20th anniversary of the birth of the Expanded Universe

Entertainment Weekly has an interesting piece on Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, a novel it credits with the birth of the Expanded Universe.

Twenty years ago Star Wars began its true second act. Not on the big screen, mind you, or the tube, but in print. It was eight years after Return of the Jedi, eight before The Phantom Menace, and while George Lucas was still filling legal pads full of notes about Gungans and midichlorians, author Timothy Zahn published Heir to the Empire and forever changed the way fans thought about that Galaxy Far, Far Away.

Rather than fill-in backstory to tales fans already knew, as earlier novels like Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures had done, Zahn set his cosmic yarn five years AFTER Return of the Jedi, then a completely unexplored part of the Star Wars timeline. Fans of the movies found out that, no, the Empire was not defeated overnight with the death of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the Second Death Star—in spite of that Jedi-capping orgy of drunken Ewoks. In fact, though the Rebel Alliance had become the New Republic and controlled half the galaxy from the Empire’s former capital at Coruscant (which Zahn himself named), the Imperial Navy was set to launch perhaps it’s greatest onslaught ever—led by the blue-skinned, red-eyed, art-loving master tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn.

I've never read Zahn's books. By 1991 I had mostly put Star Wars behind me. I wonder whether Zahn appreciates being credited with the birth of the Expanded Universe, with its ridiculous backstories on Jabba the Hutt's family ("Mama [the Hutt] favored her deceased son Ebor somewhat more than her son Ziro, and never knew that her husband had run off, or that he had died and was entombed on Teth") and similar nonsense.

EW.com: 'Star Wars: Heir to the Empire' at 20: An EW tribute