Okay, you've been sent to this page because you have asked the most common question. I swear I get this question once a week. So you'll have to excuse this very impersonal way of responding, but I've just gotten tired of retyping this information.

In-between  Grand Admiral Thrawn's death in The Last Command, and the first book of the Jedi Academy Series about  10 years after The Battle of Yavin Luke Skywalker joined forces with a reborn Emperor and almost brought the galaxy to its knees. The story was not told in a novel, but instead was chronicled in the Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and Empire's End comic series. Each series has been collected into a trade paper back that you can probably order or find at your local book or comic shop, of if you like you can click on a link bellow and order them right off this page.

The stories were also adapted into a radio play, that is available on cassette, unfortunately the only audio version of Empire's End was in a limited edition CD package that is no longer available. In April 2000 Dark Horse Comics published a handbook for the series, previously West End Games had offered a Source Book of the series for their role playing game.

DARK EMPIRE

   THE DESTINY OF A JEDI
   DEVASTATOR OF WORLDS
   THE BATTLE FOR CALAMARI
   CONFRONTATION ON THE SMUGGLER'S MOON
   EMPEROR REBORN
   THE FATE OF A GALAXY

WRITTEN BY TOM VEITCH; ART BY CAM KENNEDY
#1-6 PUBLISHED INDARK HORSE COMICS: DEC. 1991 - OCT. 1992
COLLECTION PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: MAY 1993
LIMITED EDITION PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE:  1994
#1-6 PUBLISHED IN DARK HORSE COMICS DARK HORSE CLASSICS STAR WARS DARK EMPIRE #1-6: MARCH - AUGUST 1997
NEW COVER PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE: AUG. 2003

DARK EMPIRE II

   OPERATION SHADOW HAND
   DUEL ON NAR SHADDAA
   WORLD OF THE ANCIENT SITH
   BATTLE ON BYSS
   THE GALAXY WEAPON
   HAND OF DARKNESS

WRITTEN BY TOM VEITCH; ART BY CAM KENNEDY
#1-6 PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: DEC 1994 - MAY. 1995
COLLECTION PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: AUGUST 1995
LIMITED EDITION PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE: FEB. 1996

EMPIRE?S END

   #1 TRIUMPH OF THE EMPIRE
   #2 RAGE OF THE EMPEROR

WRITTEN BY TOM VEITCH; ART BY JIM BAIKIE
#1-2 PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: OCT. - NOV. 1995
COLLECTION PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: SEPT. 1997

NOTE: The  Dark Empire Hanbook and Source Book provide a general overview of the series, they are  not original stories.

HAND BOOK #3: DARK EMPIRE

WIRITEN AND DRAWN BY PEET JANES & JAN DUURSEMA & JOHN NADEAU & DUSTY ABELL & OTHERS
PUBLISHED BY DARK HORSE COMICS: APRIL 2000

THE DARK EMPIRE SOURCE BOOK
PUBLISHED BY WEST END GAMES: 1993

NOTE: The story bellow adapts the Dark Empire I  & II, and Empire?s End comic series to audio.

DARK EMPIRE AUDIO EDITIONS

   DARK EMPIRE
   DARK EMPIRE II

WRITTEN BY JOHN WHITMAN; DIRECTED BY AUTHOR G. INSANA
PUBLISHED BY TIME WARNER AUDIO; 1997
CD-ROM COLLECTION WITH EMPIRE'S END PUBLISHED: 1995