Quick-take: Slow burn. Interesting.

Dan's Review

Mitth'raw'nuru a brilliant strategist and a supposedly a political dummy. He can juggle several threads over the course of months to everything laid out perfectly for him to destroy the enemy.

He bends the rules to the point of breakage, sometimes actually breaking them under dubious reasoning. When it comes time for punishment, he is instead rewarded for the excellent outcome.

I'd argue that Thrawn is not a political dummy. Certainly, the world of politics is not the same as war. However, Thrawn can predict the other side's goals perfectly, and politics is much of the same. If you know what your political rival wants, that is a strong edge.

This book is complicated. It centers around Thrawn and Thalias, both of the Mitth family. The character names are difficult to keep straight. I have mentioned my difficulty with complicated names. That is just how it is with SciFi and Fantasy at times.

Though decently entertaining, my core complaints are that this book does not feel like Star Wars. The only real Star Wars piece of it is that there is a war in space. No Jedi. No Lightsabers. It was kind of disappointing. If you can get out of your mind that this book is sci-fi and just happens to have Star Wars in the title, it is a lot more digestible.

Score: 3/5. Though not very strong, I am diving into book 2 because I think it is supposed to be a trilogy. I like completed series.