Thrawn and his Special Friend

Just finished this new book, Thrawn: Alliances (Timothy Zahn, 2018). The tale jumps between two periods: the Clone Wars era where Thrawn is working with Padme and Anakin, and the early Rebellion era where Thrawn is working with Darth Vader. Chapter by chapter we skip back and forth between the eras, working on an interconnected mystery out of the edges of the Unknown Regions.

The tale is a bit bland, in my opinion. Not much going on, out on the outskirts of the galaxy. Always like to see Thrawn and the others, but this doesn't quite live up to earlier works in many respects.

I suppose this is the first novel wherein Zahn is forced to significantly overwrite his earlier Thrawn information. This novel ties into the cartoon series Rebels, which, of course, itself contains significant deviations from Zahns original Thrawn works. Not to hear him tell it, however. In this interview, Zahn claims that this work is "of a piece" with all he's ever done with Thrawn, even to the point that, if somebody at Disney were to snap their fingers and declare the EU/Legends Thrawn material canon again, these books would fit perfectly. So there's that.

Another detail from that interview is the following item: one of the locations in this book, Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu, is the site of the new Disney World Star Wars theme park, Galaxy's Edge. A place I will definitely visit someday.