Books Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good (book 2) by Timothy Zahn

It would’ve made more sense for him to drop all accents for the Ascendancy books, since they’re not really speaking Basic anyway. But it IS the standard for movies and TV shows where characters are really speaking in a different language. I just thinks it makes things harder for an audiobook. Goodness knows Zahn probably wasn’t writing with accents in mind. But I have no complaints, I don’t actually listen to the audiobooks.

 

Those who listen to the audiobook:

Spoiler

How is Magys pronounced? I first thought that it was like "maj-eyes" (magi plural) but then realized it's more of a title and am thinking it's more like 'maj-iss'

 

The Ascendancy books are not an example of the trope you're referring to. There's no accent consistency in the Chiss characters. As I mentioned earlier, Thrawn sounds like Lars Mikkelsen, Ar'alani sounds Russian, Wutroow has a working class British accent, Thalias has an American accent. Samakro is a Jack Nicholson impression. "The standard" as you say would be to have all the Chiss characters have the same foreign accent.

 

Never mind; I think the beginning of chapter 10 cleared it up for me

 

No sign of this at the local Waterstones today so Amazon UK will get the order this weekend (along with a few other books I couldn't find in town).

 

That's true. I thought of something else I needed from Amazon so I've put the order in and included this and a few other books. Should come Fri/Sat.

 

Spoiler

Not at Chapter 10 yet so I don’t know what you learned there, but it’s closer to the latter. Almost like “mages,” plural of mage.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Maybe it’s just me not being in the right headspace, but I’m finding myself struggling with this one. I’m only 100ish pages in and maybe this’ll all change soon, but the pacing feels sluggish.

 

Well now, that wasn’t my impression in Ch 10, so thank you!!

i still gave it a 5/5 stars but I feel like it took a bit longer to read the first 100 pages than the rest of the book. Idk if that is pacing or cause I started in the pm after work and needed to get more done vs yesterday morning when I could wake up and devote 1.5 straight hours to it before breakfast, let alone work.
Hopefully you feel better about it after sleep

It could also be all those names beginning with “L-A-K.” That fogged my brain.

 

I've gotten it this afternoon - enjoying it so far.

 

I’ve gotten through a bit more last night/today and it’s picked up.

Spoiler

some of the Thurfian stuff is a little dry and tedious for my liking, but the Xodlak plot has improved greatly with the introduction of Lakphro and the Memories chapters fleshing out what’s going on with Haplif and Jixtus.

 

Just grabbed this one today. Excited to get started on it.

 

My copy is on a van somewhere. Delivery should be around 530 PM. (Waiting to get the Amazon UK tracker screen).

 

Finished it earlier.

Spoiler

It was an improvement from Chaos Rising in some respects and a step down in others. Overall I enjoyed it well enough, but it’s by no means my favourite book.

I’ll get the negatives out of way. The stuff with the Xodlak family was really tedious whenever it dwelt on Lakuviv and him getting duped by the villains plot. Some of it was necessary to sell both sides of the con Haplif was pulling, but it felt utterly pedestrian. That’s sypomtatic of all the politics in this book really. Zahn’s not like your James Luceno’s of the world who can take political dealings and inter-office rivalries and make it enthralling, so what we get is very dry, dull stuff.

Likewise, and I know this is going to sound heretical, but I really don’t care for the space combat in this book. It’s too overly detailed, too technical as Zahn informs us how a ship turned 130 degrees starboard, how the different lasers were angled, the momentum of gravity pulling an object a certain way...l don’t care, and I don’t need to know that stuff. Also, in every situation I know Thrawn is going to do something unconventional with his ships and pull out some manuever, that’s fine, that’s his thing and it usually works for a great climax. But when they do that in literally every battle the book gets really formulaic and I had to struggle real hard not to skip through those segments. I was glad with Chaos Rising that we got a bit less of it, and hoped that was a sign of things to come..but no. I’m nostalgic for the days when Zahn could call upon a Jedi or a scoundrel to just physically fight the baddies.

But, all that aside there was a lot I liked as well. Weirdly one of the best parts of this book was that Thrawn himself wasn’t as involved and the story is told largely from people who don’t really interact with him. We know Thrawn is unbeatable and everything will turn out alright when he goes up against someone, but with him out of the picture suddenly I begin to feel a bit more concerned for the fates of these newer characters and that does wonders for the tension as the book rolled into its third act.

And I liked that the we actually got a look at the Chiss outside of their military and political structure. The character Lakphro and his family, they’re just civilians and farmers caught up in this big plot, yet they genuinely give the Ascendancy an element of relatability that’s lacking in the onslaught of dutiful soldiers and brilliant tacticians.

I think, my favourite parts were actually the non-Chiss stuff. Haplif and the other Agbui’s plan came together slowly, but I found myself really enjoying how it steadily grew darker and more murderous as the things went on. Very specifically, every time Jixtus showed up I found myself suddenly hanging off every word, and there was a creepiness to the character that took me off guard. I’ve said before that I don’t think Zahn has written interesting villains since the 90s, and I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, but if the next book doesn’t drop the ball with him, Jixtus might turn out to be something unique. I feel the character could make or break future stories with the Chiss v Grysk.

So yeah, overall I did enjoy it for the most part. It’s flawed and my frustrations were great, but it picked up and ultimately I got a fun little middle act. I’ve hopes and concerns for the next book, but so far I’ll give everyone involved credit for continuing to flesh out this part of the galaxy.

 

Delivery man just brought mine - probably next on the reading list.

 

Spoiler

Or the Attendants are all Grysk and / or their servants in disguise

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I've edited some of your OP to quote on things

Spoiler

1. YES. And all the LAK names bogged me down. I could barely differentiate between the characters, especially in the first half.

Focusing on other commanders was definitely interesting. I really liked seeing how the values of family and honor basically were the motivation of nearly everyone.

The scenes with Lakphro and his family were among my favorite. He was one of the few Xodlak names that I stuck with throughout the entire book. Civvies are interesting to see, especially in the context of the main protagonist(s).

I wasn't a huge fan of the Haplif stuff, especially with the Memories, but I agree that Jixtus is creepy. I still found him to be a bit bland in this book.

 

My most immediate thought is that

Spoiler

It means that Grysk get defeated at some point before TLJ and the Attendants shift their loyalty to Snoke. But who knows, maybe the Grysk are still around they’re trying to use the First Order as a client state.

Spoiler

yeah the scenes with Lakphro and his daughter were pretty vital to this book, because otherwise the Chiss would just be military warriors and conniving politicians. It’s really the main thing reminding us that the Chiss are people too, and I liked that he was the one who did Haplif in.

I didn’t like the Haplif stuff at first, but it grew on me as he got more desperate and Jixtus started breathing down his neck a bit more. I was pretty shocked when they outright murdered the Chiss teenager, didn’t think Zahn would get that dark.

 

Is it out already? I want to get it, but I'm getting to move so I'm putting off getting a new book.

 

@Nehru_Amidala Yes, it came out this past Tuesday

 

Unacceptable. Sinre Edit.

 

More pertinent question is why you feel the need to come to a thread about a book you’ve never read, which is part of a trilogy you’ve never read, whose lead character is one you dislike, written by an author you’ve often expressed an dislike for. Purely to reiterate how much you hate it.

Like...it’s pretty much just trolling at this point.