Getting a Read: Thrawn
Thrawn
by Timothy Zahn
It’s my firm belief that when a person recommends a book to me, they’re handing me an inside look at their soul. In this series, “Getting a Read,” I try to uncover truth about books and their recommenders.
THE RECOMMENDER
Sarah Killingsworth—longtime Star Wars trivia expert and my partner-in-crime for nearly two decades.
HOW TO READ IT
By the light of an R2D2 lamp with a glass of Bantha milk on the coffee table in front of you, if you need reminders of the Rebellion in your life. If you’re a fan of the Empire through-and-through, kick your legs up, crack open this book, and enjoy the machinations of the old giants of the Empire.
REVIEW: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
Those who only know Star Wars through the movies will still recognize the galaxy far, far away in Thrawn—but just barely. This book is really written more for people like me. Yes. Me.
I’ll unabashedly admit to swallowing nearly the entire Expanded Universe between the ages of 10-15. By “Expanded Universe” I mean the stuff around Star Wars. That’ll be the comics, games, cartoons, and, most importantly to my young teenage self, books. Nowadays, there’s a split in that Universe. On one side, there’s the books I grew up with which have suddenly been uninvited to the table of the new Star Wars canon. Disney wanted to write their own stories with the new movies, so my favorite books just don’t count anymore. (*sobs new tears of sadness for Anakin Solo who died once in a book and then died again metaphorically by losing his right to existence in this shuffle*) Then there’s the new canon that lines up with the movies. This book, Thrawn, is included in that new canon.
But then again, this book isn’t really written for me at all. The reason? I’m a die hard fan of the rebellion. I’ve never been super interested in the bad guys—I want to see the underdog win, the good prevail, and the Ewok celebration at the end of it all. My friend Sarah, though… she’s got a bit of the dark side in her and she’s proud of it. This book is for her. Well… me and her. Or maybe metaphorically me and her?
You see, she and I remember the Zahn’s original trilogy featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn, a series which, much to Sarah’s chagrin, is no longer part of the official canon. Sarah fell head over heels for this red-eyed, blue-skinned, Chiss, master tactician on first read and her obsession with him never quit. I, being far more into the good guys, never thought twice about this fascinating, blue alien, even though he should be interesting: he’s a wildly powerful ALIEN in a XENOPHOBIC Empire, after all.
But others, like Sarah, pegged him as interesting. So much so that Thrawn made his way into the official canon by way of Star Wars: REBELS. Since his appearance on the series, he’s also gotten his own comic book mini-series, and of course, this book and its sequel. And let me tell you, this book got people in Thrawn’s camp pretty excited when it came out.
In it, we find the Grand Admiral an exile, undecorated yet by the Emperor, alone and waiting for his big break. He meets up with Ensign Eli Vanto who serves as his translator and later becomes his mentee. Vanto’s character grew a little over the course of the book but remained underdeveloped by the end. I’m hoping Thrawn: Alliances, this book’s sequel, picks up his story in more detail.
There are no great surprises in this book. Readers who pick it up likely already know Thrawn will work his way up, making friends and enemies along the way. More interesting than the plot in this book is the inside look at the machinations of Thrawn’s tactical brain. And perhaps even more interesting to me is the inside look at the Empire writ large.
This book takes you up and down the levels of Coruscant, showing how ordinary citizens try to make their way up the floors and up the ranks of the Empire’s great army. It talks about recruits and the tiny battles they wage among themselves as they try to get just a step ahead of their peers. It highlights the differences between backwater planets at the edge of the Empire and those at the Empire’s heart in a whole new way. If you want an inside look at cultural landscapes in Star Wars, this book paints a neat picture.
Zahn isn’t one for writing romance or space battles. In fact, his biggest space battles are sidestepped in favor of explaining how the battle was won or lost from a tactical standpoint, or some other far more interesting tiny story that happened in the middle of it. He wants to talk about politics and scheming way more than guns and explosions. Since Thrawn isn’t great at politics, he picks up the back story of another character EU fans will recognize: Ahrindra Price. He tracks both of their careers and in doing so gives us a chance to revisit characters like the Emporer and Grand Moff Tarkin, along with their many underlings who make up the elite rings of the Empire’s governing body.
Though I’m no fan of the Empire, this book helped me see how normal people might simply be able to go along with it, rather than resist. It showed me how a few great minds might try to make it work for their benefit and even sometimes for the benefit of others—at least when possible. Not all who serve the Emperor are quite, completely, evil…
This book did nothing particularly different from other Star Wars books in the way of format. If you like the others, you’ll like this one well enough. The one notable deviation was the use of italics to point out Thrawn’s observations of character and detail in his surroundings. These, while useful perhaps, became tiresome. In fact, the whole book was about a third longer than it needed to be, partly due to the inclusion of too many tiny details of movement in Thrawn’s career. Thrawn’s tactical wins are only surprising and interesting for so long before they simply become repetitive.
Read this book if you knew who Thrawn was before you read this post. You’ll probably dig it. Read this book if you’ve never heard of Thrawn but love the Empire. You’ll find a new reason to tell your rebel scum friends they’re wrong. Don’t read this book if you fit into neither category. But if you’re curious about the EU and want to get started reading it, do check out Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy. It’s a great read. And you might just find yourself reading this book after all once you’re done.
THE RECOMMENDER IN REVIEW
Reading this book drove home to me just how much Sarah loves plotting and politics. If she could ACTUALLY BECOME CHISS, I have no doubt she’d take the blue skin and red eyes in a heartbeat so she could also get the incredible tactical talent they possess. Next time I need help developing a grand scheme, I know just who to go to…
WHERE TO FIND IT
Pick up this book in any spot where books are sold. If you’re desperate, I bet Barnes and Noble has it in paperback by now. Order it online or place it on hold at the library, if you’re cheap and can wait. But I bet you can guess my favorite method: Support your local bookstore, folks—if they don’t have it on hand, I bet they can order it for you.
