On a side note, I'm slowly making my way through the audiobook versions of these.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Thrawn_Trilogy
I've never been remotely interested in Star Wars EU stuff but the annual release schedule of these star war films does make me more interested in Star Wars in general for about a month. Generally, I satiate that hunger by watching various prequel fan edit versions of the films like an insane person but this year decided to try something different instead. I guess, I'll post my thoughts on them as I finish each book.
Finished up the first of these Heir to the Empire.
It's an interesting exercise to read/listen to this stuff. Partially because I find myself doing a thought process of wondering if the material would work as a movie. My brain says no. That this book works effectively as a piece of EU content in book form, but probably wouldn't work as well as filmed material. I have specific reasons for thinking that but then again I wonder if I read a novelized version of New Hope without ever having seen a film version would I think, yeah that's a fun book but its hard to imagine that as a movie.
Either way, I think its a fun enough read. It's sort of fun to get into the thoughts of Star Wars characters which you really can't do in a movie. It fleshes them out in a way that a book can that a movie can't.
Thrawn himself seems like a good villain and less insane than the emperor or vader. Joruus C'baothn seems more in line with being a typical evil bad guy as seen in the movie.
All the additions are basically sort of the idea that this stuff was all around during the OG trilogy but never mentioned or focused on. Which is fine. Although I have a feeling if it was a movie nerds would nitpick the shit out of that. Not that it bothers me.
So it seems like good material for people who are already fans of Star Wars which is who its aimed it. Already started the next one. I basically listen to it at night in bed until I fall asleep.