[tlasjr]

Actually Heir to the Empire came out in 1991, 5 years before SOTE.
It was set 5 years after ROTJ.
Not only was it considered cannon but some of the vehicles and characters were from the West End Games roleplaying games.
Anyways the trilogy is by far the best SW read out there. (IMO) Better than the movie novelizations.
They won't make the Thrawn trilogy though. You'd have to recast the main characters.
I think we'll see it set 30 years post Jedi with cameos from the original names.