Who is going to Legends, after TLJ viewing?

i just finished Heir and its a great read. very happy with the purchase. now i need to buy the sequel (and ill likely buy the third one too, as i went through Heir very quickly once it got going/a little meatier).
One little error i made, was that i bought the Special 20(or 30) Year anniversary edition, so it had lots of side annotations by Zhan and other Lucasfilm folk. this gave a couple of things away or hinted at many things coming in future books among the Legends content. One of those things being about Mara... haha. oh well, i knew a few things on Mara going in.. didnt think she'd be this much of a... well... probably not appropriate to say, but she doesnt start off as a pleasant character haha.

my Thrawn(or thrown)-together-review (for those interested):
Zahn knows his characters very well, especially Han Solo. loved reading Han segments, even though he wasnt always the busiest of the bunch in this first book.
the Mon Calamari are interesting and bold additions to the universe. wasnt sure about them, but i did like how they were utilized throughout, mainly a little unsure on how theyll be utilized in the future and if our heroes can work around them. it keeps Thrawn very safe which is both a good and bad thing imo.
C'Haoba(spelling?) is interesting, but felt rather pushed to the side. didnt really get much of a focus outside when Thrawn initially found him. he should get more interesting in the sequels, id imagine. cool that hes a clone and can use the Force, very interesting.
Leia and Luke were written well and i do like their dynamic. written much more how i would imagine a ROTJ followup, at least more so than the ST. i think theyll grow into even better characters as they challenged more directly in the sequels.
Lando is always great.
liked the way the grey skinned, black eyed mercenaries were described. very interesting race and the tie to Vader at the end was a cool tidbit.
Thrawn, the man himself, is written so well. you can tell this is Zhans baby and he levaes this creation. i even liked Pallaeon as his assistant, a more orthodox Imperial.

either at the blurb or Zhans own introduction (another addition with this edition) - it was mentioned that a lot of readers would feel they could hear the soaring music that is Star Wars when reading through and i couldnt agree more. really captures that movie-esque score... without a score at all haha. pretty cool.
i also love how much more mature this post-ROTJ world is. theres no 'sorry, Jedi dont kill at all' and similar stances fromn other characters, which i think is a little silly both from Marks words (more recently, about the Polar-Yetty in ESB) and the new-canon, such as the TLJ's PETA message on Canto Bight, and in the Rebels animated shows. Luke didnt mince words when he was confronted with danger, both in the OT and now in this book (and hopefully it continues this way). im all for the Monk/Warrior Jedi classification, and that includes being a pacifist a lot of the time, however, when theres non-sentient life attacking you, please, you need to defend yourself and thats exactly what happened in the woods when Luke is stuck with Mara and R2.

overall i think it was a great set up and the space battles read amazingly well. the mercenary attacks came off a lot like PT stuff, which i do like, despite ATOC not being the best one (in fact, one of the worst). just felt like a great return to the Star Wars universe.

anyway, i give it 8.5/10.

 

yeh Mara hates Luke, like, a lot. i wouldnt mind the the stories about the Empire finding Thrawn, however, they do seem to indicate/allude to a few things in Heir. i suppose the story you're referring to just expands on those things.

for me - so far at least - everything seems far more logical (as in a logical continuation from ROTJ) in Heir than the ST. obviously its hard to compare when one picks up 5 years after ROTJ and the other 30 years after. but the tidbits from the ST on Luke prior to TFA just dont go into a lot. as far as im concerned it goes like this: Luke spends his time searching for artifacts and jedi knowledge following the Battle of Jakku - this is based on the Aftermath trilogy and Battlefront 2. hes fairly low key and doesnt really do anything as far as the New Republic is concerned. at some point he creates a Jedi Academy. for an undisclosed time its successful (id imagine 3-7years, depending on when he created it with more than just Ben Solo attending. He then flirts with the Dark Side and/or gives into it for a moment. this brings about his pessimistic/nihilistic persona seen in TLJ. then, within a couple of hours, goes back on all that (after a few years maintaining the need to be a recluse and bring in the end of the Jedi) with a quick chat with Ghost Yoda (who is equally 'who cares' about the Jedi), essentially rendering what could have been interesting questions/topics about the Jedi pointless and insignificant, since he goes back on all that and trusts Rey ushering in new Jedi (again after a couple of hours/days).
Leia is all over the place with did-she-or-didnt-she learn the ways of the force. its confirmed Luke offered to teach her, yet she declined (doesnt match characterization imo alone).
Han was pretty good for or me in TFA

with Heir - you have confirmation that Obi had appeared to him between ROTJ and 5 years post-ROTJ, with Obi saying he needs to pass on in Heir (which is okay in my book, it at least gave a satisfactory tidbit on Force Ghosts and implies that Luke doesnt need him/needs to grow without him), Leia being trained in a logical way, while still keeping in character that shes always been trained from the beginning with politics (not necessarily military, which is what she is in TFA/TLJ), Han is about what id expected and actually quite similar to TFA Han, albeit i think he acts like a more concerned family man in Heir. Lando appears, which is great. Chewy isnt a backseat character. Luke also is learning, but is very focused on helping when he can with the New Republic. i havent finished the Thrawn Trilogy, so im not sure of full details to come, but obviously he creates his own Order which means its his own thing that isnt necessarily a replica of the PT Jedi (the PT wasnt even out yet by this point), nor does it mean its criticizing whats come before, which i feel is a projection from people who simply dont like the PT or the PT JEdi that were presented.
Heir just seems like a much better jumping off point than what they chose to do with TFA. even if the Aftermath trilogy is more comparable, Heir did it better. featured the core trio in a much more focused and important manner, and made an impeccable villain that apparently will keep being Thorn (ahem) in their side for years to come (in universe i mean).

as far as Rey: yeh, i can see why people do ascribe that term to her. i choose not to use the term, because i think it rubs people the wrong way, but i think she is a cookie cutter, boring, needlessly convoluted character. she gains the power of the Force in the first movie, uses those abilities like a JEdi Knight, without explanation, then after much teasing, its revealed she is a nobody (which isnt a big problem for me in terms of characters, it is however a big problem as far as canon to do with Force wielders is concerned and ill explain why: Luke struggles right up until ESB to use the Force directly, meaning he tapped into in ANH by landing the shot to destroy the first Death Star, but that was passive instincts, similar to how Rey can fly the Falcon really well or negate Kylo's mind probing. Rey shouldnt be able to pull Obi's mind control trick after a few hours of realising she has the power of the Force and certainly shouldnt be lifting boulders (like, 30 at a time), not to mention besting Kylo (a trained, though injured, Dark Sider). Anakin, for instance, is similar to Luke how at a young age he could tap into it passively like when he does the pod racing and the final space battle over Nabboo. after that, hes clearly been trained from a young age, by a Jedi Council, which explains why he is stronger and more developed relative to Rey and Luke in ATOC and ROTS, not to mention Force Jesus). she gets absolutely everything very easily with little struggle. the writers havent come up with anything compelling outside of potential lineage and the will-she-wont-she join the dark side speculation leading into TLJ, which turned out to be a big fuss over nothing, as she conquered that easily too, in her own Dark Side Cave type thing (which was also underwhelming).