If You Liked Thrawn, You Should Read…

While I’m a big fan of the new canon, I also love (some of) the books and characters that are part of the Legends timeline. When the Legends reboot was announced, I was sad not because those stories were coming to an end, but because I’d miss the characters I’d grown to know and love. That was why I was so excited when it was announced at Celebration London that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be the new villain in Season Three of Star Wars Rebels. Not only that, but Timothy Zahn would be writing a book about Thrawn’s rise to power in the Empire.

Thrawn‘s release date has come and gone, as well as the ThrawnCast podcast, in which we revisited the Thrawn Trilogy. Although Thrawn dies at the end of that trilogy (spoilers!), his influence and appearances in Legends do not end with The Last Command. If you’re interested in reading more about Thrawn, but aren’t sure where to start, I present a roadmap to Thrawn’s appearances in Legends. (This also serves as a roadmap to other Zahn books and stories, because pretty much everything he wrote had Thrawn’s fingerprints on it!)

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EU Retrospective: Attack of the Clones

I took a few days off for Thanksgiving (and so I won’t completely kill Brian with my fast reading speed) but we’re back with more Prequel Era books!  This time, half of the books were obvious tie-ins to books from much further down the timeline and two of them were, well, Attack of the Clones based.  This one’s a bit more of a mixed bag than before.

Rogue Planet
Okay so you know how some people hate Boba Fett and get annoyed by how fans adore him and he gets all these appearances etc etc?  Yeah, that’s me except with Tarkin and the building of the Death Star.  Honestly, what is this obsession that EU authors have with him and the Death Star?  I mean, I know it was a cool looking space station that blew planets up but can we not credit everyone and their mother with its construction?

Overall, the book’s okay but it’s so obviously there for the New Jedi Order that it feels far too much like an extended short story sometimes.  Character-wise, it’s good.  I actually really enjoyed getting some insight into the early years of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s Master/Padawan relationship.  I also rather enjoy Thracia Cho Leem because anyone who can out sass Mace Windu and have his respect deserves your respect.  It’s too bad that she leaves the Jedi Order because wow is he going to need her in about a decade when Shatterpoint happens….  The only thing I’m really not fond of is getting beaten over the head with “Oooo Anakin’s going to fall to the Dark Side one day!”.  I get what Greg Bear was doing but at times, it felt like a bit too much.  Also, I will be forever sad that Anakin didn’t get to keep his ship.  Poor baby.

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