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Grand Admiral Thrawn
A Youtini Reading Guide
There are things in the universe that are simply and purely evil. A warrior does not seek to understand them, or to compromise with them. He seeks only to obliterate them.
The Empire had many more terrors to offer the universe than the Emperor and Vader. In fact, its most formidable may have also been its most unexpected. Grand Admiral Thrawn, exile of his own people, found a second life with the Empire. Despite a lack of Force powers, he fought his way to the top of its military, dismantling his opposition with nothing more than simple, inalienable intellect.
Throughout his meteoric rise, Thrawn is constantly engaged in climactic battles, as well as deciphering seemingly unsolvable mysteries in an effort to strengthen the Empire’s control on the galaxy. Readers will be thrilled by his decisive victories, both on the battlefield and his personal conflicts. Therefore, those fans who will enjoy reading material about Thrawn the most are those who enjoy militaristic novels, Empire-centric stories, and cognitively-challenging mysteries.
Despite being the focus of thoroughly entertaining stories, Thrawn is an important character for fans to know because he is largely responsible for the continuation of the Empire after the Emperor’s death. In fact, Timothy Zahn is widely credited with revitalizing Star Wars with several of the stories in this collection after the Original Trilogy ended.
Regardless of your reasons for looking into this collection, you can be sure of one thing: with the Grand Admiral at the helm, the Empire is poised to strike first as well as strike back.
After destroying the second Death Star and freeing the galaxy from the Emperor’s clutches, Luke, Han, and Leia find themselves trying to lead the fledgling New Republic into a new age. However, in the far reaches of space, a new threat rises from the ashes of the Empire in the form of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Despite only having the remains of the Imperial military at his disposal, Thrawn’s intellectual prowess promises to push our heroes to their absolute limits.
Timothy Zahn changed Star Wars forever when he released Heir to the Empire in 1991, and it continues to have a profound impact on the fandom to this day. It proved that Star Wars could not only live beyond the story of the original films, but that it could thrive. All Expanded Universe books were born out of the spirit of this novel, making it essential reading for all fans.
The New Republic is already on the brink of collapse with Grand Admiral Thrawn’s plight to re-conquer the galaxy, but its problems are far from over. A traitor has found its way into the highest level of its leadership at the same time as Luke Skywalker has been lured away by the promises of the long-forgotten, unstable Jedi Jorus C’baoth. Just as things seem as dark as they can get, Han and Lando learn that Thrawn is on the brink of making a discovery that could bring an end to the New Republic altogether.
The second installment of the Thrawn trilogy manages to raise the stakes even higher than the first. Timothy Zahn—like Grand Admiral Thrawn himself—is in top form in this novel.
Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Imperial remnants make their final push to regain control of the galaxy with a strike at the very heart of the New Republic. As Leia struggles to hold government—and her family—together, Han and Chewbacca go on a mission to rally their fellow smugglers to the cause. As Luke returns to lend his help, it quickly becomes apparent that his most daunting challenge still lies ahead: confronting the darkness in himself.
Zahn rounds out this triumphant trilogy with a final chapter that worthy of its predecessors. Readers who have followed Thrawn’s story to this point will be riveted until the final pages that give a fitting end to one of the most formidable villains Star Wars fans have ever known.
Horror comes in many forms. For Leia and Han, it takes the form of a conspiracy that threatens to topple the galaxy’s new government before it ever has a chance to truly start. For Luke and Lando, it takes the form of a cluster of attacks from clone-crewed pirate ships. For the New Republic as a whole, it takes the form of an evil believed to be long dead: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Against readers’ expectations, Timothy Zahn picks up the story of Grand Admiral Thrawn right where he left it to spin a brand new tale of intrigue. With plenty of twists and turns, you won’t have this story figured out until its final chapters.
The New Republic, born of fire and chaos, remains fragile. Its renowned spies, the Bothans, find themselves accused of several horrendous attacks around the galaxy. If rumors can be trusted, their next attack will strike right at the heart of the New Republic. Luke, Mara Jade, Han, and Leia must not only uncover the truth of the accusations, but also their source. Unfortunately, all signs seem to point towards one man whose very name makes their blood run cold: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Vision of the Future is the second half of the Hand of Thrawn duology, taking place directly after Specter of the Past. In this book, Zahn manages to expertly weave together several subplots on a journey that ultimately answers the question on every reader’s mind: just what happened to Grand Admiral Thrawn?
The Outbound Flight Project—Jedi Master Jorus C’baoth’s plan to discover new planets and species in the Unknown Regions—has been approved. However, Darth Sidious knows that the project could lead to the downfall of the entire Republic if the ship carrying C’baoth and his followers happens across a mysterious threat he has long sensed in the far reaches of space. When Sidious’ operatives discover Thrawn and the Chiss Ascendency directly in the ship’s path, a deal must be struck to stop C’baoth at any cost.
Zahn delivers another powerful chapter of Thrawn’s story in this novel that depicts one of his earliest confrontations with the Republic. Not only does it flesh out details of the Chiss Ascendency, but it also sets the stage for the eventual arrival of what lurks in the Unknown Regions.
After stumbling upon an exiled Chiss on an abandoned planet, the Empire quickly realizes they may have found a new weapon. With his powerful intellect and devastating cunning, Thrawn is soon enrolled in the Imperial Academy on Coruscant along with Eli Vanto, new cadet for the Empire, serving as his translator. Despite mounting unhappiness with the unusual pair’s success, Thrawn and Eli climb the ranks in the Imperial military, just in time for a clash with a mysterious adversary known only as Nightswan…
Any villain as monumental as Grand Admiral Thrawn deserves an equally prodigious origin story, and this book delivers. With a healthy serving of mysteries to be solved, this tale of an unlikely alien’s climb to the zenith of the Empire is one of the Zahn’s most intriguing yet.
Throughout all Star Wars stories, you’d be hard-pressed to find two villains held in higher regard than Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Though they operate entirely differently, both are incredibly effective tools of the Emperor. When they’re sent to the planet Batuu on the same mission, they must find a way to work together. However, sparks fly as memories of a mission long past involving a younger Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker resurface…
Timothy Zahn weaves together the prequel era with the rebellion era in this novel that manages to pull together some of the biggest names that Star Wars has to offer. While attempting to balance the prowess of Vader with the intellect of Thrawn, it manages to offer a glimpse in the characters’ futures as well as their pasts.
The newest edition to the Thrawn Saga, Thrawn: Treason reunites the Grand Admiral with some old allies as he attempts to shield the galaxy from its biggest threat yet.
