Best in the Thrawn series

Removing the political drama of the first book, there is s great mix of both Clone Wars and Rebels era stories. The internal conflict in Vader does a great job of keeping him the villain, but foreshadowing his eventual turn under Luke. ( )

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 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. ( )

For me, this was a big step down from the last book. The pacing was slow, and the characters felt a bit flat. Even Thrawn just seemed a bit lacklustre in this entry. Fingers crossed for the next one. ( )

The second book in the new Thrawn trilogy. It was a good book and stood alone as it was its' own separate story arc and not a sequel to the previous book. I liked seeing Thrawn and Vader/Anikin together. The interplay was very entertaining. My rating is not to say it was anything bad, rather that I did like it but it was not life changing. ( )

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 address Cortosis-like details more frequently and deeply. ( )