Books Thrawn Alliances Book - Summer 2018

I really didn't like (as in actively avoided) the old EU (I'd honestly tried but just, No...) Gave the new Thrawn a chance and really enjoyed it - Alliances, though... Shades of 'Artsy Smurf' where I actually cringed reading some of the passages, and while I liked the Rebels shout outs, Zhan dismissed the battles between Hera and Thrawn entirely (she gave him a real run for his money) which I found almost condescending. It's a shame - he can wrote interesting female characters (Gov Price got an interesting, well crafted take in the first book). I'll give "Treason" a shot, but depending how it goes will make me worry how he'll handle future novels...

 

I'm a huge Timothy Zahn Star Wars fan, so when a new novel about Thrawn came out, I couldn't wait to read it. The story is interesting enough, but I did have a problem with the way Zahn handled the whole Jedi foresight thing. Here's an excerpt where I complain about this in the review on my website: "...But my main problem with this book was the whole “double vision” thing. Never before had Timothy Zahn used this in his writing about Force abilities. Sure, he described the amazing power Jedi have of anticipating where a blaster bolt will be placed and what danger was about to occur. That’s something that is prevalent in all Star Wars novels. But, for some reason, in this novel, Zahn took to describing how that takes place with the words “Double vision:” followed by whatever dangers Anakin or Vader foresaw through the Force. For example, “Double vision: two blaster bolts at torso, chest..." Then, he described how the bolts were blocked or the danger evaded. For readers not used to Timothy Zahn’s writing or how the Force is supposed to work, this may be fine. For me, it disrupted the tempo of the action scene..." (More of this review can be found at http://www.g-pop.net/swthrawnalliances.htm) Otherwise, if you can ignore the double vision stuff, Alliances is an enjoyable read.

 

I found it disrupting first, too. After a while I ignored it.

But I think it has to do with the way many readers nowadays read - or not read. There are too many who need having it spelled out in bold and enormous letters. There was a discussion on FB lately. Readers flamed an author for stuff they didn't get, although that stuff stood in the first paragraph of the very first chapter and a thousand times in between. As much as I know the author used a prologue that was set in the past, something happend in there. The first chapter started like "We were together for five years." Yet many readers thought the story happened right the second after the prologue ended, what was completely stupid because the characters met for the first time in the last paragraph of the prologue.

 

Per today's episode of The Star Wars Show, the walls of the "real life" Oga's Cantina at Galaxy's Edge have scorch marks intended at least in part as a reference to the fight scene that takes place there in Thrawn: Alliances. The embed should hopefully start at the right place, but if not the relevant comments start at around 8:20.

 

It took me a shamefully long time to read this but I did like it, mostly because the flashback/flashforward structure is pretty cool. Although Zahn does seem to get a wee bit into the weeds of minutiae that slows down the pacing quite a lot, that man knows how to describe a room and there was a whole stretch about Thrawn's lightning gun extending the arms of the battle droids to cover a hallway or something, and I mentioned before Anakin doing a Weekend at Bernies Force Corpse thing in the Black Spire cantina is just odd, I think the story and the reveals are cool. The Chiss kids being Force sensitive is a nice wrinkle and I loved the "Skywalker" reveal. Although it is hard to have Thrawn be smarter than Vader without Anakin/Vader seeming like a dolt which is 50/50. Thrawn also knowing Vader is Anakin Skywalker, and Vader letting him live, is a bit iffy. I sort of liked the "now" plot a bit more because we got the Noghri and Vader being lippy. Him referencing "The Jedi" memories was pretty great.

In the flashback story, there were some odd late inner reflections of Anakin and the Tusken slaughter which seemed a bit out of place (Anakin remembers it mid battle droid brawl). But also at the end, did Anakin and Padme when they blew up the mine commit, like, a war crime? Cuz it felt kinda War Crime-y. Maybe thats what the Tusken flashbacks were for

 

They’d definitely be sent to the SW equivalent of The Hague for that.

 

The "Oops, accidentally committed genocide" at the end of the CW story was a very Anakin moment. It also really highlighted Padme's ignoring Anakin's actions as a general weakness of the Prequel Era to me

 

Just finished reading this book. Can’t wait to read Thrawn: Treason!

Should I watch Rebels season 4 before or after I read Treason?

 

Before. Treason mentions some events that happen in Season 4.

 

About 1/3 of the way through this book and I've not been enjoying it as much as the first one, for sure. I've noticed more typos/ errors, and splitting the book into three mini-storylines has proven to not be the best move, mainly because of Padme's storyline. I'm finding that the Thrawn/ Anakin storyline feels like it's moving a little slowly, and the Padme part of it getting her own chapters is making it even slower. Most of the time I'm just speed-reading hoping to get back to Thrawn/ Vader, where the actual tension is.

Disappointed that it's 100 pages shorter than the first entry but I've paid £2-3 more for it. I get that it's newer so that's to be expected but that coupled with the less-impressive structure of the book has me feeling a bit meh about it. Hopefully it picks up in these last 200 pages.

 

Definitely Zahn's worst Star Wars book. Double vision was godawful and Vader looked like a moron that couldn't tie his shoes if Thrawn wasn't there to tell him how. I found it a real slog to get through. Just got Treason the other day, so hopefully Zahn returns to form.

 

I only got a chance to sit down and read this last year, along with its predecessor, but I really enjoyed it. I actually loved the switch between flashback and present day, and incorporating Batuu into the story was very cool. I've always been a fan of Zahn's writing, and I found his characterization of Anakin/Vader and Padmé to be spot on. My only complaint was that I felt it was too short--it definitely left me wanting more.

 

I usually like his stuff but I felt like he leaned way too far into Sherlock Thrawn, where every other character only exists to marvel at his intellect. Thrawn was literally spotting attacks from common street thugs before Darth "2nd most powerful force user" Vader.

 

I thought he handled Vader a lot better in this one than Choices of One. TBH.

 

Eh I wasn't bothered by it because I was just excited to see them interact. I don't think Vader (or Anakin for that matter in the flashbacks) looked comparatively that much worse, even as someone who was really only reading this for Vader/Anakin. I sort of anticipated Thrawn to be figuring all of the stuff out and at this point it didn't faze me. One of the things I enjoy about Thrawn is a character is that he isn't Force sensitive and it really is his intellect that allows him to hold his own.

 

Vader is pretty skeptical in this book but I felt it was more of he doesn’t buy that the Grysk are a huge threat to the Empire and he thinks Thrawn is using imperial resources to peruse his own personal operation to benefit the Chiss.

and he isn’t wrong. He’s eventually won over that the Grysk are enough of a threat that he lets it slide, but he’s absolutely right about what Thrawn was up to here.

 

Let's not forget 'thug Anakin', who I'm shocked doesn't stab himself with his own lightsaber. And how Padme is scared of him.

Treason is better, by being more normal for Zahn.

 

Maybe I just have a very low opinion of Anakin and Vader, but I thought Zahn did a really good job with both.