Thrawn

When Heir to the Empire came out, I was truly wondering who this Thrawn character was, and how dare they say that if he were the one guarding the Death Star, The Emperor would have ruled forever........what and My Lord Vader was just a footnote, so I started reading the first book, just so I can heap all my disgust on this, this Admiral Thrawn, if not for this emotion called love, My Lord Vader, would still be alive and the fates might have given him a different ending............hence the end of the Empire of Emperor Palpatine!!!!

I was honestly surprised that I am particularly starting to root for this blue colored non human, the things he accomplish thru sheer deduction and studying the movements of his opponents.......Masterful!!!! And so my hate for this Admiral, slowly turned to wonder then to hope that he can wrest back the control of the galaxy to the Empire, through the whole series, I was hoping and hoping but ultimately that hope burned.........again The Empire, My Lord Vader.....................defeated again!!!!!!

Years went by................when I learned of this book that will supposedly, tell us how Thrawn became one of the most distinguished Admiral of the Empire, I naturally got a copy, and after finishing it...........so this was how Thrawn began and he met My Lord Vader when he was that foolish jedi Anakin Skywalker!!!!! A truly worthy individual then and an eye opening read........

I'm always impressed by authors who can write genius characters well. I hadn't read anything by Timothy Zahn before this, but it's clear he has Thrawn's personality down pat. I'm enjoying how blurry the lines of Good vs. Evil are when it comes to Thrawn and his actions. His military decisions usually benefit humanity and minimize casualties, but it's unclear whether that's intentional or just the most prudent action for the time and place. I suspect these decisions will increase in complexity as he continues to rise the ranks in the Imperial Navy.

At times, it felt like there was a certain inevitability and repetitiveness to his advancement up the command chain, but that provided a nice juxtaposition to the stagnation of Ensign Eli Vanto's career. I was less enthralled by the secondary storyline, but things came together nicely in the end and I'm excited to continue on with this series.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

My hands are warm, I hold my mouse tight, my eyes squint at the Goodreads form.

Argh. I wanted to love this book. I love Thrawn and Zahn and still think the original Thrawn series is the best Star Wars prose we've had to date. While there is nothing wrong with this book, Zahn remains an able writer, there just isn't any real development of titular character. It's a weird sort of origin story in that Thrawn does not change over the course of the book. Sure, his human apprentice goes full circle, but I really couldn't care at all about that. We don't really get to know Thrawn as anything more or less than what we already got in the previous EU or Rebels. Ironically, the most well-developed character in the book is Governor Price!

This is not a bad book, but it's also not a particularly impressive one either. Thrawn is a novel that seems more like a necessary work to establish the credentials of the Grand Admiral in the new canon, rather than a truly engrossing take on the character. Why Zahn could not be unshackled to do both is what puzzles me.