Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances Book Review
Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Timothy Zahn.
This is the second novel in canon staring the legendary character, Thrawn! The novel takes place on the timeline after the first Thrawn book, as well as A New Dawn and during events in the Rebels television series.
SUMMARY: Up top I believe you should know that the book covers two timelines, The Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War. I won’t mention the Clone Wars era much as I found it to be secondary to the more recent events. Though, it is highly important.
So the Clone Wars era, Padme answers a call on Batuu, a planet on the edge of the unknown regions. She runs into trouble, causing Anakin to search for her. On this quest, Anakin meets Thrawn. It’s great stuff… but I’ll leave it at that.
During the Galactic Civil War era, Emperor Palpatine senses a disturbance in the Force generated from a great distance, the unknown regions. He calls upon Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader to seek out the source.
The duo isn’t too thrilled to have to work together, but they do so. Vader is appalled by Thrawn’s social/leading tactics, he lets his subordinates speak to him freely. Vader does not trust Thrawn, he’s suspicions of his loyalty to the Empire.
On this mission. They indeed discover a looming threat over the galaxy. Spoiler alert, spoiler alert, I’m going to mention the threat in 3… 2… 1… The Grysk! An alien species on the prowl ton concur the galaxy! They are brutal, and they have been watching the Empire, studying their tactics.
CHARACTERS: Up first is Thrawn. If you don’t know anything about Thrawn, he’s a Chiss, the blue guy on the cover. He’s calm, cool, collected, and wise. He likes to observe the situation at hand and calculate multiple scenarios before acting on emotion. Thrawn will listen to suggestions and input from others, perspective from another’s point of view could be important and useful. He likes to retain information, keeping it close to the chest. He doesn’t want others to be aware of what he thinks he knows… he believes it could persuade or alter the others own conclusions.
Anakin: He’s the complete opposite of Thrawn and he’s a Jedi! He’s arrogant, likes to shoot first, (or slash with a lightsaber) and ask questions later. Who needs a solid plan when you can wing it? He’s demanding and focused on executing his will.
Vader: Bits of his past still linger, though now, he’s a Dark Lord of the Sith. He’s angry, takes nothing from nobody. He takes charge with force (pun not intended). He doesn’t trust Thrawn or his loyalty to the Empire. Vader uses a familiar Force power in an all new way that I found incredible. (Not spoiling it in this review)
Finally, I didn’t expect to mention Padme… but I will. She’s whiney, and expects others to drop what their doing to assist her in accomplishing her goals. She’s also a horrible liar, but what else can you expect from a politician?
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances takes an important leap in expanding the universe in a thrilling and mysterious way! In canon, we have gone to the border of the unknown regions and discovered the tip of the iceberg in what could potentially be a huge expansion for Star Wars storytelling. This novel answers questions from the first Thrawn book, in revealing the possible threat to imperial space!
The alternating timeline doesn’t bother me in this book, Zahn does a great job switching between the timelines and with writing the characters as they would appear to be during the time in which the story is taking place. However, as interesting as the story is during the Clone Wars era with Anakin, Padme, and Thrawn… I couldn’t help but want to skip over it to get to the Galactic civil war era material.
Bringing some things from the prequel era is important, and when I say that, I’m meaning the films. We have Anakin and Padme together, we have R2D2 and his jet boosters. I wonder if those boosters were always in George’s mind for R2?
I really hope that this book is the introduction to a much larger universe that will continue on in other books, shows, and future films. There is a possible hint at the origins of The Skywalker name as well! The Chiss are an amazing species that I’d love to see more of. The threat in the unknown regions seems legit. I don’t know we’d get anything more with that within the Skywalker saga. However, in other novels, we’ve read that the First Order had to overcome a powerful force. I think it would be great to have this threat explored in a film or streaming show!
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances? Well, if you’ve been waiting for the Star Wars galaxy to Expanded in canon… yes!
RATING: I will give this book an A.