s Hand’ training a Palpatine - to become a Jedi There are just so many great story ideas that just spring from that
The Thrawn Trilogy (1991-1993) by Timothy Zahn is the TRUE Star Wars Sequel Trilogy! The TRUE Episodes VII-IX. Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising The Last Command The Force Awakens? The Last Jedi? The Rise of Skywalker? WTF are these? Never heard of them. Must be some bad Fanfiction made by Disney.
The Zahn trilogy is important, no doubt. But they are really not very good books. Dialogue lifted straight from the original trilogy. Goofy scenes involving Threepio helping tend the kids and Luke drinking hot chocolate. Just nonsense.
So what Star Wars books do you guys like, @onhohns1 and @ Michael Kikle? It's cool to say something isn't your cup of tea, but can you bring something besides negativity by telling us some Star Wars books that you enjoy?
3 years late but I just bought the heir to the empire audiobook and am excited to listen to it at work today! Thanks for the love you clearly have for this franchise, definitely earned a sub 🤞🏼🤞🏼
I remember when these came out. The buzz over the OT was almost dead. George Lucas had stated that he was not going to make any more Star Wars movies. Available merchandise was limited. Heir to the Empire really breathed new life into the franchise. At the time, this really did feel like an official continuation to fans. Great trilogy.
Thank you so much for not spoiling these books, some people on RUclips assume that everyone knows the plot to every Star Wars book, and as someone who didn’t grow up reading the books I appreciate this video so much
Thrawn is one of my favorite characters after reading Heir to The Empire. But Mara Jade I liked a lot too.
"There's always a bit of truth in legends." - Ashoka Tano
and then we get Thrawn in Rebels.....Dave Filoni is truly the master now.
Love that Timothy Zhan Trilogy, remember visiting my Grand Parents in Florida the summer the first book came out. Saw it at the mall and grabbed the hardcover, read the dust jacket...insta buy, sold. Read the first one over the next few evenings after doing all the theme parks. Maybe it's the rose colored nostalgia glasses but I seem to remember looking forward just as much to reading the next chapter as I was to going to the next theme park/beach. Definitely should be on any true Star Wars fans shelf. Disney may call them Legends now, but I stopped buying the books the moment they drew their line in the sand and called them legends. It was good to see them reach out to Zhan though and reintroduce Thrawn into the "new" cannon. It was a no brainer than not even Disney could screw up. Even better that they let Filoni use him in Rebels to the extent they did. Still hope Ezra and Thrawn kinda team up as I think it is safe to say they both survived the jump to hyperspace with the space whales. No way Disney is killing off those two fan favorites off screen.
Anyways, great video, liking the book segments. Thanks.
Edit: Spelling/Grammar.
Dave Filoni is a hack.
I read those when they first came out and have all of them in hardback. I remember I really liked them.
I bought the first Thrawn novel today and started reading the first couple chapters. I haven't known about these books for very long, but I'm looking forward to getting more into these.
Currently reading through the old EU. Loved the Thrawn trilogy, although it was a bit slow in some parts. Now reading the sequel series Hand of Thrawn.
The Thrawn Trilogy was the original Sequel Trilogy it also brought beloved characters such as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade Skywalker the former was so popular he even managed to become a prominent character in Star Wars: Rebels and a new Thrawn Trilogy published with the same author Timothy Zahn.
I always loved these, they're what got me into the expanded universe. A good suggestion for anyone wanting these stories and dont necessarily have time to read the novels, if they pick up the star wars epic collection 'new republic vol 4' it includes the 3 comic adaptions of the books.
Nice! I've never read the comics adaptations, so that would be a good book for me to check out.
i think there is some good stuff in Both the original trilogy and prequel timelines
I feel like mentioning, however briefly, West End Games' Star Wars D6 roleplaying game from the 80s would have done a bit of background on that era, including it's extreme influence on the expanded universe (and Disney Canon as well). Timothy Zahn credits the roleplaying game's lore as his source material for The Thrawn Trilogy, as Lucasfilm sent him the game and sourcebooks when he asked for material. The game really kept Star Wars alive, albeit in a small way, until the 90s explosion before The Phantom Menace. Regardless, great deep dive you've done!
Having just watched Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance where all of the post film cannon was in some way shape or form referenced across the 10 part series was a revelation (and honestly one of the best things I’ve seen on “TV” this year) it made me realise that Disney did the entire SW universe a disservice by throwing out anything beyond OG trilogy or Prequels...the expanded universe of any property is always there no matter how much you try to marginalise it...Disney was simply insulting fans and making more of the EU than it ever needed to by making the point of dismissing it publicly ... The con of it all is also that Disney then cherry picked things from the EU anyway, and look where we are today.
Agreed, it’s really unfortunate. I’ll be honest, I think there are some bad Star Wars novels out there, and the expanded universe was beginning to collapse upon itself from the weight of all those 20 book events, but almost nothing from the Disney era has even come close to the level of storytelling that we saw before the Disney purchase.
Cereal At Midnight I was talking about this with someone and we said because the books were written by fans of the films they will always resonate better than a trilogy being pulled together by executive vote. 👍🏼
I became a Star Wars fan during that dark time, via the public library having copies the original trilogy available to borrow. (prior to that Star Wars to me was the Droids and Ewoks Cartoon). Anyway I was super hooked into Star Wars during middle school and this book Trilogy was amazing! I loved the entire story, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, and of course Thrawn were great characters. Even my neighbour and myself were hoping we'd see Thrawn in the Force Awakens. Jorus was kinda lame. It's funny too my Star Wars Epic Collection: Infinities arrived in the mail today and it's collection of the the old Dark horse "What If" style Star Wars comics, including my favorite a comic series based on Lucas' original "The Star Wars" screenplay. I wish that universe was expanded upon.
I agree that Jorus was kind of lame! That's one of the things I was referring to in this video about not loving. Wouldn't it have been cool if Disney had incorporated more of these elements into their movies? It's a tragedy to me that we have a whole bunch of new Star Wars movies, but the continued adventures of Luke, Han, and Leia are all in books and comics. These books were huge. I even remember Micro Machines making toys based on them.
You know what I'd love it if Disney gave the entire trilogy an animated treatment. They could Disney + to show it on. It would be in a similar vein to DC's animated movies. I'd even be fine with a live action movie of each film with new actors for Luke, Han and Leia. Oh micro machines, they had so many franchise. I still wish they were around.
I would love that too. For any of that to happen, Disney would have to acknowledge that Star Wars existed before they bought it, but they’ve tried hard to pretend it didn’t. Maybe once the sequel trilogy is in the can, they’ll embrace the classic stuff and all the fans they’ve pushed away.
Yes great books. Disney’s version of what happened after ROTJ is embarrassingly bad in comparison. Mara is cool, Rey is boring. Oh how I wish the Thrawn Trilogy would have been the spring board for the Disney trilogy. Oh well 🤷♂️
Tom Ffrench I don’t think you have watched the new movies. The sequels are so bad a lot of people don’t consider them canon I bet you didn’t even read the books because it’s not cRiNgE like you say.
Been hearing about the channel for a while. Thought I'd check it out and I'm glad I did. LOVED this video. Happily subbed afterword!
Thank you for the sub, and we're so glad you found us!
Keen to see the young Jedi knights series. I loved those as a kid.
The idea about coming more one with the force and losing access the physical world was actually in the original script to Return of the Jedi. In the making of book of that film the riginal draft has Obi-Wan tell Luke that if he did not return to physical world he would never be able to. I think that might be worth Timothy got the idea from.
Awesome! Got a bunch of those Star Wars books too, like the Thrawn Trilogy. Should read it again as well! Been a while.
Amazing video, thank you!
I remember when Dark Force Rising was in hardback and I begged the publisher to put out a reasonably priced paperback. I think I had to wait 6 months to a year to get it.
I barely remember these books and I'm not sure what one I read but I remember Han and Leia had twins but I was young but this makes me wanna find these and read them and I have the original 3 books well from the original 3 movies but I've probably seen these countless times but now I really want them so thank you for this incredible video.
You should definitely read them, they’re very good!
Awesome topic for a video
These hit around the same time Star Wars comics reappeared at Dark Horse with Dark Empire, which were set 6 years after ROTJ, and at the time I couldn't decide which I liked more. I think I got the comics first (I didn't get Heir to Empire right away, I got it shortly before the second book came out because I remember the wait for the third book seeming interminable in comparison) because I think I learned of the book in the letters/page back matter of the comic where it was hyped (my memories could be off, it was right around the time I graduated from university and the whole period is a bit hazy and a long time ago). I really loved these books and have revisited them a few times over the years, but it's been a while since I have.
Dark Empire! In my humble opinion, that era was such a fantastic time for Star Wars fiction. I think it's great that Star Wars has continued to thrive so that new generations can discover it, but there was a purity and magic to those stories in the early-to-mid nineties that I genuinely believe we haven't seen the likes of since.
Good stuff. For some reason I've not read any of the SW books but I've long been curious about them. Picked up a few recently for cheap.
As with all things, some are better than others, but there are some gems.
I love those books. I have always loved them. His new Thrawn series which is official is truly excellent. I was fortunate to meet the man at C2E2 and he is a very nice person. Haze you ever read Kenobi? I enjoyed that one by John Jackson Miller. You and I think alike on these issues!
I read part of Kenobi on an e-reader years ago when it was new, but I never finished it because I didn't enjoy the paperless experience. Recently I found a paperback copy at a thrift store, so I'll be giving it another crack.
Cereal At Midnight I think you will enjoy it! I do not like paperless books either. I just need to feel the book in my hand. I do have a fondness for audio books!
This is the video where I scored Kenobi, in case you're interested. It was just a couple of months ago, and I found a huge stack of Star Wars books!
Whoops, forgot the link: ruclips.net/video/6y299947nQM/видео.html
I started reading the Star Wars books with the Thrawn trilogy. Most likely i got them when they came out in french in my part of the world (i didn't understand english at the time).I had to read everything after that
Also, they brought back Thrawn in the series Star Wars Rebels. It's decent, but he felt more badass in the books
Thrawn in Rebels felt like a shadow of the character to me, but I guess it was a nice nod to the history. I hate that Timothy Zahn has had to basically start over in the novels by reinventing a character he already created once. He created Thrawn, built him up for 20 years, Disney buys Star Wars, wipes cannon, reinvents Thrawn, and Zahn has to write someone else’s idea of his own creation. It would be funny if it wasn’t so unfortunate.
@@CerealAtMidnight well, it is basically a kids show, so no surprise there
He would've been better in The Clone Wars series, which was a bit more mature show. They could've done justice to the character in there
I agree that Rebels was a kid's show, but it was capable of some absolutely incredible storytelling when they really went for it. The Vader/Ahsoka confrontation is a powerful piece of cinema. Maybe I was just bothered that he'd been rebooted, and also grossed out at how I felt like Disney had repackaged something I loved and tried to re-sell it to me.
@@CerealAtMidnight don't get me wrong, i loved Rebels, and it did do some great things. Season 3 in particular was great, and did some dark stuff. But i think it would've been better in the Clone Wars series, which had some very light and very dark storyline. I also think Rebels could've integrated to Clone Wars and we would've get something more varied.
I'm sure Thrawn will come back in the rebooted Clone Wars series (i don't remember if he dies in Rebels)
Agreed, and worth mentioning also that Clone Wars might have gotten to him if Disney hadn’t pulled the rug out from under Filoni when they bought SW. I think that show had a lot of life left in it. My understanding is that the upcoming Clone Wars episodes are the ones that had been in the pipeline. It’s a chance for Filoni to finish what they’d been working on. One batch of episodes and that’s it. Filoni has moved on to much bigger things, and is working behind the scenes on the movie arm of SW.
Episode III when???
Pretty burned on out Star Wars right now. It might be a while. Whenever I do get back to it, where you would like to see it pick back up?
I don’t know how deep into Star Wars tie-ins you’re interested in going but there’s a 2008 novel by Matthew Stover called Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor that was deliberately written as a stylistic throwback to the pulpy adventure novels of Brian Daley and Alan Dean Foster. All four of Stover’s Star Wars books are pretty interesting and don’t neatly fit the conventional tie-in novel mold.
With time I’ve come to terms with the Disney universe
But the biggest missed opportunity for me was not having Mara Jade in the sequel trilogy
Disney wanted strong female characters in the sequel trilogy- no one is more bad ass than Mara Jade
Just imagine her in the sequel trilogy - it would have been awesome and could have unified the fan base
Old fans like me would have loved it and newer fans would have appreciated an amazing strong female character
Missed opportunity!
One last point
Imagine a Last Jedi film with Mara Jade training Rey
The ‘Emperor’s Hand’ training a Palpatine - to become a Jedi
There are just so many great story ideas that just spring from that
TYPO in title - great video though
D'oh! Thanks for the heads up, it's fixed now.
I had all 3 in hardback simply gave them away. I kick myself. I bought them the day they came out in hardback.
This is the Dark times for SW... Disney ruins everything they touch..
The Thrawn Trilogy (1991-1993) by Timothy Zahn is the TRUE Star Wars Sequel Trilogy!
The TRUE Episodes VII-IX.
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command
The Force Awakens? The Last Jedi? The Rise of Skywalker? WTF are these? Never heard of them. Must be some bad Fanfiction made by Disney.
The Zahn trilogy is important, no doubt. But they are really not very good books. Dialogue lifted straight from the original trilogy. Goofy scenes involving Threepio helping tend the kids and Luke drinking hot chocolate. Just nonsense.
So what Star Wars books do you guys like, @onhohns1 and @ Michael Kikle? It's cool to say something isn't your cup of tea, but can you bring something besides negativity by telling us some Star Wars books that you enjoy?