Star Wars Audiobook Review: Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, narrated by Marc Thompson

The Thrawn Trilogy

Timothy Zahn captured the spirit of Star Wars. And he did it in the early 90's - way before the milennials (or whoever else one might blame) had any impact on the creative scene of franchise entertainment. There's plenty wrong with the 3 books, but it pales in comparison with some of what we've seen from recent newcomers to the writing staff of the Star Wars universe. And I'm not just thinking about a certain R.J.

And Marc Thompsons brings it to life. The three books are a pleasure to experience, Han Solo sounds like Han Solo. And although the talking wookie on Kashyyk sounds awful, and every woman in the galaxy shares the voice of Luke Skywalker, it wouldn't have been half as great without Thompson.

There aren't any obvious plotholes or out-of-character characters – as we sadly often see now a days. Although the drive of the story does get a bit repetitive at times - and Grand-Admiral Thrawn can get a bit too conveniently clever, especially around book 2.

Should you give it a listen?

Yes. It's absolutely worth your time - but consider the 3 books as one read - individually they're only a third of a story. Luckily you won't have to wait between the books since they where all published a long, long time ago. I would recommend the audiobooks - Marc Thompson really brings the characters to life. And the sound effects are a stroke of nostalgia. But the writing style of Timothy Zahn is also very action oriented. With a lot of characters and places without a lot of inner dialogue or long descriptive sequences. Which fits well into a sound-effected and well acted audiobook.

Jedi cryptonite

At some point Timothy Zahn must have thought "How can I balance the power between the good and evil without the evil being exactly the same as in the movies? Jedi cryptonite critters!" Since Thrawn isn't a lightsaber and lightning wielding force of nature, like Vader and The Emperor, we need a reason why Luke can't just show up and incapacitate the bad guys at the first signs of trouble in book 1 (not that he would, he is a peace-keeping type of jedi after all).

At the very beginning of book 1, Zahn introduces a jedi-force limiting aspect to his tactics. At first I was sceptic - I mean come on, had the rebels known about this at the beginning Vader would have been useless from day one – but it all ties neatly together throughout the books, Zahn doesn't misuse it. But I am happy to not have seen it find it's way into the later movies.

Thrawn doing it right
/ spoilers below /

The classic recipe for a Star Wars trilogy is a hidden villain and a badass lightsaber wielding Sith - or Dark Jedi. A phantom menace and a Darth Maul. An Emperor and a Vader. Some old bad guy and his spearhead apprentice - Sith or no.

The Thrawn Trilogy has a different recipe. Thrawn isn't all that bad. Actually he's likely way more capable of running the galaxy than the rag tag team of princess' and smugglers running The New Republic. And throughout the books Timothy Zahn gives a few hints here and there, that maybe Thrawn isn't the bad guy we all want him to be. For example, instead of killing every officer that makes a mistake, he creates a learning opportunity and places blame where blame is due – unlike Vader who would've force-choked most of Thrawns inner circle long before the last act of book 2.

And then there is that Joruus C'baoth. Where Thrawn is the tactical and military genius Vader never was, C'baoth is the mad extrovert powerhouse-Sith, that The Emperor never was. The true villain of The Thrawn Trilogy – he plays some strategic part in the succes of Thrawns Empire, but he's in no way essential – he is however, a worthy successor to the emperor, strictly in a Sith Lord way, he would've made a worthless ruler of any empire. But he is just being a dark jedi right. Selfish, ruthless, theatrical and "get out of my way or die (if I haven't already forgotten about your miserable existence)".