Thrawn

 

I was first introduced to the Thrawn character in the animated series Rebels. On the show, he was portrayed as a brilliant military leader who studied culture and art to get an advantage on his competition. It was also noted that he was not good at playing the political game. Rebels takes place after the Clone Wars but prior to the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Having never appeared in the movies, his character in Rebels comes a bit out of nowhere. In last season's The Mandalorian, it was revealed that Ahsoka Tano is looking for Thrawn, who was last seen floating off into space with Ezra Bridger. So the character continues to play an important part in the Star Wars Universe, and will likely make its first live action appearance soon on Disney+.

Zahn's newest Thrawn trilogy, Thrawn Ascendancy, describes how Thrawn rose up the ranks of the Chiss military. This occurred prior to the Clone Wars, and took place outside of the galaxy, beyond the often referenced outer rim, in a place called wildspace. I've read books 1 and 2 of the trilogy. The third book was just released and thus I haven't had a chance to read it yet. The above book, just titled Thrawn, is also the first in a trilogy of books. It takes place between the events of the Clone Wars and A New Hope, around the same time as the series Rebels. It describes how Thrawn was able to climb the military ranks of the Galactic Empire's military. I had not thought of this until the book pointed it out, but it is rare for a non-human to hold rank in the Empire's military. For some reason that may be explained at a later date, Palpatine embraces Thrawn and helps elevate his career. Thrawn uses essentially the same skills to climb the ranks in the Empire as he does in the Ascendancy trilogy - superb military strategy based on study of culture and art.

This book is well written and easy to read. It is lengthy, over 500 pages, and spans a large period of time (many years). The book's main theme is following Thrawn's rise to Grand Admiral. This does not happen because of a single event. Instead, a number of seemingly unrelated events occur where Thrawn has military success that cumulatively contribute to his promotions. To this end, it is unclear who the antagonist actually is, or if there is one. Nightswan comes to mind. Nightswan is a smuggler and insurgent leader who often crosses paths with Thrawn, who is shutting down Nightswan's operations. Because of this, Nightswan sees Thrawn as an enemy. But once they finally meet, Thrawn offers him a job with the Chiss Ascendancy, which he declines. Nightswan ends up dying in an explosion, rather uneventfully. Other than Nightswan, Thrawn's other big adversaries are other members of the Empire's military, who are not that memorable. There is some shenanigans between Moff Tarkin and another Moff, but nothing really plays out there. There is a side story where Arihnda Pryce has her family's mine on Lothal taken from her. She desires revenge and works to climb the Empire's political ladder, eventually striking a deal with Tarkin and becoming governor of Lothal. Governor Pryce and Thrawn work together on Lothal in Rebels, trying to thwart a group of rebels that contain the main protagonists of the show. I suspect this is where the plot of the remaining two books is going. We shall see, but this book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Thrawn asking Palpatine about the top secret Death Star project.