Characters and Plot.
There are many main characters in the book Star Was Heir to the Empire. The main characters are Grand Admiral Thrawn, Princes Liea Organa-Solo, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker. The characters feel very rounded and whole. They feel like actual people instead of robots or something. The story takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The characters that are brought back from the origianl Trilogy feel complete and as if George Lucas wrote them into the book himself. As Mentioned by other people it does not feel like there is a wasted character, even the supporting characters. Each character compliments one another with plenty of foil characters. Some examples of foil characters would be Luke and Mara Jade, Hon Solo and Thrawn, and lastly is Lando and Luke. What I interesting though as well is that not all of the foil characters are on opposite sides. When it comes to the plot it seems very well thought out. The plot lacks cliches and can not be predicted. From page 29 to page 337 the book taunts your not knowings of who Mara Jade truly is. The plot also shows you both sides of the story as well of explaining why certain actions are being done from each side of the story. Something that is interesting to is that the main antagonist is not a person that uses brute force against his enemies like it is commonly seen in the Star Wars movies.
Theme or Symbol
The theme of this book definitely has to be trust those around you. It can be seen continuously throughout the story. From when Princes Liea has to trust Han to keep her safe. She Also had to trust Chewbacca to keep her safe on Kashyyyk. One last example of this is when Luke is stranded in a forest with someone who wants to kill him and he has to trust her to keep him alive during that time. These points encompass the entire book or a good majority of it. That is why it is a main theme in the story.