Thrawn - Treason

Compared to the other two novels in this trilogy, this one somewhat fell flat. It took quite long to go through the mystery that was mentioned, and several aspects of the book were just stuck inside the heads of the various characters, explaining their every single thought without leaving much for the reader to speculate. Thrawn also has such an insane plot armour, it's quite comical already at this point, but it's understandable. However, I did like the further expounding of the background of the Death Star and the efforts made towards it (I very much like seeing the Empire fumble though; they deserve to fail miserably). Overall, this book was just somewhat underwhelming, nothing as impressive as the other two books in the trilogy. 

Eli is back 🙌🏻😭 this book was actually really interesting to see more about the bts of the Death Star. Loved learning more about this chiss too!! This book has definitely left me theorizing 👀

always enjoy reading thrawn’s strategizing prowess. the fictional tech was hard to keep up with so i was kinda guessing towards the end

2.5 stars. Star Wars: Thrawn – Treason, the third book in the new canon Thrawn series by Timothy Zahn, is an ideal way to wrap up this current-canon story of Grand Admiral Thrawn– AKA the enigmatic and brilliant Chiss warrior Mitth’raw’nuruodo– which Zahn does by skillfully and thankfully doing away with the structural crutches that made the previous two entries a bit overly repetitive. Yay for a clear narrative! You see for as entertaining as the last two novels were, they were problematic, especially the plodding prequel-era flashbacks of last year’s Star Wars: Thrawn – Alliances. In their place is a very welcome straightforward narrative mixing political intrigue with good old fashioned space battles. After Thrawn: Alliances connected the Original Trilogy and the Prequels, Treason returns to the early days of the Galactic Civil War. The rebellion is hardly a presence in the galaxy. The Death Star project is underway, so Rogue One’s bad boy Orson Krennic is concentrating on both his super-weapon project and his rivalry with Grand Moff Tarkin. Tarkin challenges Thrawn to get rid of the pests challenging Krennic’s supply chain. Krennic gives him one week to do it and wagers Thrawn’s pet project, the TIE Defender squad. The real stakes are clear ( if not muted): either Thrawn fails and Tarkin is discredited, or he succeeds and the Death Star project scoops up his funding. Of course, the story soon becomes bigger than that: the Chiss have appeared in the known galaxy, fighting their old nuisance, the Grysks. But alas even a straightforward narrative can’t save this novel from pitfalls. For starters, this being Star Wars: Thrawn – Treason we, the readers, know the Grysk don’t play a major role in the ongoing saga for at least the following thirty or forty years in the timeline, so that particular threat never feels very… well, threatening. Plus, we know that Thrawn is too much of an asset/threat to the Emperor to be disposed. The common theme throughout this entire book, however, is that of loyalty. When it was marketed beforehand, the whole concept behind Thrawn Treason was that Thrawn's loyalties would be tested and I totally thought that he may betray the Empire. While I do think that his loyalties were being tested, I believe that the words "treason" and "loyalties" can describe the character arcs of all the people surrounding Thrawn (just think of the personal ambitions of Krennic) as much as they pertain to Thrawn himself. I really, really wanted to like this book more than I did. But the muted stakes, the lack of any real treason, I felt disappointed. Zahn is a great cinematic writer and these are significantly closer in tone to the first book of this trilogy, and to the original Thrawn trilogy but Star Wars: Thrawn – Treason lacks a thoroughly engaging storyline that delivers. As for the audible narration, Marc Thompson delivers another stellar performance backed by a phenomenal production crew.

Thrawn is such a great character! And Zahn is a phenomenal narrator! I loved it! MORE! MORE! PLEASE WRITE MORE!

Epic, much better than the second book. The audio production was incredible, extra star for that .

** spoiler alert ** As a huge fan of Star Wars: Rebels and Rogue One I was super excited to read this. The only issue with that is that I've watched all of the Rebels and knew the fate of Thrawn's Tie Defenders. I loved to get more about the Chiss characters and to see Eli again. Ultimately, I feel like the book was written really well. The pacing was once again perfect. My only issue with the book was that because I knew the ultimate fate of Thrawn's project, there was no real danger for him in his pursuit of solving Director Krennic's missing ship issue. In saying that, I was deeply invested in the journey. In saying all that, the ending was such a letdown!!! I grew to like Ronan, and he still seemed to be two-faced. I badly wanted to see some more character growth for him.

Not as good as the first one, but a lot better than the second one.

Thrawn is probably the ony "Mary Sue" character I not only tolerate, but love. The more he outsmarts everyone else around him, the more I like him. I also liked how this book had more female characters.