Back when I was fresh out of college, I had a friend who had an aversion to people writing in another's universe--their ficton, if you will. And naturally this being the mid 80's his object of greatest disgust was theStar Trek novel.

In a way I had to agree with him. There were (and are) only a few ST novelists I can stand to read (and sadly Paramount cast most of their creative efforts into the dustbin in subsequent TV series. And frakyl most of what Paramount came up with was nowhere near as interesting. Just my opinion, mind you.)

Then Star Wars novels began to take off. "Oh joy," I thought, "More drek." And again I found that the majority of SW novels were unreadable. Then, saints be praised, in the early 90s Timothy Zahn took to the genre with his trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. Finally, someone who understood what made a SW story work!

Well, I knew he'd done a two-book followup to these, but over the summer I found that he had taken up this storyline again and was writing fill in the story books: Survivor's Quest, Outbound Flight, Allegiance, and Choices of One.

I spent the holiday season reading the series and have finished the first three (before deciding "To hell with it, I am going to buy the most recent title in hbk. and not wait. That's my mark of approval, buying a book in hbk.)

If you don't entrely hate the SW universe, I recommend these titles. They fill in Zahn's story marvelously telling where Thrawn comes from, what happened to the original Jorus C'boath, and what Mara Jade was doing in her rolicking days as Emperor's Hand.

Thanks, Mr. Zahn!