Books Thrawn - New canon Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn (Spring 2017)

Agreed, with Starkiller Base all bets are off.

However, the bickering and inactivity of the senate (at least as described in the beginning of Bloodline) did not sound great to me, with so much responsibility resting on Mon Mothma's charisma. But then we have the benefit of hindsight and if there never had been a Starkiller Base perhaps it would have all worked out eventually.
(And it's not as if our own politicians always act in the most logical and collaborative manner either... ;-) )

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Is this the same Jedi Council that was unable to foresee a Clone Army created in their name (ordered by a former Council member) as well as a full-fledged Droid Army created by another former Council member? Where even the usually haughty Mace Windu told Yoda they needed to tell the Senate that their use of the Force has diminished?

For all we know, Luke had a full-fledged New Jedi Order Council functioning that was just as effective as the old one, i.e. not sensing darksiders, armies, etc. until it was too late.

Old Jedi Order: "Wow, there's this droid army here on Geonosis we never heard of before. Oh no, suddenly a galactic war! We need to get out more."

New Jedi Order: "Wow, there's this army here in the Unknown Regions we never heard of before. Hey Ben, what are you...? "
Ben: My name... is Kylo.

 

Systems work because people make them work, without that basic willingness any system, no matter how well designed, will fail.

It is neat and convenient for the NR politicians to go 'oh, Mothma was so good I can't possibly match her' in place of actually doing something, because with action comes responsibility.

 

But that's just it. The Old Jedi had their vision clouded by the Shroud of the Dark Side. But that shroud lifted when Anakin brought balance to the Force and destroyed the Sith.

The New Jedi should be able to see far and wide now. Anakin's sacrifice brought the Force back into balance.

 

Snoke and the source of the Dark Side stuff hinted at in Aftermath might be more than enough to cloud the senses of the New Jedi Order.

 

Quite possibly, but I would hope not. The huge imbalance in the Force was the Sith. Specifically the Dark Lord of the Sith who brought a thousand years of Sith plotting to fruition. He was the Shroud of the Dark Side and Anakin destroyed him.

Snoke shouldn't be able to do what Sidious did.

 

Especially with a smaller number of Jedi than in the PT.

 

And re. 2 (other what if's aside):
If the NR had been flawless and there had been no need to form a Resistance, would the First Order then be unopposed (after blowing up Hosnian Prim plus fleet)?

I miss the Empire. :-(

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I am just one chapter into this and already Zahn's writing is infinitwly better and more engaging than the other authors of the new canon books--Luceno included. That first chapter of Thrawn was a blast to read.

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Just finished this novel!

 

Because it came out over a month ago, are spoiler tags still needed?

 

My review:

http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2017/05/star-wars-thrawn-by-timothy-zahn-review.html

My first Star Wars novel, which would literally change my life, was Dark Force Rising in 1992. I was twelve-years-old and it changed my view of how Star Wars and writing were supposed to work. It was darker (but not too dark), more serious (but not too serious), and had a focus on politics as well as military tactics (but without ending up like the Prequels of Honorverse's later books). I loved them so much I read every single one of Timothy Zahn's other Star Wars books and plan to read his original works sometime this year.

I will admit, though, some of Timothy Zahn's novels haven't blown me away the same way the Thrawn Trilogy has. Choices of One was fun and I liked the Outbound Flight Project plus its companion novel in Survivor's Quest but they were just good rather than great. I loved the Hand of Thrawn Duology but that had the benefit of being the grand finale to the "Bantam" Star Wars Expanded Universe. So, where does Thrawn stand? Especially since it is the first "canon" novel to star Grand Admiral Thrawn? Around the Hand of Thrawn duology and better than most but not up there with the Thrawn Trilogy.

The premise is basically, "The Adventures of Lieutenant Thrawn, Officer of the Empire." It's kind of a weird Horatio Hornblower collection of adventures which chronicle his ascension from naive every Chiss to the 4th or 5th most powerful man in the galaxy. It also expands on, more or less gives, a backstory to Governor Pryce from Star Wars: Rebels. The book doesn't deal with any great threats to the Empire. There's no superweapons, alien races, or possible origins to Snoke and the book feels a bit subdued to what I think of as typical Star Wars fair.

I was a bit annoyed with the opening few chapters because they're imore or less a retelling of a short story ("Mist Encounter", SWAJ 7#) which Timothy Zahn wrote for Star Wars: Adventure Journal back in the day. Given it was published in 1995 in a periodical no longer commonly available and was a pretty good story, I don't hold this against Timothy but it was re-rereading events I'd already read. The subtle changes also threw me, like the introduction of a new character not in the original story but playing a vital role in Thrawn's life.

The book proceeds to follow Thrawn as he goes to the Imperial Academy with Eli Vanto on the Emperor's orders, deals with several pirate groups, and then becomes involved in a massacre mentioned in Star Wars: Rebels that gets him promoted to Grand Admiral. I enjoyed these sections a great deal but they confused the heck out of me because I find it difficult to believe the Emperor would just put Thrawn in the general Imperial Navy. I would have assumed he'd have given him a Captainship or Admiralship to begin with as he's such a valuable resource on the Unknown Regions. Also, I don't believe the Emperor wouldn't get every bit of information on them from Thrawn, including the location of the Chiss. He's not a very accommodating man.

The book also continues Zahn's portrayal of Thrawn as "The Good Imperial." This Thrawn is, with one exception where he returns Wookiee slaves to their captors, a thoroughly decent man who just so happens to be working for a tyranny. There's also a potential retcon to his motivations that he may not even be loyal to the Empire at all but just using it for his own purposes. I can't say I approve of this as while I like "decent people in awful service", I have to say I prefer Thrawn having a bit more edge and ruthlessness. Indeed, the book retcons his role in the Rebels massacre to being the fault of another.

I was actually more interested in the story of Arihnda Pryce, the Colonel Spalko-esque villain of the Rebels cartoon. It's an interesting take to have her ve a small town girl in the Big City who ends up becoming a ruthless Space Nazi but Zahn doesn't pull any punches in her corruption. Indeed, I felt she was a bit too fast in her corruption. Hypocritical as it may be, I wish she'd been a little more redeemable by the end. Really, Arihnda's story shows why so many Imperials would want to join the Empire. It serves as an alternative to the massive petty local corruption and can reward lavishly those who side with it over their home worlds.

In conclusion, this was a decent book all round and had a lot of Easter Eggs for the fans of the Rebels cartoon. I felt Thrawn was a bit too nice in the story and would have preferred to see him more willing to spill blood but enjoyed Pryce's humanization. It's probably my favorite canon book release after Lost Stars, Bloodline, and the Aftermath Trilogy.

9/10

 

I did find it fascinating to compare the original Mist Encounter to the remake. Like the SE to the OT...

 

BTW, did Zahn actually canonize xenophobia against aliens in the Empire with this book?

I can't remember it being brought up anywhere else until now.

 

Very good review I agree with much of it. Regarding Thrawn serving the Empire for his own (and People's) ends, I kind of get the impression that Palpatine is well aware of this and manipulating Thrawn, rather than 2 steps ahead Thrawn.

One thing I am curious about though Charlemagne is that you stared the Thrawn books with Vol2 rather than 1 ! You didn't find it difficult to get into and in regards the characters various plots ?

 

Well, understand, this was 1992 and it was a bit of a different sort of situation than today when we had Amazon.com and I was not yet an avid bookstore (remember those?) attendee. I read a lot of books but they came from the school library rather than anything I bought myself. This book, however, caught my attention when I was on vacation with my family in Hawaii. It was in a news rack and I was stunned by seeing Han, Luke, Leia, and the new guy (Thrawn). It was also a good deal larger than my usual types of book because I didn't buy big massive paperbacks around this time since I mostly read short stories like Sherlock Holmes and was only starting on D&D fiction.

This was, in fact, my FIRST Star Wars novel.

Yes, even before the Jedi Prince series I picked up afterward.



Was it confusing? Yes, certainly, but I'm of the belief you should never write with the assumption your readers have read everything before. It certainly helped I was able to follow the basic plot and the Katana Fleet kept me going. I would later read the book again after reading Heir to the Empire and found myself suitably enriched too. I've since read the books five or six times.

 

I was a bit annoyed with mist encounter 2.0 as well...since it was basically the same story. I get the canon geeks like it's now re-canonized, but I don't want to read the same story for canon purposes. I want new story in new books I buy.

That being said, mist encounter does serve a larger, important function for the novel. It really does set up a lot of what comes later, including the twist.

So...while I wasn't happy with it at first, it was told well, and I liked why it was included.

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It was implied in a few other novels, (off the top of my head Gallius Rax speaks negatively about the New Republic for the Alien members amongst their leadership) but it's been downplayed quite a bit compared to Legends and as far as I'm aware Zahn is the first to tackle it head-on.

 

Just more proof that evil will always win because good is dumb

 

Sure it will.