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A review by tidecaller
Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
5.0
thrawn has been a character ive been interested in ever since my dear friend introduced me to star wars - this blue guy has been his favorite and i do have to admit he is my favorite now too, especially after reading this book.
this book is basically thrawns introduction, his career and it's development; it's a love letter to how you write smart characters and tacticians, but also an ode to the subtleties of art, of culture, of war.
over time, we get to know thrawn more, we get to see his thoughts and his smart plans, he truly is big brain personified. i love the consistency within him and what he does and the way people react to his plans, how eli went from barely following and understanding what thrawn was plotting to just _knowing_ and understanding what was planned, to just be presented with a plan and to see through it all and why it's done the exact way. eli and thrawn go hand in hand for me in this book. their growth over the entire book is very believable and i love all the various missions they're on, i enjoy their interactions and while it's not all nice and eli does have a few grudges, it all makes their relationship so much more believable and interesting, so much more in depth and tangible to me. they grow together and learn things from each other, dependant but both capable on their own, pushing each other to be better and to achieve more.
i also enjoy the progression of the plot, especially because it is well paced and it just gets more serious the further we get along in the book, there has been a threat looming over the readers head ever since the beginning but we werent quite sure what was going on and i enjoyed the progression of everything making sense over time, that we got bits and pieces here and there and just like thrawn, we can slowly piece together what is going on. it was all well planned and thought out and the little twists and turns were not sudden or surprised me in a way, where it all was unbelievable or frustrated me because you couldnt guess it or it all just didnt make any sense.
what i think falls a little short is thrawns appreciation of art. there are amazing moments where thrawn analyzes art and uses art of various species to plan out attacks and to understand them better to see how they would react to certain strategies and to get the result and outcome that he wants out of an attack. his analysis is always precise and thorough enough, everything that needs to be said is said but it is detailed enough to the point where i can visualize the art with just the few words. i just love the balance of expanding on details and appreciating the culture and the influence that flowed into the art pieces but without going too overboard and filling tons of pages.
i also expected more blurbs about how thrawn analyzed the people he was surrounded by and interacted with. it gradually got more over time and throughout the book but i want to see more of him picking up on subtleties, on what gives away a person, a certain character, that even when trying, they cannot hide from thrawn and his big brain, his ability to read others and to connect the dots.
everything considered, this was one of the most fun reads ive had in a while. it never felt like a chore or that it was too long (the german version does have solid 620 pages, definitely a couple more than the english version) and it was definitely the right length, the right amount of scenes and chapters and the right amount of things happening. i thoroughly enjoyed the charactization of the main cast, the development of the plot and even though i did not like the back and forth between thrawns and arihndas story line in the beginning, i grew fond of it as well as how it comes together in the end.
this book is basically thrawns introduction, his career and it's development; it's a love letter to how you write smart characters and tacticians, but also an ode to the subtleties of art, of culture, of war.
over time, we get to know thrawn more, we get to see his thoughts and his smart plans, he truly is big brain personified. i love the consistency within him and what he does and the way people react to his plans, how eli went from barely following and understanding what thrawn was plotting to just _knowing_ and understanding what was planned, to just be presented with a plan and to see through it all and why it's done the exact way. eli and thrawn go hand in hand for me in this book. their growth over the entire book is very believable and i love all the various missions they're on, i enjoy their interactions and while it's not all nice and eli does have a few grudges, it all makes their relationship so much more believable and interesting, so much more in depth and tangible to me. they grow together and learn things from each other, dependant but both capable on their own, pushing each other to be better and to achieve more.
i also enjoy the progression of the plot, especially because it is well paced and it just gets more serious the further we get along in the book, there has been a threat looming over the readers head ever since the beginning but we werent quite sure what was going on and i enjoyed the progression of everything making sense over time, that we got bits and pieces here and there and just like thrawn, we can slowly piece together what is going on. it was all well planned and thought out and the little twists and turns were not sudden or surprised me in a way, where it all was unbelievable or frustrated me because you couldnt guess it or it all just didnt make any sense.
what i think falls a little short is thrawns appreciation of art. there are amazing moments where thrawn analyzes art and uses art of various species to plan out attacks and to understand them better to see how they would react to certain strategies and to get the result and outcome that he wants out of an attack. his analysis is always precise and thorough enough, everything that needs to be said is said but it is detailed enough to the point where i can visualize the art with just the few words. i just love the balance of expanding on details and appreciating the culture and the influence that flowed into the art pieces but without going too overboard and filling tons of pages.
i also expected more blurbs about how thrawn analyzed the people he was surrounded by and interacted with. it gradually got more over time and throughout the book but i want to see more of him picking up on subtleties, on what gives away a person, a certain character, that even when trying, they cannot hide from thrawn and his big brain, his ability to read others and to connect the dots.
everything considered, this was one of the most fun reads ive had in a while. it never felt like a chore or that it was too long (the german version does have solid 620 pages, definitely a couple more than the english version) and it was definitely the right length, the right amount of scenes and chapters and the right amount of things happening. i thoroughly enjoyed the charactization of the main cast, the development of the plot and even though i did not like the back and forth between thrawns and arihndas story line in the beginning, i grew fond of it as well as how it comes together in the end.