Simplified Series - Thrawn

Not pictured: the dozens of mediocre intermediary Star Wars EU books.

My feverish pursuit of MOAR content brought forth this feature: Simplified Series. Here's the pitch: quick synopses (I'll try and keep them spoiler-free, but you know, most of these are past the statute of limitations on spoilers) of the entries in a series followed by the reasons you should or shouldn't read it. This week:

The Thrawn trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology by Timothy Zahn

Background info: So before Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.5 billion, Star Wars had a sprawling expanded universe of tie-in novels and comic books that were all (sort of) in continuity with each other and the films. Timothy Zahn opened and closed what I'll call the 90s phase of the Star Wars EU. His bestselling Thrawn trilogy introduced fan favorites like Grand Admiral Thrawn, Captain Pallaeon, and, of course, Mara Jade. Plus such fan-tolerated additions as vornskrs, ysalamiri, Joruus C'Baoth, and, of course, Luuke (sic) Skywalker. Meanwhile, the Hand of Thrawn duology, caught up with our heroes about a decade after the Thrawn trilogy to put a close to this era of the EU (fairly literally, I think these were the last major Star Wars books published by Bantam before Lucasbooks became a thing over at Del Rey).

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire (1991) - So, it's five years after the Battle of Endor, Luke doesn't know how to live up to the Jedi legacy, Leia doesn't know how build the New Republic, Han, Lando, and Chewie don't know how to be respectable citizens, and Timothy Zahn doesn't know what to do with Artoo and Threepio. The good news is, Han and Leia are married and expecting twins. The bad news is that the remnants of the Imperial fleet have reunified under the command of the blue-skinned, red-eyed Grand Admiral Thrawn, even worse, he's got a mad, dark-force-wielding Jedi clone left over from the Clone wars on his side. The even worse news? The Emperor's personal assassin, Mara Jade, is trying to carry out Palpatine's final order: Kill Luke Skywalker. Can Luke resist the lure of a living Jedi teacher? Why are diminutive, scaly warriors trying to kidnap Leia? Is Mara Jade the most obvious surprise love interest of all time?

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising (1992) - Thrawn's search for the lost Katana fleet from the Clone Wars has lead him to Mara Jade's employer, smuggler king Talon Karrde (character names are hard, okay). Meanwhile, Han and Lando are trying to find out who framed Admiral Ackbar for treason, Leia and Chewie are tracking down the alien commandos who've been trying to kidnap her (they're called the Noghri and they're super loyal to Darth Vader). Also, Joruus C'Baoth has contacted Luke through the Force. Who will win the race to the Katana fleet? Will Luke and Mara Jade ever resolve their differences? Will the Noghri ever realize how uncomfortable they make Leia by calling her "Lady Vader"?

Star Wars: The Last Command (1993) - "NOW I HAVE A FLEET OF WARSHIPS CREWED BY CLONES HO-HO-HO," says Gr. Adm. Thrawn to the New Republic. Meanwhile, Mara Jade's a good guy now, and helps stop the kidnapping of the new solo twins Jacen and Jaina. Also, somehow, Thrawn has obtained Luke's old hand (the one Darth Vader cut off in Cloud City and which is definitely LOST FOREVER along with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, I don't care what you say old EU and The Force Awakens) and Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber (see previous parenthetical comment), and uses the cloning technology from the Katana fleet to make a clone named Luuke (sic) Skywalker for Joruus C'Baoth to train. Will the existence of a clone of Luke Skywalker provide an easy out for Mara Jade to fulfill the Emperor's last command? Wait is that why this book is called The Last Command? Will Thrawn's overconfidence lead to his untimely demise?

Star Wars: Specter of the Past (1997) - Ten years later, and after going through seemingly every other Imperial officer, the Empire is under the command of (now) Admiral Pellaeon (wait, did I get through summarizing the Thrawn trilogy without mentioning Captain Pellaeon? I did! I've lost my edge.). Also, the  Battle of Endor was fifteen years ago, how has the New Republic not eliminated the Empire yet? Anyway, a seemingly (spoilers?) resurrected G. A. Thrawn shows up, sending everyone into panic spirals and threatening to tip the balance of power in the Galaxy. Anyway, Luke and Mara apparently still haven't figured out that they're each other's love interests. Is Thrawn really back from the dead? Is Timothy Zahn still trying to make Garm Bel Iblis happen? To borrow a turn of phrase from Regina George:  Zahn, stop trying to make Garm Bel Iblis happen, he's not going to happen!

Star Wars: Vision of the Future (1998) - That last one got away from me. What were we talking about? Oh right. Vision of the Future. Everyone's looking for a Macguffin called the Caamas document. But I'm not here to talk about that. Luke and Mara are in a five-towered fortress called the Hand of Thrawn (see what they did there?) in the Unknown regions. Turns out that Thrawn is originally from the Unknown Regions and Thrawn is short for Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Goddamnit, Zahn, apostrophes in a name indicate when something is short for something! (or glottal stops) They don't belong in the long version of someone's name!) Uh-oh, looks like this one is getting away from me, too. Anyway, is peace possible between the New Republic and Imperial Remnant? What's this extra-galactic threat that Thrawn was monitoring in the Unknown Regions? Will Luke and Mara's romantic relationship literally begin with a marriage proposal?

Why should you read the Thrawn books? Timothy Zahn isn't a bad writer. These are fun books to read and (along with Starfighters of Adumar) are the only Star Wars EU novels to survive my bookshelf purges. They're well-plotted and Zahn does an admirable job creating characters that feel like they belong alongside Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, et al. They're nothing spectacular or life-changing, but if you're a Star Wars fan who wants to look into the old EU (the books are still published under the "Legends" imprint), this is the best place to start (seriously, don't start with Truce at Bakura or The Courtship of Princess Leia or any of the other books that technically take place before the Thrawn trilogy (well, maybe the X-Wing books, but they're strictly about side characters)).

Why shouldn't you read the Thrawn books? Zahn isn't bad, but he's not great either. And he's also responsible for some seriously silly ideas (I mean, the vornskrs and ysalamiri kind of make sense, but clearly exist more for the needs of the story), particularly Luke's evil clone, Luuke. You might also be one of those continuity sticklers who can't deal with the fact that these were written before the prequel trilogy and therefore get literally every detail of the Clone Wars wrong. Oopsies.

Apologies to retired Bothan spy/current Bothan politician Borsk Fey'lya, I would have included him here, but I'm already furious enough about all of the unnecessary apostrophes that Zahn put into other names.

Links:

Disney recently reinserted Thrawn into the EU by featuring him as the lead villain on Star Wars Rebels.

Also by having Zahn write a novel about his early career with a sequel out this month.