Review: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

The good

Thrawn is a fantastic character. Some sort of combination of Sherlock Holmes, Hannibal Lector, and Captain Pickard. Brilliant, ruthless, cunning. Loves to understand a people by studying their art and body language. Blue skin, crisp white uniform. You look forward to every scene he’s in.
A fun look at how Thrawn rose to power in the Empire.
A number of fun battles, including lots of clever strategy and tactics. [Minor spoilers] The battle with Scrim Island is particularly memorable, with Thrawn placing using already damaged light cruisers to block any direct shots between the ion cannons on the planet and the star destroyer the Chimaera, and then destroying the ion cannons (and everything else on the island) by bombarding the ocean near them to create tsunamis.

Thrawn is a little too good. He’s always two steps ahead and seems to predict things that cannot possibly be predicted. Sometimes this is fun to see, but we see him struggle/suffer so little, that at times, it feels like a little too much of a good thing.
The other characters are not nearly as interesting.
This book had no Jedi action in it. I know Star Wars is about more than just Jedi’s, but c’mon, give us a little!

Rating: 4 stars