Books Thrawn Alliances Book - Summer 2018

I'd say it added quite a bit to the title character. Though it's far more Outbound Flight than it is Heir to the Empire.

 

I finally finished listing to the audio version last week (read the print version in the first few days after release), and Marc Thompson is awesome as usual.

The one point I wanted to mention was about the internal monologue that some people didn't like. I'm ok with Thrawn's, and liked even better in the first book. The more we get to "hear" Thrawn "speak," the better. That's especially true for the audiobook format.

However, Anakin/Vaders's Force "Double Vision" is a different matter. I could take it or leave it when reading the book, but the producers of the audiobook, quite frankly, screwed up.

It was simply not meant to be read in the characters voice or as an "inner monologue." At one point in the audiobook, Thompson states something during one of the double vision passages about something coming towards "his" blah blah (blaster bolt? head? I forget, but you get the idea) in Anakin's voice. Effectively, Anakin is then referring to himself in the third person during one of his Force premonitions. A bit off-putting and jarring, in my opinion.

Anyway, just two cent from the audiobook. It's fun to read and then listen -- something I've done with both new Thrawn books. And I can't wait for more Thrawn stories!

 

This was interesting for me because this wasn't Thrawn-as-Holmes. Is Zahn working his way through Michael Chabon homages or something?

This.

Also, Zahn writes a terrific Vader - whole can factories of badassery, and remarkably sympathetic considering the acknowledgement that this is the Vader who force-chokes senior officers fairly regularly, and powerfully drawn with the implications that those reactions are to do with deep psychology, even if we don't entirely get to understand the repressed triggers at the back of everything.

I'm not sure quite how I feel about the way that Vader's Force-reaction was presented, but that certainly worked as a way to tell those scenes, as an expression of Vader's immensely controlling will, and a narrative counterpoint with Thrawn's eternal cold-reading of everyone.

I thought that one jarring detail was the odd role of the generic expendable ex-handmaiden, who feels like a write-over of a vaped Sabé (a powerful concept), but then I realised that there's a lot of substitution here - a generic handmaiden for Sabé, the Duke for Dooku, Karyn for Pellaeon, to the extent that this feels like a pattern; not sure what the implication of that is, partially because I'm trying to avoid my own inclination which sees Padmé as a sort of substitute for the absent (and much more effective, both as conscience and main gauche) Ahsoka, but I think that may be part of the pattern, because then there's Thrawn-for-Kenobi, which makes sense as well, as there's no question those two should be grounding and balancing Vader...

Overall, a clever puzzle of a book, and one that provided... well, I won't quite say satisfaction, because this novel's something of a downer in many ways - credit to Zahn for writing something that still felt like (and thus was) STAR WARS, considering the details of the plot; what this really reads like is the middle chapter of a trilogy... and with that in mind, I realise that of course, Thrawn figuring out Vader's identity is the point that identifies this as the middle arc - working out he's Luke Skywalker's father!

And that is a fun punchline!!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I moderated a panel with Tim Zahn earlier today at Dragon Con. Here is the audio. http://toschestation.net/dragon-con-2018-thrawn-with-timothy-zahn/

 

Nearly finished. I'm liking the way Zahn is playing around with the dual format stories. I don't think the plots are particularly exciting but that isn't the point.

Spoiler

Early in the book we have Padme leading out the story, we discover things in her chapters so we don't need to be told in the other parts what is going on and can focus on the dialogue. We get a Padme chapter, the Clone War and Empire chapters catch up, then another Padme chapter. Its an interesting structure but it does mean Padme takes a back seat when the story all lines up. I'm liking the link between Anakin putting Padme before the republic's greater need and Thrawn calling him out on it; and Thrawn putting the Chiss before the Empire's greater need and Vader calling him out on it. It plays with time very well to highlight the characters.

 

It finished a lot stronger than it started, but it still felt like a slog to get through.

 

Kriff kriff kriff kriff kriffity-kriff, said the Ewok, doing his most Hugh Grant-ish Obi-Wan impression.

There's a huge continuity backfill here for the pre-reboot continuity.

Because...

Spoiler

What we learn here about the Chiss relying on Force-sensitives - mostly very young Chiss females - to navigate through hyperspace brings a lot of earlier stuff into focus.

Shawnkyr is Jag's hyperdrive. She's probably still intended to be in her teens as of Dark Journey, so still within the age-range for an active Pilot.

The female Chiss scout Pahna from Invasion #0 comic is, in hindsight, another (possibly retired) Pilot.

And then there's Peita Aabe, the CEDF "Chief Navigator" from back in Force Heretic II: Refugee.

The fact that he's human always seemed strange. But now we know that the Chiss use Force-sensitives as navigators, and are extremely keen to recruit ones who don't lose their ability by twenty, and thus, that makes perfect sense... with the added implication, of course, that Chief Navigator Aabe is a fairly talented Force-user.

Tangentially, this is probably the place to note Formbi's quiet enthusiasm to recruit Evelyn Tabory in Survivor's Quest, and Mara's recognition that there's subtext there she's missing, point which are now explained...

So maybe Aabe came off Outbound Flight as well; or maybe not. After all, we already know of at least one Imperial-veteran Force-sensitive pilot flying on Fel's wing already - Maarek Stele.

Did you even know there was a fifth wall, before Zahn just drove a Star Destroyer through ...?

I feel this should maybe be a separate thread, but I'm not sure what the spoiler/splitting rules are these days...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

What a fantastic post and an element I hadn't even considered.

 

Do you think that Sev'rance Tann might fit into this as well?

 

only about 70 pages in and I quite like it but did Anakin just Weekend at Bernine's some random chump? Zahn is an interesting writer who comes up with unique ideas for sequences but this was maybe a bit much hahaahh

 

The Weekend at Bernie’s bit was probably one of the weirdest things I’ve read from Zahn. I get why he used it, but crickey was it unintentionally hilarious.

 

The oddest part was when Anakin made the corpse "feel around for handholds". And, correct me if I'm wrong, Anakin's intention was to have the corpse, which he was Force puppeting to make it seem alive, just hang onto the side of his Jedi starfighter as he flies off? How high was he going to go in that thing/

 

The more I think about it the more I think Thrawn may have just been trolling when he suggested that plan and Anakin took it waaay too far.

 

It's a good setup for later on in the book when Vader successfully does the same thing with his empty suit of armor.

 

Just on this. Where has this concept of a spare set of armour come from?

 

It struck me as something that might have never been brought up before but makes perfect sense. Having a second set of armor as spare parts for quick replacements in case something happens.

 

Oh definitely makes sense, it was just very random and made me feel like I'd missed something.

 

As far as I know, this novel may have been the first time it's been brought up.

 

I assumed it had something to do with the fact that the costumes are different between films.

 

Ha yes that's what occurred to me.

 

Thank you. I like how Zahn makes me think.

Yes, yes she must do. Also, note that name - Sev'rance. That's a Defence Hierarchy name, like Ar'alani. Presumably self-assumed, reflecting her role as commander-in-chief of the droid army in the early part of the Clone Wars. Not sure what Tann means, though. And becuase she's still full-strength in the Force, I guess she must be younger than we realise (we know from "Red Sky, Blue Flame" that teenage Chiss can pass for adult to human eyes); the fact that she can use a lightsaber isn't any problem, as we know that Vader's lightsaber-fighting skill is the same as his hyperspace-flying-in-the-Unknown-Regions skill.

Everything fits together. Zahny Penaesque.

I suspect that both these replies are correct.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Quick addition - an off-board conversation with @Onderon1 raised the interesting question of Nuru Kungurama, the Chiss Jedi from some of Ryder Windham's books and comics, and how he fits into the new understanding of Force-sensitive Chiss, and the ability to retroactively apply that to the pre-reboot continuity...

Nuru has a wider skillset than a Force-sensitive Chiss "should", with the typical Jedi attributes of mind-trick, long-range lightsaber-grabbing, and Force-boosted movement; but perhaps we can imagine that there's the very occasional Chiss with the full Jedi spectrum of abilities, a bit like there's the occasional human Jedi line with a narrower skillset (thinking here of the Halcyons); and considering the authorial intention that Nuru grows up to become the Chiss swoop-biker Spiker, we do have the implication that he loses his abilities as he hits adulthood, perfectly in keeping with the retcon...

- The Imperial Ewok