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| Cover art by Tom Jung. |
While the world is filled with excitement and initial
positive responses to the latest Star Wars
film’s release, I’m alone in my little corner finishing off the excellent
trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn. The
Thrawn Trilogy has been a pleasant surprised from start to finish. I had
quite a few reservations when I started to read the first volume in this
series. The first Expanded Universe novel I read was Choices of One, a book focusing on Mara Jade during the time of the
original film trilogy and written by Zahn. To be quick about it, I didn’t like
it. I didn’t really know who Mara Jade was and worst of all Zahn didn’t make me
care. The book had a more militaristic feel than the Star Wars films and I felt that was a bit of an odd fit despite
there being a constant presence of the Empire and its military forces in the
movies.
Because of this and other smaller details, I didn’t have much
in terms of expectations when deciding to read The Thrawn Trilogy. The expectations I did have were mostly of reluctance
and hope. You see, the fans are very vocal online about their love of this
trilogy which arguably created the Expanded Universe (which sadly met its
demise earlier this year). Zahn is often hailed as the best author in the
entire EU and people support their statement with this series of books. Could
it really be that good? What makes these books better than the rest? What makes
these books better than Choices of One?
Having read all three books, I know the answer to those
questions. Since I’ve finished the last book I now have a good appreciation of
the entire structure of the series and how things from the first and second
books not only paid off in their individual volumes, giving readers complete
single-volume stories, but played an important role in setting up the events of
the final volume. A lot of plot elements and character arcs introduced in the
first two books reach their zenith in The
Last Command. Zahn really knows how to plot a three arc story and you need
look no further than The Thrawn Trilogy
to find proof of that.
When you break it down, Zahn doesn’t do anything
revolutionary or entirely surprising in the way he structures this trilogy. What
he does is take basic requirements for a good story and writes them really
well. The books are filled with strong yet familiar voices for the characters
from the movies. Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca and others are written true to
their portrayals on the big screen. At the same time, Zahn ensures he doesn’t
write them as stagnant or unchanging people. They grow and change. Leia in
particular gets some really nice development. Luke, while he has a nice story
arc, doesn’t really change much. Yet what is presented in The Last Command shows that he’s continued his path of controlled
emotions and unwavering love, his version of the path of the Jedi. Han slips
into a new role and becomes more supportive than ever of Leia while also
retaining his slightly irritable edge that acts as a dupe for his softer side.
Added to these familiar characters are a slew of new
ones. Zahn certainly loves his anti-heroes. Actually, it would be more accurate
to say that he likes his redemptive heroes. People who accidentally get pulled
into increasingly difficult situations, playing politics and warfare with both
the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire, and through their actions
prove that they can still be a force for positive change in a galaxy that is
always on the brink of falling into further corruption and hate. You see this
most clearly in Mara Jade and Talon Kaarde.
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| Cover art by Mathieu Lauffray. |
Here, with these characters, you get a sense that Zahn
had more freedom. Kaarde gets a familiar character arc, but Zahn gives it just
the right amount of detail to make it feel earned and natural. He avoids making
his decisions feels cheap and predetermined by plotting concerns by making the
reader know what Kaarde’s point of view is on the state of the galaxy. He’s a
business man and a loyal friend and those two things together lead him to
certain places. With Mara Jade, Zahn did the impossible. He made me care about
a character that I had already made up my mind about not liking. In Choices of One, Jade didn’t interest me.
I couldn’t fathom why the book focused on her so much. Having finished The Thrawn Trilogy where she first
appeared in print, I understand the appeal of that book. I’m not ready to
reread it, but seeing how her character was first introduced and how great a
job Zahn did with her, I’m not surprised she became an EU mainstay. Her
character arc took time to pick up speed. I enjoyed reading about her in the
first volume but I feel like I only got to know her as of the second book. With
the third and final volume, Zahn gives her a very good conclusion. Her
character arc is very satisfying and the seemingly impossible resolution of her
brainwashing actually works really well in the context of the third book.
Other new characters share the spotlight with those
already mentioned. Dark Jedi Joruus C’baoth and Grand Admiral Thrawn present
themselves as worthy adversaries to the New Republic and opportunistic heirs to
the Empire. C’baoth is growing insane and by the third volume is practically
exploding with Force energy and a desire to govern all around him. His main
target, however, are other Force users and Force-sensitive beings. He finds
plenty of potential students with Luke, Leia, the Organa-Solo twins, and Mara
Jade. He wants to subjugate them to his will and create a troop of Dark Jedi. He’s probably my least favourite character of
the entire trilogy and I think it’s because he’s essentially a cackling
over-the-top kind of villain. Sure, he’s insane, but somehow that justification
just doesn’t cut it for me. I think it might have something to do with the fact
that Zahn seems a little out of his element writing about the Force and the
Jedi. As a science fiction writer whose work is often in the sub-genre of
military science-fiction, it’s not entirely surprising. Really though, his shortcomings
with C’baoth are probably the only thing that Zahn doesn’t do really well.
Grand Admiral Thrawn, however, is a superior example of a
great character. The entire Star Wars
EU is better because of his existence. It makes perfect sense that following
the Emperor’s death in Return of the Jedi
that a military commander would take over as the new leader of the Empire.
Thrawn is distinguished by his complete command of his troops and his impressive
and near-infallible ability to plan and execute complex military manoeuvres in
battles. He is a strategist and we get to see his plans come to fruition time
and again during the course of these three books. He’s as singularly focused
and calculating in The Last Command
as he has been since his first appearance in Heir to the Empire. While Thrawn doesn’t have as clear a character
arc as some of the other characters, he’s continuously been the first or second
most interesting character in the trilogy. It’s no surprise that fans have
dubbed these books The Thrawn Trilogy.
I’ve spend a few paragraphs talking about characters and
how that helps to make the book sing, but there is another reason why this trilogy
works so well. The characters are what make the book enjoyable and engrossing
to read, however, they’re not doing all the work. The heavy lifting is done by
the plot and the structure that Zahn has setup for the characters. This is
clearly a trilogy that was planned in its entirety prior to the release of the first
book (I would be extremely surprised if that wasn’t the case). There are story
elements coursing throughout all three books. Everything in the story serves the
same purpose, everything is working towards the conclusion of The Last Command.
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| Covert art by Mathieu Lauffray. |
You might have noticed that I’ve been dancing around the
actual plot of this final volume. One reason for doing this is that if you’ve
read two out of three books, you likely don’t need me to convince you to pick
up the third volume by dangling a little plot summary in front of you. The
other reason, the more important of the two, is that Zahn wrote an actual
conclusion to his trilogy. Story elements begun in the previous books come to
an end in this final volume. You know who the main players are and you know
what the overall plot of the trilogy is, even if you don’t recognize the
important of individual elements just yet. There aren’t any glaring loose
treads or forgotten plots, rather there are endings. Like the best authors
working in long form or serialized storytelling, Zahn also made sure that his
endings acted as new beginnings. Most of the characters in these novels went on
to have many more adventures detailed in other books of the EU. Some of the
characters, like Jaina and Jacen Solo, were literally born in this book, and
later became very important to the EU for two full decades of publication.
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