Star Wars - The Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars: The New Republic)

Wow! When I think of the organic progression of the story after Return of the Jedi, this is what I’ll think about. What a great trilogy & Mara Jade is definitely becoming one of my favorite characters.

I've been reading The Thrawn Trilogy, and it is nothing less than fantastic. Addicting. I read the novels when they first came out, so it's been quite a while since I've read the story. I remember the big events, but the details are fuzzy.This graphic novel is done so well--it's such an aid to the imagination. All the dialogue is lifted straight from Timothy Zahn's words in the novels. Having just finished the first story, Heir To The Empire, I am quite impressed.It's a damn good read.I love the visuals. Each planet has it's own feel, and the artists seem to know the Star Wars universe well. Things look at they should.There's a scene on Kashyyyk where Leia is attacked. She's sleeping. I don't remember this being mentioned in the book, but in this graphic novel, she leaps out of bed to defend herself in her panties and sleeping shirt.I don't mean this in a perverted way at all. C'mon, this is a comic book! What I got out of it, though, and why I'm mentioning it, is how Leia was portrayed--so regal. A real ruler. Though she stood there, almost naked, the character on the page had that same fire and fighting spirit as the character does on the screen.It is really done well.Parts of the book, like the one I just described, I actually like better than Zahn's novels. Other characters I like better in this graphic novel than in the books are Talon Karde and Mara Jade. They both came off a bit (pardon the phrase) "comic-booky" in the novel. Yet, here, in a comic book, the characters felt more like true Star Wars characters. I believe in them more through the graphic novel than I do the original books.The thing I like about the story, over all, is that it's a grand, epic tale of the Star Wars universe, but unlike Dark Empire, the tale isn't as "Big". There's no new Super Star Destroyer that dwarfs the one shown in the movies. The Emperor isn't resurrected in a clone. The Force, though it plays a part in the story, is not the central to the plot. There are not Galaxy Guns or World Devastators.(Don't get me wrong--I like all that stuff. It's just nice to read a well-told tale that is different from that, still epic, and still Star Wars).There just this brilliant tactician--the only alien to reach the position of Grand Admiral in Palptaine's empire--attempting to pull what's left of the Empire together and defeat the New Republic.It's an excellent story that every Star Wars fan should read.And, if you choose to do it though this graphic novel, you won't be sorry.Highly recommended.Five Stars.

I remember being enthralled by Timothy Zahn’s trilogy…back in middle school. Before the prequel trilogy and the “enhanced editions” Star Wars fans had precious little to do other than watch the original movies on VHS. When the Thrawn trilogy came along, suddenly the Expanded Universe exploded.Now that Star Wars is at peak overexposure with movies, tv series, comics, and novels dropping at a relentless rate, it is jarring to read these books again. Now the references to the original films feel circular. The introduction of the Ysalamari and this version of the clone wars feels jarringly out of sync with the canon that came after. There is too much plot armor distributed about, and too much convenient coincidences that drive forward the plot. I suppose that it really falls into the category of genre fiction, that was later “betrayed” by corporate greed that established an alternate timeline for this world. In the end, it was a blast from the past, but nothing to write home about.

The Thrawn Trilogy novels are some of my all time favorite science fiction books and I've read them all multiple times. They perfectly capture the spirit of the Star Wars films and characters but have an original story line, great locations, and a new villain that is second only to Darth Vader in the Star Wars universe. These books were so great that many other authors copied them stylistically as they wrote the Star Wars expanded universe.This comic is like reading a Cliffs Notes version of the novels. It hits most of the main points but totally misses a lot of the great subtle moments of the novels. I felt like there was a tonal shift in the comics where the characters were a bit off. The Mara Jade story line and her internal conflict from the Emperor's instructions and her meeting with Luke was barely present. If I hadn't read the books I would have been very confused by the ghost of the Emperor showing up in a few random panels. Leia's pregnancy seemed less important. The whole Fey'lya/Ackbar arc was very unclear. The characters just felt like flat action heroes, there was very little nuance or internal conflict. And worst of all, I felt like there was very little to show Thrawn's genius - he just won a lot. One of my favorite parts in the book was how he scared everyone with the precision of his ship jumps and it turned out to be a simple trick, causing his opponents to see him as mythically precise and overestimate him. I get that kind of thing isn't great in comics but it is important for character building and it was missing.This may be personal, but I wasn't a fan of some of the art choices either. I really didn't like the way the Noghri were drawn, I recall them being described as small, compact, wiry, and specifically hairless. I always imagined them as athletically built but not muscle bound. The comics show Rukh as a hulking beast with a ponytail, totally wrong to me. Similarly, I always imagined Talon Karrde as very well dressed and suave, not as flashy as Lando, kind of like a clean professional business man. But the comics just show him as a burly barbarian looking guy. And Mara was a little over the top sexualized, I know she was supposed to be beautiful but this was a bit much and I think it takes away from how awesome she is.If you've read the books these comics are kind of fun to read as a "Thrawn's greatest hits". Overall it just made me wish I was reading the real books instead.

The book series is pretty good overall, I really like Thrawn in legends better than Cannon Thrawn. This series takes you to the Empire fractured and having a tough time trying to put it self together. Thrawn arrives to restore order and take the fight to the Republic. Luke and the gang have to deal with this new threat.

Pretty good read, it's a shame it's not cannon. Would have made a good backstory for Luke and Leia etc leading into the force awakens and last Jedi

Just get it. [Palpatine voice] Do it.

Loved this was a great read

It won't download on my fire hd tablet.

I read the original trilogy of novels in the mid-noughties. They are visual novels anyway, but I still always wanted to see the world realised visually, and this ticks the box perfectly. Everything looks pretty much how I always imagined, if not better!I recently re-read the first novel, Heir to the Empire, before then reading this graphic novel as both a refresher, and then a continuation on through the stories of books 2 and 3. It's faithful, but the plot is necessarily streamlined for graphic novel format; at some points (because the plot can have a complex delta) I did lose the thread a little - though I did have some gaps between readings at times, which wouldn't have helped.A strength of the original novels I always felt was the focalising of Captain Pellaeon, Thrawn's second-in-command essentially. The angle on Thrawn was always from Pellaeon's perspective, and I think this is something we miss in the graphic novel - though necessarily it's lacking that interiority of the prose.An issue for me was the overly-sexualised art of Leia Organa and Mara Jade. It's to be expected I suppose from comics originally printed in the nineties (though I think they were only collected into a graphic novel in 2010), but there's a fair bit of posturing of big breasts and small waists in skin-tight costumes; in one fight scene in particular, Leia in her "nightwear" is wearing nothing but bra and pants, as she's thrust into various compromising positions. It left an unsavoury aftertaste - so there's the content warning.But in sum this is the Thrawn trilogy in its entirety, in an accessible and streamlined format, and with all the intelligence, great new characters, and well-realised familiar faces that the original books had. It's also a detailed and plausible post-Return of the Jedi continuation of Star Wars.I also continue to enjoy the comiXology format for reading digital comics - it's great being able to go frame by frame, and zoom in and out as needed. Smooth.