No author since George Lucas himself has captured the attention of Star Wars fans over the years as much as Timothy Zahn. Zahn’s first run at the franchise, his Thrawn trilogy–Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command–excited a generation of Star Wars fans when the original trilogy was in the past and no future movies were planned. Its greatest value was in its continuation of our favorite characters: Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and the droids, but it also introduced two key players: Mara Jade aka the Emperor’s Hand who would one day become the object of Luke Skywalker’s affection, and a blue-skinned, white-garbed officer of the Imperial Navy called Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn became part of the post-Disney canon in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Zahn returned to the character in more novels, beginning with Star Wars: Thrawn (reviewed here) and later in Thrawn: Alliances (reviewed here) and Thrawn: Treason. Zahn begins a new trilogy with this Tuesday’s release of Thrawn: Ascendancy–Chaos Rising, available for pre-order here at Amazon.
