Book Review: 'Star Wars: Vision of the Future'

Cover art by Drew Struzan. (C) 1998 Bantam Spectra and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

Pros: Timothy Zahn's usual  reader-friendly style. Good characterizations. 

Cons: Ending is okay but not impressive

It is a time of peril for the New Republic.

Although 19 years have passed since Luke Skywalker left Tatooine and destroyed the Empire's first Death Star at Yavin, and even though the Galactic Empire now holds only a handful of star systems, political infighting, interspecies squabbles and other problems beset the former Rebel Alliance which has ostensibly defeated it.

Nevertheless, the Imperial Supreme Commander, Admiral Gilead Pellaeon has convinced Imperial Remnant's Council of Moffs that if the vestiges of the once mighty Empire want to survive intact, it is time to negotiate an end to the war with the New Republic.

Reluctantly, the Moffs agree and give Pellaeon the authority to send a peace feeler to Corellian Senator Garm Bel Iblis to see under what conditions the former Rebels would be willing to toleate the existence of a reduced Imperial presence in the galaxy.

In Specter of the Past, the first book of Timothy Zahn's Hand of Thrawn duology, we learned that one Moff, Disra, is leading a conspiracy to undermine Pelleaon's peace negotiations by fomenting interspecies conflicts -especially against the politically conniving Bothans - and exploiting the "discovery" of the Camaas Document, which reveals that race's involvement in a brutal post-Clone Wars attack which destroyed the planet Camaas early in Emperor Palpatine's reign.

Teaming up with a former stormtrooper named Gordin Tierce and a con man named Flim, Disra plans to destroy the New Republic or at least make it so unstable that it will give the Imperial Remnant time to build up a military strong enough to reclaim more of the galaxy. 

The plan is complex, but the key part involves a clever deception: Flim (with the assistance of makeup, implanted red eyes, and a Grand Admiral's white uniform) will impersonate the late Imperial military genius Thrawn, who nearly defeated the New Republic five years after the Battle of Endor before being killed at the Battle of Bilbringi 10 years ago.

With the aid of clone troopers, sleeper agents and an alliance with a pirate gang, Disra and Tierce hope to convince the galaxy that Thrawn survived the attempt on his life and is once again poised to restore the Empire to its former glory.

Meanwhile, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his sometime ally, Mara Jade, are investigating the existence of an individual or entity known only as the "Hand of Thrawn."   Luke suspects a connection between this "Hand" and the turmoil in the galaxy over the Camaas Document, and while Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Leia Organa Solo try to find clues as to whether the Camaas Document is genuine or not, the galaxy's only Jedi Master and the woman once known as the Emperor's Hand travel to a remote world in the Outer Rim in search of the truth......

My Take

Originally published in September of 1998, Zahn's novel is one of the few Star Wars novels which has left me feeling somewhat ambivalent.

On the one hand, it has all the hallmarks of a good Zahn-penned Star Wars tale: a mix of political intrigue, good characterizations, tips of the hat to the Classic Trilogy and a sense of continuity between various time periods covered in the Expanded Universe novels, including the as-yet unreleased New Jedi Order and even the upcoming Star Wars prequel films.

As usual, Zahn seems to be one of the few Expanded Universe authors who can make Luke Skywalker come across as a mature version of the farmboy-turned-Jedi from the first trilogy of movies.  In Vision of the Future, Luke is now in his late 30s and grappling with the challenges of rebuilding a new Jedi Order while wondering if maybe he is using the Force a tad too much.

He's also coping with his attraction to Mara Jade, a beautiful and smart woman who has gone from a Skywalker-hating Emperor's Hand to a respected and trusted ally.  Luke (and the reader of the time) is unaware of the Jedi tradition of not having attachments, but his past history with women has not been a felicitous one.  In several novels, Luke has loved and lost several women since he first met Mara Jade.

In fact, all of the characters, including new ones such as Jorj Car'das and Admiral Voss Parck, are all nicely fleshed out by Zahn's inimitably clear, crisp prose.

The problem of Vision of the Future, which incidentally was Bantam Spectra's final Star Wars novel, is that it's all build-up and rising tension that has one of the least thrilling conclusions I've ever read.

It's not, to be sure, a bad ending or anything like that.  It's just that it seems to be foreshadowing various other stories yet to come, including The New Jedi Order series, plus Zahn's own Outbound Flight books.

And perhaps I, being such a fan of the films with their exciting battle sequences, expected more action than the novel delivers.  I wanted more space battles or at least a good old-fashioned ground engagement between the forces of good and evil.  More of, say, the Saturday Matinee feel of the films would have made this novel a more pleasant read.