20 Years ago, in a book store far, far away….
Twenty years ago, Bantam Spectra, Lucasfilm, and Timothy
Zahn brought the thrill and excitement of Star Wars to the printed page. While Mr. Zahn did not create the Expanded
Universe, if his first book had failed, we would have a radically different
world of Star Wars publishing and likely a much more limited one. The adult Star Wars novels are one of the
central pillars of the Expanded Universe and it was Heir to the Empire that
really re-launched Star Wars publishing.
How does the 20th Anniversary Edition of Heir to
the Empire stack up against the original release? The Anniversary Edition weighs in at 411 pages
to the original editions 361, this is due to the annotations, the annotations
are set on the outside margins of each page, the main body of text is narrower
then in a traditional hardcover release meaning we get less text per page
resulting in the 50 extra pages.
The Anniverary Edtion also includes a Foreword by Howard
Roffman, President, Lucas Licensing, an introduction by Timothy Zahn, an
afterword by HttE’s original editor Betsy Mitchell, and a brand new novella by
Timothy Zahn entitled Crisis of Faith.
The presentation of the book is terrific. The dust jacket features a metallic silver
cover with darkened striations across it.
There is an embossed Imperial Cog logo in the center, the embossed text
is a mixture of blacks and reds, particularly impressive is the subtitle “Heir
to the Empire,” where the top of the letters are black and the bottoms are
red. The interior of the dust flaps is
black with silver text.
Underneath the dust jacked the cover of the book has a black
and white copy of the original cover art printed directly on the cardboard,
minus the front and back cover text.
There is still text on the spine and the overall finish looks like one
of the shiny school text books.
The annotations are numbered within each chapter, but not
cumulatively through the book. As such
each chapter begins with #1 and continues up depending on how many notes are in
that particular chapter.
The only thing really missing is a glossary for the
annotations. It would be cool to go to
the back of the book and find the exact page for an annotation regarding a
particular character or event.
The overall effect is a slightly different reading
experience because there is a lot more white space on the page then the reader
is used to traditionally. I did find
that while I was reading it was easy to miss the superscript number indicating
where a footnote fits into the story.
This is both good and bad in that it is unobtrusive in the reading
experience, but may take the annotation out of context if you read it after
finishing the main body of text before turning to the next page. I also noticed at least one occasion where
multiple annotations where printed on the page after the annotation superscript
appears because a previous annotation was so large it consumed all of the
margin.
Crisis of Faith is
a meaty 52 page novella, the rather alien beginning of which made me re-read
the first page a few times before I got into the story. It features some new characters as well as a character
that made his debut in Zahn’s latest novel Choices
of One. There are some scenes that remind me of A
New Hope aboard the Death Star with Grand Moff Tarkin meeting with Imperial military
commanders There is also a good bit of action, some
familiar minor characters getting a chance at the spotlight, and of course a
healthy dose of Thrawn’s brilliance in a military engagement. It is an interesting book because of where it
is set in the timeline, but we get a cast that is to the best of my reckoning entirely made up of EU
characters.
There are two very interesting new aliens in this book that
have an interesting decision to make as to whether they should obey and conform
to their superiors wishes, or whether they should do what they think maybe
right. I would be interesting in hearing about what
happens to them in the future. In the
end Crisis of Faith is like much of Zahn’s recent work, it provides another
layer of connects his various stories, and adds depth to some characters and
concepts we have seen developed in a limited sense in books like the Hand of
Thrawn Duology and Choices of One. If you haven’t enjoyed Zahn’s work since the
Thrawn Trilogy or Hand of Thrawn Duology, then you probably won’t get into this
story. But if you have enjoyed Zahn’s
recent work, or if you simply are a Star Wars Expanded Universe completest,
then it is worth a read.
Should you buy Heir to the Empire: 20th
Anniversary Edition? That’s a good
question. The book comes with a cover
price of $30 dollars which to the best of my knowledge is the most expensive
price charged for a Star Wars hardcover novel to date. The book is absolutely gorgeous, the novel
has a classic story, the chance to get a DVD commentary track like experience
in a novel is well, a novel concept. I
think it is well worth a purchase especially considering that you should be
able to find it for much cheaper then cover price. For example Amazon
currently has it for sale for $17.14 with free shipping on orders over
$25. One thing to also keep in mind is
that the decision as to whether or not we will see the same anniversary
treatment with annotations for Dark Force Rising and The Last Command, will
depend on sales of the this book. Mr.
Zahn is said that he is interested in doing such editions for each of those
books, but in the end it all depends on sales for the publisher.
If audiobooks are more your speed, then you should be happy to know that Random House is releasing the book in that format as well, both as a CD audiobook($45) and as a audiobook download($22.50). You can listen to a preview of the audiobook version of the story at Random House's HttE page.
If you are a casual Star Wars fan or know a casual Star Wars
fan and are looking for a place to put your toe into the water of the Expanded
Universe, Heir to the Empire is and has always been my recommended jumping off
point.
Editor's Note: A special thanks to the good folks at Del Rey for the advance copy of HttE that was used for this review.
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