Timothy Zahn 1997 – Bantam 19 Years After The Battle of Yavin Site Rating =  Buy Now from Amazon.Com

SPOILER ALERT: This Will Spoil The Plot of the Book!

The Empire is nearly dead. Admiral Pellaeon is now the Captain of the Chimaera. After overseeing a failed test of a weapon called the Predictor, he decides it is time to finally surrender to the New Republic.

Leia is taking a leave of absence from the Senate and Han is on his way to settle a dispute on Iphigin in her place. He asks Luke to help him out. When on the planet, Han intercepts and destroys a pirate raid. Through the Force, Luke senses that there are clones on board some of the attacking ships. In order to find out who could be hiding clones, they decide to seek out their old friend Talon Karrde.

Leia is on Wayland under the supervision of the Noghri when she is contacted by Lak Jit, an associate of Talon Karrde, who was digging for artifacts on the planet. Leia makes a deal for some data cards he has discovered. One is titled “The Hand of Thrawn”. Lak Jit attempts to escape with one card still in his possession, but he is thwarted by The Wild Karrde with Karrde and Mara Jade onboard. The retrieved data card reveals startling information that Bothans along with Palpatine were involved in the horrible destruction of the planet Caamas, a world whose brutal destruction was perhaps even more infamous than Alderaan’s.

The Moff’s are not pleased with Pellaeon’s thoughts of surrender. Moff Disra meets with him privately and scolds him for his attitude. Pellaeon questions the appearance of many SoroSuub Preybirds ships that Disra has brought through curious means. Also on hand is Major Tierce. Tierce is revealed to have once been on the Emperor’s Royal Guard. Disra reads over the same information about Caamas as Leia and sees it as a big opportunity for the Empire. Tierce has reservations, but Disra tells him he has someone waiting that could become the next great leader of the Empire. He leads Tierce down a corridor and enters a room where Grand Admiral Thrawn, thought to be long dead, awaits them!

Thrawn is revealed to be an imposter named Flim. Disra hopes to float information that the original Thrawn did not die as previously thought and has returned to lead the Empire. Disra also reveals that he has made a bargain with Cavrilhu Pirates to attack New Republic ships. The pirates get to keep the booty and in return the Empire gets SoroSuub Preybirds. He also notes that he has given the pirates use of Thrawn’s Mount Tantiss clones. A new Imperial plan is underway.

Flim makes his first official appearance as Thrawn to several Imperial Captains as Disra tells them of his plan. The test is successful.

Wedge and Lando meet up on Morishim and discover a cache of old Imperial intelligence computers being used by a local. They encounter a Star Destroyer chasing one its own ships. They record some of a garbled audio transmission.

The Senate is in uproar over the new information about the Caamas attack. Two members of the Caamas remnants come to meet with Leia. At the same time Karrde and Han discuss the reasons clones would be running with pirates. They also suggest getting Luke and Mara together as both have been acting strangely lately.

Luke has taken off to track down the pirates and learn where they get their clones. He infiltrates their base in disguise, but is attacked. After a short battle, he is captured. With some Jedi tricks he is able to escape, but Mara Jade and Faughn eventually rescue him. Faughn mentions that Luke and Mara make a good team.

Disra and his partners enjoy the disruption in the Senate. They are concerned that the Senate may discover some once lost information about which Bothans were involved on Caamas and simply punish them thus ending the disruption. One copy of the information is remaining. Zothip, the pirate commander, contacts them. Disra instructs him to have his fleet attack Pellaeon’s fleet disguised as Corellians so Pellaeon thinks that the New Republic has rejected his peace offer. They begin plans for a new riot that will make a bigger impact.

While recovering from earlier wounds, Luke meditates on what to do next. He has a vision of the future and sees a space battle and as well as Mara lying seemingly dead in a pool of water. He wakes with a new direction in which to search.

While looking through Bothan records, Leia and Han encounter a large demonstration. Han steps outside to investigate. Navett and Pensin, employees of Disra are waiting to execute a Bothan leader, but are thrilled to see Han as well. Leia senses the attack too late and a blast hits the balcony. She grabs her lightsaber and enters the attack. Han and the Noghri also come to her aid. Many Bothans are killed and an Imperial device is discovered that helped trigger the attack.

Luke arrives at the Grand Rim Promenade on Cejansij. Upon doing so he feels an evil flicker in the force and sees a dozen shrouded figures approaching nearby with blasters. A frightened old woman and a small child are caught in the middle. As the assailants prepare to fire, the child suddenly attacks! The hood falls revealing the child to actually be a Noghri. Afterwards, the Noghri reveal they work for Talon Karrde. Luke learns that Mara Jade has been kidnapped chasing one of the mystery ships he had seen earlier. Luke leaves to find her.

While playing a game of sabacc on the Lady Luck, Lando and others are caught in a tractor beam and captured by an Imperial Star Destroyer. On board, they are brought before Thrawn. Thrawn tells them that the current crisis can be resolved by simply asking for his help.

Senators debate whether or not to launch an all out attack on Thrawn. There are heated arguments on both sides, including many who do not even believe that Thrawn has actually returned. The Senators are divided and fighting amongst each other just as the Empire had hoped.

Han, Leia, and Lando secretly meet with Talon Karrde to tell him the news of Thrawn. They debate whether it is a trick, and how it could have been done. Was it an imposter, a clone, or the real thing?

They discuss that ending the Caamas issue was important so the New Republic could focus its attention to Thrawn instead of the infighting. Karrde tells them that the only sources of the real information were under Imperial control, including their secret base on Bastion. Lando implies that Karrde knows more than he is saying and the two meet in private. They do not realize that a spy named Shada D’ukal is listening in.

They discuss a secret Karrde doesn’t want out. It involves his association with a smuggler named Jorj Car’das. Lando believes that Jorj would be able to assist them in getting the information they need. Karrde is not sure that Jorj would welcome a visit from him, even if it was to tell him that Thrawn was looking to track him down. Mara Jade had already been sent looking for him and not returned. Lando says he’ll follow her path, but after a bit of fast talking Karrde agrees to go instead.

As they return to the group Shada follows them and walks right into the room surprising them. She is the former chief bodyguard for the smuggler Mazzic and wishes to join the New Republic on its search for information. She tells them a story of how she helped the Rebellion retrieve information on the second Death Star many years earlier. Han verifies her story. Lando suggests she tag along with Karrde on his mission to retrieve an previously unknown third copy of the Caamas information they need. Karrde also tells them that Mara has disappeared while chasing after one of Luke’s mysterious ships (although Luke had yet to tell them about the ships).

After receiving a distress call from Bothawui, Rogue Squadron is on its way to support when it runs into a Leresen attack force. They are looking to revenge the death of 2 of their own killed by Bothans during a recent riot. After brief unsuccessful negotiations, Wedge decides to intercept the Leresen force, but Rogue Nine, using Jedi powers, warns him not to lock s-foils into attack position. The Squadron has been booby trapped! They are left to watch as the Leresen force attacks and destroys the approaching space station.

Now that the shooting had started, many in the Senate state that they too have demands of the Bothans for their hand in Caamas. Leia and Han fear the worst has not yet happened unless they can find the names of the actual Bothans involved. Between the Bothan shooting and Thrawn allegations, both are on the bad side of Chancellor Gavrisom at the moment and Han thinks the two should get away for a while on some less hostile New Republic relations. She agrees and they depart for more peaceful surroundings.

Onboard the Chimaera, Admiral Pellaeon and his crew are attacked by several heavily armed unknown ships. Pellaeon sends out a squadron of Preybirds to defend the ship. Using the Preybirds as a distraction, he launches three torpedoes into the attacking fleet. The counter-attack is successful and Pellaeon suggests using the Predictor to determine who it was. Since it couldn’t work in advance of an attack, perhaps the Predictor could work in reverse to determine who the attackers were. Pellaeon believes that the attack was meant to have them think that the New Republic had rejected their proposal and was now attacking him.

Comments

Based on the previous Thrawn Trilogy, my expectations for this novel were quite high. Unfortunately the novel had some ups and downs that really took me out of the story.

The first third or so of the book had me really excited, but unfortunately, the remaining two thirds did not hold the same interest level.

The book starts off very promising. The Hand of Thrawn discovery at the onset peaked my interest, but for those looking for a big payoff in this novel, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. That is basically the main issue I had with this book. I understand that it is the first of two parts, but there are really only a series of questions with no answers or really any interesting revelations. In the original Thrawn Trilogy, after reading “Heir to the Empire” I couldn’t get into the second book fast enough. This one opened a lot of doors, but didn’t really get me all that interested in what was behind them.

That’s not to say that the book didn’t have it’s strong points. One particular bit that stands out was the introduction of Tierce and his history with the Royal Guard. The main problem with it was that Tierce doesn’t really come up much the rest of the book.

Talon Karrde plays a major role. I actually enjoy his character more this time around than in the Thrawn Trilogy.

I also wasn’t crazy about the Thrawn imposter notion, but once that plot developed I had a change of heart. Moff Disra is a interesting villain that doesn’t receive enough time on the page. He has hatched an interesting plot to distract the New Republic, I would have like to get to know him more closely.

Once the book turned heavily towards the Bothan issues and those seeking revenge on them, I began to waver. I would take long breaks from reading because there wasn’t really anything drawing me back in. Also, for those of you that aren’t too good at keeping up with political entanglements, be sure to pay close attention as to who hates who and so forth. Towards the end, things can run together if you aren’t careful.

Also, if you’re looking for Jedi action, you can forget it. There is basically none to be seen here.

Overall, it is a good set up book, but when your looking at only a two book series, I just expected more out of the first half.

One final note, this was the first SW novel I read that I actually had a sense of connection with other novels not just the films. It was the first time I felt like I was actually connected to the Expanded Universe beyond the films themselves.

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