Small Nerd Reads Heir to the Empire

[Small Nerd]

Luke comes out of hyperspace earlier than expected, owing to a space battle. This is Thrawn's Sneaky Ruse, of course. There's an Interdictor Cruiser in the area to make sure no one gets into hyperspace by making pretend gravity. Is this where they first showed up? Anyway, Luke fires a torpedo for a distraction while he tries to make it out of interdiction range. This only blows up the freighter Thrawn was using as a pretext to be in Luke's way, so now the Interdictor's focused on Luke. Way to make your work harder, Luke. And then the Chimaera's tractor beam gets him. But not for long, as Luke forces his ship to come to a dead halt and uses more torpedoes to give the tractor beam a false target. Nice way to establish Luke as a good pilot, this definitely comes across as him knowing exactly what he's doing. So Luke does indeed get away.

Thrawn, of course, isn't happy. So he finds the operator of the tractor beam and figures out whose fault it was. The operator's at fault, since his trainer didn't have any experience with what Luke did, but blame shifting is still attempted. The tractor beam operator is executed, because Thrawn doesn't have time to waste with subordinates who can't at least try to deal with unexpected situations. Luckily for Thrawn, though, Luke's escape trick hurt his hyperdrive enough that he can't have gotten too far away. Time to send in the smugglers!

 

[Vyslanté]

There's an Interdictor Cruiser in the area to make sure no one gets into hyperspace by making pretend gravity. Is this where they first showed up?

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(Wookieepedia says yes)

 

[Small Nerd]

So Luke's in the middle of nowhere now and can't call for help. Time to improvise a new hyperdrive! I like that he's not completely at a loss for what to do. That's a no-go, sadly, due to just how thoroughly Luke borked up the hyperdrive in the first place. Time to fix his comms equipment to ask for help! Again, Luke comes up with something to try. I like it. And so the several hours of wiring up a new antenna begin. Neat how there's this ability to jerry-rig new parts if necessary but it won't turn out great. Makes the world feel more real.

Meanwhile, Leia has the vague sense something's wrong with Luke. But she's at Kashyyyk now, so not much to do about it. Is this where the name of the wroshyr tree came from? Anyway, Leia and Chewie are greeted by a Wookiee that Leia can easily understand...owing to a speech impediment. Neat little touch of alienness.So Leia gets a brief tour of the city she's staying at, built into a giant tree. That would look really cool. And then the Noghri show up again. Well, one does to do that Twilight Zone airplane gremlin trick. An ominous portent...

 

[Small Nerd]

Luke wakes up from his nap to find a ship in the area. It's the Wild Karrde (I still loathe that pun), so Luke's probably ending up in Thrawn's hands soon. Luke and R2 spacewalk over through a corridor of air that the woman Luke's been talking to (Jade? Probably Jade), and then they're shuffled over to Karrde himself. Karrde introduces Luke to Jade via the Force, and she really hates Luke, with a stronger feeling than even the Emperor. And that's the distraction for subduing Luke. A short chapter, not much to say here. Really it just makes sure that the things we knew were going to happen did. It's all right at that, but still a little disappointing somehow.

 

[Darthtabby]

Leia has a lightsaber this time, but the Millenium Falcon shows up and makes Leia not need to fight. I get the sense that Zahn was trying to keep Leia in a very specific role he decided on for her. Never mind, it's an impostor ship.

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This is going off on a bit of a tangent (as well as backtracking quite a lot) but I find it interesting that despite not being bound by the EU, The Force Awakens didn't make Leia much of a Jedi either. That seemed like a bit of a lost opportunity to me.

(Wookieepedia says yes)

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Does Wookiepedia count the West End Games RPG stuff as appearances? Zahn was asked to include stuff from the WEG material and apparently found it very useful since they saved him having to work out a lot of things.

 

[Vyslanté]

Does Wookiepedia count the West End Games RPG stuff as appearances? Zahn was asked to include stuff from the WEG material and apparently found it very useful since they saved him having to work out a lot of things.

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Mmm, it gives Heir to the Empire as "first appearance", but the '89 West End Star Wars Rules Companion as "first mention".

 

[Small Nerd]

Luke wakes up on an unfamiliar planet and finds that his abilities with the Force aren't working. We're on Myrkr, aren't we? And he meets Mara Jade in person for the first time. Fanfic writers get your keyboards ready, a male and female character just met! So she brings him to Karrde, and it's revealed that we're in a fortress built around a big tree. Luke grew up with stories of such fortresses being evil lairs, apparently. I wonder how that association got made? But anyway, Karrde reveals that he's in a sticky wicket. If he gives Luke to the Empire or New Republic, the other will be...displeased. And letting Luke go is the same as giving him to the NR. Luke of course, has nothing to bargain with to sway Karrde's decision. Karrde is willing to explain the thing with the ysalamiri to Luke, for some reason. What does he have to gain by doing that? Anyway, there isn't much more to discuss, so Luke's led back to his room and left to wait for Karrde's decision.

 

[Captain Orsai]

Karrde is willing to explain the thing with the ysalamiri to Luke, for some reason. What does he have to gain by doing that?

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Luke knowing that bit of data doesn't really have any effect on Karrde or his businesses one way or the other; if he gives Luke over to the Empire, Thrawn doesn't find out that Karrde knows anything that Thrawn wasn't already aware of him knowing. And, if he does decide to return Luke to the NR, then having provided that information may give some good will for any future dealings with the Republic.

Karrde, after all, is a very cautious individual, and quite careful not to burn any bridges that he doesn't absolutely have to.

 

[Small Nerd]

So Han and C-3PO are trying to keep up their decoy...ing by checking out a planet named Abregado. We also learn that Admiral Ackbar's kids are having arguments amongst themselves about bedtime. Nice humanizing touch. Alienizing? Whatever the right word is. No, wait, that was code for Ackbar having political troubles with Failure, so it's time to head back to Coruscant. Well, after checking out Abregado, that is. There's a guy Han and Lando are meeting. While waiting, Han deduces that the Empire's after his and Leia's kids. Remember them? Unfortunately, it seems the contact is being hunted by the local cops, so Han joins him in a game of cards to deliver a warning. Of course, then some kind of priest comes along and accidentally provides a smokescreen to escape by making a fuss about cheating that wasn't actually happening. As thanks for the warning, the guy agrees to take Han and Lando to see Talon Karrde. And the priest was indeed trying to make a distraction, it was intentional. Oh, Zahn, you and your sudden tiny plot twists.

 

[Small Nerd]

So now we get Mara Jade's POV. That's different. Let's see what it does for my impression of her. She's having a discussion with Karrde, though whether it's a discussion or a "discussion" is unclear. Turns out Karrde isn't happy about having to host Han and Lando while Luke's his prisoner, but he feels that he has to honor the debt his subordinate has to them. Mara doesn't like this, not least because she wants Luke dead and this visit just makes getting away with his death more complicated. What ends up happening is that Mara moves Luke to an out-of-the-way storage shed (where R2 is, actually, though in a separate compartment) despite still wanting Luke dead with the fury of a thousand suns. She certainly has self-control, I'll give her that.

Luke, of course, starts looking for a way out. The inside lock was broken by Mara, so that's a no-go. Thorough of her. There is a passage to the other compartment with R2 in it, though. Or rather, Luke unscrews a wall outlet and starts messing around with the shed's wiring to get the door to unlock. Unfortunately, the power's off. That's impressively thorough of his captors. But then Luke remembers that he has a robot hand. A robot hand that uses multiple power sources. I did not see that coming. Nice one, Zahn!

 

[Small Nerd]

Karrde has just heard Han's pitch about working as a government shipper, and he's not interested. He does operate in Imperial territory, after all. It makes sense, we can't have things going easily for Our Heroes in the first volume of a trilogy. But anyway, Karrde invites Han and Lando to dinner, where there's the hacker Han was looking for. And we learn that Han has a history of not liking slavery and Doing Things about it. I mean, I read the Brian Daley Han Solo books years ago, so it's not new to me, but still. And then Karrde has to take care of some business, leaving Han and Lando to navigate dinner.

Karrde's business is the imminent arrival of the Chimaera. Thrawn wants more ysalamiri, and he wants to talk with Karrde about his non-participation in the search for Luke, among other things, like supplying Thrawn with capital ships. Ominous. Karrde starts scrambling to get Han and Lando out of Thrawn's way, since he takes hospitality seriously. They're his guests, so Karrde has to keep them safe. I always like seeing characters who respect the obligations of hospitality, it's never quite boring to watch. Luke's a prisoner right now, so hospitality doesn't apply to him, but bargaining with someone who's got a Star Destroyer over your head isn't a good idea, so Karrde wants him away from Thrawn for the time being as well. The man's got a lot on his plate right now, let's see how he deals with it.

Or not, since now the POV is Luke about to see if his escape idea will work. And it does! Of course, Luke's nowhere near out of the woods yet. He frees R2, and they start looking for a way to leave the planet. After a near miss with Jade, they find a fighter and take off. Jade hears the noise and realizes what's happened. With the time crunch of Thrawn's impending visit, she grabs another fighter and takes off after Luke.

 

[Darthtabby]

Luke, of course, starts looking for a way out. The inside lock was broken by Mara, so that's a no-go. Thorough of her. There is a passage to the other compartment with R2 in it, though. Or rather, Luke unscrews a wall outlet and starts messing around with the shed's wiring to get the door to unlock. Unfortunately, the power's off. That's impressively thorough of his captors. But then Luke remembers that he has a robot hand. A robot hand that uses multiple power sources. I did not see that coming. Nice one, Zahn!

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Unfortunately my library's eBook copy of the 20th Anniversary Edition that has Zahn's commentary is signed out right now, but I vaguely remember him saying something about writing as if opposing sides were taking turns or somesuch. I wish I could remember what he said more accurately. But yeah, its fun when both sides play smart.

Also regarding Karrde, I seem to remember reading (not sure if it was in the 20th Anniversary Edition of the book or elsewhere) that the concept for him was sort of what Han might have been if he'd continued in his trade. Personally however I can't see even this book's older, more responsible Han handling the managerial aspects of running a business like Karrde's very well.

 

[Small Nerd]

Luke's now caught between a fighter and a Star Destroyer, and he doesn't know the ship he's using. Time to stick to the treetops, then. I guess for the extra cover? And then he crashes into a tree. What else could I expect? And Jade crashes right after him, as Thrawn informs Karrde. A subtle threat? It seems so. Especially since Thrawn generously offers to send in a retrieval team. Han and Lando are watching all this from a distance and, after learning from a grunt that Karrde's hosting a Grand Admiral, decide to stick around just long enough to see what happens.

It's at this point Luke wakes up and runs into Jade. They're stranded together in the middle of a dangerous forest, so presumably now they'll have a bonding experience as they try to make it to safety while avoiding the Imperial forces. Of course, Luke has to convine Jade to bring him and R2 along, which he does by using R2's special relationship with Luke's X-wing to say that he can make any messages to Karrde secure because...reasons. I had a feeling that detail about R2 and the X-wing getting along really well would be significant. Jade's convinced, and the Social Link begins.

 

[The Last One]

Having just found this thread, I have to say it's fascinating to get the impression of someone just coming onto the books now instead of back in 1991.

It's also interesting how much isn't said that I've apparently read into the books. Like here:

Decided to go fish out my copy of the book to see if it made any sense.


Even Pellaeon calls bullshit!

Anyway, the assumption seems to be based on how long they stayed together. Probably some guesswork based on how long it takes to move between the two ships - the Lady Luck connects to the Falcon's dorsal hatch, and IIRC The Empire Strikes Back, there isn't much room to get in or out through there.

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I always thought it was fairly obvious that Thrawn was counting the number of people based on the time the ships spent docked. The actual composition was a bit out there but, again, it seemed obvious that Thrawn was just weighing up the potential combinations of people and ships and choosing the most likely.

 

[Small Nerd]

So Han and Lando decide to stick around Karrde's place for dinner instead of leaving now that the Empire's showed up. I pretty much expected that, what else would they be doing? But before dinner starts, they check out the shed Luke was put in and try to figure out what happened in it. And then Karrde shows up to confirm that Luke and R2 were there and escaped in the ship et cetera. No one dies, and they all go have dinner. Ah, reasonable people. Not even "rational" stories have them so much of the time. Nice change of pace.

Speaking of "rational" sorts, Thrawn decides to send some troops to the only population center near the forest Luke and Jade are in, since it's really the only place for them to go. Not that Thrawn knows he's chasing Luke and Jade, but he wants to know what's going on. As it happens, though, Thrawn has an important attack to make in a few days on those Sluis Van shipyards, so he's trusting stormtroopers to handle the situation on Myrkr. I don't think Zahn watched the movies, or he would have known you can't rely on stormtroopers to do anything but die.

As for Luke and Jade, they're bedding down for the night. Jade seems to be having an attack of guilt for potentially putting Karrde in danger. I suppose this is part of the making her sympathetic that needs to happen so she and Luke can become buddies. After saving Luke from a vornskr, Jade settles in to keep watch through the night. I have a feeling the "stimpill" she takes is some sort of amphetamine, since it's mentioned that frequent use is bad for one's health, but that isn't really important. What is important is Karrde preparing to send a search party for them the next day. Here's hoping it's successful.

 

[Small Nerd]

Over on Kashyyyk, Leia reflects on how they haven't found the Noghri that she saw. And then she gets attacked by a team of them, as must always happen. So Leia heads to the nearest landing platform to draw the Noghri away from the city and minimize collateral damage. How considerate. What follows feels like a video game stealth sequence as Leia and her bodyguards fight an airspeeder. I don't think there were many of those back in 1991. I just wish I could figure out how Zahn managed that. With the vehicle taken care of, Leia goes to see the one captured Noghri and learns the name of the species and that she has a special title among them: Mal'ary'ush, which has something to do with being the daughter of Darth Vader.

Now isn't that a fun twist, aliens liking someone because they're connected to Vader? Also what's with all those apostrophes in the fancy title? It's just a cheap trick to make it seem more alien, and it was old in the 70s. But anyway, the Noghri's planet was the site of a space battle a long way back, and it messed up the land. Vader helped out in exchange for the Noghri's service. Now they work for Thrawn because he's Vader's designated Noghri handler, apparently. I don't really know how to feel about that. Anyway, Leia convinces this particular Noghri, who goes by Khabarakh, to meet her at Endor in a month so he can bring her to his home planet and see what she can do to improve matters. NOt the most ideal of plans, but it gives Leia time to investigate the situation back on Coruscant.

 

[Darthtabby]

IIRC (I still need to get my beat up old hardcover back from a friend I lent it to way back) Khabarahk identified Leia as Vader's Heir by scent. That struck me as somewhat questionable. It's difficult to imagine Leia smelling very much like Vader.

BTW apparently at the time Zahn was writing the book what exactly a Sith Lord was had not been clarified. Zahn had wanted to make the Noghri the Sith, with their heads providing the inspiration for the shape of Vader's helmet (or was it his mask -sorry I'm going by memory here!). Of course like his plan to use a clone of Obi Wan in the role that became C'Baoth he wasn't allowed to do that.

 

[Small Nerd]

Cut to Mara and Luke making their way through the forest. Two days without any sleep are starting to take their toll on Mara, as you'd expect. But then a message from Karrde arrives via R2, warning them about the stormtroopers waiting for Our Heroes. Not that there's any time to come up with a plan due to an inconveniently-timed vornskr attack. Time to level up the Social Link! And since the Social Link just leveled up, Luke unlocks some of Mara's backstory. She worked as a dancer at Jabba the Hutt's palace as a cover to assassinate Luke on the Emperor's orders. Turns out Mara used to have the title of Emperor's hand, or personal assassin, since that's what she did. Am I supposed to sympathize with her? Because the whole "doing my job was the bedrock of my life" thing she's obviously got going on isn't really sympathetic when her job was aiding the rule of one of the worst tyrants in fiction. Well, that's the chapter. I'm glad this book is almost over, because reading it is putting a worse taste in my mouth each time.

 

[Small Nerd]

While everything else is going on, Thrawn is testing something with the cloaking shield he acquired. Interestingly, the way cloaking devices work is that nothing gets in or out, so cloaked ships can't communicate. That's a neat wrinkle to the technology, and I imagine real-life cloaking devices might work similarly if they were ever invented. But anyway, Pellaeon doesn't like the idea of attacking Sluis Van without comms, thought Thrawn claims that he has the timing of everything worked out well enough that it's no issue, including traffic control. I suppose Thrawn must have studied the usual procedures for traffic in that part of the galaxy and timed how long it takes for ships to get moved around. I'm a little impressed at that, it must have been really boring. Anyway, the cloaking shield works for Thrawn's purposes, though the ship using it in the test doesn't actually turn invisible. Tiny bit of realism there, I suppose. Not much point in invisibility when space is so big. This means it's time to attack the shipyards.

Guess who else is heading to the shipyards of Sluis Van? Wedge Antilles, that's who. He and the squad are on escort duty for a a convoy stopping there. Wedge isn't happy about the job, but politics means he has to be, since his man Admiral Ackbar is the one who ordered it. Too bad Wedge won't get the chance to sort out his misgivings about the rise of Failure, since we all know he's about to drop into battle.

 

[Vyslanté]

Interestingly, the way cloaking devices work is that nothing gets in or out, so cloaked ships can't communicate. That's a neat wrinkle to the technology, and I imagine real-life cloaking devices might work similarly if they were ever invented.

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Yeah, I really like the way Zahn constructed cloaking in his books.

 

[Captain Orsai]

But anyway, Pellaeon doesn't like the idea of attacking Sluis Van without comms, thought Thrawn claims that he has the timing of everything worked out well enough that it's no issue, including traffic control. I suppose Thrawn must have studied the usual procedures for traffic in that part of the galaxy and timed how long it takes for ships to get moved around. I'm a little impressed at that, it must have been really boring.

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Yes, but it's unlikely Thrawn watched every minute of the relevant comms and sensor logs himself.

That's what junior staff personnel are for.

 

[Darthtabby]

I'm glad this book is almost over, because reading it is putting a worse taste in my mouth each time.

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What's bothering you aside from Mara's backstory? You'd indicated disatisfaction with some elements like Zahn's sense of humor, but overall I thought you had a relatively positive impression up to this point...

 

[Small Nerd]

What's bothering you aside from Mara's backstory? You'd indicated disatisfaction with some elements like Zahn's sense of humor, but overall I thought you had a relatively positive impression up to this point...

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The book's starting to remind me of why I don't read military sci-fi any more. It's got a certain sympathy for authoritarianism that I don't like. You see it with things like how Pellaeon's a regular POV character, which means the reader has to sympathize with him at least a little, and he's completely on board with the Empire even in the face of things like the destruction of Alderaan. There's a lot I could say on the topic, but I don't want to start arguments unnecessarily.

 

[Ugolino]

To be fair, this was the first real "through Imperial eyes" story- combined with an enemy like Thrawn, you get a sense of a back and forth chess game by seeing what the other side's thinking.

Thrawn very much is a criminal, but as the Sherlock Holmes type of villain, he needs a Watson, which requires an Imperial viewpoint.

 

[Darthtabby]

The book's starting to remind me of why I don't read military sci-fi any more. It's got a certain sympathy for authoritarianism that I don't like. You see it with things like how Pellaeon's a regular POV character, which means the reader has to sympathize with him at least a little, and he's completely on board with the Empire even in the face of things like the destruction of Alderaan. There's a lot I could say on the topic, but I don't want to start arguments unnecessarily.

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I have to admit I'm not entirely keen on how some of Zahn's later work retconned Thrawn into a character trying to prepare the Galaxy for the Yuuzhan Vong threat (perhaps he got sucked in by the character's popularity?). For the original three books though, well... you yourself noticed things like Pellaeon's involvement in enslaving wookies and Thrawn having wiped out the world of an alien race he wasn't able to understand.

As for Mara and the Noghri, I don't think you have the full story on either one yet -I definitely know you don't have the full story on the Noghri. In one case I'm not sure how much difference it'll make, but in the other I think it will really flip your perspective. Assuming you can stomach the series long enough to get that far, which seems kind of doubtful at this point since the revelation comes in book two.