So does anyone recommend reading the Outbound Flight series or the Hand of Thrawn trilogy to get more of the same and dig a little deeper into the bad guys? Would I be disappointed and should I just stop here and content myself with completing the defacto sequel trilogy.
I know I read Hand of Thrawn sometime in the last five years, but I think the most telling fact about it is that I can’t remember a damn thing–but I remember the original Thrawn trilogy almost as well as the movies. I’m sure that says something.
That first Noghri attack on Bimmissaari, when Luke’s stuck in the museum and Han has Leia “steal” a bunch of jewelry to cause a riot is just such a cool moment, I remember reading it in the car while driving somewhere with my parents and yelling aloud because I was so excited. (Dad was unthrilled.) There’s so much about the story–from the Katana fleet to the Wayland storage facility to Delta Source–that’s just so awesome it defies description.
I definitely recommend Outbound Flight. The only thing I didn’t like was
that Lorana Jinzler didn’t get a happy ending.
I don’t think I’ve read the Hand of Thrawn duology.
I’ll agree with this. I read both books around five or six years ago, but I can only remember one thing about them, period,
that there was a fake Thrawn.
Whereas I could walk you through the plotline of the original Thrawn trilogy point by point.
I am rereading it right now coincidentally. Just checked out the 3rd book.
One of my favorite bits is how they set up how Delta Source works early on in a few ways, but never loom on it at all.
Go ahead and read the duology. They aren’t as good as the trilogy, but they aren’t bad. You get more about Pellaeon, for example.
Ha. I reacted the same way for the space battle in which the New Republic used the A-Wing slash – twice! – to obliterate the Imperial fighters. That was a real “Eat that!” moment.
I read them when they first came out and really loved them. One of those potato chip series that were just impossible to put down.
It’s been such a long time I forget mostly everything. I will share what I do remember and everyone can tell me what I have confused with other stuff.
The Emperor’s assassin who has to work with Luke Skywalker even though her last job was to kill him.
Han and Leia marrying and having twins who Luke teaches the way of the Jedi.
Some creatures that are able deflect the force. Dagobah was filled with them.
The sith being small creatures who worshipped Darth Vader and thats how he was lord of the sith.
Thrawn being an awesome kick ass bad guy who is able to figure out how to use the force without being a jedi or even really using the force.
One of the reasons the rebels were able to defeat the empire at the battle of endor was because palpatine died and was no longer able to use the force to keep everything all together.
As far as I know these books were the first things to come out that extended the star wars stories while not actually being set in the years between the movies. It wasn’t quite the new movies I really really wanted, but the story was so awesome it made up for having no movies to watch.
Now that I shared my memories I will go see what everyone else thought.
Correct. Mara Jade was the Emperor’s Hand and Palpatine’s last instruction to her is to kill Luke Skywalker.
Twins and a singleton: Jaina and Jacen, and Anakin.
Ysalamiri. Not Dagobah, but Myrkr.
This was supposed to be Zahn’s original plan, but he came into conflict with Lucasfilm over the whole sith thing and renamed them the Noghri.
Thrawn WAS kickass, but he couldn’t use the Force. He DID use ysalamiri for protection against the Force, and he did trick the mad Jedi clone Joruus C’baoth into working for him.
Don’t remember this.
That last point is correct. In book 2 or so, Pallaeon looks at how the SD crew is doing and finds that they’re massively more efficient (25% more or something) with the Jedi aboard, even when he’s concentrating on coordinating separate strikes, at levels that hadn’t been seen since the fall of the emperor. He wants to, but can’t put it down to the crew finally coming together under Thrawn and has to admit to himself that C’Baoth is more powerful than first thought.
Man! My memory isn’t bad at all! Yay!
I thought I remembered it being mentioned that Dagobah was filled with them and that’s why Yoda was able to hide so easily there. But, I guess that is something I made up as I read it at the time.
REALLY? The sith weren’t mentioned? There must be another book that “explains” the Lord of the Sith moniker that was later made incorect. I remember Vader going through this planet and being worshipped by these tiny guys and that is where the name comes from. Then Luke gets there and they want to worship him, too, for being the son.
Then again, maybe it is just another thing I made up.
I am one of the hard to find adult Star Wars who loved the prequels. But, I think filming this story would be even cooler. Can you imagine Thrawn on screen? That would be filled with awesome! Does he have red eyes? That seemed to make him appear even more imposing.
Aha. You got two points mixed up. Yoda was able to hide on Dagobah because he defeated a powerful Dark Jedi in the very cave that Luke met his vision of Vader-Luke in Empire Strikes Back. The cave resonated strongly with the Dark Side, which more or less canceled out Yoda’s powerful Light presence.
Personally, I think reserving the Sith for a special cult of Dark Jedi was one of Lucas’s better ideas, so I’m not displeased he put the kibosh on that. Vader being a Lord of the Sith because the Sith were little aliens who worshipped him is…kinda goofy, even if the Noghri are deadly serious in action. The way it worked out was much better, IMO.
Actually no. Mara Jade is not an assassin. She’s more or less a diplomat or liaison of the Emperor. Mara is barely trained in the Force at all and was only used by the Emperor because she has a affinity for communicating at long distances via the Force. She was little more than a glorified special assistant who operated outside the normal command structure and dabbled in being a spy, messenger and sounding board. The command to kill Skywalker is revealed to be a manipulation simply to exact revenge upon Vader from beyond the grave by killing his son and is not with Mara’s usual skill set.
Anakin is not included or hinted at in the Thrawn trilogy at all. The twins are the only children and play very little role in the plot aside from kidnapping threats.
I actually think that the Battle of Endor’s collapse for the Empire coinciding with the death of Palpatine is highlighted by Thrawn in the very beginning of the first book. He recruits C’Boath expressly for this purpose in his goal to rebuild the empire.
Thrawn’s comments regarding C’Boath’s power is more in reference to his ability to command vast numbers of troops over very broad distances, he knew he had the skill at the outset but was later impressed by his ability to do it for people father away while multitasking other things.
Right. The twins are actually born in this trilogy, IIRC. Anakin is born in the Jedi Academy trilogy, and they continue on in the Corellian trilogy (another great series of EU books) and Young Jedi series. Plus others, but I dropped out of the EU at that point.
I must be shuffling in Corellian trilogy plot points, then…I’d forgotten that Leia was actually pregnant with the twins through at least half of the Thrawn trilogy.
That, and I always thought that Thrawn was very clearly based on the idea of “What would happen if Sherlock Holmes was an evil admiral?”.
Sherlock Holmes made some really silly leaps of logic, too, but that’s what the character does.
-Joe
Life sucks and wimmin be cheatin’?
Feminism? Daala was incompetent and got her job for banging Tarkin. Don’t know if that counts as feminist. Of course, everything Anderson touched turned to crap, so I prefer to just ignore his scribblings.
It was a one-in-a-jillion shot. Not that stupid. Besides, as explained in the radio drama, the Death Star was what was going to put Tarkin in charge. If he left it, he might not get back on. But inside the Death Star, TARKIN was the greatest power in the universe and the new Emperor.
-Joe
That’s what happens with the Noghri. They worship Vader, because he came down to “save” their planet after it was poisoned by a crashed ship during the Clone wars. Then when they find out Leia is Vader’s daughter, they start calling her “Lady Vader” and stop trying to kidnap her to turn over to Thrawn. I forget what they call Luke, but I remember they start calling Han “Consort of Lady Vader”, which he finds annoying.
Originally, Zahn had this whole plotline set up and wanted to call the Noghri the Sith, to explain why Darth Vader is a Sith Lord. But it conflicted with Lucas’ plan to make the Sith Lords an ancient menace, so he renamed them.
Yeah, I don’t know if everyone else knows this, but Darth Vader as “Dark Lord of the Sith” has actually been around since “Star Wars”. I don’t remember if it was mentioned in the novelization, but I had a trading card that referred to him as such back in the original 1977/1978 packs.
-Joe
Right, but it wasn’t more recently that anyone had any idea what the Sith were or why he was their Dark Lord.