The following article contains minor spoilers for Star Wars: Thrawn.
“Even when false, legends can be most informative.” — Grand Admiral Thrawn
Written by the excellent Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Thrawn was published in April of 2017 by Del Rey as the new Canon novel telling the origins of the recognized Imperial character Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Before the release of Zahn’s second book in the Canon story of Thrawn releases this month, I think it’s time to review the first book in the new Canon storyline. I’ve talked about Grand Admiral quite a bit on this fan site (you could probably figure out that I’m quite a fan of the character), nearly everything but a complete character bio (which I still plan to do soon). To understand some of the previous information I have shared, I recommend checking out my Thrawn Novels article.
Here is the back cover’s story excerpt for a brief plot summary:
After Thrawn is rescued from exile by Imperial soldiers, his deadly ingenuity and keen tactical abilities swiftly capture the attention of Emperor Palpatine. And just as quickly, Thrawn proves to be as indispensable to the Empire as its most loyal servant, Darth Vader. On missions to rout smugglers, snare spies, and defeat pirates, Thrawn triumphs time and again. As one promotion follows another in his rapid rise to greater power, he schools his trusted aid, Ensign Eli Vanto, in the arts of combat and leadership, and the secrets of seizing victory. Still, Thrawn has much to learn about the political arena, where ruthless Arihnda Pryce could be his potent ally or brutal enemy. But becoming an admiral will put Thrawn to the ultimate test, as he marshals all his knowledge, instincts, and battlefield brilliance against an insurgent uprising that threatens the Empire’s grip on the galaxy — and his own carefully laid plans for future ascendancy.
Thrawn is one of the most intelligent, and therefore most ruthless villains in the Star Wars universe, especially during the time of the Galactic Empire. He is a strategist, a respectable leader, and a brilliant tactician. His first new Canon appearance was in Star Wars Rebels, already holding the influential position that is Grand Admiral, where he proved to be a daring adversary for the rebel cells. We even see Thrawn’s first command of an Imperial Star Destroyer which is named the Chimaera, which is the same name of his flagship from his original story.
In this book, I found it great to see Thrawn’s rise through the ranks of the Empire through his various victories, really getting to see his origins at least as an Imperial officer. His interaction with Pryce, another character introduced on the television show, was also rewarding to see their rivalry. On the show, there seems to be a bit more respect when compared to the novel. The interaction between the two somewhat reminded me of the interaction between Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, though with perhaps a bit less respect. We also get to see Thrawn’s interaction with his right hand Ensign Eli Vanto, an interaction that allows us to see Thrawn’s position as a leader and a mentor to another Imperial officer. Thrawn leads through respect, rather than fear compared to an enforcer such as Darth Vader. One other fun interaction to see was Thrawn and Wullf Yularen, who was a well-known admiral during the Clone Wars. Yularen is now a Colonel with the Imperial Security Bureau, as seen in A New Hope.
The novel does an excellent job creating this new (but similar to the old) portrayal of Grand Admiral Thrawn, one that I am sure fellow fans of the original incarnation of the character can appreciate. A common complaint about the character’s reintroduction into the Canon is that by using him as the antagonist on a show meant for kids, the character wasn’t so much of an imposing figure as he was depicted in the books. If you felt similarly, please note that I believe his depiction in this new novel is incredibly well done, and similar to the original books he appeared in. Some could easily argue that he is far more threatening on the page compared to the screen (at least for now). I still am hoping for a cinematic version of the character in the future.
There wasn’t much to his backstory, though it is known that he is a part of the Chiss Ascendancy (of which he was exiled, but not really), but I believe we will be exploring more of that in the upcoming second book. Thrawn simply made the Empire believe he was exiled, when really he was sent to investigate the Empire to see if it could be useful to the Ascendancy in the future. If they were not worthy of an alliance, he was instructed to weaken the Empire to make it more vulnerable. I really appreciate that over time, it turns out Thrawn is more or less using the Empire himself.
It’s very rare that a non-human individual to hold such a position of power within the Empire, but Thrawn was one of these few exceptions after winning favor from the Emperor himself. The Empire practiced specisism, meaning they believed in human superiority over others in the galaxy, and is also the reason why all Imperial forces in the films are humans rather than alien species. It was very cool to see the brief interaction we saw between Thrawn, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine. There is a very strong chance that we will see even more of this in the new novel, and I can’t wait. Not only is Thrawn a legend within the Empire, but his existence was already that of legend, as his species was only rumored to exist out in Wild Space.
The timeline of the story isn’t entirely clear, though the content in this book ends roughly 2 years before the Battle of Yavin occurs in Star Wars: A new Hope. Roughly 7 years pass during the story in the novel. One of the biggest things I took away back when I read this book was the interaction between Thrawn and Vader. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to see, and I’m glad I did. It was also mentioned by Thrawn himself that he met Anakin Skywalker during the time of the Clone Wars, a story that will be explained in the upcoming novel. A final note that I wanted to mention is an example of Thrawn’s intelligence: Thrawn was able to discover the construction of the Death Star by following bread crumbs that others might have overlooked. Something even more striking is that he found the idea to be a pure waste of resources.
Personally, I found this book to be everything I wanted out of a new Thrawn novelization.
GALAXY GEEK 