Thrawn: Alliances

I thought this was a really excellent Zahn and Thrawn book! The intertwined tale through past and present featuring Anakin, Padme, and Thrawn was so interesting and their character dynamics were exciting. PLUS, it was really fun to read something about Padme as her character is not written about as often as some others; I though Zahn did a great job as well continuing to show her as that delicate balance of warrior--politician as well.

This book was a breath of fresh air for me. Timothy Zahn has written something that feels like an old-school Star Wars adventure in the new Star Wars canon. The Star Wars novels written since Disney nuked the Extended Universe have ranged from the merely competent to downright awful, with a few excursions into active hostility towards the fanbase. So far, other than Zahn’s reboot of Thrawn, none have been fun.

This book was a lot of fun.

It might even be better than Thrawn, although that book was trying to do something very different than this one, which makes the comparison difficult. The last book in Thrawn’s story was a political thriller. This one is simple adventure, although Zahn made an interesting choice to tell two stories, show more widely separated in time, but unified in setting and protagonists.

The settings Zahn chose map onto The Clone Wars and Rebels respectively. We thus have one foot in the sunset of the Republic, and another in the dawn of the Empire. This book makes the most sense seen within the context of those cartoons, which are among my favorites of the Disney era.

We also lack the window into Thrawn’s mind the previous book provided, other than some brief observations on body language. Instead, we get to see into Vader’s head. I didn’t mind the shift in emphasis, because Zahn was able to deftly explain the way Vader sees himself. Years ago, I remember reading a fan theory that Obi-wan’s betrayal, the shock of accidentally killing his wife, and the process of being made into Vader caused a psychotic break in Anakin’s mind. Vader remembers being Anakin, but it was like it all happened to someone else. And precisely because of how horrible those experiences were, and his own complicity in how it all turned out, Vader doesn’t have much interest in introspection regarding his former life.

I don’t know who wrote that fan theory, or even where I read it, but they nailed it.

Zahn also gets to have a bit of fun with fan-service. Dave Filoni’s Rebels took a clever Thrawn gambit from the original trilogy of books, the Marg Sabl, and returned it to the canon by having Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s padawan in The Clone Wars, invent it. In Alliances, Zahn brings it full circle by having Anakin teach it to Thrawn.

Zahn resurrects the Noghri commandos here, who were the nemesis that brought justice upon Thrawn’s hubris in the original story arc. It isn’t at all clear what might happen this time, since Thrawn’s new origin story shifted his personality subtly. Padmé also makes an appearance here, and I feel like Alliances does her justice. Since Zahn also created one of the most popular female Star Wars characters, Mara Jade [whom I suspect of being based on his wife], I’m not surprised that he can write Padmé convincingly.

Of course, Zahn needs to pay his dues as well. One of the worlds in the book is Batuu, and the city upon it Black Spire Outpost, which is the name of one of the attractions under construction at the Galaxy’s Edge theme park at Disneyland. Zahn works hard to find a way to tell an interesting story while still putting in the requisite product placement and nods to other products in Disney’s Star Wars portfolio.

It probably helps that this isn’t the first time he’s tried.

Zahn has written this book before, Outbound Flight. I read it in 2016, and so far, it has been the only Zahn book I’ve given a tepid review. I felt it was just too hard for Zahn to try to reconcile his early 1990s inventions for the course of the Star Wars universe post-Return of the Jedi with the later prequels. This was Zahn’s opportunity to reboot that story, where Anakin Skywalker met Thrawn out beyond known space, and he made the best of it.

I would say that this is hearkening back to the Star Wars that could have been, the road that was not taken, but Timothy Zahn and Ron Howard and Dave Filoni and Gareth Edwards make me think there is an active resistance to the identitarian overreach of The Last Jedi.

This isn’t just the Star Wars that was, in the old Extended Universe, it is the Star Wars that is. show less

This is book 2 in the new Thrawn series, which is by far, some of the best books in the new canon. This book takes place after the third season of Star Wars Rebels, and references things that happened in the show.
Things that I liked about this book: It's limited down to 2/3 characters, with a couple supporting. I didn't feel like it was a splattering of characters all competing for my attention.

I liked how Darth Vader thinks about himself before he turned to the dark side. He never thinks "I did this" but refers to That Jedi. Complete separation of identities which works well when thinking about conversations he will later have with Luke.

Thrawn knows a lot and has mixed loyalties. I am very interested in knowing what happens to him show more and more about the Chiss and look forward to more books in this series. show less

Now that Thrawn has made his way into the official Star Wars canon through his appearances in Star Wars Rebels, author Timothy Zahn once again returns to his creation for a follow up to his previous novel, Star Wars: Thrawn, which I actually think might be the better of the two novels. Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances suffers from the choice to weave together two story lines which covers two timelines, The Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War. And while this novel is relatively enjoyable (for the most part) it is also a very flawed entry into the canon.

In the Clone Wars storyline, Padme answers a call on Batuu (the planet the new Disney theme park is based on), a planet on the edge of the unknown regions. She runs into trouble, causing show more Anakin to search for her. On this quest, Anakin meets Thrawn.

During the Galactic Civil War era storyline, Emperor Palpatine senses a disturbance in the Force generated from a great distance, the unknown regions. He calls upon Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader to seek out the source.....and the source is an alien threat!

The duo isn’t too thrilled to have to work together, but they do so and this does make for some interesting dynamics. Vader is appalled by Thrawn’s social/leading tactics and Vader does not trust Thrawn, he’s suspicious of his loyalty to both the Empire and his people, the Chiss.

While you may think that pairing up Thrawn and Vader would make for a very thrilling outing. you would be mostly correct. The book is the strongest when these two characters are interacting. Zahn provides insight into Vader and what goes on behind that mask, and while it's occassionly intriguing it is ultimately a hindrance to the Star Wars mythos. It's problematic to put readers inside Vader's head too much. Making him appear uncertain or outsmarted by Thrawn is a VERY difficult thing to do. Basically, Zahn does a good job of making Vader feel like the organic development of the whiny, flip-flopping Anakin...and well, as Vader himself says at one point: "Anakin Skywalker is dead." Good. Stay that way I say.

What I enjoyed most about the first book (Star Wars: Thrawn) was not only did we get to witness Thrawn's rise in the Imperial ranks but we got inside his brilliant head. Thrawn's perception and deductive abilities were portrayed much like Sherlock Holmes, with italicized passages summing up clues and moments of perception. Thrawn was calculating, cold, and precise. In Alliances, Thrawn mainly functions as a foil for Vader and a poor one at that. Plus, neither Thrawn nor Vader come off as threatening or menacing as they should. Really, Thrawn here is reduced to a bland bad guy who happens to be a mastermind.

Plus, Alliances is more about Anakin/Vader and Padme than it is about Thrawn. This is a story about Anakin Skywalker, how his actions foreshadow the birth of Darth Vader, how Darth Vader thinks of Anakin Skywalker, and what kind of person the man behind the mask is. I DON'T CARE. I was promised more of Thrawn and that's what I want. There's very little development of Thrawn as a character or for his background, and this is disappointing as really this is part of a trilogy that is about Thrawn as a character.

The pacing is problematic too (the novel starts off promising and finishes decently), I think this issue in pacing has to do with the story-line that revolves around Padme. She slows the plot down. Poor Zahn, I just think its hard to write (and for the reader) to envision Padme after seeing the prequels (which are problematic on their own). She just isn't as badass as Leia, Mara Jade, Jyn Erso, or Rey. Also, the narrator for the audiobook cannot do female voices at all. And that was a huge distraction for me.

The most exciting aspect of this novel is what the particular alien threat could mean for the expansion of the Star Wars universe in the future. If there is an alien threat in the outer regions, there could finally be a reason for the first order/empire and the resistance/rebels and the rest of the universe to coexist in order to beat a threat that is greater than them.

Additionally, there are hints (hint: the title for the next book is called Treason) that Thrawn will in fact somehow betray the Empire in order to help his people, The Chiss, even though they disowned him. If so, I will be interested in seeing Darth Vader and Thrawn face off as enemies.

Thrawn: Alliances is a relatively enjoyable but also extremely flawed entry into the canon that struggles to balance its weaving storylines with appropriate character development. It does successfully introduce new ideas into the universe and sets up the potential for a more riveting third book. show less

Spring 2019 - audiobook;

I'm so torn between 4 stars and 5 stars, but I'm trying not to end up passing judgment on the Zahn for a narrator who just made me think stoned surfer boy every single time Anakin spoke, and whiny wimpy small child every time Padme did. I loved, love, love, his Thrawn voice, and I loved the book and story, itself quite a lot.

I love the stories with the children. I love the tit-a-tat going back and forth between Anakin & Thrawn in the past, where they first met, and Darth Vader & Thrawn in the future. I love the respect, and challenge, and the ultimate sorrow we get in some of those back and forth's between them in those different time periods because they are what are.

I love everything about Padme in this book. show more About her haring off to save her own handmaiden (and always more things about the handmaidens!) and about her own husband assuming she'd come save him once he got himself into too much trouble with slamming into a situation too bruskly. It's beautiful. It's definitely left me wanting to read the first and third book. show less

This was still definitely a very fun romp in the world of Mitth'raw'nuruodo: Noted Blue Homosexual, but I think was not as fun about the first one? Part of my struggles were the two narratives which probably work really well for people who are not like me (ie not stupid), but it made it feel sort of more splintered to me. It didn't NOT work, but it didn't flow for me as much as I wanted it to.

Regardless, this was just delightful; the larger plot is SO INTRIGUING and makes me want to shake Zahn for the next book in the best way. The frantagonism (friend-antagonism) of Thrawn and Vader was great, though honestly I wanted more of Thrawn's impressions of Vader? And the Clone Wars-era plot was good and interesting, and in a lot of ways this show more was pretty clearly a Middle Book in a Trilogy but it was also good and meaty in ways the first one wasn't honestly, and that was good too. show less

I wonder if this would be a better book if it simply ditched the first third of the story. Darth Vader and Thrawn doing a buddy-cop routine in a bar doesn't exactly hit the same notes as The Last Command.

Still, the book picks up from there. Thrawn is less annoying when he's really unaware of how hard he can push Vader. Meanwhile, Vader is most intriguing when he's actually struggling with the identity of "The Jedi."

You get the sense that Zahn has the essence of a great story and dynamic between the two (three?) principle characters in the book. However it just seems like a lot of the plot that moves us from one scene to another is largely interchangeable. That's okay, but given the chance to fill holes in canon, I'd hoped Zahn would show more address Cortosis-like details more frequently and deeply. show less