Star Wars: Dark Empire [Abridged, Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Tom Veitch (Author), Glynnis Talken (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2005

Six years after the battle of Endor, the fight for freedom rages on. Han Solo and Princess Leia, now married, struggle to protect their twin children from danger. Darth Vader is dead, but a reborn Empire strikes back against the Rebel Alliance, and the Rebels discover that their greatest foe may be their closest friend: Luke Skywalker!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Veitch is an American writer, best known for his contributions to the Dark Horse line of Star Wars comicbook titles, notably Dark Empire and Tales of the Jedi. For DC Comics Veitch wrote Animal Man, along with two Elseworlds series featuring Kamandi and an elder Superman. Tom Veitch was a major contributor to the underground comix movement of the late sixties and early seventies. His collaborations with Underground Comix artist Greg Irons in the early 1970s (the creative team known as "GI/TV") included such titles as "Legion of Charlies" and contributions to many other underground comix including "Skull Comix" and "Slow Death Funnies". Creator-owned comics by Veitch include: The Light and Darkness War with artist Cam Kennedy (from Marvel Comics). Other creator-owned comics series written by Veitch are The Nazz with artist Bryan Talbot; Clash with artist Adam Kubert; and My Name Is Chaos with artist John Ridgway (all published by DC).

From AudioFile

Close your eyes, and Mark Hamill is again Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher is Princess Leia and Harrison Ford is Han Solo. The highly skilled casting director has chosen audio actors who sound exactly like the original movie personnel. Not only a full cast, but also a broad range of sound effects adds realism to a magnificent portrayal. The story itself is a sequel to the movies, with the evil Emperor returning again and again like a nine-lived cat. D.R.W. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: HighBridge Company; Abridged edition (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565119711
• ISBN-13: 978-1565119710
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (82 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,189,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucas personally approved the Dark Empire plot, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Empire (Star Wars) (Paperback)

For everybody's information (this is from published interviews with Veitch), when George Lucas asked Tom Veitch to write Star Wars: Dark Empire, Veitch said he thought the Empire would try to keep the fear of Darth Vader alive by putting somebody else inside the costume. Lucas told Veitch, "You can't use Vader, but you can bring back the Emperor if you can figure out how to do it." Veitch proposed that the Emperor had been cloning himself for some time, and Lucas said "great!" ...People need to understand that during the Star Wars revival of the early 1990s Lucas personally ok'd everything, including the plots of the comics. Veitch invented the two-bladed lightsaber (TPM) and the Jedi Holocron, among other things, and these were approved by Mr. Lucas. Cheers.

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Purists, lighten up...Dark Empire is classic Star Wars...., October 10, 2003

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Empire (Star Wars) (Paperback)

It is a time of peril for the New Republic. Six years after the Battle of Endor, the destruction of the Empire's second Death Star, and the defeat of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the war for control of the galaxy still rages on.

Despite their victory over the infamous Grand Admiral Thrawn a year before, the former Rebels have been forced to evacuate Coruscant after a successful invasion by resurgent Imperial forces. But when the Empire's "leaders" begin to fight over the right to govern, civil war breaks out and gives Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian and Alliance troops an opening to carry out a daring raid on Coruscant itself. But the mission goes awry and Skywalker and Calrissian crash-land their captured Star Destroyer at the heart of the Imperial City.

But when Han Solo and his wife Leia, accompanied by Chewbacca and C-3PO, attempt to rescue Luke and Lando, they are taken aback by Luke's refusal to go with them back to the secret Alliance base known as Pinnacle. Instead, he allows himself to be whisked off by a dark side storm, leaving his twin sister and her husband to wonder if the burdens of being a Jedi Master are too heavy for Luke to bear alone.

When this new chapter of the Star Wars Expanded Universe was first published as a six-issue comic book series by Dark Horse, I had mixed feelings. The concept was daring...Luke falls to the dark side of the Force (or does he?), the Emperor, thought to be dead at the end of Return of the Jedi, is back, thanks to the power of cloning technology...heck, even Boba Fett is revealed to having not being found "digestible" by the Sarlacc. All very fascinating, but wasn't Tom Veitch pushing things a bit too far? So even though I read my friend Geno's six issues from cover to cover, I thought, "Nawww....I'm not buying this. It doesn't fit into the Star Wars saga...."

Ah. Silly me. When I read Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Search, the first installment of the Jedi Academy Trilogy, I noticed certain references to the reconstruction of both Coruscant and Mon Calamari, which had been subjected to battle and siege in Dark Empire. There were also passing references to the reborn Emperor. Later, when I broke down and bought this one volume collection, I read the introduction by Anderson and realized that the changes Veitch made in the Star Wars storyline were just too big to ignore. Even though as a Star Wars fan I know the only "official" version is the six-Episode film saga as written, produced, and/or directed by George Lucas, I lightened up and came to accept Dark Empire and its two sequels as an integral -- and fun -- part of the Expanded Universe.

The story by Veitch (once you get over the "how dare he?" reaction to it) is so well-written that you wish it had been a pure prose novel. The artwork by Cam Kennedy is innovative and at times almost impressionistic....as far as comics art is concerned I prefer the photo-realistic style of the prequel adaptations, but that doesn't take away from its beauty.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars few bad things, but otherwise GREAT!!, September 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dark Empire (Star Wars) (Paperback)

this was the very first star wars comic i have ever read, and i look forward to getting the sequels. yeah sure, the pictures weren't the best i've seen and the color was different(still interesting), it gave a lot of information on what happened between "the last command" by zahn and "jedi search" by anderson. being one who absolutely loves star wars and reads every book (and comic) that looks interesting to me, when i read the books they would sometimes talk about luke's time on the dark side, and i would be totally lost. when i saw this comic book in a book store, i quickly flipped though it, liked it and then bought it. needless to say, i am no longer lost when reading star wars. besides the fact that most people doing these reviews didn't like it, I DID, i loved it, and so did some other people. just remember if you DO get and really don't like it, amazon.com lets you return a book if your not fully satisfied. thanks