– Spoiler Review –
Thrawn – Treason is the final book of Timothy Zahn’s canon Thrawn Trilogy and another entry sandwiched between episodes of Star Wars Rebels, asking us once again to ignore the destination and enjoy the journey. Unfortunately, Treason doesn’t give readers the opportunity to ignore the destination anymore, aka the finale to Rebels, as the journey feels like treason against us readers.
As Thrawn tries to get his TIE Defender program off the ground while dealing with the Lothal rebels, Director Orson Krennic and Grand Moff Tarkin pull him into a game of politics, asked to put his Defender program funds on the line in a bet regarding his abilities to solve a shipping problem for the Stardust program (aka Death Star). Eli Vanto, deep within the Chiss Ascendancy since the end of the first book, is working with Admiral Ar’alani in tracking down Grysk movements, the nefarious enemy revealed to be haunting the Ascendancy at the end of the second book. Surprise, surprise, both groups end up on a collision course with one another as their goals intertwine, though Thrawn teaming up with the Chiss to hunt a mutual enemy once again gives the Emperor cause to be concerned over Thrawn’s loyalties. With more intriguing politicking in Catalyst and Rogue One regarding the Tarkin/Krennic feud, a lack of connection to the Chiss’ problems or the Grysk threat, and the knowledge that a lot of what’s on the line will be redundant shortly due to the Rebels finale, most of what propels this book falls short of interesting.
With Treason set between the events of Rebels Season Four Episodes “Jedi Night” and “Family Reunion – And Farewell,” with Rogue One/Original Trilogy on the horizon timeline-wise, the journey here needed to tear the focus away from the destination, but this close to everything made that next to impossible, even for a genius like Thrawn. In book one there was Arihnda Pryce’s rise through the ranks, full of setbacks, double-crosses, and catharsis that overshadowed Thrawn’s own predictable rise in the Empire, while in book two there was a big focus on Padmé taking care of business on her own, with some entertaining Anakin/Thrawn team-ups, that overshadowed a plodding tale set in the “present” that had Vader and Thrawn having debates over caf as they investigated a Grysk incursion. For book three, there’s no such entertaining side story or new character to care about, so all the boys with their toys posturing of Tarkin, Krennic, Grand Admiral Savit, whose sector contains the Stardust shipment problems, Assistant Director Ronan, Krennic’s fanboy lackey, and Thrawn’s aloofness, where each character is so smart they continue to get the one up on the other until, surprise, surprise, naturally Thrawn prevails in the end, feels like empty space. We all know how this ends, even for some of the new characters, and it all happens to a Thrawn-shaped T.
Of the three books, Treason feels the most like it would rather fill in bullet points to get characters from Point A to Z, expanding canon minutia rather than expanding characterizations, which makes it feel more like a Legends novel than most of the canon novels, which have prioritized characters over being big plot points. Thrawn, fated to be taken off the chess board by Ezra Bridger only moments after this book ends, continues to lack any flaws besides supposedly being bad at the politics of the Empire, which characters constantly tell us despite Thrawn outmaneuvering everyone in the end, and he learns very little besides points on a sheet regarding the Grysk threat. I far enjoyed his appearances on Rebels because he was able to fail and attempt to learn from it, and it ended with one of the most intriguing failures in Thrawn’s life, pulled away from it all by space whales and a young Jedi, while each Thrawn book has simply been a showcase of how cool and smart the character is and not much else. The aforementioned Ronan, Savit, and even Governor Haveland are barely expanded upon beyond their usefulness to events, with Haveland being pointed to as a potential traitor but her single scene makes it easy to tell it’s not the case, making it hard to connect to any new characters because we only learn what we need for them to be considered important to the story.
As for the Grysk, the Wild Space threat creating a Hegemony through tactics of fear, I admit they sound like a formidable threat, from their psychological warfare to all their technology, which Zahn goes into enough detail about to make a Wookieepedia page blush, but it’s hard not to think they are nothing more than background noise in the larger picture. While that’s not enough to write off the Grysk, not everything needs to have grander importance to the saga to be a viable threat, what really causes me to shrug when I hear about them is how the novel spends so much time telling us how terrible they are and way less time showing us how terrible they are, to the point we barely ever have them physically described (though that’s part of their mystique, or so we’re told). We do get to see some of the psychological fallout from some of their victims, but not enough to make a late in the book moment feel warranted when a character asks Eli kill them rather than be taken alive, and while Grysk technology and tactics are considered superior and unstoppable, Thrawn and Ar’alani manage to make short work of them anyways. If we spent some time with a Grysk themselves, learning about why they’re expanding like they are or what they want, or even getting to spend time with a character slowly being manipulated to work for them, maybe the threat could feel more real and less nebulous, but as it stands now the Grysk feel like something I’m going to forget after I finish this review. Could they be an enemy dealt with by the New Republic before the Sequel Trilogy? Something for our new heroes to deal with after The Rise of Skywalker? A future adventure for the wayward Thrawn and Ezra? Maybe, but at this point it wouldn’t feel earned, but if they do come to the forefront in the future, I hope there’s material that shows us what a threat they are instead of telling us.
The other problem stems from how little time we’ve actually spent with the Chiss Ascendancy, because beyond their Legends past, we know next to nothing regarding the Chiss in canon. How bad of the problem are the Grysk really? What are these family squabbles doing to their overall security? How much of Wild Space do they control vs how much does the Grysk Hegemony? What are the Chiss like in general, beyond Force-related Navigators, Thrawn, and stern Ar’alani? How do Navigators feel about their situation in life, as the book never reveals more about Vah’nya or Un’hee besides their usefulness to advancing the plot? Relying on a reader’s general information on Legends’ Chiss, and not expanding on them in canon besides telling us they are having problems also leaves their plight feeling nebulous at best, and without any significant time with the Chiss beyond them solving an Imperial problem, there’s no connection for readers to make to the Chiss. This is a problem because we’re once again supposed to be worried over how the Empire sees Thrawn working alongside his people, just like Vader was trying to ascertain last book, but since both Thrawn and the Empire are the bad guys, I can’t say I would mind if the Emperor didn’t like Thrawn’s actions and killed him or that the Chiss would go on the offensive against the Empire, while not knowing enough about the Chiss makes me shrug whether any of these outcomes affect them negatively or positively.
And while Eli being shipped off to the Ascendancy to help them was a great surprise two books ago, using the same device for a different new character makes the idea lose its luster, while making me wonder: are Thrawn and Ar’alani the only competent people in the Ascendancy that they need this influx of human help even though the Chiss we’ve all met could do much of the same job? This is more glaring when there’s so much evident reverence for Thrawn in the writing but supposedly only humans can help him and his people while he plays games with the Empire. By the end of Treason, we find out what Eli’s being tasked with discovering for the Chiss, if there’s a pattern to finding out who the next Navigators will be, but we don’t discover why the Chiss don’t just adopt other hyperspace navigation techniques nor do we find out how Eli feels about everything beyond hoping for Thrawn’s approval all novel; as much as I was looking forward to Eli’s return, it’s fallen short of any expectation. And for Ronan sent off to the Chiss at the end, it only happens because Thrawn can deduce he isn’t a fan of the Emperor, and while we hear him disagree with ol’ Sheev’s tactics, it didn’t feel like enough for Ronan to be scared into going off with the Chiss. We learn so little about Ronan’s background, besides a one-off moment about him coming from nothing, plus he randomly believes Thrawn is secretly asking him to hunt down Jedi, a connection so wild I struggled to make the leap of logic with him, that the fate of Ronan is barely a blimp on my radar, even during the book. Are the Chiss really this desperate for help Ronan is the second person Thrawn sends? I hope not, but we don’t know enough about the situation to have thoughts either way.
It’s not all a miss, as there were some things I managed to enjoy throughout: The Navigators and their Second Sight ability to share thoughts between themselves intrigued me, as I’d like to see more of how it works and the benefits/detriments of using such an ability, and if something like it could be learned by Force users; Captain Pellaeon, first teased to be in canon during Rebels episode “Rebel Assault,” gets a bit of a cameo again here, continuing his characterization as one of the Imperials who has a sense of honor, but once again his appearance benefits from knowing his Legends story and leaves newer readers without much to go on; Naval battles are thrilling, though the minutia of every little movement and decision prolongs confrontations an unnecessary amount; Commodore Faro has been my favorite character out of the trilogy so far, with her trajectory and abilities here exciting to watch, and I’m very happy she’s out from under Thrawn’s wings now as I believe it means better things are ahead for her; Peering under the helmets of the Death Troopers was neat, while the mysterious ISB agent provided some fun parts.
Here are a few other things:
- The Mynock family increases again! First Rebels brought us fyrnocks, now Treason gives us grallocs! I feel like there might be an article all about the mynock family brewing…
Thrawn – Treason brings the latest Thrawn Trilogy to a disappointing end, as its journey can’t deflect from the coming destinations of events we already know and it spends far too much time telling us about characters, threats, and minutia than showing us why we should care about them.
+ Faro’s trajectory
+ Naval battles were mostly thrilling
– Can’t make connections to new characters/characters serve plot first
– Too much telling, not enough showing
– Everyone is too smart for their own good, especially Thrawn
– Feels more like filling in canon tidbits than telling anything meaningful or interesting
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
ALSO BY TIMOTHY ZAHN:
Thrawn (novel) | Thrawn – Alliances (novel)
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Star Wars Rebels: Season Three | Season Four
Thrawn (comic adaptation) | Catalyst (novel)