Star Wars: The Last Command Review (Unread 034)

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?

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising Review (Unread 031)

Cover art by Tom Jung.

It’s been a few months since I read Heir to the Empire the first volume of The Thrawn Trilogy. Not sure how I lost track of the series but the constant commentary on the upcoming seventh instalment of the Star Wars film saga has brought my attention back to one of my favourite franchises. It just made sense to finish reading this series before moving on to other novels in the Expanded Universe. This series is so important to the entire EU and introduces a lot of elements to the Bantam era Star Wars novels. Unlike the first book, I knew what to expect this time around and I think I enjoyed this volume more because of it. Once again written by Timohty Zahn, Dark Force Rising is a direct continuation of the events depicted in Heir to the Empire. As such, there are a lot of similarities between both books, but the second volume tops the first in execution, character development, and plot.

The plot might seem a little light at first glance, but a lot of what goes on is nicely matched up with character development so it’s a little deceptive. The political instability that plagued the New Republic regime in Heir to the Empire further develops. Bothan councillor Borsk Fey’lya continues to garner more support to his cause and it’s dividing the New Republic’s military strength. This is leaving them vulnerable to Grand Admiral Thrawn’s fleet. Han and Lando are sent on a mission to gain more supporters and in doing so they pick up the trail that might lead them to the secret location of the Katana Fleet, a large fleet of 200 Dreadnought-class vessels that date from the Clone Wars. Thrawn also picks up the trail and begins looking for the lost fleet as well. Meanwhile, Luke searches for Joruus C’baoth, an old Jedi Master, in the hopes of continuing his training in the Force. Leia travels to the Noghri homeworld to fulfill a promise she made in the previous book. Here she’ll continue her work to bring more support to the New Republic.

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire review (Unread 007)

Here it is; the big one. The grand-daddy of all Star Wars Expanded Universe novels: The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. It took me two years of exploring the EU to finally come around to reading Star Wars: Heir to the Empire. To be honest, this is probably where I should have started exploring the EU but for reasons that can be summarized by the simple fact that I had other EU books in my hands before I ever bought a copy of Heir to the Empire, I only got around to reading it two months ago. I’m glad I did because the book holds up as an entertaining follow-up to the original trilogy, despite the praise it’s usually given by fans of the franchise. I was honestly worried this book would be overhyped.

For those who have not heard of this book and its sequels, The Thrawn Trilogy is arguably the most important Star Wars novels as they’re regularly credited with first developing and popularizing the foundations of what became known as the Expanded Universe. All of the Star Wars novels of the 1990s owe a debt to Zahn and his trilogy. To try and put this accomplishment in perspective, Zahn gives the franchise an identity post Episode VI, creates some of the most popular and best developed characters of the EU, successfully writes about Luke, Leia, Han, and other characters from the film by being true to their onscreen counterparts but also providing them with a new identity. He does all of this while also telling an interesting story that mixes old and new tricks resulting in a thrilling first volume of a trilogy. What gives this book such a lasting impression is that it was used as the foundation on which all of the other Bantam Spectra era novels are built upon. It forms the backbone of this publication period of Star Wars novels. Some even credit this trilogy with renewing George Lucas’ interesting in creating the prequel trilogy. It’s uncontested truth that The Thrawn Trilogy has had a lasting impact on the franchise and is at the very least partially responsible for the continued success and popularity of Star Wars today.