Thrawn: Alliances

Executive Summary: Another solid Thrawn book, but not as good [b:Thrawn 31140332 Thrawn (Star Wars Thrawn, #1) Timothy Zahn https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1468787895s/31140332.jpg 51766424] in my opinion. There was also far less Darth Vader in this book than the cover seemed to imply.Audiobook: Another fantastic job as always by Marc Thompson. I don't read a lot of Star Wars books, but I'm always more inclined to listen to the ones he narrates. I don't like music/sound effects in audio books typically because I find they make it harder to focus on the story/hear the narration in most.These books however do a great job with it making it at times feel more like a radio drama than an audiobook. I will say that his voice for Padme sounds a lot like his voice for Leia, but given the fact that he's a male and Leia's parentage I was OK with this. All of his other voices sound exactly like the characters from the movies/TV series to me.Full ReviewSo I said in my summary that there is far less Darth Vader than I expected. That's because there is a lot more Anakin Skywalker. It turns out most of this novel is a flashback to the first time Thrawn encountered/interacted with the Republic/Empire. The stories are mostly told in parallel, but much of the story takes place in the past.I didn't care much for Anakin after watching the movies, but the Clone Wars show really changed my opinion on the character. I thought they did a far better job there (and had a far better actor playing him). And while I think Natalie Portman does a good job as Padme in the movies the writing of her character is also much better on the show. Thankfully Mr. Zahn bases his portrayal of Padme on the show.I've never been a huge Darth Vader fan. He's fine as an antagonist, and James Earl Jones has a fantastic voice but I just never found him that interesting. Thrawn on the other hand I think is probably the best antagonist the series has had, and I was glad to see him returned to cannon both on the page and in the Rebels TV show. I'd love to see him make his big screen debut at some point down the road.The pairing of the two was interesting because their talents complement each other pretty well. Anakin tends to act before he thinks, while Thrawn is always planning things several moves in advance.The story told here was entertaining enough but didn't do nearly as much to flush out Thrawn as the previous book did. There were a few little tidbits that have me intrigued, but as much of the book was a flashback we didn't get very much of the storyline from the previous book as I was hoping for. I think he's contracted to write a third book, so I'm hoping that book focuses more on those aspects.Overall, this was an enjoyable book and if you're a casual Star Wars book reader like me this is one worth picking up, especially in audio.