Book Review: 'Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason'
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| Cover art by Two Dots Studio. © 2019 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Set shortly before the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels, the television series that officially placed Thrawn in the Star Wars canon, Thrawn: Treason pits its titular protagonist, not against the ever-growing threat from the budding Rebel Alliance but against foes from within and without the Empire itself.
Grand Admiral Thrawn faces the ultimate test of his loyalty to the Empire in this epic Star Wars novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn.
"If I were to serve the Empire, you would command my allegiance."
Such was the promise Grand Admiral Thrawn made to Emperor Palpatine at their first meeting. Since then, Thrawn has been one of the Empire's most effective instruments, pursuing its enemies to the very edges of the known galaxy. But as keen a weapon as Thrawn has become, the Emperor dreams of something far more destructive.
Now, as Thrawn's TIE defender program is halted in favor of Director Krennic's secret Death Star project, he realizes that the balance of power in the Empire is measured by more than just military acumen or tactical efficiency. Even the greatest intellect can hardly compete with the power to annihilate entire planets.
As Thrawn works to secure his place in the Imperial hierarchy, his former protégé Eli Vanto returns with a dire warning about Thrawn's homeworld. Thrawn's mastery of strategy must guide him through an impossible choice: duty to the Chiss Ascendancy, or fealty to the Empire he has sworn to serve. Even if the right choice means committing treason.
After a prologue in which a Chiss Ascendancy warship under the command of Admiral Ar'alani stealthily tracks an Imperial Star Destroyer deep in the Unknown regions, Zahn's narrative begins shortly after the failed Rebel strike against Thrawn's TIE Defender facility on Lothal. With Hera Syndulla's local cell temporarily stymied, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin warns the Empire's only alien Grand Admiral that funding for the TIE Defender program – which Thrawn believes is more useful to Emperor Palpatine's New Order than Orson Krennic's "Stardust" project – is in peril.
Eventually, Tarkin orders Thrawn and his Star Destroyer Chimaera to rendezvous with Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit, commander of the Imperial Navy's Third Fleet, aboard the Star Destroyer Firedrake. There, Tarkin says, the Emperor himself will give Thrawn and several other senior commanders their new assignment in order to crush the Rebellion and end any threat to the top-secret Stardust project.
Once aboard the Firedrake, Thrawn attends a conference in which Director Orson Krennic, Grand Admiral Savit, and Grand Moff Tarkin are present. Palpatine is there as well, but as a holo beamed in from the Imperial Palace on Coruscant.
From his remote location in the Imperial capital, Palpatine watches as Krennic and Thrawn vie for his favor - and Imperial funding for their competing projects. Krennic wants the Empire to focus on the unfinished battle station that only a select few can openly refer to as the "Death Star." Thrawn believes that investing so much of the Empire's budget on an unproven and potentially vulnerable superweapon is too risky. It would be safer, Thrawn thinks, if Palpatine were to back the advanced TIE Defender program that, if implemented, would provide the Empire with a starfighter capable of defeating the Rebels' growing snubfighter squadrons.
Pitting Krennic against Thrawn, the Emperor watches with amusement as Grand Moff Tarkin, (who is the Death Star's political advocate) makes a wager. If the Chiss Grand Admiral can solve Krennic's problems with mynock-like creatures called grallocs and end their disruptions of Stardust's supply line, then the Emperor should restore funding to the TIE Defender program on Lothal.
The wily Krennic accepts Tarkin's proposal but adds one proviso: Thrawn must get rid of the grallocs – which the Director of the Advanced Weapons Division claims are responsible for the disappearance of supply shipping in this sector of space – in one standard week.
Seemingly unaware that Krennic might be laying a career-ending trap for him, Thrawn agrees to the Director's conditions and promises that the grallocs will be dealt with in a week's time.
To make sure that Thrawn fails in his mission to solve the problem of the grallocs, Krennic arranges for his deputy, Assistant Director Brierly Ronan, to be assigned to the Chimaera to hinder the alien Grand Admiral's efforts to get rid of the parasitic space creatures in the agreed-upon time span.
But as Thrawn: Treason unfolds, Imperial political intrigue and bigotry on the part of both Krennic and Ronan are the least of Thrawn's problems. Other, far more dangerous foes threaten the Stardust project, and as Thrawn's former protegé Eli Vanto returns after his mysterious absence from the Imperial Navy, they are a danger to both the Galactic Empire and Thrawn's own people, the Chiss Ascendancy!
My Take
Grand Admiral Thrawn has been one of my favorite Star Wars antagonists ever since Hugo Award-winning author Timothy Zahn introduced him in 1991's Star Wars: Heir to the Empire. In that book and the other two volumes of Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy, Thrawn was the pitch-perfect foil for Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, and the still-young New Republic in their continuing fight against the remnants of the Empire five years after the Battle of Endor.
Although Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command are not canonical, Lucasfilm was persuaded by the head of the Animation Department, Dave Filoni, to add Thrawn to the cast of characters in Season Three of Star Wars Rebels. Filoni argued that Thrawn is one of the most popular creations of the old Expanded Universe (now relabeled as "Legends"), and that many Lucasfilm employees, including Filoni himself, love the character and wanted him "rebooted' into the canon.
In a brilliant merchandising move, Lucasfilm's corporate heads agreed, and Timothy Zahn was asked not only for permission to use his creation, but to also write a trilogy of novels that, per the 2014 rules for Star Wars novels and comics, would be part of Star Wars canon rather than be relegated to a semi-canonical existence like much of the old Legends lore.
Thrawn: Treason completes the story arc that began in Star Wars: Thrawn, the 2017 novel that retconned how and why Thrawn joined the Galactic Empire and rose up the chain of command to wear the white uniform of a Grand Admiral in the Imperial Fleet. That book was followed by Thrawn: Alliances, in which Thrawn must join forces with Lord Darth Vader to investigate a mysterious disturbance in the Force on Batuu, a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories.
If you have read Zahn's Star Wars novels, comic book scripts, and short stories (even the non-canonical stuff in Legends), you know that you are getting some of the best writing in Star Wars fiction. His characters, ranging from the ones we've seen on Star Wars Rebels and in films such as Rogue One and the original Star Wars from 1977, are fully-fleshed out and are not one-dimensional. Zahn's unique talent (he has a good ear for the characters' voices - both spoken and inner thoughts) is taking people we've seen and heard in visual media and bringing them to life on the printed page.
An online acquaintance of mine describes Thrawn as a military version of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, an intellectual and erudite man who prefers using deduction and reading his opponents' psychological makeup to defeat them rather than use brute force. It's hard to disagree with this take on the character, which is how the writers on Star Wars Rebels also depict Thrawn on their animated Star Wars show.
But although Thrawn is the central character of this first canonical Star Wars book trilogy (Zahn is now working on a set of stories set before Thrawn joins the Empire), the author gives readers an immersive literary world full of vivid characters and exciting situations. In Thrawn: Treason, the good Grand Admiral is joined by Commodore Karyn Faro, an up-and-coming Imperial Navy officer who commands the Chimaera and has a rapier-sharp intellect and tactical acumen that only grow better under Thrawn's tutelage.
We also get the return of the "prodigal" Eli Vanto, who spent all of Thrawn: Alliances "off-screen" with the Chiss Ascendancy. His reunion with the Empire is not exactly a happy one for Vanto, who many other officers in the Imperial hierarchy treat with disdain because they think he betrayed his oaths of loyalty to the Emperor and colluded with an alien species.
There are other characters and subplots in Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason that add zing to Zahn's thrilling tale of adventure, political intrigue, and the early days of the Galactic Civil War, but I will leave those for you to discover on your own. Obviously, there are connections large and small to both Star Wars Rebels' fourth and final season and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, so watch for the odd Easter Egg here and there.
I eagerly recommend this novel; it is well-written and keeps a reader's interest in a consistent and entertaining fashion. You don't need to have watched Rebels or Rogue One to enjoy its literary charms, but watching Seasons Three and Four of the former will add context to Zahn's story and Thrawn's relationships with Krennic and Grand Moff Tarkin.
So, until next time, clear skies, Gentle Reader, and may the Force be with you.
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