1992
brought us Dark Force Rising,
the second book of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy.
Slightly generic title aside, it expands on the previous entry and
further expands the lore and setting of the nascent Expanded Universe
by dipping into relics from the Old Republic.
At
this point, both the New Republic and Grand Admiral Thrawn's Imperial
remnant are bloodied and looking for an edge in their fight. The NR
is aware that there is an information leak, and Han Solo suspects the
shifty Bothan senator Borsk Fey'lya and his Spynet connections and
Lando goes along for the ride.
Meanwhile,
Luke Skywalker is drawn to a planet where the mad clone Jedi Joruus
C'Baoth is waiting for him, claiming to want to teach him. Luke soon
realizes that C'Baoth is incredibly powerful and also a budding
tyrant and wants to help heal his damaged mind. C'Baoth's goal at the
moment is to train Luke, Leia and her unborn twins as Jedi molded by
his fractured mind.
Meanwhiler,
smuggler baron Talon Karrde is on the run after Thrawn learned of his
duplicitousness. Karrde is eventually captured and imprisoned by the
Admiral because he knows where a large supply of valuable warships
are hidden. Mara Jade tracks down Luke and helps him shake off
C'Baoth's mind tricks. Like it or not, she needs his help rescuing
Karrde.
Meanwhiler-er, a
very, very pregnant Leia travels with Chewie & Threepio to
Honoghr, the planet of the Noghri that have been trying to capture
her to try and win them over to the New Republic.
Meanwhilest, Han &
Lando stumble upon a ghost: a Corellian Senator who's long been
thought dead named Garm Bel Iblis. Not only is Garm alive and well,
he's been running his own splinter Rebellion against the Empire after
splitting off from Mon Mothma over ideological differences. Bel Iblis
is a tactical genius and has a line on some long-lost warships, but
he's not one to rejoin the New Republic without some serious
convincing.
It all ends in a
race to find the location of a fleet of fabled Dreadnaught-class
heavy cruisers called the Katana Fleet.
This is going to be
a broken record, but Book 2 continues to do what Heir to the
Empire did so very well: Grand space opera in the vein of the
original Trilogy. World-hopping, action, tactical genius, new
technologies, and adventure.
Of the two major
new characters, Garm Bel Iblis fits into a kind of character
archetype that Zahn is fond of: the highly intelligent master
planner. Talon Karrde & Thrawn are both extensions of that. This
is fine, since Zahn does them very well and differentiates their
personalities and areas of expertise, but there are a lot of clever
bastards populating this book.
This is balanced
out by the other new character: Lowbrow ship thief Niles Ferrier.
Ferrier is a scumbag who's only really good at one thing: stealing
starships, and Thrawn wants him to find ships for the Empire.
Unfortunately Ferrier thinks he can hang with the big boys, and
fancies himself a master schemer. Amusingly enough, he's not.
Before I say “Its
a good book, read it if you like Star Wars” I think there's
room to discuss a few established characters.
Leia goes behind
enemy lines to do what she does best: diplomacy. She's able to go
into hostile territory protected by secrecy and her heritage as Darth
Vader's daughter. Spoiler: she succeeds, without firing a shot and
while heavily pregnant. Its remarkably well handled and shows just
how powerful and essential to the New Republic Leia is.
Next, is Luke.
Being a Jedi, Luke fights a lot, but this trilogy really hammers home
the idea that its only ever as a last resort. Knowledge and Defense,
never Attack, that sort of thing. Even when he learns that C'Baoth is
completely mad, he doesn't want to kill him. He wants to help him,
not kill him. Luke is a capital-G Good Guy, and has the skill and
wisdom to pull it off exceptionally.
Dark Force Rising
is a good book, read it if you like Star Wars.
It continues the top tier entertainment of the Thrawn
Trilogy.
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