This 420-page hardcover volume is a collection of the 17 separate issues writer Mike Baron adapted from Zahn's best-selling trilogy. The dust jacket features artwork by Matthieu Lauffray, whose style is reminiscent of legendar illustrator Drew Struzan. The book contains, for the first time in one volume, Baron's adaptations of: Heir to the Empire: Five years after the destruction of the second Death Star and the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, all's not going idyllically for the struggling New Republic. The Jedi Order has yet to be re-established, and political intrigue within the new government is as big a threat to stability and democracy as the remnants of the once-mighty Empire. Though the New Republic is in control of three-quarters of the Empire's former territory, the former Rebel Alliance is stretched thin as it fights a seemingly-endless war against Imperial forces still refusing to admit defeat. And though many of the galaxy's inhabitants believe it is a matter of time until the Empire is vanquished, one of the Emperor's warlords, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has emerged from the backwaters of the Unknown Regions. With his sharp intellect and finely-honed tactical acumen, Thrawn has united what remains of the Imperial armed forces and is beginning a campaign that, if successful, will bring the New Republic to its knees. Assisted by a race of warriors known as the Noghri and reluctantly allied with an unstable Jedi Master named Joru'us C'baoth, Thrawn has discovered some of Emperor Palpatine's treasures on a remote world...treasures that willl be the key to the Empire's ultimate victory....
Dark Force Rising: Even though Thrawn suffered a partial reversal of fortunes at the Battle of Sluis Van, his campaign against the New Republic continues. With the intensifying political infighting in the New Republic's Provisional Council and the scheming of Bothan leader Borsk Fey'lya against Admiral Ackbar, the central government is shakier than ever.
Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker is trying to discover the whereabouts of Jorus C'baoth, a Jedi Master who disappeared several years before the Clone Wars and is now rumored to be alive and well on the planet Jomark. As the Republic's only Jedi Knight, Luke needs any help he can get if he is to re-establish the new Jedi Order, starting with his sister Leia and her soon-to-be-born twins Jacen and Jaina.
At the same time, Luke is trying to establish an alliance of sorts with Mara Jade, the smuggler Talon Karrde's ablest aide and, before Endor, one of the Emperor's most trusted operatives. Mara blames Luke for the loss of her former life and wanted to kill him, but recent events have forced her to team up with the Jedi Knight on several occasions. And now that the Empire seems to be rising again, Mara has to wrestle with her allegiances: Will she remain loyal to Karrde and his "non-aligned" smugglers? Will she eventually become friends with Luke and the New Republic? Or will she return to the Empire, now a shadow of the regime she once served?
Meanwhile, C'baoth continues to aid Thrawn in his campaign against the New Republic, but his thirst for power and his insistence that Skywalker and his Force-sensitive family members be brought to him are putting the insane Jedi Master at odds with the Grand Admiral.
In the second act of the Thrawn Trilogy, a race against time develops as Leia Organa Solo attempts to gain the trust of an alien species now totally devoted to the Empire, while her brother, husband and friends try to figure out who is leading the Empire....and what his ultimate plans are.
The Last Command: Using the various items he has found on the Emperor's "treasure world" of Wayland, Thrawn continues his brilliant campaign against the still-unstable New Republic.
With a newly-increased Imperial starfleet and a growing army of stormtroopers, Thrawn has begun to regain some of the Empire's lost territories, either by direct invasion or as a result of planetary governments switching sides to avoid the ravages of war on their worlds.
Now, the New Republic's seat of government, located on the city-planet Coruscant, is itself vulnerable to Thrawn's seemingly unstoppable onslaught.
But even as the galaxy begins to wonder if Thrawn is the true heir to the Empire, there are signs that the Grand Admiral's plans might be yet undone.
C'baoth, that mysterious Jedi Master who has emerged from seemingly nowhere, is now on a dark side-fueled power trip and becoming more a hindrance to Thrawn's plans than an asset. Already unstable and mercurial, C'baoth has a disturbing appetite for controlling others and bending their minds to match his ideas of how the galaxy should be run.
On another front, Leia Organa Solo has been able to use her influence over the Noghri to get the warrior race from under the control of the Empire and to help the New Republic.
Meanwhile, Mara Jade has finally decided where her true loyalties lie, even though she's stilll tormented by Emperor Palpatine's last command: You will kill Luke Skywalker!
My Viewpoint: As any reader of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars graphic novels will tell you, the omnibus edition contains the full content of the 17 issues of Mike Baron's once-separate adaptations, with perhaps a few cosmetic changes done for the hardcover version.
Because I have Tom Veitch's Dark Empire and Dark Empire II collections, I suspected that each of the three parts would not have the cover art reproduced to provide "chapter breaks" but would be included in "cover art galleries" at the end of the book.
To my surprise, I was wrong; each of the adaptations is accompanied by a "title page" with a reproduction of one cover. I recognized Matthieu Lauffray's artwork for Issue 1 of Heir to the Empire, and the same artist's cover for Dark Force Rising serves as the book's dust jacket illustration. Lauffray's cover art for The Last Command is the most perplexing; it's nice but it includes Ben Kenobi, who only made one cameo appearance in Heir.
Baron did a terrific job at adapting Zahn's novels; he was careful not to stray too far from the source books' cadence and themes, though of course he had to trim the fat and condense some of the various storylines. The dialogue is pretty consistent with Zahn's writing style, so if you've read the novels you are not likely to be disappointed.
The graphic novels' artwork is visually striking and quite nice to behold, especially on the glossy paper used for this hardcover edition.
However, if you are one of those readers who likes a certain unity in artistic style, you might be somewhat thrown for a loop because the three teams of artists (Fred Blanchard and Olivier Vatine for Heir, Terry Dodson and Kevin Nowlan for Dark Force and Edvin Biukovic and Eric Shanower for Last Command) all have very different styles.
A case in point: Where Heir to the Empire tends to be somewhat more stylized and a bit abstract (think of the way Star Wars: The Clone Wars looks in comparison to the live-action Prequels), Dark Force Rising tends to look a bit more traditional and true to life. Dodson and Nowlan make Luke look like Mark Hamill, Han and Leia resemble Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, and the characters from the books look "normal" and not distorted or exaggerated.
Once you get used to the distinct styles, however, you get sucked into the story in the same way Lucas' first trilogy or Zahn's novels did when they first came out. Baron and the artists clearly loved the original Trilogy and Zahn's stories and characters, and this shows through the pacing of the adaptation and the detailing of the artwork.
