The Last Command (Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy)

by Timothy Zahn

1994

Status

Available

Publication

Del Rey (1994), Edition: 1st, 467 pages

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. Thriller. HTML:The epic story that began with Heir to the Empire reaches its dramatic conclusion in this essential Star Wars Legends novel. The embattled Republic reels from the attacks of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial forces and driven the Rebels back with an abominable technology recovered from the Emperor's secret fortress: clone soldiers. As Thrawn mounts his final siege, Han Solo and Chewbacca struggle to form a coalition of smugglers for a last-ditch attack, while Princess Leia holds the Alliance together and prepares for the birth of her Jedi twins. The Republic has one last hope�??sending a small force into the very stronghold that houses Thrawn�??s terrible cloning machines. There a final danger awaits, as the Dark Jedi C�??baoth directs the battle against the Rebels and builds his strength to finish what he already started: the destruction of Luke S… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Othemts

The finale of "The Thrawn Trilogy" is an exciting culmination of the shaky New Republic's stand against the cunning plans of Grand Admiral Thrawn to reestablish the Empire. It's great to have Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Lando, Artoo, and Threepio all working together. Then there are wild cards like

Mara Jade, a tentative ally who is sworn to kill Luke for her former master Palpatine, and the mad Jedi clone C'baoth who believes that he rules the Empire instead of Thrawn. The book could be trimmed of some of the excessively talk parts, and I could do without all the subplots involving Talon Karrde and other smugglers, but it is a satisfying conclusion.

I still think this books could be the inspiration for movies set after the destruction of the Second Death Star. They would have to be animated movies, because of the age and deaths of the cast members. But I think you could make a good story with elements such as Thrawn, Mara Jade, and the Noghri. Things would have to be adjusted to fit into the Sequel Trilogy, such as Leia giving birth to one child instead of twins. I'd also dispense with C'baoth and anything to do with cloning since clones were already central to the Prequels and Rise of Skywalker. But there's a good kernel here for a fun film trilogy or maybe a Disney+ series.

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LibraryThing member Nekosohana

Excellent series. These books are so well written that they should be a legal followup to the Star Wars Trilogy.

LibraryThing member Cecrow

A nice wrap-up to the trilogy. Small things disappointed me about the ending, but not enough to damage my favourable opinion. This was a fun ride, and I might read other Zahn works in the expanded universe someday. I'd heard a lot about Mara Jade prior to reading this series, and I can see how this

trilogy cemented her as a major EU character in the minds of fans. It was considerably more successful than the disappointing "Shadows of the Empire".

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LibraryThing member doggie38

Not bad as far as Star Wars novels go but definitely for fans only.

LibraryThing member Isamoor

Pre09:

Same review for all 3 in the trilogy. The only 'Sanctioned Fan-Fic' worth reading.

Characters: Yes, they are all there. That's why it is good. The Jade chick makes a good compliment for Luke so he isn't snogging his sister. The bad guy is actually bad enough to make up for Vader's

absence.
Plot: It's very solid. Star Wars wasn't really about the plot.
Style: Yea, it feels like the movies. A romp through space with fighting and bad odds. It's jolly good.

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LibraryThing member Erolene

This was the first Star Wars book I ever read. (I had to go back and read the first two after I finished this one) It made me a big fan of Zahn's work, and made me an even bigger fan of Star Wars itself. Great ending to the series.

LibraryThing member Anagarika-Sean

See my review for Book One of this series.

LibraryThing member Karlstar

I am not a huge Star Wars reader, but I enjoyed this series quite a bit. I thought it fit well into the Star wars universe and stayed true to the feel of the movies. I like Zahn's books more than others, though I still enjoy the earliest novels the best.

LibraryThing member regularguy5mb

Here it is, the final installment of the Thrawn trilogy. Questions are answered, alliances are settled, battles are won. This is what I want out of a Star Wars book and a series. We finally see what Thrawn's grand plan is, and see his first successes. We also see C'baoth's ultimate scheme to win

over control of Luke, Leia, AND Mara Jade and turn them into his willing servants. This is powerful storytelling that almost surpasses the original trilogy (again, ALMOST), and absolutely surpasses the prequel trilogy a hundred times over. This is the story I would have much rather seen in theaters as a follow up to the series I grew up on.

Also, it has to be said, I wish I'd read this first. Going back and reading other Expanded Universe stories after this series has left me wanting. Even authors who claim to have coordinated with Zahn as he was completing his trilogy seem to have just neglected details of his story for their own, inferior stories.

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LibraryThing member nesum

After the first book in the series, I was not totally on board with these books. It was fun, but I didn't really get a full sense of what was happening. With books two and three however, I was totally hooked. All the plots payoff big here. Thrawn does not let us down after promising so much to the

reader early on, and C'baoth proves to be a much cooler villain than I had really expected. It was one of those really satisfying pop books that I'll likely come back to one day.

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LibraryThing member RussianLoveMachine

Some people reread Tolkien every year. Me, I'm not quite that classy... :)

In Book 3 of Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy, the fledgling New Republic is on the brink of destruction after facing the brilliant and dangerous Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn's discovery of the Emperor's cloning facilities

has given him all the troops he needs to populate the massive fleet he obtained at the end of the previous book, and his assault on Coruscant has all but cut off the Republic's capital from the rest of the galaxy.

Perhaps more dangerous still is the mad cloned Jedi Joruus C'Baoth, whose determination to collect Luke, Leia, and Leia's infant children as his apprentices will not be denied. When Mara Jade promises to take Luke and Han to the Emperor's cloning site, they find more than they've bargained for. And with the Emperor's last command ringing in Mara's ears, the decisions she faces may be the most dangerous of all.

You can practically hear the Star Wars fanfare whenever you open up one of Zahn's books. Although today's teens have grown up with the prequel trilogy and the Clone Wars TV show, anyone with a soft spot for the original trilogy will find a lot to love about these books.

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LibraryThing member DanielAlgara

Some of the first books I'd read as a kid. I wonder if they would be so great if I read them now???

LibraryThing member JLMess

The slow build finally comes to a climax! The pacing of the Thrawn Trilogy lends itself well to offering lots of different stories and angles from several perspectives across the three books. The story wraps up nicely, although somewhat quickly once you get there. You really get a sense of full

appreciation for all characters involved, with the lighthearted hopefulness you would expect with a Star Wars ending.

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LibraryThing member Daniel.Estes

A worth conclusion for a worthy addition to the Star Wars universe. Mara Jade is fantastic new character (introduced back in Heir to the Empire) and I hope to see her make an appearance in the new Star Wars movies. It's too bad George Lucas undid some of the Clone Wars history when we made the

prequels.

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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing

Jaina and Jacen are born! Luke finally breaks free of C'baoth! Clones are piloting the dreaded Katana fleet! Mara Jaaaaaaaaaaaaade!

LibraryThing member KateSherrod

Four and a half stars. For why, listen to the new Thrawn and On and On podcast episode, dropping very soon!

LibraryThing member librisissimo

(see books 1 & 2) A satisfactory conclusion all the way around. The Moral of the story (without spoilers) can be summed up in Mara Jade's recognition that Luke is the kind of person who "saw what needed to be done. And he trusted her to help him do it." (P211)

The other big plot hole concerns the

Noghri. They revere Luke and Leia as children of the Lord Vader their Savior (so they thought); but then Leia learns, and tells them, that the Emperor & Thrawn, and thus necessarily Vader, cheated and betrayed them. So why would they continue to revere the Skywalkers?
Maybe I slept through that page.

By the way, what idiot other than George Lucas would give the hidden son of the renegade Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, his fathers surname?

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LibraryThing member odinblindeye

The last book of the Thrawn trilogy. A fun read, though a bit predictable. This is definitely the best sequel to the movies that exists right now.

LibraryThing member MacDad

Timothy Zahn opens the final volume of his Thrawn trilogy a month after the events of his previous book, Dark Force Rising. Having successfully captured the vessels of the Dark Force fleet and staffed them with his new army of clones, Grand Admiral Thrawn begins a relentless campaign of conquest

against the New Republic. As world after world falls to the Imperial forces, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo search in vain for the location of Thrawn's cloning facilities while Leia Organa Solo prepares to give birth to her twin children with Han. And with an Imperial target on his back Talon Karrde tries to organize his fellow smugglers into a force allied with the New Republic against the Empire. Yet the key to turning the tide rests with Mara Jade, the former agent of Emperor Palpatine who has just recovered from weeks of medical treatment. But can she convince the New Republic to trust her before Thrawn rebuilds the Empire once more?

Having introduced a range of characters and plot threads in the previous two entries in his series, Zahn faces the challenge in his concluding volume of bringing his story to a satisfying conclusion that maintains the quality of his earlier books. This he does, thanks in large measure to maintaining a narrative consistency that is often missing from later entries in the franchise. While diehard fans of the original trilogy may be dissatisfied with how Zahn marginalizes some of the main characters from the movies in favor of his original creations (particularly Han Solo, who spends much of the book in the background of events), it results in a much richer universe from which so much would grow. And this, in retrospect, is the book's greatest achievement, as in combination with its preceding volumes it resuscitated what was until then a fading franchise, sparking the production of so much of the media that followed. It is difficult to imagine a greater acknowledgement of Zahn's success than that legacy.

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LibraryThing member TinoDidriksen

The Last Command is good. Still has too much coincidence, but otherwise it seems to ground everything nicely.

LibraryThing member jplumey

Probably the best of the three books. I would have liked a little.more at the end, but at least all the threads were closed, if somewhat forced.

I found myself skimming pages at times but you'll be fine if you like Zahn's style.

LibraryThing member jamestomasino

The way it should have ended

LibraryThing member Cataloger623

As the title suggests this is final book in the Thrawn trilogy. It brings the story comes full circle to the inevitable defeat of the forces of the Empire. Leaving it once again headless and on the wrong side o Rebel Alliance victory. But you the reader knew that was going happen. The enjoyment of

the story comes from seeing how Zahn orchestrates the various treads, plot lines and sub plots to that conclusion.I don't know how much of this story is Star Wars canon. It certainly does not fit into story lines of the animated cartoon series Star Wars Rebels or Star Wars Resistance. Nor does it into the comic book series. The trilogy does not address what of Thrawn's larger mission explored in in Heir to the Empire.

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LibraryThing member ragwaine

I've always loved Star Wars, but never really thought about reading the novels. I'm still not sure I would enjoy "reading" the novels all that much, but listening to them with this narrator is pretty amazing. The voices sound so much like the actors in the movies that you feel like you're

"watching" a new Star Wars movie. The only thing I didn't like about these books was that Thrawn was never wrong, he anticipated everyone's next move so that it was kind of disheartening/unrealistic even though you knew the good guys would win in the end.

I've heard a bunch of fans say they wish these books would have become the movies instead of the movies we got, but I don't feel like these books would have translated as well to the big screen.

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LibraryThing member linusnc

What an awesome finale!

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