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Summary: The Empire Stirkes Back of Star Wars Novels
Review: Dark Force Rising is the second book in the Thrawn trilogy. Rumors once circulated that the Thrawn trilogy was Star Wars Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Well, if the rumors weren't true, then they should have been. Though I believe Empire Strikes Back to be the ultimate Star Wars film, Dark Force Rising could easily be comparable in character, plot, pace, mood, and overall quality.Through the voice of the narrative, the rich design of the worlds, and the intensity of the characters, Timothy Zahn recreates the Star Wars universe to absolute perfection. The character of the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn is drawn to show that he is quite distinct from Darth Vader, and could even possible rival Vader as a leader. Where Vader ruled with fear, Thrawn ruled with intellect. Besides Thrawn, two of the best characters in Dark Force Rising are Talon Karde and Mara Jade. Talon Karde's struggle to escape the clutches of the Empire is shown right at the very beginning of the novel. With Mara Jade at his side, they watched his home in Heir to the Empire be taken away. Mara Jade continues to contain her inner struggle with wanting to kill Luke Skywalker. But, it seems she becomes more of a transitional character, as she begins to look to Luke for help to free Karde from Thrawn. The struggle to free Karde would remind anyone of the scenes in A New Hope when Luke tried to save Leia from the Death Star. Dark Force Rising is the darkest of the trilogy. The term 'Dark Force' has two meanings. The first meaning represents the fleet of 200 abandoned Clone Wars Destroyers out in the middle of the universe, and the one who possesses the fleet has the chance to win the overall war. The second meaning is Thrawn's power rising in the universe. The book carries three separate storylines. The first storyline deals with the moral conflicts of Luke and the insane Master C'baoth. The second deals with Leia trying to convince the loyal imperial Noghri to turn away from the Empire and join the new republic. Finally, the third storyline deals with Han and Lando, as they deal with the internal political uprising led by Councilor Fey'lya. The end of the book contains a surprise that would compell the reader to grab for the last book in the series as soon as the second book is complete.
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Summary: A Good Middle Section To The Thrawn Trillogy
Review: Cases may be made, and not without justification, that Dark Force Rising suffers a bit from being the middle book in the trilogy. Maybe so, but that certainly doesn't stop it from being a very excellent book, with more than its share of merits. Picking up right after Heir, Dark Force Rising takes what Zahn started with in the previous book and begins to build on his ideas. Leia visits the Noghri homeworld, Luke sets out to encounter C'boath and we are given an explination to many of the oblique refrences Grand Admiral Thrawn made about his master plan in Heir. Very simply, Zahn blows away all other Star Wars authors in terms of his characterization of the majors players in the story. Thrawn is such a great opponent because he has a great deal of deapth (he is not just 'evil' like many other villians of the Star Wars Univese). He became my favorite Star Wars character almost right away. Karrde's gentleman smuggler quality makes him very different from other fringe characters in the universe. And who can ignore Mara Jade? Her bitter, cynical nature is a wonderful counter to the excessive optimism displayed by many Star Wars characters. The only fault I have with Zahn is that he makes other Star Wars literature seem weak for comparison. Oh well, not everybody can be the best (though, we could afford to ban a few folks from writing Star Wars). Overall (if, somehow, you haven't figured it out by now) I highly reccomend this. After you read Heir To The Empire, of course.
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Summary: The Adventure Continues. . .
Review: In Dark Force Rising, Timothy Zahn continues the spectacular story he began in Heir to the Empire, while upping both the intrigue and action of the incredible story arc. The stakes are higher than ever. Grand Admiral Thrawn's first puch against the New Republic was unsuccessful, but the victory wasn't nearly one-sided. Treachery and political infighting threatens to tear the government apart. As Han and Lando fight to clear Admiral Ackbar's name of treason, Leia races to an alien planet to try to bring a dangerous and proud alien race into the fight against the Empire. Luke, feeling the call of Joruus C'baoth, the mad Jedi master, must team up with Mara Jade once again, to free her employer and comrade from Thrawn's own ship. The threads of the plot, while becoming more numerous and complex, never get tangled. Zahn juggles the huge cast of characters with talent that few have ever shown in the series. The action is larger, the characters are more complex, creating tension on both sides of the war. The clashing between Joruus C'baoth and his uneasy ally, Thrawn, becomes more apparent, and threatens to disrupt the Empire's plans, and C'baoth himself makse a move to corrupt Luke, Leia, and her unborn children for his own twisted desires. This is one of the rare sequels that doesn't suffer from sequelitis. True, you really have to have read the first book to understand what's going on, but the book has a definite beginning and end, and more than enough excitement and interesting characters to fill the 400 plus pages. But, aside from the quality, which is exceptional, this is just a plain fun read. Like the first novel in the Thrawn Trilogy, this captures the essence of the Star Wars mythos, while building on its wonderful history and story. If you're looking for a fantastic literary saga in the Star Wars universe, you can't do better than the Trawn Trilogy, and the second book proves that Zahn's writing and grasp of the SW universe just keeps getting better and better.
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Summary: The Trilogy just gets better and better
Review: Dark Force Rising is the second book in Tim Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. OUr heroes, on the run from assasins after Leia's unborn twins, as well as Luke and Leia themselves, run through the book at a frantic pace. Leia decides that the best place to hide is amongst the enemy, so along with Chewbacca she embarks on a quest to the world of Honogar, the homeworld of the Empire's best assasins. Luke after spending time with the insane Dark Jedi C'Boath is off on a mission to rescue smuggler chief Talon Karrde from Grand Admiral Thrawn's personal Star Destroyer with the help of Mara Jade, who wants to kill him once the rescue is complete. Han Solo finds himself swept off to a secret meeting with a soldier who may or may not help the fragile New Republic against the victorious Empire and Thrawn. Added to this is a frantic race to discover the location of the Katana Fleet or Dark Force. A mysterious fleet of warships designed after the Clone Wars that could tip the victory in the laps of those who find it first. Add in political intrigue, an Alliance commander accused of treason and clones and you have one heck of a good novel.
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Summary: And Star Wars goes on....
Review: In this second novel of the Heir to the Empire trilogy Timothy Zahn splendidly continues the plots he began in the first book. Everything fits and is so exciuting that you can't put down the book. When Leia goes on a mission to the Noghri, the aliens that under the command of the empire tried to kill her, she finds herselfs in a snakes pit. Luke Skywalker is going on a search for the Jedi Master C'baoth and Han Solo tries to find a fleet of great battleships that vanished years before. To oppose the heroes Zahn once more lets Grand Admiral Thrawn give a great taste of his vicious genius. And between the fronts, Mara Jade and Talon Karrde have their own troubles. In the end 'Zahn lets the subplots flow together to a great and surprising final which will make you want to read the final book.
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Summary: An absolutely PERFECT sequel to Heir to the Empire
Review: Timothy Zahn's incredible 'Heir To The Empire' remains one of the 3 greatest Star Wars novels written (the other 2 would be the immediate sequels, of course) and 'Dark Force Rising' picks up shortly after, with a slightly misleading title. When you are dealing with anything that has the Star Wars name on the front, when you read 'Dark Force' what comes to YOUR mind? Well my opinion had something to do with the Dark Jedi that was introduced in 'Heir' but you may as well drop that idea right up front. The fabled Dark Force is a fleet of Dreadnaught ships with a Dark Coloring that were all networked together (or in this case, Slave Rigged) to one ship called the Katana, and one day (as the story goes) the Katana's crew goes nuts and trips them all into Hyperspace and instantly an entire fleet of ships disappear, never to be seen from again. As events from 'DFR' pick up, smuggler Talon Karrde apparently believes that he knows exactly where the Katana Fleet is located, and since the Alliance AND the Empire are in desperate need of new ships, finding the Dark Force suddenly becomes Priority #1. Who will get to the ships first, and also, does either the Empire OR the Alliance have enough men to crew the fleet if and when the ships are found in the first place? We delve deeper into the corrupted mind of the cloned dark Jedi, Joruus and what plans Grand Admiral Thrawn has for him and we see a little more of what his grand scheme is for defeating the Rebels. The depth of character development in 'Dark Force Rising' is more apparent and we get into the mind of Thrawn even more. Zahn's evil creation marks him as an even greater 3-dimensional character than either Vader or the Emperor ever was on the big screen. More depth. More ambition, and most of all, more brains. Where Vader & the Emperor ruled by fear, Thrawn rules by simply making the best decisions based on solid research and the brilliant deductions from the mind of the only alien Palpatine ever allowed to rise in major rank within the confines of the Empire. Zahn never gives us too much info too quickly, always leaving some detail out of the picture until just the right moment when he opens the curtain of your mind and reveals a little more of what we have in store for the last book, 'The Last Command'. Just as the bombshell was dropped at the end of 'The Empire Strikes Back' with the revelation from Vader that he is Luke's Father, Zahn leaves us hanging at the end of 'Dark Force Rising' with quite a nailbiter of an ending, too. Once again, I can find nothing wrong with this 2nd installment in this trilogy. I have yet to read ANY Star Wars novels that are as well drawn out and all-out entertaining as this series was and is--with the possible exception of the 'Hand of Thrawn' duo that Zahn wrote several years later (although still excellent, they were not as good as his original trilogy). 'The Last Command' is simply put a grand ending to this incredibly well told series of books. Many have wondered how well these 3 books would've turned out had they been put up on the big screen...well, if they could've done it, my personal opinion is if they would have closely followed the novels, they would most certainly have been MUCH better than Episode's I & II have turned out to be. Run out and buy this series if you haven't yet. Absolutely the best of the best in the Star Wars Universe in print, and they simply should NOT be missed. Bravo, Mr. Zahn.
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Summary: Zahn's Force Rises in this second Thrawn novel
Review: Continuing the "further adventures" of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa Solo, Han Solo, Chewbacca the Wookiee and the rest of the Star Wars heroes, Timothy Zahn followed up his best-selling 1991 Heir to the Empire with this second volume in the Thrawn Trilogy. It is a time of crisis for the New Republic. Even though Darth Vader and the Emperor are dead and the galaxy-spanning Empire reduced to a quarter of its original size, a new Imperial warlord has returned from the Unknown Territories and rallied the cream of the Imperial fleet to mount a savage attack on the still-struggling New Republic. Aided by the insane clone of a long-dead Jedi Master, the tactical genius Grand Admiral Thrawn has discovered the means to clone Imperial troopers, crewers, and pilots to replenish the once-depleted forces of the Empire. Now he searches for the Dark Force, the near-mythical Katana Fleet of ancient but still powerful dreadnaughts lost in a bizarre incident in the days before the Empire. Once in Imperial hands, this massive fleet will help Thrawn and his forces to regain control of the galaxy. But all hope is not lost to the former Rebel Alliance. Luke, Leia (who is pregnant with Jedi twins), Han, Chewie, and the droids are now being aided by the mysterious smuggler chief Talon Karrde and his protege Mara Jade. Facing the twin threats from Thrawn's stunning offensive and political discord from Bothan politician Borsk Fey'lya, the Heroes of the Rebellion are still the galaxy's brightest hope in the struggle between good and evil....
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Summary: Good books
Review: I'm not a big Star Wars fan. I do like all the plots and stuff but the only reason why i read this book was because i was bored and my brother gave it to me to read. Having said that i would like to add that i really enjoyed this book. I'm not up to date with any characters that weren't "stars" in the movie but with the descriptions of the people provided i was able to use my imagination. I enjoyed the way that Zahn wrote the book and i enjoyed reading the other Star Wars books written by him. I can't analyze the fight scenes or dialouges like other reviewers but in some cases that never helps people anyway. So i would like to say that I find myself reading the books over if i feel bored or need something to read on a long trip. I would go around saying they are stupendous but enjoyable and entertaining. Overall i would recommend these books to other people.
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Summary: A continuation of a good story
Review: This book is the sequel to Heir to the Empire, a literary classic (I think) in its own right. This lives up to the same quality as its predecessor and is slightly longer. The Dark Force, referring to the Katana Fleet, mentioned in several other Star Wars Novels, is the center of this book. In addition, new leaders, like General Bel Iblis and and others. Lando is found in this book, too. It is very exciting and extremely well articulated by Mr. Zahn. I recommend reading this book also.
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Summary: Feels like Empire Strikes Back...
Review: minus the capturing of Han Solo. The book starts off with Thrawn attacking a smuggler's base using AT-AT (not a snow planet like in Empire Strikes Back). The guy gets away of course, stuff happens and Luke finds his way to the Jedi Masters new home world to learn more about the ways of the Jedi. Sounds like Yoda right? Except this Jedi is really an evil Dark Jedi clone of a long dead good Jedi. The ending was pretty interesting too with them unmasking the Stormtroopers to find a surprise.
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