Right off the bat, I have to
say that Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn was
definitely one of my most anticipated book releases of 2017, and I’m very happy
to say that it ultimately exceeded my expectations for the most part. Not only
is Thrawn definitely my favorite out
of all the new cannon Star Wars books
that I’ve read so far, I would also say that it ranks #2 in terms of how I
would rank my favorite books out of all the books I’ve read so far in 2017. For
the record, my #1 favorite book that I’ve read so far this year is definitely
Jeff Zentner’s new book, Goodbye Days.
While I haven’t read Timothy
Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy, I
felt like Zahn did a really fantastic job of presenting Thrawn as a very
complex and nuanced character in this book. It was really fascinating to see
how Thrawn managed to have such a successful career in the Imperial army,
despite the fact that he’s a Chiss who’s living in a society that discriminates
against alien races. That definitely added a very interesting element to the
character Thrawn, and the book as a whole.
One thing that I really
liked about this book is the fact that Zahn did a great job of writing Thrawn
in such a way that while he is in many ways a genius, he still has flaws and
weaknesses. I’m really glad that Zahn didn’t try to portray Thrawn as being
invincible and superior to everybody else in this book, because I think it
would have been incredibly frustrating if Zahn hadn’t given Thrawn some
vulnerabilities and humanized him to a certain degree, especially since this
book really gives people an in depth look into how Thrawn’s mind works. One of
the best ways I thought that Zahn portrayed Thrawn as having some flaws and
vulnerabilities was with the inclusion of the character Nightswan, who serves
as a worthy adversary for Thrawn throughout the book. Thrawn may be a genius in
a lot of ways, but he definitely has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to
Nightswan, I felt like Zahn did a fantastic job of writing the adversarial
dynamic of Thrawn and Nightswan’s relationship.
In terms of how Zahn gives
the reader a lot of insight into the way Thrawn thinks throughout the book, the
openings of each chapter of the book really give the reader some great insight
into how Thrawn’s mind works. Admittedly, I was definitely very confused for a
large portion of the book about what exactly the openings of each chapter were
supposed to be, because I didn’t know where, when and to whom Thrawn was saying
those things to. Eventually, it was revealed that the openings of each chapter
were actually excerpts from a journal that Thrawn had written in at some point,
and then later gave to Eli. Not only do I think that the excerpts from Thrawn’s
journal were ultimately a really great and effective way to give the reader a
lot of insight into the character; I also feel like Thrawn giving Eli his
journal was a great way to show that Thrawn had really come to view Eli as his
protégé.
