Thrawn trilogy

Timothy Zahn signs his work at the Star Wars Celebration III.

The Thrawn trilogy is a Star Wars series of novels by the American science fiction writer Timothy Zahn that was published between 1991 and 1993 . It consists of the parts " Heir to the Empire " ( Heir to the Empire ), " Dark Force Rising " ( Dark Force Rising ) and " The Last Detail (" The Last Command ). The story is set about five years after the events in " Return of the Jedi " and belongs to the expanded Star Wars universe , which has not been part of the official canon since the Walt Disney Company took over Lucasfilm .

In the row, Grand Admiral Thrawn is the new commander in chief of the weakened Galactic Empire and determined to prevent the establishment of the New Republic, which emerged from the former rebellion.

In addition to Thrawn, Zahn created other characters who made their first appearance in the trilogy and whose stories were later told in other novels. These include Mara Jade , Gilad Pellaeon or Talon Karrde. The main actors from the films, Luke Skywalker , Leia Organa , Han Solo , Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca , as well as the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 also cast leading roles in the Thrawn trilogy.

action

Heirs to the Empire

Five years after the Battle of Endor , the Empire has only a fraction of its former military force and territory. Due to the high losses, the troops largely consist of young and inexperienced men. Nevertheless, the new imperial commander-in-chief, Grand Admiral Thrawn, succeeds time and again with his tactical genius in hindering the New Republic, which is still in the making. He meticulously plans the final blow against his enemies. Thrawn's path first leads him to the planet Wayland. There he suspects valuable technologies in a secret treasury (Mount Tantiss) of the former emperor , which could be useful for his campaign. Since he assumes that Mount Tantiss is guarded by a Dark Jedi appointed by the Emperor, he first gets from the planet Myrkr, with the help of the smuggler Talon Karrde, some beings called Ysalamiri, who have the ability to suppress power . On Wayland, Thrawn and Captain Pellaeon meet the Jedi Joruus C'baoth, who considers the region around the mountain and Mount Tantiss itself to be his property. Protected by the ysalamiri, Thrawn can get the Jedi to collaborate with the Empire. In return, C'baoth demands that Thrawn help him find Luke and his sister Leia so he can make them his students.

When Luke, Leia, who is pregnant with twins, and her husband Han are on a diplomatic mission, they are attacked by several gray-skinned figures from an unknown species. However, Chewbacca manages to rush to the aid of his friends in good time. Due to another attempted assassination and because there has been evidence for a long time that there is a leak in the seat of government of the New Republic on Coruscant , Chewbacca brings Leia to his homeworld Kashyyyk . However, this move is foreseen by Thrawn. As a result, Kashyyyk is attacked again and Leia escapes again. This time, however, one of the attackers is captured. The stranger identifies himself as the Khabarakh of the Noghri; that people to which Thrawn's bodyguard Rukh belongs. Completely surprising for Khabarakh, he recognizes Leia as the daughter of Darth Vader , in whom the Noghri see the savior of their people. Khabarakh transfers the associated life debt of all Noghri to Leia as well.

After an Imperial attack, Luke and R2-D2 end up with a defective hyperdrive somewhere in the middle of interstellar space. Shortly thereafter, however, they are found by Talon Karrde and his assistant Mara Jade, who has an inexplicable hatred for Skywalker. They bring Luke and R2-D2 to their base in Myrkr and hold them there. Although Thrawn has put a heavy bounty on Luke, Karrde is undecided what to do with him. At the same time, Han and Lando also arrive at Myrkr. They want to offer Karrde to work for the New Republic. Shortly thereafter, Grand Admiral Thrawn also reached the Myrkr system. He tells Karrde that he needs more ysalamiri and is also interested in warships. When Luke and R2 manage to escape, Mara pursues him; however, both planes crash in the middle of the forest. At this time, Thrawn is unaware of Luke, Hans, or Lando's presence on Myrkr, but the crash caught his attention. In order to reach the nearest city, Luke and Mara are forced to cooperate. Along the way, Mara reveals to Luke that she was once the Emperor's right-hand man and that her life was destroyed by his death. At the end of the forest, Imperial stormtroopers await them. Together with Karrde, Han and Lando, however, they can overcome them.

Thrawn is now gathering his troops in front of the Sluis Van shipyards. With the help of a camouflage field recovered from Mount Tantiss, as well as several mine mouths that he had previously stolen from Lando Calrissian on Nkllon, Thrawn tries to capture numerous ships of the New Republic. The plan is thwarted, but at the cost of destroying the control electronics of the hijacked ships.

The dark side of power

After attacking Thrawn's forces, Karrde is forced to leave Myrkr. Despite the persecution by the empire, his situation is not completely hopeless: by chance he once came into possession of the coordinates of the Katana fleet (also known as "The Dark Power"). These are more than 200 heavy warships from the days of the Old Republic. Driven insane by a plague, the crew dropped the ships aimlessly into hyperspace. The fleet has since been considered lost. Karrde, however, is unsure whether to sell the coordinates to the New Republic or hand them over to Thrawn in order to improve his relationship with the Empire. Both sides urgently need more ships and regardless of his decision it is not possible to maintain the neutrality that is so important to him.

Meanwhile, Luke learns that a Jedi master is said to be on the planet Jomark. This rumor was deliberately spread by Thrawn to lure Luke to C'baoth. The plan works and Luke makes his way to Jomark with R2-D2. There they meet a power-hungry, megalomaniac C'baoth, who suggests Luke to let him, his sister and their children train him. Concerned about the Jedi Master's state of mind, Luke decides to stay for the time being.

In order to find out what the Noghri owed their lives, Leia has meanwhile set off with Chewbacca, C-3PO and Khabarakh to Honoghr, the home planet of the Noghri. Thrawn knows that Khabarakh failed on his mission to capture Leia and learns of his return to Honoghr. However, the Grand Admiral has no idea that the Noghri have extended their loyalty to the Empire to Leia and that she is also on the planet. Finally, Leia finds out that the Noghri have been subjected to a cleverly staged fraud: During the Clone Wars, a spaceship fell on the planet and poisoned its surface, the land became sterile. Darth Vader apparently offered his help to the people, in return they should serve him. But as Leia discovers, the decontamination of Honoghr is only fake; instead, the Empire continues to poison the planet to permanently enslave the Noghri. They are now beginning to realize that they have been lied to.

When the Empire captures Karrde to find out the location of the Katana fleet, Mara plans a rescue operation. However, she wants to ask Luke for support and so sets off with a ysalamir to Jomark. C'baoth tries to prevent Luke's departure; together with R2-D2, however, Luke and Mara manage to overpower the Jedi master and escape. Eventually they can infiltrate Thrawn's command ship, free Karrde, and return to Coruscant.

Karrde is now ready to reveal the location of the Katana fleet to the New Republic. However, the Bothan Borsk Fey'lya, a member of the Provisional Council of the New Republic, is unwilling to withdraw ships from Coruscant and trust a smuggler like Karrde. So Luke, Han, Karrde and Lando make their way to the fleet alone. Once there, they are surprised by Imperial Star Destroyers - Thrawn has also learned the position of the Katana fleet from a former companion Karrde. Luke and his friends are getting reinforcements, but it's too late: most of the ships have already been taken away from the Empire. When examining the bodies of Thrawn's troops, it also turns out that they are clones. The Grand Admiral could thus put together enough crews for his new katana ships in a relatively short time.

The last command

Thrawn continues his attacks on the New Republic and with the help of C'baoth and his new katana ships, more and more star systems fall into his hands. The New Republic has not yet been able to determine the location of the imperial clone factory, and there are still no indications of what is hidden behind the "Delta source", the leak in the former imperial palace on Coruscant.

Karrde sees an increasing threat in Thrawn and tries to get his smuggler colleagues to cooperate against the empire - initially with little success. When a plot by Thrawn to discredit Karrde is exposed, the other smugglers are ready to take action against the Empire.

Leia has since given birth to her twins Jaina and Jacen . Shortly afterwards, an imperial secret service unit penetrates the palace to kidnap the children. Fortunately, Mara Jade is also on Coruscant and can prevent the kidnapping with her knowledge of the secret passages in the palace. Finally, Mara also remembers the location of the clone factory. It is located in the Emperor's former treasury, Mount Tantiss on Wayland. Mara, Han, Lando, Luke, Chewbacca and their two droids set off to approach the factory unobtrusively. Since they land a little away from Mount Tantiss, they have to fight their way through a forest for several days. A group of Noghri join them on the way. You have decided to make the Empire pay for its betrayal.

Meanwhile, with the help of Ghent, a hacker from Karrde's team, Leia succeeds in unraveling the secret of the "Delta Source". It is a complex organic interception system hidden in the Ch'hala trees in the great corridor of the palace. The system that supplied Thrawn directly with information is then removed.

The group on Wayland can break into the clone factory without any major problems, as the imperial guards are being distracted by insurgent locals. Mara and Luke are already expected by C'baoth, who, it turns out, is just a clone of the long-dead Jedi master Jorus C'baoth. It was also he who roused the locals and supplied them with weapons so that Mara and Luke could get to him without difficulty. C'baoth has created a clone of Luke and lets it compete against the real Skywalker. During the fight, they are joined by Leia and Karrde, who have left Coruscant to help their friends. When Mara manages to kill Luke's clone, her hatred of Skywalker suddenly disappears. At the moment of his death the Emperor had planted one last command in her consciousness: " YOU WILL KILL LUKE SKYWALKER ". When she killed the clone, she carried out that order. The Emperor's voice disappears and Mara is free. Together with their friends they can defeat C'baoth and destroy the clone factory.

At the same time, the New Republic begins a major attack on the Empire-controlled Bilbringi system. They are supported in this by the smugglers that Karrde was able to win against Thrawn. The Grand Admiral participates personally in the battle, but his fleet is increasingly in distress. Suddenly, Thrawn is stabbed to death by his Noghri bodyguard Rukh in revenge for the betrayal of his people and Captain Pellaeon sees no other option but to withdraw his troops. Thrawn's campaign ultimately fails because he could not foresee developments on Honoghr and Wayland.

background

Star Wars books, series, and comics published prior to 1991 were about events scheduled either before or between the films. " Heirs of the Empire " was the first novel to tell the story after " Return of the Jedi ". The great success of the Thrawn trilogy revolutionized the expanded Star Wars universe and served as the impetus for numerous other books , video games and other branded items.

To mark the 20th anniversary of Heir to the Empire , Del Rey Books published a special edition of the novel in 2011. In addition to the original story, it contains a foreword by Howard Roffman , as well as comments by Timothy Zahn and his publishing editor Betsy Mitchell. In addition, the short story " Crisis of Faith " published here for the first time is included, in which Zahn tells part of Thrawn's previous story. This edition was published in German in February 2013.

In 2011, the trilogy was voted number 88 in the top 100 best science fiction and fantasy books by over 60,000 participants on NPR .

The name of the planet Coruscant was invented by Zahn for " heirs of the empire " and taken up by George Lucas for his later films. There it can be seen for the first time in Episode I as the seat of government of the Old Republic.

After Lucasfilm was taken over by the Walt Disney Company , it was announced that the expanded Star Wars universe, which also includes the Thrawn trilogy, will no longer be part of the official canon and will be marketed under the Star Wars Legends label .

Continuations

Zahn continued the story of Grand Admiral Thrawn and the question of his origin with the book series The Hand of Thrawn . In 1997 the book Specter of the Past appeared , which was published three years later in German as a shadow of the past . In 1998, Vision of the Future followed , which in German-speaking countries was split into the two books View into the Future and The Admiral's Wrath .

In the novels Die Verschollenen ( Survivor's Quest , 2007) and The Scouts ( Outbound Flight , 2008), also written by Zahn, the story of the extragalactic flight project, mentioned only in passing in the Thrawn trilogy, is illuminated. Thrawn's role is also detailed here.

In 2017 the novel Thrawn , also written by Timothy Zahn, was published . This belongs to the new canon and sheds light on the rise of Thrawn in the ranks of the Empire. This was followed in 2018 by Thrawn: Alliances ( Thrawn: Alliances ) and in March 2020 the conclusion of the trilogy Thrawn: Verrat ( Thrawn: Treason ).

Comics and radio play

All parts of the trilogy were published by Dark Horse in the USA from 1995 to 1998 as comics in a total of 18 issues. Later also as an anthology in hardcover. From 1996 to 1999 the comics were also published in German by Feest Comics and from 2007 to 2009 as part of the Star Wars Essentials series by Panini .

A German radio play series of the novels was produced under the direction of Oliver Döring and published from 2012 to 2014. In addition to the voices of the well-known voice actors, sound effects and the soundtrack by John Williams were used from the movies .

speaker

role	speaker
teller	Joachim Kerzel
Luke Skywalker	Hans-Georg Panczak
Han Solo	Wolfgang Pampel
Leia Organa (Solo)	Susanna Bonaséwicz
Grand Admiral Thrawn	Thomas Nero Wolff
Captain Pellaeon	Erich Ludwig
Joruus C'baoth	Jürgen Thormann
C-3PO	Joachim Tennstedt
Mara Jade	Marion von Stengel
Lando Calrissian	Frank Glaubrecht
Talon Karrde	Hubertus Bengsch
Mon Mothma	Alexandra Lange-Baehr
Admiral Ackbar	Hans Teuscher
Borsk Fey'lya	Till Hagen
Winter Celchu	Arianne Borbach
Rukh	Tobias Kluckert
Yoda	Hugo Schrader (archive material)

Expenses (selection)

German

• Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire. Goldmann, 1992, ISBN 3-442-41334-6 .
• Timothy Zahn: The Dark Side of the Force. Goldmann, 1993, ISBN 3-442-42183-7 .
• Timothy Zahn: The last command. Goldmann, 1993, ISBN 3-442-42415-1 .

Translations by Thomas Ziegler .

• Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire. Anniversary edition. Blanvalet, 2013, ISBN 978-3-442-26914-3 .
• Timothy Zahn: The Dark Side of the Force. Blanvalet, 2014, ISBN 978-3-442-26407-0 .
• Timothy Zahn: The last command. Blanvalet, 2015, ISBN 978-3-442-26408-7 .

English

• Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire. Bantam Spectra, 1991, ISBN 0-553-07327-3 .
• Timothy Zahn: Dark Force Rising. Bantam Spectra, 1992, ISBN 0-553-08574-3 .
• Timothy Zahn: The Last Command. Bantam Spectra, 1993, ISBN 0-553-09186-7 .
• Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition. Ballantine Books / Del Rey, 2011, ISBN 978-0-345-52829-2 .

Radio play (German)

• Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire. Oliver Döring
  • Part 1 of 4: The Guardian of Mount Tantiss , Wortart As Media GmbH 2012.
  • Part 2 of 4: The empire is attacking , part of speech As Media GmbH 2012.
  • Part 3 of 4: The Wrath of Mara Jade , part of speech As Media GmbH 2012.
  • Part 4 of 4: The battle for Sluis Van , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
• Timothy Zahn: The Dark Side of the Force. Oliver Döring
  • Part 1 of 5: Hunted by the Empire , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
  • Part 2 of 5: Escape from New Cov , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
  • Part 3 of 5: The fate of Noghri , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
  • Part 4 of 5: Escape from the chimera , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
  • Part 5 of 5: The battle for the Katana fleet , part of speech As Media GmbH 2013.
• Timothy Zahn: The last command. Oliver Döring
  • Part 1 of 5: The case of Ukio , part of speech As Media GmbH 2014.
  • Part 2 of 5: Alliance of Smugglers , part of speech As Media GmbH 2014.
  • Part 3 of 5: Fire over Coruscant , part of speech As Media GmbH 2014.
  • Part 4 of 5: Danger to Wayland , part of speech As Media GmbH 2014.
  • Part 5 of 5: In the violence of the dark Jedi , part of speech As Media GmbH 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Amelia Hill: History of the Expanded Universe , scifi.about.com, Retrieved March 27, 2012.
2. ↑ Interview with Timothy Zahn ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , echostation.com, Retrieved on March 27, 2012 ( German translation ) 
3. ↑ Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books , npr.org, Retrieved March 27, 2012.
4. ^ Will Brooker: Using the Force: Creativity, Community and Star Wars Fans . Continuum, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8264-5287-0 , pp. 107-110 .
5. ↑ Report on starwars-union.de , accessed on March 7, 2015
6. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Shadows of the Past. Heyne, 2000, ISBN 3-453-17153-5 .
7. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Looking to the Future. Heyne, 2000, ISBN 3-453-17154-3 .
8. ↑ Timothy Zahn: The Wrath of the Admiral. Heyne, 2000, ISBN 3-453-17778-9 .
9. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Star Wars - The Lost. Blanvalet, 2007, ISBN 978-3-442-36740-5 .
10. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Star Wars - The Scouts. Blanvalet, 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-36898-3 .
11. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Star Wars - Thrawn. Blanvalet, 2018, ISBN 978-3-734-16138-4 .
12. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Star Wars - Thrawn: Alliances. Blanvalet, 2019, ISBN 978-3-734-16174-2 .
13. ↑ Timothy Zahn: Star Wars - Thrawn: Treason. Blanvalet, 2020, ISBN 978-3-734-16224-4 .
14. ↑ The Big DataBase of Comic Books: Star Wars  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Retrieved March 27, 2012.  
15. ↑ STAR WARS: THE THRAWN TRILOGY HC , darkhorse.com, accessed March 27, 2012.
16. ↑ The Thrawn Trilogy (Comics). (No longer available online.) In: jedi-bibliothek.de. Archived from the original on January 1, 2016 ; accessed on January 2, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung: Star Wars: Thrawn as an audio book. December 20, 2013, accessed March 25, 2015 .