21 April 2017

BOOK REVIEW: Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 4.3 of 5


Released to high expectation, Star Wars: Thrawn is the latest addition to the (new) official Star Wars canon. Having been a casual dabbler of Expanded Universe material over the years and knowing the significance of Admiral Thrawn as a character, this book caught my attention early, metaphorically slapping me across the face, strongly suggesting that I read it. How could I possibly resist? After all, it’s written by one of the biggest names in the sci-fi literary world and the main character is one of the most cunning and ruthless in the entire history of the Star Wars universe.

It’s written of course by Timothy Zahn, a fine author who has also penned a good number of other Star Wars novels including the immensely popular Thrawn Trilogy novels which were released in the early ’90s. At one point there was a movie adaptation of that series rumored but it has not materialized as yet. However, Grand Admiral Thrawn has made it to the small screen by becoming a key character in the Star Wars Rebels animated TV series.

The book begins when an Imperial Navy team is attacked by a blue-skinned alien on a remote planet, a member of the mysterious Chiss species who calls himself Mitth’raw’nuruodo. He is allegedly a disgraced military commander exiled to the planet by his own rulers. His name is shortened and he becomes known as Thrawn.

The story follows Thrawn and young cadet Eli Vanto, who’s brought along first as a translator, then as Thrawn’s aide, as they rise to power within the vast Imperial military machine. Thrawn manages to impress Emperor Palpatine who recognizes his potential and personally helps to expedite Thrawn’s progression through the ranks. Thrawn and Vanto are sent to an Imperial military academy and then into the Navy fleet, where Thrawn quickly demonstrates his brilliance as a tactical commander, hunting down pirates and various organized insurgent groups. Together Thrawn and Vanto are like a Star Wars version of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, unraveling mysterious troubles facing the Empire. However, Thrawn shows himself to be weak in the realm of politics where, as a high-ranking military officer, he really needs to be strong and proficient. This is where another of the book’s key players fits in.

Along side the story of Thrawn’s rise to power, there is the parallel story of Arihnda Pryce who is on her own meteoric rise to power from her humble beginnings as small scale mine manager to a planetary Governor based in the magnificent halls of power on the capital world Coruscant. The two stories become nicely intertwined as each character moves up their respective ladders of power and influence, Thrawn on the actual battlefield out in space and Pryce on the political battlefield.

Written in an easy and concise style, each chapter opens with a thought or teaching from the mind of Thrawn himself which shows his reasoning and logic on various matters such as leadership and tactics. Also interspersed though the text in scenes where Thrawn is present are his observations of what is happening in the scene. These are presented in italics inline with the main text and add an interesting first person perspective to the overall third person viewpoint. I thought this added a nice depth to the story telling.

It’s not what I’d call an intense or action-packed novel, but what action scenes there are form necessary parts of the story and are written well. The world-building is modest, to be honest, and it’s clear that some prior knowledge of Star Wars locations and species has been assumed by the author. This will be no issue at all for seasoned Star Wars fans, but those new to the finer points will probably require a little extra information. I actually had my copy of Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Alien Species on hand to assist and this was a great help. It’s also quite dialogue heavy, but again this is a required aspect because of the often political and plot-heavy nature of the story. The conversations are well written in contemporary language and easy to follow.

Despite Thrawn being one of the big name Imperial bad guys within the Star Wars universe, I actually found him quite likeable. He enjoys and appreciates art and recognizes it’s value in understanding a culture. He shows himself to have reasonable morals, is a thoughtful and considerate leader, planning his moves carefully rather than using aggression and brute strength at every opportunity. He genuinely believes violence to be counterproductive and a last resort action. His own complex motivations for aligning himself with the Empire are explored as the story progresses. He seems to have some knowledge of a greater threat to the wider galaxy including the mighty Empire (presumably he’s referring to the Yuuzhan Vong) and desires to use his position within the Imperial Navy to help prepare for it. This part of the plot certainly leaves much room for future stories. Bring them on!

Minor parts are played by some other key figures from the Star Wars universe, the most notable ones being Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader. They do not form large parts of the plot, yet they are significant in their presence and again point to there being more to this story arc in the future. Also, this book gives a little background to another key story within Star Wars, one that was explored in a recent standalone movie, and again hints at Disney’s new direction with the franchise to possibly align some of the bigger story arcs in a more complete way. I’m all for this, and for a person who was worried about the direction that Star Wars would take under it’s new ownership, I’m generally pleased with how things are shaping up. Because I’m a fan focused more on the literature side of things rather than the movies (which I also enjoy), if they can maintain this standard by using more top authors to produce books of this caliber then I’ll be more than happy.

In summary, I think this is a great addition to the new Star Wars canon which does not seem to diminish the contribution of earlier Expanded Universe material (now re-branded as Star Wars Legends). It should be an accessible novel for both fans and newcomers alike and I think that it’ll do well. I enjoyed reading it very much and thoroughly recommend it.

4/5 for concept
5/5 for delivery
4/5 for entertainment
= 4.3 out of 5



08 April 2017

BOOK REVIEW: The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown

My rating: 4.6 out of 5

This is a review that I find a little difficult to write, which may seem strange for a book to which I’ve given a good rating, but as I begin to write I’m struggling to put down in words how much enjoyment I got from this. Therefore it’s probably going to be a rather short review.

Good enough to make it onto my own personal all-time favorites list, I’ve not read a book quite like it. While this is a great science fiction book written by one of today’s finest authors of any genre (in my humble opinion) it actually starts out quite different (i.e. non-sci-fi) and it’s not until a little way through that the science fiction elements appear. But when they do, it’s in a really cool way, in stark contrast to the 1930’s England in which a portion of the story is set, and this is one of the things that makes this book so wonderful.

The story is told from two quite different viewpoints, one a first person account, the other a third person narrative and they combine along the way into a solid story of happiness and pain, wonder and intrigue. To say much more would probably introduce spoilers, and the synopsis probably tells as much as you need to know, so hopefully it’s sufficient enough to say that the story is told superbly and that it left me feeling very satisfied, glad that I’d invested the time reading it.

If I was forced to make comparisons, some books that I’ve read that are similar are some of Eric Brown’s other works, namely Kethani and The Serene Invasion. All of these stories have at their core some sort of benevolent alien species that can bestow wonderful yet ominous gifts upon human recipients. Like those other books, this book presents the human aspect of such wonders, how one might begin to adjust to a life of no disease or sickness and even immortality when we’re bred and conditioned to expect finite time with sickness as a fact of life. I very much wanted to be one of the characters in this book, I connected with it on such a level.

To avoid simply rambling on about how good this book is and how much enjoyment that Brown has given me yet again, I’m going to close with my usual appraisal of his work: once again Eric Brown fails to disappoint.

A must-read for any lover of story.

Concept: 4/5
Delivery: 5/5
Entertainment: 5/5
= 4.6 out of 5


07 April 2017

BOOK REVIEW: The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1) by John Scalzi
My rating: 4.3 out of 5



As a huge fan of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series I’ve been very much looking forward to this book. I was very keen for him to reaffirm himself in my eyes as one of the best modern sci-fi authors after leaving me a little disappointed with some of his more recent offerings. With this one, to be fair, I think he’s done alright.

Right from the beginning this book is typical Scalzi, which is actually a dumb thing to say as I think about it, because I can’t think of a reason why it could (or should) be anything different. By typical I mean that the story is written with his usual relaxed prose and sarcastic wit which I enjoy. It’s a reasonably short book with the story line moving along at a brisk pace and I always found myself eager to return back to it. The character dialogue great fun but it’s not without sizable, and I think slightly overdone, doses of profanity. That said, I enjoyed chuckling out loud to some of the things said by the characters. There are some colorful personalities in this story and I was impressed by some very strong female players, but a few seem maybe a little too “masculine”, possibly due to their personalities being created and written by a man. Who knows, and with that said, it’s easy to read and it flows really well. I’ve made this comparison before, but I see the similarities of Scalzi’s style to that of Mike Resnick, sometimes tongue-in-cheek and often brusque, but just with a few more uses of the f-word.

As for the setting, I like the universe that the author has built in terms of it’s finer details such as the physics and technology, but I find the interdependent nature Scalzi’s interstellar society to be a tad nonsensical. I can accept the idea behind it, that is to minimize the potential for war and also as a means of control, but I find it hard to believe that humanity would let itself become fully reliant on a mysterious and tenuous system of inter-dimensional portals and corridors (The Flow) which link together the various human inhabited star systems. It means that no single planet or orbital habitat could survive for long on their own because each requires so much from the others. The system of governance is interesting, with noble families and trade guilds controlling monopolies over various industries and commodities with a senior “royal” family to oversee and control the whole lot, similar in many ways to Frank Herbert’s ideas in his immensely popular Dune universe. I enjoyed discovering the complex layers here along with the various egos and agendas contained therein. Overall the world building is good and interesting enough without being mind-blowing.

In the story, the link to Earth has disappeared a thousand years prior due to a Flow stream collapse and it’s another impeding change which is the basic theme of the book. Only a few people know or suspect that another change is due, and the story follows the posturing and politicking of various factions (the aforementioned nobles and guilds) to try and take maximum advantage of the upheaval. There is more than enough action to keep me happy and it’s good action at that. By this I mean that the action sequences are described swiftly in expressive detail which makes them easy to picture in the mind’s eye without being overdone simply for the sake of it. I reckon that this use of action is one of Scalzi’s strengths as an author and his balance of action vs. dialogue in this book is probably it’s best feature. It’s far better than that of his last couple of books, and I know that I digress slightly here, but the political plots and discourse in these was yawn-inducing, sometimes even verging on nauseating and I was initially fearful that this book would be similar. Well, I’m pleased to report that it’s not. Sure, it’s got politics and all that stuff as a central element, but it’s toned down and much more appropriate to the overall story.

As a last comment and hopefully not a spoiler for anyone, I admit to being a little disappointed to reach the end of the book without seeing any mention of alien life forms, intelligent or otherwise. But this story is by no means over and who knows what the author has in store for us in the coming installments. I really hope it does involve aliens because Scalzi does excellent aliens as shown in much of earlier work.

In summary, this is good space opera science fiction and a wonderfully smooth reading experience. It looks like a fine introduction to what will hopefully be another great series from John Scalzi.

Concept: 4/5
Delivery: 5/5
Entertainment: 4/5
= 4.3 out of 5