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Vision of the Future (Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn, Book Two)

Vision of the Future (Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn, Book Two)

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Draw close
Review: This book is great. I'm glad to see Zahn get back in the star wars world. I just couldn't put this book down. It was a great conclusion to his story. Once again Timothy proves him self as one of the best Star Wars authers out there. It was cool

Big Truck

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gripping climax to an action-packed "duology"!
Review: First off, I must say I am a Star Wars fan. Secondly, I loved Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy" that kicked off the Star Wars "Extended Universe" many years ago. Therefore, I went into these books with a heavy bias. Having said that, I truly believe these books are amazing. Vision of the Future is particularly amazing. The closing 150 pages is one of the best literary juggling acts I've seen in a book. The various storylines each come to intertwining conclusions that leave you feeling especially satisfied. I could not put that book down as it came to a close.

Obviously, read the first book (Spectre of the Past) first but it is well worth the relatively slow start.

There is interesting character development in Luke Skywalker's persona and thankfully Timothy Zahn was able to bring Mara Jade along quite nicely. It was nice that her creator could bring her to the point where she is now. The rest of the cast, admittedly, faces one action-packed scene after another.

Ultimately, these books are FUN!! They are a great read! Star Wars fans will love it. Non-Star Wars fans will find it difficult to grab ahold of without the prior knowledge that past books will give you. The funniest aspect has to be the raging coincidences that literally FILL the entire book. If you'll buy it, the Force does guide events, people, stuff in general, etc, but there's a wee bit of unbelievability (is that a word?). Take that belief though, and suspend it in the Force (or something more eloquent). You'll love the ride.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Timothy Zahn does it again
Review: Did not want to put this book down.
He did a great job with Flim.
I would have liked to see more Noghri action but it's ok.
Great book, if you read the previous books w/Admiral Thrawn, you'll like this book. It's just as gripping.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a super rad read
Review: Timothy Zahn has written another awesome book. The complexity of the plot, the depth of characters and the non-stop action/suspense is more than what I expected out of this book. I reccomend this to EVERYONE, not just to Star Wars fans. I couldn't put it down either times I read it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I thought this was brilliant, especially Luke and Mara getting together. i used to hate Mara, and before I read this book when I heard about them getting married I didnt like it but Mara has a really strong character and Callista is a weakling compared to her

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Book
Review: I thought this book was great. Timothy zahn was always really good at writing interesting and creative plots. I must admit that the ending caught me completely by surprise. I kinda guessed that Mara really did like Luke deep down, but she was too tough to admit it. I thought it was great that she and Luke finally got together. No matter how good the book may be, I was a bit disappointed that Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin were pretty much left out, as they were a few other books. However, the great parts of the book completely over-ruled anything that was anything other that fantastic.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Publishers to blame?
Review: I was extremely disappointed in Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future. Timothy Zahn has proven in the past that he can write very much better than this; why was this book so bad?
The multiple plots were unoriginal, pointless, and did not lead anywhere. Threats to the New Republic? Marauding warlords? Smugglers lending a hand? Desperate secret missions? Sorry, we've seen all that before. There would only be an excuse for reprising so many of the concepts from the Heir to the Empire series if they were made fresh and meaningful again; and they weren't.
I really could believe that Zahn only wrote Vision of the Future and its prequel out of contractual obligations. It's like a book written by a committee: "you must produce two books of this many pages including this list of characters that will have these plot features, include this momentous event, and end on this note." The book was too long. The writing style was definitely sub-par by Zahn's standards. There was little sense of excitment. I could believe that he, too, was unimpressed by his own output. And the resolution between Luke and Mara simply did not fit with anything that had gone before.
Vision of the Future is not an accomplished, or even enjoyable, addition to the Star Wars book list. If you think I've been overly harsh in giving this book only one star, maybe you're correct. But when placed in the balance beside Zahn's talent and the expectations this book raised - I'm not feeling generous.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Greatest Star Wars novel ever (in my opinion)
Review: Wow! I first read this book after I had finished reading the first Thrawn series (Heir to the Empire-Last Command) which introduced me to various intriguing characters, namely Mara Jade, whom I was enthralled with. This duo of novels extended that excitement. Taking place about 9 or 10 years after The Last Command, it discusses the return of "Thrawn", Luke and Mara (of course), and various other subplots, including Talon Karrde. Ultimately, if your interested in star wars, you should be interested in this book.
May the Force be with you!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another great Star Wars novel!
Review: "Vision Of The Future" is one of the best Star Wars novels in a long time. The king of the Star Wars novels, Timothy Zahn, is back again with this sequel to the just-as-good novel, "Specter Of The Past", and his original "Thrawn Trilogy." VOTF (and the previous SOTP) is in many ways, a departure of sorts from other Star Wars novels that were non-Zahn oriented. For example, we never see any of the Jedi Acadamey on Yavin Four, Leia's and Han's children are only seen at the beginning of SOTP, and never in this book. It is almost like Zahn is ignoring much of the previous books, except his own original trilogy. Anyway, VOTF finishs of SOTP with enough pages to fill two books (almost 700!). Definitely the biggest time of this book is devoted to Luke and Mara while they are exploring the planet Niueran they are on. Which is good, since it shows us that throughout their trekks, they really do care about each other, and thus the ending of Luke asking Mara for her hand in marriage, makes more sense. It even makes more sense that during one battle, their minds become one person, of sorts, since they are now able to be able to know what the other person is thinking about. Of course, like a number of other Star Wars fans, I hoped this could have happened sooner than the 10 years after they met, but in a sense it made sense. Zahn also shows us a new side of both characters, like Mara's exceptance of letting her own ship be destroyed for their cause, and, to a lesser extent, Luke leaving his X-Wing (which if I can figure out, is the same one he had since at least the movie trilogy). Besides Luka and Mara (which a reader can tell that Zahn is leading to something big at the end of the book with them), VOTF is overall also good with the notable Star Wars battles, good dialogue, familar faces from other books, like Leia, Han, Lando, and two of Zahn's own creations, Talon Karrde and Admiral Pellaeon. Overall, VOTF is a notable Star Wars entry into the list that seems to grow every month or so. Great novel by a great writer who knows what he is doing, unlike some of them.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good story, with Lord of the Rings slant
Review: The 2 book series by Timothy Zahn concludes the war between the Empire and the New Republic. Zahn portrayed all the usual characters like Han, Luke, and Leia correctly and conveniently placed Chewbacca back at his home planet in order to further develop Han and Leia's relationship. Perhaps his character became a distraction, since his omission was continued in future books. In case some of you didn't know, Luke and Mara Jade finally got down to business too.
The Luke and Mara side plot also seemed a lot like Fellowship of the Ring. They were working their way into a fortress with a lot of natural obstacles. Their journey was well written, but I felt that this type of story had been written before.
A couple minor problems. The stories take place before the Young Jedi Knight series and there is some factual conflict between the two. Readers of the Young Jedi Knight series will pick up on these immediately. However, that can't be helped since the Young series was started 3 years before Vision of the Future was published.
Also, the whole conflict and causes for the possible New Republic Civil war was unrealistic. The cause of the Civil war was that certain races wanted the Bothan race to be punished for the destruction of a planet(Camaas) that had occurred 40 years earlier. The New Republic remained supportive of the Bothans. This type of political conflict just didn't seem strong enough to justify a Galactic civil war and end of the New Republic.


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