Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Timothy Zahn. The book was published by Del Rey (thank you for the advanced material). Greater Good is the second installment of the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy.
SUMMARY: Thrawn is tasked with finding out if the Vagaari Pirates are returning to Ascendancy space to cause havoc or if they have possibly allied with the Paataatus. During this investigation, Thrawn has a run-in with a group of refugees who believe their world and/or its inhabitants have been destroyed. The leader of these people has the authority to order the rest of her race, to end their life to join the “beyond,” to be one with their world once again, in a different form. Thrawn takes it upon himself to prevent these people from killing themselves and to find their world.
Elsewhere, a rare/expensive material is given to a member of the Xodlak family as a gift. The after affects of this gift brings the Xodlak family to call its members together, withdrawing warriors and officials within the Ascendency to report in to a family “emergency.” The Xodlak find the origins of this material and want to claim it for themselves, this could potentially bring them back into a ruling family status.
Will Thrawn save the alien race from committing mass suicide? Will the Xodlak family bring about civil war? Will Jixtus get the answers he’s seeking? You’ll have to read the novel to find the answers to those questions!
CHARACTERS: There are so many characters in this tale that push the plot forward. I’m going to mention just a few.
Thrawn, as always seems to have the upper hand. He’s a problem solver, a leader, and an artist. He still has an issue with authority. Ba’kif (the General of the Chiss Defense Force) lets Thrawn know that the Ascendency is hesitant in allowing Thrawn to venture too far out of known space. Thrawn’s confrontation with Yiv the Benevolent brought unwanted attention by the Syndicure. As a result, the Syndicure doesn’t want the Expansionary Defense Fleet to be spread out too thin across space. Thrawn… disagrees. Thrawn has to be reminded of the Ascendancy policy – no military action should be taken unless Ascendancy territory is attacked first!
Likinda, Commander of the Chiss warship, Grayshrike, has an interesting conflict that arises between her morality and the Xodlak family. With the events that she faces, it gives us deeper insight as to how the families operate.
Jixtus was mentioned briefly in The first book, Chaos Rising. In this tale, he is brought into the story a lot more, but still just a mysterious robed figure with a spy gathering intel on the Chiss. He’s very interested in how the Chiss navigate through space. He believes the Chiss have a navigational device from the people in lessor space, taken from the people long ago when the Chiss had taken part in their wars. Jixtus wants this device.
Quote of the book comes from one of the Chiss upon receiving a gift:
“If one wants the joy of giving, one must in turn except the humbleness of receiving, as to allow others their own joy.”
OVERALL THOUGHTS: I was pleased with book one, Chaos Rising. Was I pleased with part two, Greater Good? Yes! This book offers an excellent story. It’s widely known as the second book in a Thrawn trilogy, but it’s so much more than just a Thrawn story. There are many characters in this book that play a critical role in pushing the plot forward.
There is a lot of conflict in this story, and it’s handled so well. Zahn brings in a whole new level of drama in this book involving differences in alien species, Chiss families, and authoritative conflict within the Ascendancy itself. Thrawn is usually predictable in that, he’s perfect… he knows how to resolve everything – always. While that’s mostly true, the other characters ground the story, making the novel so interesting and unpredictable. I can’t wait to see how Timothy Zahn concludes the Thrawn Ascendency trilogy.
Timothy Zahn creates his own corner of the galaxy… so unique, fresh, yet familiar!
There are a few things I have to say about the Audiobook production. First, the positive – Marc Thompson does an excellent job narrating the story. He’s highly entertaining and puts in a lot of effort with each character of the book.
The negative, I feel that in some parts the music was misplaced and/or too loud. the narration was a little too slow for my taste, which made it a little difficult following along with the story.
Rating: This book receives a B+