Heir to the Empire is an important novel in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Although Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1978) marked the beginning of the Expanded Universe, it is not always considered the true beginning. It was written before Return of the Jedi and before George Lucas had decided that Luke and Leia were related, so the novel shows Luke and Leia as having feelings for one another—although they never act on their feelings, Luke does declare his love.

Because of this variance from what turned out to be universe canon, Heir to the Empire is considered by many to be the work that truly kicked off the Expanded Universe and fueled its popularity. The novel is wildly popular and deemed by many fans to be the best novel of the Expanded Universe—with the best villain (Grand Admiral Thrawn) after Darth Vader. All of the Expanded Universe is built off of the Thrawn trilogy to continue the story. Heir to the Empire, in other words, is the primary foundation for the Expanded Universe. Thrawn himself has also appeared in other stories. Timothy Zahn wrote a novel about Thrawn’s history, Star Wars: Thrawn (2017), due to the popularity of the villain.