Looking Back: The Grand Admiral Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn

For my last review, I'm taking a look back to books from the older days of Star Wars, the Grand Admiral Thrawn trilogy. This series, written by Timothy Zahn, first came out in 1991 and is generally credited with relaunching the Star Wars Expanded Universe. If we're being entirely honest about the old EU it was definitely of mixed quality ranging from such debacles as the Jedi Prince series to such weird installments as Splinter of the Mind's Eye. But the Thrawn trilogy, consisting of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, was widely regarded as one of the best installments of the old EU.

The books are set about five years after the Battle of Endor. The New Republic has taken the galactic capital of Coruscant and is in the process of transitioning to a permanent government. The Empire, divided after the loss of the Emperor and Darth Vader, has been slowly losing ground in the war. But this soon changes when Grand Admiral Thrawn, the only non-human Grand Admiral in Imperial History, returns from beyond the edge of the known galaxy to take command of the Imperial remnants. From the bridge of the Star Destroyer Chimera with the assistance of Captain Gilad Pellaeon, Thrawn stops the New Republic's advance and puts the Republic in a fight for survival.

I originally read these books a long, long time ago when I was in seventh grade, but I remember these books as being fairly good. Coming back to them about fifteen years later and after all the events of the prequels and then the Disney take over and reboot I will say that it's a little weird to come back to the books after all this time. Especially with the cloning plot within this series and the insane Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth when we finally found out what the Clone Wars were, the series feels a little weird to come back to. It's almost like reading quaint older science fiction that used what was at the time cutting scientific theory which has since been discredited or reanalyzed.

The thing that I liked the least about these books was how the characters kept referencing things in the movies. I feel like the people who are likely to read the books are the sorts of people who have seen the movies and so we don't necessarily need reminders of what happened in the movies. Maybe it would be necessary for people who hadn't seen the movies, but if you haven't seen Star Wars then why the heck are you reading a Star Wars book?

But I think where this book really shines is where Zahn introduces new characters and ideas into the series. I will say that Thrawn and Pellaeon were a lot more ruthless than I remembered, which fit them as Imperial officers. But there are plenty of other characters such as Borsk Fey'lya, Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, and of course Mara Jade. The book does rely fairly heavily on the movie characters: Han, Leia, Luke, Chewbacca, Lando, as well as more minor characters such as Mon Mothma, Wedge Antilles, and Admiral Ackbar. But the introduction of new characters into the series means that we're not just seeing the adventures of Han, Luke, and Leia over and over again.

Overall as dated as these books feel now, and despite the imperfections, I actually think these books are pretty good and worth taking the time to check out. They may no longer be canon, but I think they're fun Star Wars adventures that build on the universe and take it into new directions.

- Kalpar

Thrawn, by Timothy Zahn

If any of you are familiar with the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, there's a very good chance that you're familiar with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Heir to the Empire and its sequels are some of the most popular old EU books written by the truly fantastic Timothy Zahn. Seriously, Zahn is probably the best EU author out there. Part of the appeal of Grand Admiral Thrawn was he was a complex and believable character. One of the struggles the EU ran into was a lot of Imperial characters were bad stereotypes, real cackling villain type. Thrawn and his subordinate, Gilad Pellaon, were reasonable authority figures. Soldiers trying to do the work of the Empire and faced with not a lot of great options. Zahn illustrated that even if the Empire was a bad organization, there could be reasonable people in the ranks.

When Disney announced that the old EU was no longer canon, the fact that Thrawn was no longer canon was the biggest disappointment for old fans. Trust me, there's a lot of old EU material that wasn't a huge loss, looking at you Jedi Prince. So it was with mixed emotions Thrawn appeared in the Rebels TV show. On the one hand, it was good to see an old friend come back into the new canon, on the other hand it does raise some questions such as what ultimately happens to Thrawn. In the old EU Thrawn got sent on a secret mission to Unknown Space by the Emperor, which explains why Thrawn wasn't present during the fall of the Empire. I'm curious to see what happens to him later in the universe although I think it's very unlikely Thrawn will show up in the new film universe.

This book focuses on Thrawn's rise through the ranks of the Imperial Navy, his career shepherded by the Emperor's influence. With his aide, Eli Vanto, Thrawn goes through the Imperial academy, serves as a weapons officer, a first officer, and eventually commander of his own Star Destroyer, the Chimera (which is its own reference). On some level I feel like Thrawn's rise is almost too fast and very obviously influenced by the Emperor. It's like we know that Thrawn will end up a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy and we're just marking time to see how it happens. Thrawn's tactical genius does come into play multiple times through the book, which makes sense since it is written by Zahn, but I almost feel like it's a story that didn't need to be told.

The other thing that concerns me about this book is that Thrawn basically outright states that there's a threat from beyond the galaxy which threatens both the Chiss Ascendancy and the Galactic Empire. (Which makes me think of the Yuuzhan Vong, which threatens to make the Star Wars universe even more complicated again.) Thrawn is apparently on a mission from the Chiss to determine whether the Empire is an ally worth cultivating, or best used as a distraction to buy the Chiss time while they try to put weapons together to defeat whatever threat it is from beyond the galaxy. I'm worried that we're going back into the original problems of the EU where we have dozens of plot threads and putting them into a coherent whole is almost impossible.

Overall I think this book was okay, but I think it's feeding into the problem we had with the old EU.

- Kalpar

Allegiance, by Timothy Zahn

This week I'm dipping, at least for a little bit, back into the world of Star Wars with another Timothy Zahn novel, in this case Allegiance, which is read by Marc Thompson. Readers of my blog may be passingly familiar with Timothy Zahn as I've mentioned him before on the blog and actually have reviewed one of his other books, Scoundrels. And when I was younger and only slightly more foolish than I am now I also read probably Zahn's most famous work, the Thrawn Trilogy, as well as the Hand of Thrawn Duology which followed much later. Overall Zahn has a very good reputation as a science fiction writer in general and specifically in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (which of course is all irrelevant now anyway, but that's another conversation.)

Quality has always been a bit of a problem in the heady days when the Expanded Universe grew free like a kudzu vine, smothering everything with its choking and expansive embrace. Some of the books read as little more than very bad fanfiction which was given the Lucasfilm sanction, if we're being entirely honest, to get another dime out of the franchise. (A favorite example one of my friends likes to bring up is the truly awful Jedi Prince series, which the excuse of being made for children simply does not excuse its numerous sins.) Zahn stands out in this field for creating compelling and interesting storylines as well as depicting Imperial characters, who were all too often depicted as third-rate stage villains chewing the scenery and gloating in being evil for evil's sake, as actual three-dimensional characters with motivations and reasons for behaving the way they do. They may not be terribly good reasons, but they're still good reasons. And with a title like Allegiance, I was hoping Zahn would deliver more interesting characters and situations.

The story is set sometime between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back where the Rebellion, although buoyed by its success in destroying the Death Star, is still a long way away from toppling the Empire and restoring freedom to the galaxy. In fact the Alliance is still in very great danger of falling apart at the seams. The plot starts out with three separate threads which eventually come together into one overarching plot towards the end of the novel. First we have what I consider the least interesting plot, which is Han, Luke, and Leia who are doing a variety of things to keep the Alliance functioning, such as investigating pirate raids on rebel supply lines and playing the careful game of diplomacy among the Alliance's more individualistic leaders.

I say this plot is probably the least interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, thanks to the movies we know what happens to Han, Luke, and Leia so there're protected by plot armor the entire time. They may be in danger, but they'll be alive and well for Empire, as we already know. Secondly, you remember how Luke was still kind of a whiny kid in A New Hope and how Han wasn't really into the whole Rebellion thing in the first place? Zahn really emphasizes that in this novel and while it's certainly true to the characters, it's traits that I don't really enjoy in them as characters. Luke especially is far more enjoyable when he grows into being an awesome Jedi Knight instead of the whiny farm kid from nowhere. And finally Zahn also brings back a really awkward and unfortunate aspect of the old trilogy. See, you guys kind of remember how in A New Hope and in Empire Strikes Back there was that vague, poorly developed love triangle between Han, Luke, and Leia? That was like vague enough to not be fully developed but unfortunately included this?

OH MY GOD THAT'S YOUR BROTHER!

Which gets really really awkward in hindsight when they decided to make Luke and Leia siblings? Yeah, Zahn brings that vague, uncomfortable sense of awkwardness back with a bit of a vengence. I could also go on about how there's a point where Luke gets out of a situation only because the voice of Obi-wan Kenobi, who apparently read the script, tells him exactly what to do, but on further reflection that's actually not that far off from the movies either so I'll just let it go at this point.

The second plotline involves Mara Jade in her role as the Emperor's Hand, something which old veterans of the EU such as myself would be familiar with but maybe not newcomers. Basically while Darth Vader was the highly public enforcer of the Emperor's will, using the sledgehammers of Star Destroyers and stormtrooper legions, Mara Jade was more like a scalpel. The Emperor used her to infiltrate and investigate all levels of the imperial hierarchy, searching for and exposing treason. While she could act publicly, she much preferred to act clandestinely from the shadows. In this book Mara's investigating a plot which could involve an entire sector government for all she knows. This plot's slightly more interesting, for me at least, but as I also know what happens to Mara in the EU there's that lack of tension as well.

The third plot, and what I consider the most interesting, revolves around a group of five stormtroopers who eventually call themselves the Hand of Judgement. All five of them had seen the Empire do good things for the galaxy, bring about law and order, suppress pirates, help fill the vacuum after the Clone Wars, and all of them jumped at the chance to serve in the Empire's elite stormtrooper corps. However after a massacre on Teardrop, when they're ordered to eliminate an entire village of civilians just because they're suspected of being Rebel sympathizers, they begin questioning if the Empire's still worth serving. After an incident on their Star Destroyer in which one of them accidentally kills an officer, they're left with no choice but to run and question whether the Empire is still worth serving. This was the plot I was most interested in, if for nothing else than it introduces new characters who aren't guaranteed to come out of this alive, and I've always had a bit of fondness for redshirts and their cousins across science fiction, like the stormtroopers. If the book had been more about these guys, with just a little bit less about more familiar characters I think I'd recommend it more strongly, but they unfortunately have to share the spotlight in this instance. 

I do want to compliment Marc Thompson who goes to great lengths to provide unique voices for the characters in the novel. He certainly does a serviceable young Luke and Han Solo impression and while it's a little odd to hear a stormtrooper with a Texas drawl or a vaguely New Jersey accent, it certainly helps to keep the characters apart when you're listening instead of reading. The inclusion of music from the series, as well as sound effects, also helps to make you feel like you're really there in the Star Wars universe and makes it a more complete experience. My only regret is that Thompson, through no fault of his own, really only has one voice for female characters so Leia and Mara Jade ended up sounding a lot alike to me. I know it would probably add to the cost, which they might not be willing to pay as there's a tragically low number of female characters in Star Wars, but I think it would certainly help to have a female voice actor for the female parts in novels, but that's just me. 

Overall, the book is okay, but not great. Like I said, two of the three main plots didn't overly interest me so it was kind of hard to get too terribly invested. There are some interesting character debates about allegiance, as per the title, and what they're loyal to and why they're loyal to the things they are, but it's probably not the best work done on the subject. Zahn's writing is okay, but there were definitely some weak points and I don't think this is the best thing he's produced for the EU. The introduction of new characters and pointing out that not everyone who serves the Empire is blind to its problems certainly adds depth to the series, but there are better examples from this author, let alone this series. 

- Kalpar

Scoundrels, by Timothy Zahn

This past winter one of my favorite authors in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Timothy Zahn, released a new novel called Scoundrels. Although I cannot, for the time being, permit myself to purchase anything Star Wars related until I know how the new movie planned by J.J. Abrams is going to turn out, I decided to go ahead and borrow this book from the local library and see if it was any good. The short answer is that I was in no way disappointed and I am glad to see that Zahn is still doing the EU credit with his excellent writing. If you're a fan of Star Wars and have spent plenty of time tramping around the EU, I'd definitely recommend you pick this book up if you haven't already.

Scoundrels is set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and follows Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca as they put a team together to pull off the heist of a cool 163 million credits from the vault of a local crime lord, but it isn't going to be easy. They're going to need a brilliant burglar, an explosives expert, and a couple of smooth-talking con men just to get at the vault, to say nothing about getting the goodies out. With a solid plan and a little luck, Han should be able to get enough credits to pay back Jabba once and for all.

I think part of why I really enjoyed this novel was because it was basically Ocean's Eleven but in the Star Wars universe with some familiar characters. As much as I love sci-fi and huge space-operas with titanic interstelllar wars and attack ships on fire off of the shoulder of Orion, I occasionally get bored with those sorts of stories because it generally boils down to a good guys vs. bad guys conflict and there's only so many ways to tell that story and keep it interesting. The Expanded Universe often has had that problem because Star Wars is, of course, rooted in the space opera tradition and many of the EU stories have gone in the same vein. I just thought it was a really refreshing change of pace for this space-opera universe to be used for a heist story.

I have to admit, though, that if you're new to the EU then you probably should spend some time tramping around before you try to tackle this book. At the very least I think a familiarity with Black Sun and Imperial Intelligence would help readers get a fuller experience from the book. Newcomers to the EU certainly can start with this novel and there are definitely worse places to start your journey, but I think a good grounding across the galaxy will help you enjoy this book a lot more as a reader. If you're as old a hand as I am and are looking for something fresh you're definitely going to love this.

Like all heist novels a lot of the plan isn't explained to the audience before it happens because it'd be boring if the characters told us the plan and then it worked, there has to be a certain degree of suspense. So a lot of the book you're going to be in the dark and wondering how they're going to get past the next obstacle. However, the pacing is very well executed and I could hardly put the book down because of my desire to find out what happened next. Throw in some truly awesome twists at the end, and a very elaborate Indiana Jones reference, and you have a pretty gripping read.

- Kalpar