greenpenguino said:
Anchorhead said:
The Last Command
*No spoilers*
I finished the Thrawn Trilogy last night with the completion of the third book The Last Command. In a word - unbelievable! Absolutely the best anything to carry the name Star Wars I've ever read. Zahn has surpassed Daley as my go-to for personal canon. This trilogy really captures the magic I felt back in 1977. Command was particularly hard to put down. The character depth of Luke, Mara, and Leia was fantastic. The character arc of Mara made the novel for me. Zahn is definitely Star Wars for adults. No doubt the Thrawn Trilogy will be a yearly read for me.
Next up is Spectre Of The Past, which I started literally about 60 seconds after I finished Last Command, around 3:00 AM last night. My EU and personal canon continue to grow. Reviews as the rest are completed.
Side note; Last Command also carries a second distinction in my world. It was my first foray into e-books. My thoughts so far are that nothing can replace an actual book, but I was much more comfortable with it than I thought I'd be.
I have the Thrawn trilogy in paperback, but decided to give Kindle reading a try with Command so I could read later into the night without keeping anyone awake with my book light. It went well enough after a day, so I went ahead and downloaded Spectre and Vision. I'll get used paperbacks for travel, but electronic is going to be fine also.
Glad you enjoyed it Anchor. Out of all three The Last Command remains my favourite (aside from the contrived Luuke Clone).
So much for saving the spoiler free Anchorhead version :) I personally found it, well, I suppose contrived, but handled quite well. Clones have been overused and are about as cliched as any sci-fi plot device, but I personally think it mirrors Luke's challenge in ESB in the cave nicely, and also makes use of seemingly lost...er...artifacts (trying to preserve some surprise for the unenlightened) in the creation of Luuke. Anchorhead, I truly agree it is an excellent series and Mara's arc is fantastic and deep. I found both major antagonists, Thrawn and C'boath, worthy successors as primary villains. Neither is either the Emperor, Vader, or even Tarkin, yet they are worthy opponents with their own unique dangerous traits.
As for Spectre of the Past, I enjoy Zahn's writing, but for me personally the EU had been ruined by the time this book came out, and efforts at redeeming it on his part could only go so far. I hope you do enjoy it, and might recommend reading some of the less enjoyable stuff to at least familiarize yourself with how things stand at this point, specifically Dark Empire and the Jedi Academy Trilogy. However, I'm sure you can enjoy the plot well enough with a few lapses in your timeline.