Review: Thrawn

Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Years ago, while in high school, I read Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy. This was in the early days of Star Wars novelizations. Before The new Jedi Order, before Darth Caedus and before Disney cleared the plate for the new Star Wars movies. Thrawn has always made an impression.

While we will always have the original Thrawn trilogy, this book and the recent Star Wars: Rebel series canonized Thrawn!

This book details Thrawn’s rise from lowly Lieutenant to Grand Admiral and the commander of the Seventh Fleet. This is Thrawn at his most “Thrawn” moments. The military victories resulted from Thrawn’s strategic planning and executions are such treats. Since he has to start without a command position, the situations give him more opportunities to display his personal ingenuity. Thrawn is a hacker in the traditional (not security hacking) sense. You can just tell that he would be really good at board games.

Thrawn’s chosen right hand man / protégé - Eli Vanto - is a great character. It’s impossible not to like him - loyal, smart, moral, and introspective. His development into a leader in his own right brings me hope that we will see him again.

Arihnda Pryce’s character development is the least believable plot line for me, but it seems to fit with her character well in the Star Wars: Rebel series (based on what I read).

Audiobook note: the reader is Marc Thompson and he read the other Thrawn books. His Thrawn voice is mesmerizing. A great listening experience. What’s not so great is that there are a lot sound effects that were put in for comlink signals, transitions, and etc. I think they are more distracting than adding flavor.

Highly Recommended