Thrawn: Treason - Zahn's latest Star Wars novel

I've finally bitten the bullet and bought Timothy Zahn's latest Thrawn novel, Treason. He first wrote his Thrawn trilogy in the 1990's, the first of the Star Wars spin-offs for those poor souls (like me) who were in despair after the credits rolled on Return of the Jedi. You can read my review of the original books here. Zahn wrote quite a few other Star Wars stories after that, some about storm troopers and two others that didn't actually include Thrawn but included his legacy (Spectre of the Past and Vision of the Future). Then there was Outbound Flight, Thrawn's backstory, where he first encounters the Empire and the Jedi Cbaoth whose clone features in the earlier trilogy.

Since Disney bought the Star Wars franchise many of the (often pretty bad) extpanded universe stories have been relegated to 'legends', while core characters and situations have become canon. I was delighted when Thrawn was added to the core Star Wars characters and he has appeared in the animated Star Wars Rebels series. On that basis, Zahn was persuaded to write more Thrawn stories set in the time period before the first Death Star. The first one, called simply Thrawn, is about his rise from fugitive to grand admiral. The second, Alliances, is about Thrawn's relationship with Darth Vader. Both these books are set in the period after the Clone Wars and before the events of the movie Rogue One. We know from the earlier Zahn trilogy that Thrawn plays no part in the destruction of both the death stars and re-appears in Imperial space some years after the fall of Vader and the emperor. So at some stage, Zahn had to address WHY Thrawn disappeared.

If you're like me you might have thought that a title like 'treason' was a hint at what happened. Thrawn, after all, makes no secret of his continued allegiance to the Chiss Ascendancy. But not yet. 'Treason' is a loaded word.

In this book we meet a number of characters we already know – Grand Moff Tarkin who is playing his own political games, and Director Krennic who wants to keep control of the Death Star project. Thrawn, despite being seen as a strategic and tactical genius, is considered politically naïve. He's maneuvered into investigating a problem affecting delivery of supplies to Krennic's project and finds the problem isn't what everyone expected.

Although I'm a Star Wars fan, my interest isn't so much in the Force parts of the story. I like the space ships, the aliens, the plotting and politics. This book was a bit more like the original Thrawn stories, where Thrawn uses his military ability to defeat apparently superior forces. There's not a Jedi in sight but Thrawn does ally with a Chiss admiral, fighting against an alien enemy first encountered in Alliances. I love the battle tactics. I'm sure if I sat and thought about it long enough I could pick holes in Thrawn's plans but I read these books for entertainment, so I find it quite easy to suspend judgement.

I'm quite sure there will be a fourth book, which is when Thrawn will disappear – assuming the events in the original series are still held to have happened. 

You'll find the book on Amazon here.