Quick-take: Mildly interesting, forgettable.

Dan's Review

Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo leads the final battle against Jixtus and the Grysk Hegemony. Several plot points come together for the finale.

I have several critical complaints about the strategy of this final battle. First, why didn't Jixtus just retreat when he found out he misread the situation? Second, hasn't anybody ever heard of "double tapping"? When the enemy seems to be down, you don't just go into a big fat monologue for an hour to give time for them to regroup. It is so obvious. You just pluck them off to be certain of victory.

Thrawn so thoroughly played Jixtus like a concert fiddle that it is hard to believe any of it. Really, not a single important nor semi-important character or piece of gear was destroyed? Yet, all of Jixtus' fleet was?

The big wrap up was not that satisfying. Everybody gets accomodations and medals, but Thrawn gets... disciplined... because... reasons. Supposedly, there is some family politics at play here, but I don't believe it. It felt mostly like a shoehorn to prep for a 4th book, which I plan to ignore.

If there was not a casual occasional mention of the Galactic Empire and Anakin Skywalker, I would have never known this was a Star Wars book. Overall, I found the series enjoyable, but at 3/5. If I had never read it, I would not have missed it. I am not looking for a book 4.