When a book is written based off of a movie or television show, it will normally garner very little respect from critics. These types of books are more often cheap and shallow imitations of the original artwork, and feel pale in comparison. It’s one thing to create a movie based off of a book, but an entirely different thing to create a book based off of a movie. It’s also very different when the book is not simply a literary adaptation of a film, but instead stands alone as a separate entity from the cinema. And that is where the Star Wars: Heir to the Empire trilogy fits into this category. But rest assured, this is not the usual cheap and shallow imitation of novels. Timothy Zahn, the Hugo Award-winning author and New York Times bestseller responsible for writing this three-part book series back in the 90s, isn’t a stale commercial artist looking for his score in a valuable franchise (much like many others). Zahn’s work on this trilogy encapsulates a unique and effective way to compose a brilliant piece of literature to an otherwise visually-engaging film saga like Star Wars. This series of books (starting with Heir to the Empire, continuing with Dark Force Rising, and concluding with The Last Command) are a trio of very well-written and engaging pieces of literature that, quite frankly, anyone can enjoy regardless of whether or not the reader has seen the films from George Lucas. This series of novels from Timothy Zahn captures the same level of insightful plot development, character evolution, and overall creativity of the iconic six-part movie saga with the added benefit of being able to stand apart from the movies as its own incredible work of art. Timothy Zahn is not a straw man. Instead of constantly copying-and-pasting plotlines and elements from the original Star Wars films (much like the new Disney franchise has), Zahn opted to only borrow the main characters and their backstories. From there, he then goes above and beyond the usual expectations of screen-to-page writing by not just adding, but genuinely expanding, the overall storyline from the films. Zahn continues the Star Wars epic with a story worthy of a major motion picture. The plot takes place after the New Republic (formally the Rebel Alliance in the films) has finally taken control of the capital city-planet of the galaxy. However, their opponent in the film series (widely-known as the Galactic Empire) was not fully-vanquished during the climactic battle in Return of the Jedi. While Darth Vader and the Emperor are no more, the Empire still has a standing military and a valuable leader in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The grandiose-type depictions of battle and war throughout this book series mirrors the impressively-depicted action of the film series, but with the addition of relevant internal conflicts and emotions for the characters, which was unable to be thoroughly portrayed in the form of cinema. For example, the character of Luke Skywalker (well-known in contemporary culture) is given much more relatable and depthful insecurities regarding his immense responsibility as the hero of the galaxy; “His mug felt cold against his hand; swallowing the rest of the chocolate, he took one last look around. At the city, at the clouds… and, in his mind’s eye, at the stars that lay beyond them. Stars, around which revolved planets, upon which lived people. Billions of people. Many of them still waiting for the freedom and light [he] had promised them. He closed his eyes against the bright lights and the equally bright hopes. There was, he thought wearily, no magic wand that could make everything better. Not even for a Jedi” (19). Although most storytellers’ inclination would be to avoid characters with very few visible flaws, an experienced author understands that these types of characters can still carry emotional scars like any other person. By writing about a fictional and mystical “Jedi Knight” as a deep character with understandable thoughts, ambitions, and emotions, Zahn proves that he can avoid overcomplicated plot development, but still maintain intelligible stories. Even with outrageous stories like Star Wars! Character development is perhaps Zahn’s greatest specialty. Instead of just completely reusing old characters or creating nearly-identical/flat new ones, he creates his own original characters, completely from scratch, and makes them complex and truly instrumental to the overall storyline. This is especially evident in the villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the anti-heroine, Mara Jade. Thrawn’s character is one that readers will love to hate; he is an artistically-gifted and brilliant tactical genius, preferring mind games with his opponents over blaster fights. His perception of war is similar to that of a strategic sport, and his ambition is clear; “The complete, total, and utter destruction of the Rebellion” (13). He even refuses to recognize the New Republic as a true government, and only refers to them as rebels. Mara Jade, on the other hand, isn’t exactly a villain (but certainly not a hero). Her childhood mentor taught her right from wrong, but gave her a very skewed conscience. His dying wish was for her to kill Luke Skywalker, the Jedi who “ruined” them. However, throughout each novel, she increasingly finds herself in life-threatening situations with Luke, and must learn to accept her own naivety regarding good and evil as the two of them work together and gradually become a formidable duo. But her demons refuse to leave her because of her cynical stubbornness, which she must learn to recognize. “Always before, there’d been nothing she could do about the voices and urges except to suffer through the cycle. To suffer, and to be ready to break out of whatever niche she’d managed to carve for herself when she finally betrayed herself to those around her” (38). She’s a very conflicted character, differing greatly from the often shallow and light-hearted attempts to create complex female heroines in stories like these. Timothy Zahn unquestionably demonstrates a magnificent ability to write good, engaging, meaningful, deep, and original characters to his writing. In terms of originality, Timothy Zahn may very well be considered second-only-to-one, after the original artist George Lucas. But while Lucas went through the extensive process of style and world-building, Zahn didn’t just copy his ideas. He genuinely expanded upon them, giving old characters new dynamics (starting a family with Han Solo and Princess Leia), creating entirely new elements (resourceful crime bosses like Karrde, sleek creatures like ysalamiri, etc.), further expanding upon a well-known cinematic epic (the cat-and-mouse game between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant), and a comprehensive understanding of the concept of creativity. George Lucas himself appreciated the books so much that his second trilogy of Star Wars films contained subtle references to Zahn’s novels (the city planet Coruscant, blue-skinned “Thrawn” species, etc). Perhaps the greatest quote from the novel to describe its marvelous creativity can be found on the back cover; “The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale - in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars” (Heir to the Empire). The film saga from George Lucas is often credited as one of the greatest of all time, but this three-part book series also truly gives the legend a worthy literary continuation. To put it simply, it gives a whole new and very worthy medium for those interested in exploring perhaps the most defining story of this generation in the form of literature. After finishing this book series, I now understand a great deal about effective fictional storytelling. The plot cannot be straight or linear; instead it must move from one sub-story to another and give multiple perspectives from multiple sources. One minute, Luke is weary of trusting a stranger. The next, Thrawn is instead manipulating that stranger. This gives the storyline an extra sense of dynamism, which is especially helpful in otherworldly aspects. The characters must all be meaningful to the story as well, whether they are discovering that their importance towards the future depends on their willingness to participate in it (Mara Jade) or beginning to understand the immense responsibility that comes with being a role-model to a fledgling organization and family (Han Solo). Last, but not least, Zahn’s writing style is one of creativity because of his readiness to put himself somewhere uncomfortable and unusual, not by clinging to the familiar or nostalgic elements that have already been done (looking at you, Disney). Respecting the story means balancing the purpose and intent of the original work with the innovation and style of the new form, which Zahn does a phenomenal job with. In my future writings, I hope to master this skill just as effectively as Timothy Zahn. I enjoy reading/writing about subjects which may be familiar to most, but include an added twist that turns everything the reader thought they knew about the subject upside-down. This is what effective and engaging storytelling is all about, and it is something that Zahn especially demonstrates throughout his Heir to the Empire trilogy. While future generations may have to choke down and wander aimlessly through the steady stream of near-identical and frivolous movies from Disney, the true and worthy continuation of the Star Wars saga is just a bookstore away in the form of Timothy Zahn’s excellent trilogy of novels.
Timothy Zahn, the Hugo Award-winning author and New York Times bestseller responsible for writing this three-part book series back in the 90s, isn’t a stale commercial artist looking for his score in a valuable franchise (much like many others). Zahn’s work on this trilogy encapsulates a unique and effective way to compose a brilliant piece of literature to an otherwise visually-engaging film saga like Star Wars. This series of books (starting with Heir to the Empire, continuing with Dark Force Rising, and concluding with The Last Command) are a trio of very well-written and engaging pieces of literature that, quite frankly, anyone can enjoy regardless of whether or not the reader has seen the films from George Lucas. This series of novels from Timothy Zahn captures the same level of insightful plot development, character evolution, and overall creativity of the iconic six-part movie saga with the added benefit of being able to stand apart from the movies as its own incredible work of art.
Timothy Zahn is not a straw man. Instead of constantly copying-and-pasting plotlines and elements from the original Star Wars films (much like the new Disney franchise has), Zahn opted to only borrow the main characters and their backstories. From there, he then goes above and beyond the usual expectations of screen-to-page writing by not just adding, but genuinely expanding, the overall storyline from the films. Zahn continues the Star Wars epic with a story worthy of a major motion picture. The plot takes place after the New Republic (formally the Rebel Alliance in the films) has finally taken control of the capital city-planet of the galaxy. However, their opponent in the film series (widely-known as the Galactic Empire) was not fully-vanquished during the climactic battle in Return of the Jedi. While Darth Vader and the Emperor are no more, the Empire still has a standing military and a valuable leader in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The grandiose-type depictions of battle and war throughout this book series mirrors the impressively-depicted action of the film series, but with the addition of relevant internal conflicts and emotions for the characters, which was unable to be thoroughly portrayed in the form of cinema. For example, the character of Luke Skywalker (well-known in contemporary culture) is given much more relatable and depthful insecurities regarding his immense responsibility as the hero of the galaxy; “His mug felt cold against his hand; swallowing the rest of the chocolate, he took one last look around. At the city, at the clouds… and, in his mind’s eye, at the stars that lay beyond them. Stars, around which revolved planets, upon which lived people. Billions of people. Many of them still waiting for the freedom and light [he] had promised them. He closed his eyes against the bright lights and the equally bright hopes. There was, he thought wearily, no magic wand that could make everything better. Not even for a Jedi” (19). Although most storytellers’ inclination would be to avoid characters with very few visible flaws, an experienced author understands that these types of characters can still carry emotional scars like any other person. By writing about a fictional and mystical “Jedi Knight” as a deep character with understandable thoughts, ambitions, and emotions, Zahn proves that he can avoid overcomplicated plot development, but still maintain intelligible stories. Even with outrageous stories like Star Wars!
Character development is perhaps Zahn’s greatest specialty. Instead of just completely reusing old characters or creating nearly-identical/flat new ones, he creates his own original characters, completely from scratch, and makes them complex and truly instrumental to the overall storyline. This is especially evident in the villain, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the anti-heroine, Mara Jade. Thrawn’s character is one that readers will love to hate; he is an artistically-gifted and brilliant tactical genius, preferring mind games with his opponents over blaster fights. His perception of war is similar to that of a strategic sport, and his ambition is clear; “The complete, total, and utter destruction of the Rebellion” (13). He even refuses to recognize the New Republic as a true government, and only refers to them as rebels.
Mara Jade, on the other hand, isn’t exactly a villain (but certainly not a hero). Her childhood mentor taught her right from wrong, but gave her a very skewed conscience. His dying wish was for her to kill Luke Skywalker, the Jedi who “ruined” them. However, throughout each novel, she increasingly finds herself in life-threatening situations with Luke, and must learn to accept her own naivety regarding good and evil as the two of them work together and gradually become a formidable duo. But her demons refuse to leave her because of her cynical stubbornness, which she must learn to recognize. “Always before, there’d been nothing she could do about the voices and urges except to suffer through the cycle. To suffer, and to be ready to break out of whatever niche she’d managed to carve for herself when she finally betrayed herself to those around her” (38). She’s a very conflicted character, differing greatly from the often shallow and light-hearted attempts to create complex female heroines in stories like these. Timothy Zahn unquestionably demonstrates a magnificent ability to write good, engaging, meaningful, deep, and original characters to his writing.
In terms of originality, Timothy Zahn may very well be considered second-only-to-one, after the original artist George Lucas. But while Lucas went through the extensive process of style and world-building, Zahn didn’t just copy his ideas. He genuinely expanded upon them, giving old characters new dynamics (starting a family with Han Solo and Princess Leia), creating entirely new elements (resourceful crime bosses like Karrde, sleek creatures like ysalamiri, etc.), further expanding upon a well-known cinematic epic (the cat-and-mouse game between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant), and a comprehensive understanding of the concept of creativity. George Lucas himself appreciated the books so much that his second trilogy of Star Wars films contained subtle references to Zahn’s novels (the city planet Coruscant, blue-skinned “Thrawn” species, etc). Perhaps the greatest quote from the novel to describe its marvelous creativity can be found on the back cover; “The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale - in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars” (Heir to the Empire). The film saga from George Lucas is often credited as one of the greatest of all time, but this three-part book series also truly gives the legend a worthy literary continuation. To put it simply, it gives a whole new and very worthy medium for those interested in exploring perhaps the most defining story of this generation in the form of literature.
After finishing this book series, I now understand a great deal about effective fictional storytelling. The plot cannot be straight or linear; instead it must move from one sub-story to another and give multiple perspectives from multiple sources. One minute, Luke is weary of trusting a stranger. The next, Thrawn is instead manipulating that stranger. This gives the storyline an extra sense of dynamism, which is especially helpful in otherworldly aspects. The characters must all be meaningful to the story as well, whether they are discovering that their importance towards the future depends on their willingness to participate in it (Mara Jade) or beginning to understand the immense responsibility that comes with being a role-model to a fledgling organization and family (Han Solo). Last, but not least, Zahn’s writing style is one of creativity because of his readiness to put himself somewhere uncomfortable and unusual, not by clinging to the familiar or nostalgic elements that have already been done (looking at you, Disney). Respecting the story means balancing the purpose and intent of the original work with the innovation and style of the new form, which Zahn does a phenomenal job with.
In my future writings, I hope to master this skill just as effectively as Timothy Zahn. I enjoy reading/writing about subjects which may be familiar to most, but include an added twist that turns everything the reader thought they knew about the subject upside-down. This is what effective and engaging storytelling is all about, and it is something that Zahn especially demonstrates throughout his Heir to the Empire trilogy. While future generations may have to choke down and wander aimlessly through the steady stream of near-identical and frivolous movies from Disney, the true and worthy continuation of the Star Wars saga is just a bookstore away in the form of Timothy Zahn’s excellent trilogy of novels.