Heir to the Empire

The Battle of Endor lies five years in the past, and the New Republic is straining to stay in one piece. The galaxy still bears the scars of the Empire. Han Solo and Leia Organa are tied down by the daily work of government, while Luke Skywalker tries to work out his path as the last of the Jedi.

Then Grand Admiral Thrawn comes back from the Unknown Regions. He is a brilliant Imperial strategist, and he means to rebuild the Empire's broken forces and bring the young government down.

Thrawn does not rely on brute force. He studies his enemies, hunts for advanced resources and a hidden fleet, and looks for the weak points that could set the New Republic against itself.

Smugglers cross the story's path. So does Mara Jade, a mysterious operative, and so does a Jedi Master who is a clone and watches over an important Imperial storehouse.

This is the first book of the Thrawn Trilogy, published in 1991. It is a fast-moving space opera that picks up directly from the original films, and it works as the opening of a three-book story. The open question is whether a patient tactician can finish what the Empire's fleets could not.