I’ve gone through phases of reading and longer periods where I didn’t pick up anything. Thankfully, in part due to regularly requesting books from the library and the push of a Goodreads annual book challenge, as an adult I’ve been reading quite a bit.
What I did read a lot as a teen/early twenty-something were Star Wars books. This one started the modern era of storytelling in the galaxy far, far away. And what was better, they were official (probably my first entry into what was “canon” in a literary sense). Too bad that changed when Disney bought Lucasfilm, and they decided to make more movies, and these books became the “expanded” universe, and don’t really count. But I digress.
While since my early teens I’ve been more of a Star Trek fan than Star Wars, the books are much better in the latter camp than the former, maybe because of their connection to one another and all that (one of the nice things about it all being canon). You know one of the things you don’t really think about at the end of Return of the Jedi, particularly in the Special Edition? Yes, they’re all happy they blew up the second Death Star, and the Emperor is dead, but there are still a lot of Imperial forces out there. And this book gets us right in there as the New Republic tries to bring freedom to the galaxy while the Empire holds on, under the care of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who cuts a wonderful villain in his white uniform and blue skin.
I’ll be reading this one and the entire trilogy again soon, as the author, Timothy Zahn, will be at Grand Rapids Comic Con in just over 2 months time. I plan to have him sign my copy of this book.