The Last Command

Timothy Zahn opens the final volume of his Thrawn trilogy a month after the events of his previous book, Dark Force Rising. Having successfully captured the vessels of the Dark Force fleet and staffed them with his new army of clones, Grand Admiral Thrawn begins a relentless campaign of conquest against the New Republic. As world after world falls to the Imperial forces, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo search in vain for the location of Thrawn's cloning facilities while Leia Organa Solo prepares to give birth to her twin children with Han. And with an Imperial target on his back Talon Karrde tries to organize his fellow smugglers into a force allied with the New Republic against the Empire. Yet the key to turning the tide rests with Mara show more Jade, the former agent of Emperor Palpatine who has just recovered from weeks of medical treatment. But can she convince the New Republic to trust her before Thrawn rebuilds the Empire once more?

Having introduced a range of characters and plot threads in the previous two entries in his series, Zahn faces the challenge in his concluding volume of bringing his story to a satisfying conclusion that maintains the quality of his earlier books. This he does, thanks in large measure to maintaining a narrative consistency that is often missing from later entries in the franchise. While diehard fans of the original trilogy may be dissatisfied with how Zahn marginalizes some of the main characters from the movies in favor of his original creations (particularly Han Solo, who spends much of the book in the background of events), it results in a much richer universe from which so much would grow. And this, in retrospect, is the book's greatest achievement, as in combination with its preceding volumes it resuscitated what was until then a fading franchise, sparking the production of so much of the media that followed. It is difficult to imagine a greater acknowledgement of Zahn's success than that legacy. show less

Here it is, the final installment of the Thrawn trilogy. Questions are answered, alliances are settled, battles are won. This is what I want out of a Star Wars book and a series. We finally see what Thrawn's grand plan is, and see his first successes. We also see C'baoth's ultimate scheme to win over control of Luke, Leia, AND Mara Jade and turn them into his willing servants. This is powerful storytelling that almost surpasses the original trilogy (again, ALMOST), and absolutely surpasses the prequel trilogy a hundred times over. This is the story I would have much rather seen in theaters as a follow up to the series I grew up on.

Also, it has to be said, I wish I'd read this first. Going back and reading other Expanded Universe stories show more after this series has left me wanting. Even authors who claim to have coordinated with Zahn as he was completing his trilogy seem to have just neglected details of his story for their own, inferior stories. show less

The finale of "The Thrawn Trilogy" is an exciting culmination of the shaky New Republic's stand against the cunning plans of Grand Admiral Thrawn to reestablish the Empire. It's great to have Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, Artoo, and Threepio all working together. Then there are wild cards like Mara Jade, a tentative ally who is sworn to kill Luke for her former master Palpatine, and the mad Jedi clone C'baoth who believes that he rules the Empire instead of Thrawn. The book could be trimmed of some of the excessively talk parts, and I could do without all the subplots involving Talon Karrde and other smugglers, but it is a satisfying conclusion.

I still think this books could be the inspiration for movies set after the destruction of show more the Second Death Star. They would have to be animated movies, because of the age and deaths of the cast members. But I think you could make a good story with elements such as Thrawn, Mara Jade, and the Noghri. Things would have to be adjusted to fit into the Sequel Trilogy, such as Leia giving birth to one child instead of twins. I'd also dispense with C'baoth and anything to do with cloning since clones were already central to the Prequels and Rise of Skywalker. But there's a good kernel here for a fun film trilogy or maybe a Disney+ series. show less

I LOVE how EVIL Grand Admiral Thrawn is. No really, how he sees a graceful beauty in betrayal and execution of destroying your enemy- even if he's not the one doing it. He is a master planner seeing multiple options and avenues to return to his main objective-- oh how I love to loathe him!!!

I loved listening to these 3 books, they were so much fun with the sound effects and all!

I'm struggling to write a proper review. Much of what I've written about the first two books can be applied here: the familiar characters from the movie are flat, Zahn's original characters are well-drawn, and the peril doesn't seem too perilous. Zahn brings the trilogy to a proper close and wraps up all of the plot lines. All that's really left is to figure out how many stars to give it.

I distinctly remember the way Han Solo uttered "sweetheart" in the movies. It wasn't a term of endearment. So every time he used the term on Leia in this book, I got a bad vibe. It gave me a negative view about his relationship with Leia, who is now his wife and the mother of his kids. Throughout the series, I've felt that Zahn got Han's character show more wrong, and it's no different here.

Another negative was the character of Joruus C'baoth. He was a windbag with an ego the size of a planet. Sure, he was powerful, but most of the time he was just full of hot air. Contrast him with Thrawn and the differences couldn't be more stark. Thrawn was the brilliant tactician who used a culture's art to gain strategic insight. Cold and calculating, he was the military mastermind that was always two moves ahead of his opponents, and when dealing with C'baoth, he always kept his emotions in check.

The other positives were the smuggler Talon Karrde and his associate Mara Jade. Despite what the book blurb would have you believe, Karrde was the one that struggled to form the smugglers' coalition. His storyline in this book was really good as he tried to outwit the nitwit that Thrawn sent to undermine his efforts. And Jade struggled with her compulsion to kill Luke while also doing the right thing by Leia. Meanwhile, the Alliance was split on whether or not she was an Imperial spy or Alliance ally. But I wasn't too keen on how her internal conflict was resolved. It involved something that I thought had been lost in one of the movies. My reaction being: "No way, you found that? How?"

So in the end, I'd say that this series was consistent. It had its good points and bad points. I was entertained, but in a beach read sort of way. Therefore, I'm going to stay consistent with my rating.

3.5 stars show less

Personally I don’t find this to be as put together as the first two, but a solid ending, leaving you wanting more. Spaceships, daring raids, lightsaber duels… yep this is Star Wars alright

Ok, I enjoyed this. It wrapped up VERY quickly though. As was reading along, I kept waiting for things to fall apart for the badguys, and they do, but not until almost the last chapter.

It reminded me of the Original Trilogy. Man, I wish this trilogy would be made into a movie trilogy. Oh well.

And I think Zahn does an admirable job of writing about things that he has no history with and makes it work. Things that are gone over much later in the EU books. Cloning, the force, cloning jedi,Borsk Feyla [Oh, how I hate that scumbag Bothan!], MARA JADE! Damn you Lucas Books People for killing her off, the twins.

So many things are started here in this trilogy that the EU uses, that to be honest, these books are almost more important to the EU show more than the original movie trilogy is. 'nuff said. show less