In 1991, Star Wars was commercially dead. No movie in almost a decade, no plans for one, nothing on shelves. Then Heir to the Empire hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list and single-handedly proved people still wanted this stuff. Timothy Zahn had to answer a question nobody had seriously tried: what does Star Wars even sound like on the page after the credits roll? His answer kicked off the entire Expanded Universe, and everything written since gets measured against it.

Thrawn is the reason people still talk about this book. He doesn't rage, he doesn't gamble on the dark side, he just studies a species' art and figures out how their commanders think under pressure. Then he beats them with it. Evil as pure competence instead of appetite. The scariest thing about him is that he doesn't make the dumb mistakes plots usually depend on, so the heroes have to earn every single escape.

Zahn was smart to give us Thrawn through Captain Pellaeon, the ordinary officer on the bridge who slowly goes from skeptical to something like awe. Those two talking does get repetitive in spots, but Pellaeon keeps it grounded.

My favorite move in the book: Zahn takes Luke's power away. The ysalamiri (little creatures that switch off the Force) strand him mid-book with nothing but his wits, and a Luke who has to improvise his way out of a cell is way more interesting than one who waves his hand at problems. Are the ysalamiri a suspiciously convenient plot device? Absolutely. Worth it anyway.

And then there's Mara Jade, a former Emperor's Hand who blames Luke for wrecking her life and has literally sworn to kill him, except now they're stuck surviving the wilderness together and he keeps saving her. She's one of the best characters ever to come out of Star Wars fiction, and you can tell within about two pages of meeting her.

Fair warning that this is book one of a trilogy and ends like one, threads hanging everywhere. Doesn't matter. The twist at the Sluis Van shipyards is legitimately great, and this is the book that proved Star Wars could work in prose. Read it.

• Author: Timothy Zahn (1991)
• Canon status: Legends, and better for it
• Timeline: five years after Return of the Jedi
• Key players: Thrawn, Mara Jade, Pellaeon, Talon Karrde, plus the whole movie trio
• Read next: Dark Force Rising and The Last Command finish the trilogy
• Skip it if: cliffhanger endings ruin your week
• Get it: Hardcover · Amazon · Goodreads