Ricky Church reviews Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances…
If there is one team-up die-hard Star Wars fans want to see, it is the potential of Darth Vader and the fan-favourite Expanded Universe character Grand Admiral Thrawn together. Now that Thrawn has made his way into the official Star Wars canon through his appearances in Star Wars Rebels, author Timothy Zahn once again returns to his creation for a follow up to his previous novel, Star Wars: Thrawn. In Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances, the Grand Admiral and Dark Lord of the Sith aren’t the only ones teaming up as the story flashes back to a moment in time where Thrawn actually met – and fought alongside – Anakin Skywalker during The Clone Wars. Thrawn – Alliances is two good stories in one that compliment each other and reveal new layers to Thrawn’s character.
Set between the third and fourth seasons of Star Wars Rebels, Emperor Palpatine assigns Darth Vader and Thrawn to seek out a disturbance in the Force he feels coming from the Unknown Region. As the pair travel to confront this unknown threat, they both are confronted with their past as they head into the very same planet where Thrawn met Anakin Skywalker on an adventure that was only alluded to in the previous novel. Zahn blends together the typical action Star Wars is known for as well as an intriguing spy mission for Thrawn and Anakin and a compelling mystery for him and Vader. It’s quite an enjoyable crossover of sorts between The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Zahn’s take on the relationship between Thrawn and Vader is fraught with tension right from the beginning, especially after coming off of Thrawn’s defeat in the third season finale of Rebels. There are very few Imperial officers Vader has the patience for, much less actually respects, and he just barely tolerates Thrawn’s unique way of commanding his crew and meticulous, if unorthodox, battle plans. The way their relationship evolves is interesting as Zahn plays off their divergent qualities very well. There is even a point early on where the story takes on an almost buddy-cop formula as Thrawn and Vader investigate the mysterious going-ons of a town in the Unknown Regions as the pair’s very different methods of interrogation and investigation are brought to the forefront.
While the plot involving Vader and Thrawn is great, the intersecting story to Anakin and Thrawn’s meeting is just as good, if not better, than the present-day one. There is a lot more of the Clone Wars-era than you’d think based off the synopsis as it takes up half the book, but Zahn balances both plots pretty well. Much like his future self, Anakin has little patience for some of Thrawn’s tendencies, but Zahn captures their similarities very well as they develop risky and ingenious plans while also highlighting their intelligence. Thrawn, however, is much more level-headed than Anakin and its interesting to see him work against Anakin’s more noticeable flaws, such as his impulsiveness that is largely borne out of his strong emotional reactions.
Another surprising aspect of the book is just how much Padmé Amidala plays into it as she’s pretty much the catalyst for Anakin’s mission and goes through her own adventure as well. Padmé’s story actually plays up how skilled she is in espionage after receiving a message from one of her handmaidens and attempts to track them down herself. There are a lot of great moments with Padmé, especially as she uses some quick-thinking to infiltrate a Separatist planet. Zahn writes some pretty good chemistry between Anakin and Padmé, but also highlights how different their own methods are as Padmé often thinks more about the bigger picture of a mission than Anakin does. Her own relationship with Thrawn is good, but also tense as she can sense the coldness and ruthlessness that lingers within his mind.
The supporting cast is well used with some interesting new inclusions to the canon, such as Captain Kimmund, the leader of Darth Vader’s personal Stormtrooper regiment the First Legion and is shown to be one of the few competent Stormtroopers in all of Star Wars. Commodore Faro returns from Thrawn and shares some good chemistry as Thrawn’s second-in-command and has an equally good, and often humourous for its tension, perspective on Vader. Unfortunately, Rukh doesn’t get a whole lot to do, nor is his backstory in the new canon and how he met Thrawn delved into. Similarly, the Separatists in the Clone Wars-era story aren’t expanded upon more than just henchmen to Count Dooku, which is a bit of a shame given that they’re from his home planet of Serenno and not expanded upon further than just an ambitious and aristocratic family.
The narrative moves along at a nice pace, though slows down a bit in the middle mostly with Padmé’s story as she gets caught up with a couple of the planet’s residents. Both of Zahn’s stories share some compelling mysteries and nice action beats, showing off the capabilities of Thrawn and Anakin/Vader. The one mildly irritating thing of Zahn’s writing is how often he uses the phrase ‘Double Vision’ when Anakin or Vader uses the Force to see far enough into the future in order to accurately deflect blaster bolts. It’s something we see Jedi do so commonly that we don’t need to read ‘Double Vision’ every time Anakin uses this ability. As the book goes on the phrase does become less prominent, but its presence in so much of the book’s first quarter is off-putting.
Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances is a great tale of the Grand Admiral and Darth Vader that highlight their similarities as well as differences. The intertwining plots are lot of fun to read and Zahn really captures the Clone Wars era, particularly Anakin’s personality and characteristics, very well. Though the book features some repetitive phrasing and doesn’t delve quite enough into some of the supporting characters, Zahn’s handling of Thrawn and Vader (as well as Anakin and Padmé) is the most important aspect of the book and really sells it. Fans of The Clone Wars and Rebels will really enjoy this tale of two of the franchise’s biggest villains teaming up.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church