Star Wars: Dark Force Rising: The Thrawn Trilogy, Book 2 cover art

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising: The Thrawn Trilogy, Book 2

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Star Wars: Dark Force Rising: The Thrawn Trilogy, Book 2

By: Timothy Zahn
Narrated by: Marc Thompson
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About this listen

 In this essential Star Wars Legends novel, the sequel to Heir to the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s sinister plan threatens to spell doom for the fledgling New Republic and its most iconic heroes.

The dying Empire’s most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial Fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic’s destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council—only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies.

Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness, and scheming to corrupt Luke Skywalker to the dark side. Adventure Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Star Wars Interstellar Bounty Hunter
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Most relevant
really well read by Marc Thompson and the story is really well written by Timothy Zahn

really well read and great story

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Nice plot. Exelent story Reading. Vokses thar feal like you se a movie. With effekts and Music.

Perfekt star wars story

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An excellent continuation of the proper Sequel Trilogy. Recapturing the personalities of the original characters as well as introducing a fantastic array of new characters of this Sequel Trilogy. The 2nd book takes you on another roller coaster of action, antics and suspense. Voice casting, Sound Engineering and music mixing exceeded my expectations. Looking forward to hear the concluding audio book.

The 2nd Book of the True Sequel Trilogy Does not Disappoint.

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The quality of the trilogy is elevated by the great voice acting provided for the book. A must have for star wars fans!

Another great narration

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Continues the satisfyingly accurate voices of the original characters, expanding and developing the characterisation of our heroes in the way you would hope to see post-ROTJ.

The Jedi related mythos between Luke and C’Baoth is my favourite part about this book - a sort of flipping on the head version of Luke’s time with Yoda on Dagobah. The best thing about Luke with C’Baoth is his compassion towards him and wanting to help him in his insanity - much like how Luke felt the good in his father Vader and wanted to save Anakin.

Again, Luke takes great limelight for me in this book with Mara. She’s still coarse and rough and mean towards Luke, struggling with her conditioning from Palpatine to hunt down and murder Luke, but she’s clearly become conflicted as her and Luke are forced again to be allies. I’m enjoying watching Mara develop and her interactions with Luke are always fun and interesting.

Thrawn in this book shows a little more capacity for failure and making mistakes, which is refreshing after his almost invincible portrayal in the previous book. Even so, Thrawn is always calculating and, unlike Vader in his anger and wrath, doesn’t lash out when things go wrong but utilises it for his advantage in a couple or few steps further down the line in the bigger picture.

I really enjoyed the space battle of the final chapters. It does repeat that trope from the previous book again, not to mention ANH and ROTJ, but honestly I didn’t mind that. Zahn writes space battles really well in a way that is engaging and you can easily and enjoyably visualise it like it’s straight out of one of the movies.

Some of the political ground work that Zahn writes in the first half of the book felt a little bit of a slog at times, but honestly it all paid off in that final space battle. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the last couple chapters as much had it not been for all of that with Fey’la, so stick with it if you’re finding it slow.

All in all, it’s no ESB calibre sequel, but it’s absolutely a 5/5 sequel to Heir to the Empire. I’m loving this trilogy and can’t wait to see the ultimate showdown between Thrawn and our heroes coming up in the final book, where Mara’s inner conflict is going to land, what will happen with Leia and the twins, what will come of C’Baoth, and again ultimately how this will all shape Luke and the continuation of the Skywalker story!

A Great Sequel!

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