The Last Command

I'll just state here before getting into my review, as so many have, that I read all three back to back and thus this will be my review for the trilogy as a whole. Needless to say, some spoilers for all three books may be contained within.


I'll start by saying I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid. When my dad showed me Episode V (still my favorite) I was a little confused, but I needed to know more about this Vader guy. Luckily, this was during the early 90's and as I got a little older the Star Wars bug was reigniting in preparation for the prequel trilogy. I saw the original trilogy in the theaters when they rereleased them, I had toys, I played the Shadows of the Empire and Dark Forces video games. I saw the prequel movies, and though I was disappointed and a little lost, I still held faith in the series as a whole and believed it could redeem itself. This eventually petered out as my interest in SW waned a bit. I have been on a years long kick of reading mostly classical literature (some modern stuff thrown in there occasionally), but a few of my friends who were REALLY into Star Wars well into their 20's convinced me to make a detour and give the Thrawn Trilogy a shot, because, as they described it, it was AMAZING. This only served to build my expectations to previously unknown heights, to which Mr. Zahn could never realistically live up to. I tempered my expectations and soldiered on.

I don't feel I need to explain the setting in too much detail, it's around 5 years after the end of Episode VI, and the Rebellion has mostly mopped up the remnants of the Empire. Lo and behold, the empire has merely been biding their time under the watchful eye of one Grand Admiral Thrawn, a military genius and the only non-human Grand Admiral the Empire had. This sets the stage for a lot of political drama, even more space battles, and one or two lightsaber duels (sort of a disappointing number really).

Throughout the series there are more than one occasion where a major character gets into a bit of a tangle. Zahn writes these as though there is real weight behind them, that these characters could actually die, but you get the express feeling that he's winking at you behind the curtain, secretly telling you nothing bad will actually happen, it's all just part of the show. This has the disappointing effect that all the tension he builds ends up being toothless, he's not really going to let Thrawn catch Chewie and Leia on an alien planet where they shouldn't be, which most certainly would doom them and the entire race of the planet, right? No, he won't.

In this case, I think reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series previously ruined me. How many times did I develop an attachment to a character (Ned, Oberyn, looking at you) only to have them killed off so unceremoniously when I was SURE Martin wouldn't? Zahn could definitely have benefitted from taking a risk and killing off a major character to show that the others were not so safe. I'm guessing the decision not to include something like this may have been the effect of Lucas' iron grip on the franchise at the time (or risking other established EU), but I can't be sure.

Then there are the bits of ridiculous inclusions, and explaining certain things away. The biggest snag I hit early on in the first book was the inclusion of a scene in which Luke is drinking hot chocolate. Yes, you read that right, HOT CHOCOLATE. Seriously? You know what, I'm reading a book about a universe which has rastafarian aliens, space wizards, and a very effeminate robot, so I guess I'm already suspending my disbelief enough to let this one slide.

Probably the most egregious offender in this case (and the most talked about) would be the ysalamiri, a species of force-resistant lizards that live on a backwater planet that the Empire has apparently gone to great lengths to hide. They do explain why you haven't heard of them before in much the same way Kamino is explained in Episode 2, but it seems a little strange that you wouldn't have heard anything at all about the ysalamiri or the planet they reside on (Myrkr) at least in passing before. But again, space wizards, giant ape-people with speech impediments, hot chocolate. I guess I can make another exception.

I feel the same way about Grand Admiral Thrawn, for all his supposed military genius you have for whatever reason, never heard of him before now.

Speaking of Thrawn, just why is he so bad anyways? This never really gets explained, it's almost like Zahn expects his readers to just accept that he's bad and that the heroes must stop him, but we don't see him do much of anything that evil. Reviving the Empire would be bad, sure, but Thrawn's not even in the same universe as the emperor (and Vader) who regularly killed people for their insolence, slaughtered an entire school of children, and essentially enslaved entire races (the Noghri, Wookie, etc). Every time it seems Thrawn might lose his cool, he collects himself and metes out a judgment which, to me, most of the time seemed fair. This gave me the impression that Thrawn was not the true threat here, but merely a distraction used to introduce Joruus C'Baoth (Dark Jedi) who would be the main focus of evil in this story.

It seems for all his military genius, Thrawn and co. act like the Keystone Cops in nearly every situation, and where that doesn't happen the Rebels think up some unorthodox approach to whatever Thrawn's thrown at them now. This is especially evident in the last part of The Last Command, where Zahn sets the stage for alternating pieces of an epic battle between Mara, Luke, and Joruus and also the rest of the rebellion against Thrawn at the Bilbringi shipyards. The Jedi battle is full of all the excitement and tension (and a bit of surprise) you'd expect from a lightsaber duel, but the space battle at Bilbringi is surprisingly short and disappointing in contrast to some space battles earlier in the series. Zahn makes a point to explain via Thrawn and Pellaeon just how much of an advantage they have over the rebels, which they still manage to squander. This also has the result of a disappointing end for Thrawn and co., as you get a final act of revenge and betrayal that seems oddly placed given the character who sets it in motion. It's about as satisfying as a punch to the groin, they've been setting an epic battle up throughout the book and it has such an anticlimactic end it nearly ruined the enjoyment I had found with the series.

All of my nitpicks with the series are not to say that it's not thoroughly entertaining, though. If this is the best the SW EU has, then I suppose that's neither here nor there, but I think it's only a matter of time before someone does it better (I personally think the Knights of the Old Republic games have a much better storyline, though I'm not sure how any Old Republic books panned out). Zahn does have a knack for writing the characters in the spirit of the original trilogy, although the frequent nods to lines from the movies are a bit distracting and groan worthy. The action is solid, although I found a notable lack of tension, and the universe building is interesting enough (keep Wookieepedia up nearby to look up all the various races and worlds though), but not on the same level as Tolkien in my opinion.

In short, this is the literary equivalent to carnival food. It's sweet, nostalgic, and tastes alright, but in the end there isn't much substance to it, and when looked at in retrospect you'll realize not that much of it is all that memorable.