Star Wars: Dark Force Rising was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY. This is book two of the original Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The stakes are raised in the second instalment of the Thawn trilogy! The New Republic and the Empire are in need of war-ships. Talon Karrde has information on the whereabouts of a Clone-Wars era fleet known as The Katana Fleet or Dark Force. The news travels fast as both factions learn where the ships are located.
Leia and Chewbacca are on a mission to gain a new ally for the New Republic, Han and Lando are on the search for the Katana Fleet, and Luke Skywalker meets with Jorus C’baoth to discuss the future of the Jedi! Meanwhile, Borsk Fey’lya is determined to climb the political ranks of the New Republic! He’s desperate for power, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the “wreck less heroics” of Republic heroes.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The second book in the Thrawn trilogy is definitely more entertaining than the first book, Heir to the Empire. Timothy Zahn had certainly had his hands full with all the characters and events taking place throughout the galaxy in this one. While some of the character quests taking place were a tab boring, others were more exciting.
While Leia had a lot to do in this story, I wasn’t much a fan of her storyline. tryng to mentally wake up an alien race that basically worshiped Vader and served the Empire. They thought the Empire had been helping them cleanse their planet. Turns out, the Empire wasn’t doing anything to help them. Leia does her best to open their eyes to that fact.
I was really captivated when Timothy Zahn brings Luke Skywalker to Jorus C’baoth. Zahn did a good job making me feel the discomfort Luke was experiencing during their meeting. Luke is very hesitant when it comes to Jorus, he’s uncomfortable around him. Luke doesn’t know if the old Jedi is in his right mind.
There was one big thing with the writing I couldn’t stand; Luke is seriously doubting Jorus C’baoth the whole time he’s with him, but when ill intentions are made known by C’baoth, it’s a total shock to Luke. This whole time Zahn has us believing that Luke has his wits about him and feels really uneasy about C’baoth… just to find be told that Luke didn’t expect such darkness and distrust from this crazy old mad-man.
Overall, Zahn balanced out the many plots fairly well. He builds up tension and puts in a few unexpected surprises throughout. Leia with a lightsaber, C’baoth stepping up to be a bigger threat than Thrawn realized, Borsk Fey’lya getting his voice heard in the uppper politics of the New Republic, and a few other things.
I once really enjoyed Thrawn, thinking he was a cool character. He’s so calm, collected, loves art and knows cultural war tactics. However, upon this re-read, I found the character to be highly annoying and uninteresting. I know I mentioned this in the review of Heir to the Empire, but this book solidifies the dislike of the character. I found Jorus C’baoth and BBorsk Fey’lya to be far more interesting.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Dark Force Rising? Yes.
RATING
For the rating of the second book of the Trawn trilogy, I give it a B
Star Wars: Dark Force Rising was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY. This is book two of the original Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The stakes are raised in the second instalment of the Thawn trilogy! The New Republic and the Empire are in need of war-ships. Talon Karrde has information on the whereabouts of a Clone-Wars era fleet known as The Katana Fleet or Dark Force. The news travels fast as both factions learn where the ships are located.
Leia and Chewbacca are on a mission to gain a new ally for the New Republic, Han and Lando are on the search for the Katana Fleet, and Luke Skywalker meets with Jorus C’baoth to discuss the future of the Jedi! Meanwhile, Borsk Fey’lya is determined to climb the political ranks of the New Republic! He’s desperate for power, and will stop at nothing to put an end to the “wreck less heroics” of Republic heroes.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
The second book in the Thrawn trilogy is definitely more entertaining than the first book, Heir to the Empire. Timothy Zahn had certainly had his hands full with all the characters and events taking place throughout the galaxy in this one. While some of the character quests taking place were a tab boring, others were more exciting.
While Leia had a lot to do in this story, I wasn’t much a fan of her storyline. tryng to mentally wake up an alien race that basically worshiped Vader and served the Empire. They thought the Empire had been helping them cleanse their planet. Turns out, the Empire wasn’t doing anything to help them. Leia does her best to open their eyes to that fact.
I was really captivated when Timothy Zahn brings Luke Skywalker to Jorus C’baoth. Zahn did a good job making me feel the discomfort Luke was experiencing during their meeting. Luke is very hesitant when it comes to Jorus, he’s uncomfortable around him. Luke doesn’t know if the old Jedi is in his right mind.
There was one big thing with the writing I couldn’t stand; Luke is seriously doubting Jorus C’baoth the whole time he’s with him, but when ill intentions are made known by C’baoth, it’s a total shock to Luke. This whole time Zahn has us believing that Luke has his wits about him and feels really uneasy about C’baoth… just to find be told that Luke didn’t expect such darkness and distrust from this crazy old mad-man.
Overall, Zahn balanced out the many plots fairly well. He builds up tension and puts in a few unexpected surprises throughout. Leia with a lightsaber, C’baoth stepping up to be a bigger threat than Thrawn realized, Borsk Fey’lya getting his voice heard in the uppper politics of the New Republic, and a few other things.
I once really enjoyed Thrawn, thinking he was a cool character. He’s so calm, collected, loves art and knows cultural war tactics. However, upon this re-read, I found the character to be highly annoying and uninteresting. I know I mentioned this in the review of Heir to the Empire, but this book solidifies the dislike of the character. I found Jorus C’baoth and BBorsk Fey’lya to be far more interesting.
Do I recommend you read Star Wars: Dark Force Rising? Yes.
RATING
For the rating of the second book of the Trawn trilogy, I give it a B
Star Wars: Heir to the Empire was written by bestselling author, Timothy Zahn. This Expanded Universe tale takes place during the New Republic Era, nine years ABY, just five hears after the events of Return of the Jedi. Heir to the Empire is book one of what’s widely referred to as, the Thrawn Trilogy.
SUMMARY
The Empire, divided and unorganized is spread throughout the galaxy. The New Republic foundations are sill unstable, as political infighting ramps up. From the outermost reaches of space, the wild, unknown regions, a threat to the New Republic emerges… an imperial Star Destroyer led by Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn sets his sights on gaining Imperial control of the galaxy once again. Disorder and the lust for power divided much of the Empire after the death of Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine. Thrawn devises a plan that could decapitate the New Republic (rebellion) and instill order in the galaxy once again. He seeks out an alien life-form that muffles the force, a wonderful tool to suppress the force in enemy number one, Luke Skywalker. Thrawn also seeks out a man named Jorus C’baoth, a lost Jedi. His plan is to use C’baoth to fulfill his quest, promising C’baoth that he can keep Luke Skywalker to build a new Jedi Order (that’s a bit twisted).
While Thrawn is on the hunt for the tools of conquest, Leia Solo (pregnant with twins) is busy avoiding abduction attempts; Han and Luke wind have an encounter with the Empire. Luke also comes face to face with a mysterious new enemy that burns with hatred.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This novel captured the attention of many Sar Wars film fans as it opened up the universe of the franchise on a grandiose scale. The Star Wars Expanded Universe became a force of its own. This book is highly regarded by the Star Wars reading community as one of the best! This review follows my second reading of the novel. It’s a fine story for sure.
The book is full of action and moves the characters around to many new planets. The characters jumping around from location to location, makes it a little difficult to keep up with where we are in the galaxy. We spend some time on Kashyyyk which was interesting. While this book really pioneered the Expanded Universe and is truly entertaining.
There seems to be a lack of communication between the big three; Luke, Leia, and Han. Rumors of a lost jedi resurfacing are spreading, Leia brings it up casually to Luke in conversation and he had no knowledge of it, How do you not mention this to your Jedi brother as soon as you hear about it? I believe the characters weren’t the most accurate depiction of what we’d seen from them on screen.
The story is cool for the most part, but the execution in much of it is a tad wonky. It seems like everyone in the story just knows a lot about everything, everyone knows too much! There are too many little coincidences that take place throughout the story in an attempt to tie the story into the films. Luke drinks “hot chocolate” – that just doesn’t feel like Star Wars.
Yet, this story has a lot of really cool things in it; Leia being trained, Luke facing new challenges and enemies, the surge of imperial power, and a force user that uses the dark side.
Thrawn, knows too much, and I don’t like it. The “smarts” he has in this book go beyond mere strategic abilities. He knows who’s on what ship, he knows the history of people, he knows everything! If Thrawn had the force, it would be more believable. Thrawn is pretty harsh at times which is a good character trait; he doesn’t tolerate poor work. He has an assistant – Rokh – and when Thrawn needs to remind his crew how the Empire should work, Rokh has no problem executing on Thrawn’s command.
So do I recommend you pick up an dread Star Wars: Heir to the Empire? The answer is yes. This story really does a great job expanding the universe of Star Wars beyond the Emperor and Vader, giving us a fresh new cast in the Empire.
Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil was written by New York Times Bestselling Author, Timothy Zahn. This is the final book in the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy. The Ascendancy trilogy as a whole, takes place after the events of Attack of the Clones.
SUMMARY: A threat to the Chiss Ascendancy is just on the horizon, but not all can see it coming. The enemy, Jixtus, has been formulating a plan to weaken the Chiss, turning the families against each other with lies and theatrics. Thrawn is fully aware of the deception and must act alone in order to keep the Ascendancy from collapsing in on itself, or from being conquered by outside forces, known as the Grysks.
CHARACTERS: A big cast of characters in this book, many military and political figures as well as a few alien races with very prominent roles, I’ll just briefly mention Thran and Jixtus.
Thrawn, as always knows what’s happening and is several steps ahead of everyone else. Sometimes its fun and believable, other times it’s silly and unbelievable. Thrawn seems to be in control of his own destiny, nothing comes as a surprise to him. I love that the Chiss families all have a grudge against him and want him ousted. Thrawn breaks the rules quite a bit, ignoring most of the orders given to him. Governing officials can’t stand him, but a handful of military leaders understand his motives but cringe at his risk taking.
I liked what Zahn was doing with the primary villain of the story. Jixtus is a pretty bad dude; he’s manipulative, controlling, and determined destroy the Chiss Ascendancy. While the character was handled well most of the time, I was actually somewhat underwhelmed with the overall arch of the character.
OVERALL THOUGHTS: For me, this novel has the same flaw as the previous instalments, the “Memories” chapters. These “memories” tend to foreshadow events or themes that are contained in the following chapters. I really don’t like reading unnecessary content that doesn’t mean much to the overall story… especially when it’s going make the following chapter(s) predictable There is one memory chapter in this book that actually was really good, it gave me the chills while reading it. That said, there is also one of these memory chapters, that left me outright confused as to what it was referencing, it seemed important, but there was no explanation of what was happening or why.
There is so much happening in this book, I’m surprised it was condensed down into a trilogy rather than a series of five or six books. I could be wrong but it feels like that’s something Zahn would’ve wanted to do, but it just didn’t happen. While the book is over 500 pages, which is pretty hefty in the Star Wars canon, it felt rushed in many places and left some aspects of the story wide open without conclusion.
I was hoping this book would tie up at the end with some sort of absolute closure with certain things, but it really didn’t. So many things can be brought back up in the future, which could be nice… but it also has me worried that we may never touch on these things ever again. For example, some awesome, wild tech is mentioned but not utilized in this story… we know it’s there now, we know what it’s capable of doing… I would hate it if we never get more use with it. There is more I can say on this, but I like to keep reviews spoiler free.
RATING: I enjoyed a lot of the book, but due to some of the issues that I really can’t seen get over, I give Thrawn: Lesser Evil a B.
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.
