Thrawn: Treason

Thrawn, no wonder your race was called Chiss, whenever I read any book with Thrawn in it, you have to be ready to analyze everything, or read every paragraph or sentence, because Thrawn seems to derive his ideas from them, like playing chess, no wonder my head aches after each and every Thrawn novel, there is this nagging feeling that you are missing something!!!

A big salute to Mr. Zahn, who brought Thrawn, nurtured, weaned and finally allowed him to walk on his own, I would to see him create a truly chaotic character!!!

Thrawn: Treason another tugging of ideas between the faction of Director Krennik and Grand Moff Tarkin, both who only wish to serve the Empire, what if the Empire was ruled not through fear and backstabbing, would it have been better??? The backstory regarding the Death Star project was truly informative but at the same time anti-climactic, as someone who watched the first trilogy and just read this novel, I kept thinking “so that is how it was brought about, but ultimately it failed”, I am still hoping Disney uses the Star Wars novel canon, because THERE ARE A LOT OF REALLY, REALLY GOOD IDEAS!!!!

This next trilogy is a good one, I am hoping for some new lore, great characters to add, most of all Thrawn with his own race!!! Finally our Admiral has come back home!!! Chiss Ascendancy here we GO!!!!

Thrawn is very interesting. Unfortunately, it seems hard to place him in a story where he's challenged or forced to develop. Instead, everyone around him is a bit of an idiot or an eventual follower who comes to appreciate his deductive genius. It gets boring, especially the third time around.

There is a moment early in the book, Thrawn's Imperials encountering the Chiss, when it looks like Zahn is setting up a genuinely engaging conflict. Instead, both sides are just following the same forgettable third-party threat.

It's a waste. This could easily have setup up a true crucible for Thrawn by placing him opposite a Chiss threat to the Death Star. A plot actually worthy of the book's title. Surprisingly little of note happens despite this being the third novel attempting to develop Thrawn in the new EU. What's weird is that Zahn is capable of a more engaging plot. Perhaps this area of canon is still too constrained by new movies and TV to allow for a more meaningful story?

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this far more than the last book, but probably not quite as much as the first one.

Audiobook: Another fantastic audio book as always. Marc Thompson is a one man Star Wars universe and this is one of the few books where I don't mind music or sound effects.

Full Review
I don't do a lot of Star Wars books and before listening to the original Thrawn trilogy, I wasn't particularly interested in reading any to begin with. Thrawn is an intriguing character. In most cases he's been a villain but in this series it's more ambiguous.

He's still working for the Empire, but as he's fighting the rebels it's far easier to like and cheer for him and his crew. I'm not really sure how many Thrawn books this series is supposed to be, but this didn't really feel like an ending. Maybe that's because his story picks up in Star Wars Rebels, but I'm not sure this left off where that starts either.

Instead it both continues on the series and mostly feels like a stand alone story. We get more details on the Chiss Ascendancy, and get some background on well known Star Wars events.

Overall I found this an enjoyable story and I'd happily read another Thrawn book, but it adds little to the movies or TV. Like most of the books I've read it offers some back story to things you see on screen, but they are never going to put critical details that would leave those who don't read the books in the dark.

Much like the previous Thrawn novel, this one never really hooked me in any meaningful way. The first book in the trilogy chronicled Thrawn's rise up the ranks in the Empire and that narrative momentum was stalled in the second and third books. Though, I was happy to have Thrawn and Eli Vanto back together matching wits and seeing the Chiss Ascendency in action gives me hope for the prequel trilogy that is coming in 2020. Either way, I'm glad to have read this series, even if I was let down by the final two books. Thrawn is a great character and I'd be interested in seeing more of him, either in Star Wars Rebels or in Zahn's non-canonical Star Wars books.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.