Star Wars - Volume 2: Dark Force Rising

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Luke and Leia have their own troubles. Luke follows the trail set for him by Joruus C'baoth and Thrawn, and ends up in the clutches of C'baoth. Luke's interactions with him are a little frustrating, as he's clearly insane, but Luke is in such a vulnerable place as a Jedi that he's willing to admit he may be wrong about what he knows, and concedes to C'baoth. At least, until he betrays himself and turns violent, and Luke ends having to be rescued by Mara Jade, so that they in turn can rescue Talon Karrde from the clutches of the Empire. It's really interesting to once again watch Mara Jade admit to herself that she needs Luke, and Zahn begins the process with her of starting to essentially deprogram her from her time as the Emperor's Hand. Her impressions of Luke in the present do not mix well with her ingrained hatred of him, making for some really interesting interactions. I especially love Luke in these moments, because he treats her with such respect and kindness, even as he knows she wants to kill him. Set approximately five years after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi, [2] the trilogy details the offensive campaigns of military genius Grand Admiral Thrawn as he attempts to bring down the recently founded New Republic in a bid to restore the Galactic Empire to power. In addition to Thrawn, the trilogy introduced several notable characters, including Mara Jade and Talon Karrde. Zahn, Timothy (2011). "Endnote 13". Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition. Del Rey Books. ISBN 978-0345528292. If you didn't like Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising is definitely not going to change your opinion on the Thrawn Trilogy, but if you liked it you'll probably find this to be a decent follow up.

I also enjoyed Han's story in this book, trying to find the Katana fleet while also learning about the mysterious new characters that enter the series. Lando provides some great balance to the story. The dying Empire's most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial Fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic's destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council-only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies. Anyways, I went into Heir to the Empire with a little bit of skepticism. After all, the book is over 25 years old now, so I had the suspicion that maybe the reason people loved the Thrawn books so much was because of blind nostalgia. But I was wrong, for the book still holds up reasonably well. While I don't love it as much as other people do, I still would consider it a great book and it's reputation as a ground breaking classic for the Star Wars franchise is very well earned.

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The series introduced many notable Expanded Universe characters such as Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Gilad Pellaeon, and Mara Jade—characters who would subsequently appear in a variety of Expanded Universe works. Grand Admiral Thrawn became a popular villain in the Expanded Universe, with appearances in several later works. In addition, the Imperial capital world, Coruscant, was given its name by the trilogy and would later feature in the prequel films. One good thing is to appreciate, even since the first book, how Timothy Zahn wasn’t only telling the story at hand but also planning a bigger scale of narrative, including names, places, events, etc... that he’d be telling in his future books during the following years (now they are already published). I am quite looking forward to all the, hopefully coming, fandom inspired works, because there will certainly come pearls and masterpieces that are not just better than the movie, or even series in general, but also own the standard grew with introducing or expanding already existing, amazing antiheroes. THE STORY: The battle against between the fledgling New Republic and a resurgent empire lead by Grand Admiral Thrawn continues as a political shakeup on coruscant occurs and our classic heroes of Luke, Han, and Leia search for answers, all while progressing in their own personal adventures and quests.

Novels set in a galaxy far, far away have enriched the Star Wars experience for fans seeking to continue the adventure beyond the screen. When he created Star Wars, George Lucas built a universe that sparked the imagination, and inspired others to create. He opened up that universe to be a creative space for other people to tell their own tales. This became known as the Expanded Universe, or EU, of novels, comics, videogames, and more.Lando is injured at one point and can't receive medical attention because of triage. Really have to stretch to find ANYTHING to put here! It might not be entirely fair to these books that I first started reading them expecting them to be masterpieces (touted by more than a few people I know as the very best of Star Wars EU fiction), because to be quite honest, I was more disappointed than I was impressed with them. I say that this might not be fair because in reality, they aren't that bad; the plot is certainly interesting enough to hold your attention, especially if you're a Star Wars fan. However, there are several aspects of these books that just irked me the entire way through, and ultimately prevent the series from getting any more than a "read it if you've got nothing else better to read" recommendation from me. Also, I absolutely loved the prolife themes and the theme of loving and raising children well as Leia thought about her future with her unborn twins. And there seemed to be a subtle theme of loving your enemies woven into Leia’s interactions with the Noghri. The Dark Force remained undiscovered until smuggler Captain Hoffner and his ship stumbled upon it in 6 BBY. Hoffner and his navigator/sensor officer, Talon Karrde were the only ones aboard aware of the find, but neither realized the other person knew the secret. They each concealed the fleet's location until the right time to make use of it. Hoffner later arranged to sell individual Katana Dreadnaughts to Garm Bel Iblis, who eventually accumulated a strike force of six of the ships, including his command ship, the Peregrine.

In an interview with CloneWeb (translated from French), Zahn talked extensively about the past, present, and future of Thrawn as a character. When asked about the start of his story ( Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command), noted that he wanted to create a Star Wars antagonist unlike any one previously seen, so he made an effort to emphasize Thrawn as a military leader as opposed to a dark sorcerer: People complain that Thrawn has been a disappointment on Star Wars Rebels and that because he is underused and hasn't done major damage yet, it's a betrayal to the character. While I agree that he should have caused more damage by this point, the portrayal is actually very close to the Thrawn books so far. And after this book, maybe even too close. So the point I want to make to those people is this: whether you like Thrawn's portrayal on rebels or not, don't act like his portrayal in the novels is perfect either. There a final danger awaits. The Dark Jedi C'baoth schemes in his secret fortress, directing the battle against the rebels, nursing his insanity, and building his strength to finish what he had already started—the destruction of Luke Skywalker. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker encounters Talon Karrde and his gang of smugglers. The smugglers capture him but do not turn him over to the Imperials. The smugglers take him in just as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian come to see Karrde on the New Republic's interest to hire smugglers as traders. Then, as if things could not be worse, Grand Admiral Thrawn comes to visit Karrde just as Luke escapes. One of Karrde's employees, Mara Jade, chases Luke deep into the forest, where both ships crashed. Mara attempts to kill Luke because she believes that he killed the Emperor five years earlier during the Battle of Endor, and Mara was the Emperor's Hand at the time. However, she finds out that she needs Luke if she is to survive. Then Thrawn himself decides to interfere with Karrde's rescue attempts and tries to catch Luke and Mara first. The result is a firefight between Imperial troops and Karrde's men. In the end, Karrde wins, but has to evacuate his base. Han and Lando head to the shipyards at Sluis Van after they discover, thanks to Karrde, that Thrawn has plans there.Dark Force Rising is a reasonable follow up, but I was left wanting a lot more. Don't get me wrong, Dark Force Rising does a lot of things right, and I am still pretty excited to read The Last Command. I just think that this book could have been much stronger after how great the first book was. Having helped Han, Lando and Iblis's organization escape from New Cov, Luke and Artoo set off for Jomark to meet Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth. Luke is surprised by C'baoth's erratic, sometimes violent behavior, and occasional bouts of racism towards non-Force-users; he does not at this time know that C'baoth is in league with the Empire, but he does begin to question his sanity. Nonetheless, Luke resolves to learn from him, and to help heal his fractured psyche if possible. But thousands of light-years away, the last of the Emperor's warlords—the brilliant and deadly Grand Admiral Thrawn—has taken command of the shattered Imperial fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to create. [5] Plot summary [ ] Thrawn continues to be a terrifying and competent enemy. In fact, at times I would get very annoyed whenever he would be smart enough to thwart our heroes. Like, can this guy please for once just fail to realize something and our heroes get away, even just once? In reality, this does happen, and it's all the more satisfying when it does happen, since it happens so infrequently. There's nothing worse than a stupid villain to ruin the tension of a story. The New Republic finds out from Talon Karrde that an old superior of his, Captain Hoffner, exposed the secret of the legendary Katana fleet to Thrawn. This fleet of 200 Dreadnaughts would tip the balance of power decisively in Thrawn's favor over the New Republic. During the battle for the Katana fleet, the New Republic manages to destroy some of the cruisers, but Thrawn wins most of them.

a b c d e f g h " 'Star Wars' writer reveals original vision for the sequels and his thoughts on 'The Last Jedi' ". Yahoo!. 30 July 2018 . Retrieved 21 July 2022. a b c d e f "30 years ago, Timothy Zahn resurrected Star Wars". Transfer Orbit. 4 May 2021 . Retrieved 24 July 2022. a b c "An interview with Timothy Zahn, author of Heir to the Empire". Zoklet. Archived from the original on 2010-05-21 . Retrieved 21 July 2022. Golly, I almost wish I could copy and paste my review from Heir to the Empire! But, to be original, I'll try to come up with different things I like.

I guess I have a few more complaints about this one than the last. They aren't huge, but I should bring them up.