I'll be honest, I despise Dark Empire on a number of levels. Legions of dark force users and hidden good Jedi when it is stated that Vader is the last of the "Jedi religion" and the Emperor and his powers are kept vaulted up in his secret chambers. Coruscant changing hands so casually between the New Republic and the Empire on the verge of defeat. I mean, I thought Grand Admiral Thrawn brought them back from the brink, and now that he's gone they are even more powerful with bigger ships and new superweapons and the capacity to conquer the capital in spite of no competent military commanders leading their forces and largely devoid of resources. And what the heck is up with steam-based space technology? This is not the steampunk genre. Luke falls to the dark side! Yoda made it clear that "once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny..." Vader/Anakin was supposed to be the unbelievably remarkable exception. And the capital crime is the perpetual resurrection of the Emperor! Whose clever idea was it to actually have him come back again and again and again? It's like all those cliched comics and TV episodes where the bad guy falls to his doom, but we don't see the body. Is he really dead?!? Of course not! Tune in next week! And while it might be and interesting visual experience, paying closer attention to the plot reveals that there is nothing interesting to it...if it were written as a novel, it couldn't get more than 100 pages and would not be gripping in the slightest.

That being said, and being a fan of some EU, which often alludes to Dark Empire, I wish someone would novelize it, change the story, beef it up, add twists and turns, and basically retcon half the ideas. I would be required to allow many faults to remain, but at least when I read references in other books, they would be to a better story than the one we got. I really can't tell you how disappointed I am with how influential Dark Empire has been.

EDIT: Fixed misnaming of Dark Empire as Shadows of the Empire:{