European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 8, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Books Star wars heir lacks glow but at least Flicker by Brent Stinst staff writer fans of inc Box office blasting Star wars film trilogy May eagerly await the next installation of the tale Timothy Zahnis recent novel Star wars heir to the Empire. The Book offers another course of George Lucas fairy talc of three humans two robots and a 7-foot, hair covered a a Wookie Quot who topple an evil Empire ruling the Galaxy. Sorry fans. This one wont go Down so smoothly although the Hook revives longtime favorite characters Luke Skywalker Han Solo Princess  and the rest of the Star wars cast the Story turns out to he a tiring Romp around the Galaxy laced with weak plot twists and unanswered questions. Apparently the allure of the still glowing three movies a each among the 10 top grossing films of All Lime a is enough to overcome that. Heir is enjoying its Irith week on the new York times Best seller list. The Book takes Over five years after the ending of the final installation of the film series. Return of the Jedi. Our characters have been Busy since they helped destroy Darth vac re a second Planck Des losing death Star. The rebellion is now the fledgling new Republic struggling to set up de 20th Canturk Fox Mark Hamit in the 1977 Star wars movie. Muc racy for the universe. Lucia is now a skilled ambassador. Former space smuggler Solo is now a general. Luke though remains the same space boy scout seeking the secrets of that mystical Power that fills the universe the Force. But to in a Corner of the Galaxy lies the Only remnant of the evil Empire the forces of the cunning grand Admiral Thrawn. With the help of snakelike animals that shield him from the Force and cd both a dark Jedi hidden on a Savage planet Thrawn plots the a Complete total and utter destruction Quot of the new Republic. For most of the novel Thrawn broods Over his ingenious plan and Luke and co. Bandy from planet to planet trying to escape hit men sent by the evil Admiral. Leia although pregnant with husband Han solos twins beats up alien Bounty Hunters and flees to a a Safe Quot planet. Meanwhile Luke Falls prisoner to a new character who made Only a Cameo appearance in Jedi. After the books 361 pages we still Don t know if Luke or Thrawn triumphs. Any guesses As stated on the cover heir is but the first in another three part series. Those pages do however add interesting depth to the sometimes Over simplistic film series. The new Republic which on screen seemed a democratic bastion of Justice turns out to have its share of quarrelling Power thirsty politicians. And Thrawn unlike the single minded Darth Vader before him is an intellect who cares almost As much about Art As destroying the Good Guys. But the plot leans heavily on coincidence. A spaceship just happens to find Luke after he is stranded alone in a Corner of the Galaxy. And Luke and Han unwittingly come together just at the right place and right time to foil an enemy attack a twice. The Story also fails to answer questions lingering from the film series. Although the ghost of Ben Kanobi makes his routine appearance we hear nothing from the spirit of Darth Vader who turned to the Good Side of the Force just before dying at the end of Jedi and details of what became of the Long lost Mother of twins Luke and Leia have yet to emerge. Zahn could be saving those answers for his next two books. But the questions Combine with the a to be continued ending to make the closing of heir As satisfying As a salting Cracker. If nothing else seeing the Fate of the Galaxy after Jedi will tickle anyone who followed the film series and Zahn writes clearly and smoothly so that the Book seems to Glide by As easily As the movies. Although heir does t live up to its predecessors this novel at least gives a Little More to hungry Star wars fans. Star tears heir to the Empire is available at stars and stripes bookstores for to 1.25.the Wright stuff going to press with More muscle by Eleanor Blau the new York times 1 he hard hitting works of Richard Wright which influenced generations of writers were meant to he even stronger stuff. His 1940 novel Valov son about a Young Black Man growing up in Chicago a South Side slums his 1945 Memoir Black boy about his own Early years in the South and other books were changed or Cut mostly because of their sexual. Political or racial Candor. But the unexpurgated Richard Wright is on the horizon in two volumes to he published in october by the Library of America. To try to determine his intentions the publishers perused correspondence and manuscripts. They even discovered Page proofs for native Sod that they say had been overlooked by scholars because they were catalogued in an unusual Way at Yale University. These will be the 55th and 56th volumes of Library of America a 9-year-old nonprofit House dedicated to making available the works of major american authors. One Wright volume will include Early works native son Law today and Uncle Tom s children. The other volume will offer later works Black boy american hunger and the outsider. Extensive notes on the cuts and revisions Are provided along with a chronology of the author s career from his birth in -190h near Natchez miss to his years in Chicago and new York his expatriate life in postwar Paris and his death in 19h0. Native son was a Best seller the first by a Black american and it broke new ground. While Faulkner for example had dealt pessimistically with race in America no authors before Wright had written of it so boldly or bleakly said Arnold Rampersad a Princeton University professor and biographer of Langston Hughes who edited the new volumes. It was Wright he said who first addressed the consequences of slavery segregation and racism a the dehumanization of Blacks Quot their hatred of whiles and their a will to violence aimed at whiles and fellow Blacks Quot Rampersad said. Both native son and Black Bov were about to be published by Harper amp Brothers in the forms Wright wanted when the Book of the Munth club stepped in the club would offer the books. It decided in each Case but with changes. The Opportunity to reach so Many readers and make More Money through the Book club was not something the author could refuse Rampersad said. The Page proofs discovered at the being Csc Library at Yale were the final version of native son that Harper amp Brothers had been about to publish and hey arc the version in the new edition. Its deleted sections made explicit what was hardly More than implied in the published version that bigger Thomas the Young Black protagonist is sexually attracted to Mary Dalton the White woman he winds up smothering. A to Cut that out is to make bigger almost incomprehensible almost inhuman a a Rampersad said. The omitted sections include one in a movie House in which bigger and a Friend masturbate and then watch a newsreel about debutantes including Mary Dalton whose father he is about to work for. Later deleted passages involve bigger driving a car and watching in the Mirror As Mary and her Boyfriend make love in the Back seat and then bigger carrying the intoxicated woman to her bed. It was not just prudish ass but the taboo of sex Between Whites and Blacks that prompted the changes Rampersad said. A a it Sas if the editors were saying murder is Fine but do not think of sex Quot he said. A you would have thought the ultimate horror was the killing of Mary  8 b sunday september 8, 199