Star Wars - Volume 2: Dark Force Rising

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Princess Leia was the most improved of the characters and she had the most interesting story arc in this installment. She sought out the Noghri and attempted to win their loyalty away from Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Noghri proved and interesting race and it was great to see Leia more proactive in her actions. The story continues on from where it left off in the first book. This time the main story arc sees the Empire and the New Republic in a desperate race to discover the location of the Dark Force, the Katana fleet of nearly 200 Dreadnoughts, that went missing under mysterious circumstances during the Clone Wars. The number of ships available could tip the tide of the war in favor of the side that discovers the location and retrieves the ships.

The three Star Wars films form a spectacular saga of bold imagination and high adventure. But the stories of its characters did not end there. Now for the first time, Lucasfilm Ltd., producer of the Star Wars movies, has authorized the continuation of this beloved story. In an astounding three-book cycle, Timothy Zahn continues the tale of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and the other characters made world famous by Star Wars , as he brilliantly expands upon George Lucas's stunning vision, "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Overally, this was such an intriguing, enjoyable book (and, since I listened to the audiobook, Marc Thompson’s narration remained simply excellent). I’m looking forward to finishing this series! I haven’t been disappointed. Thrawn continues to be a terrifying and competent enemy. In fact, at times I would get very annoyed whenever he would be smart enough to thwart our heroes. Like, can this guy please for once just fail to realize something and our heroes get away, even just once? In reality, this does happen, and it's all the more satisfying when it does happen, since it happens so infrequently. There's nothing worse than a stupid villain to ruin the tension of a story.

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If you didn't like Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising is definitely not going to change your opinion on the Thrawn Trilogy, but if you liked it you'll probably find this to be a decent follow up.

Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness, and scheming to corrupt Luke Skywalker to the dark side. Read more Look Inside Details But thousands of light-years away, the last of the Emperor's warlords—the brilliant and deadly Grand Admiral Thrawn—has taken command of the shattered Imperial fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to create. [5] Plot summary [ ] Even the movies have mistakes of storyline between each other and they are just six films (for now).The series introduced many notable Expanded Universe characters such as Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Gilad Pellaeon, and Mara Jade—characters who would subsequently appear in a variety of Expanded Universe works. Grand Admiral Thrawn became a popular villain in the Expanded Universe, with appearances in several later works. In addition, the Imperial capital world, Coruscant, was given its name by the trilogy and would later feature in the prequel films.

One good thing is to appreciate, even since the first book, how Timothy Zahn wasn’t only telling the story at hand but also planning a bigger scale of narrative, including names, places, events, etc... that he’d be telling in his future books during the following years (now they are already published). Finally, author Timothy Zahn's writing style simply isn't very good. Particularly when characters are conversing with one another, there seems to be only a few different types of responses (which often sound awkward and hard to envision) that characters are able to give one another, such as: "grunted", "retorted", "countered", and "conceded". Zahn also uses the word "sardonic" incorrectly on a few occasions, and by the end of the third book it was really getting on my nerves how often characters tended to "mentally cross their fingers", or admit defeat in an argument by simply saying "Point."The dying Empire's most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial Fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic's destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council-only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies. And it’s for this reason that Zahn believes that Thrawn is a tough character for other writers to do right; unlike many Star Wars villains, Thrawn is a tactician first and less of a physical threat, making him more difficult to write for. But he believes that Dave Filoni is up to the task for Ahsoka: Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker encounters Talon Karrde and his gang of smugglers. The smugglers capture him but do not turn him over to the Imperials. The smugglers take him in just as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian come to see Karrde on the New Republic's interest to hire smugglers as traders. Then, as if things could not be worse, Grand Admiral Thrawn comes to visit Karrde just as Luke escapes. One of Karrde's employees, Mara Jade, chases Luke deep into the forest, where both ships crashed. Mara attempts to kill Luke because she believes that he killed the Emperor five years earlier during the Battle of Endor, and Mara was the Emperor's Hand at the time. However, she finds out that she needs Luke if she is to survive. Then Thrawn himself decides to interfere with Karrde's rescue attempts and tries to catch Luke and Mara first. The result is a firefight between Imperial troops and Karrde's men. In the end, Karrde wins, but has to evacuate his base. Han and Lando head to the shipyards at Sluis Van after they discover, thanks to Karrde, that Thrawn has plans there. Meanwhile, Luke will realice that this supposed Jedi Master lost more than one screw in the Force. At the same time, Mara Jade will faced troubles with her current boss. So, fate will make that Luke and Mara would need each other’s help in their own situations.