The Last Command
© 1991 Timothy Zahn
496 pages
In The Last Command, Timothy Zahn draws the Thrawn trilogy to its close. As the book opens, the Republic is in dire straits: the Empire has been strengthened by both its capture of an abandoned fleet from the Clone Wars era and the fact that hidden cloning cylinders under the control of Grand Admiral Thrawn have are now fully operational -- giving the Empire trained crews to man those ships. Thrawn's military genuis is further supplemented by an intelligence source within the a dark Jedi using the Force to coordinate imperial movements using "battlefield mediation". In order to survive, the New Republic has to survive Thrawn's first full-frontal assault against their borders, find and and eliminate the intel source, and somehow destroy the cloning centers inside the Emperor's secret mountain hideout.
The cast includes all of our heroes -- Luke, Leia, Han, Threepio, Artoo, Lando Calrissian, and Wedges Antilles in addition to "Emperor's Hand" Mara Jade and Talon Kardde, the smuggler who helps the New Republic a bit more often than a truly neutral character might. Jade's characterization is one of the more interesting elements of the book: the last command given to her by the Emperor was to kill Luke Skywalker, which makes their working relationship interesting. The lead characters are maturing more, Han Solo in particular. The series' end was unexpected, but the third book reads much better than the second and the trilogy ended on a high note.
Hi, Coffee! I'm going to sniff around some thrift stores and try to find the Star Wars books for my students. I think I'll have some takers. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteGood luck finding them, then. :) You can probably find used copies on Amazon for just pennies -- the cost will be in the shipping.
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