It’s quite interesting that the Thrawn trilogy from
Timothy Zahn in its initial novel Heir to the Empire was intent on
moving the story forward. The novel had
to say this is the continuation of Star Wars and not just a rehash of
the original trilogy, however with Dark Force Rising and The Last
Command Zahn does an interesting trick of taking on the structure of the
original trilogy. The Last Command
ends this Thrawn trilogy with the obvious parallels to Return of the Jedi
as the great evil is defeated and the New Republic is victorious. However, Zahn performs a magic trick with
this writing: it is already clear that the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn
has the potential to be a great villain and is more than the Emperor actually
was in the original trilogy so this is a book whose resolution is quite different
from Return of the Jedi. While
Zahn does make an antagonist switch sides, something that had been hinted at
throughout the trilogy instead of Vader’s last-minute turn back to the light, the
actual destruction of Thrawn is something that is incredibly sudden and from
quite a different sort. Thrawn spends
much of the book in this state of almost gleeful gloating at being able to outsmart
the New Republic at every turn. The actual
mistake that Thrawn had made is one that was made two books ago, something that
Zahn has been telegraphing to the audience from the very beginning though never
in a way that compromises the point of the story. Thrawn’s place in the narrative is
particularly interesting as while the last novel was careful to keep him
off-page, The Last Command is more interested in showing him about the
same amount as Heir to the Empire as the Empire itself succeeds, though
he does not become the central villain of the piece.
The mad clone of Joruus C’baoth is the central antagonist
of the novel, being primarily motivated by a wish to see Leia’s twins as his
own apprentice and to see Mara Jade kill Luke Skywalker. Behind the scenes Zahn originally intended
the character to be a clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Last Command is
where you see much of that come to the surface, especially as there are
sequences where Luke and Mara Jade are paralleled as characters, Luke in
several ways becoming the master to Mara’s apprentice. It’s a relationship that is perhaps the best
part of the novel as it is a very different master/apprentice relationship to those
seen in the original trilogy. There is
this sense that Luke actually respects Mara’s autonomy and life experiences in
a way that in the original trilogy Yoda did not towards Luke. This does add to Mara’s internal conflict of
not particularly wishing to kill Luke, but having clear orders and a clear
level of mistrust amongst the New Republic once her past as the Emperor’s Hand
is revealed. The continual narration of “You
must kill Luke Skywalker” which infiltrates Mara’s mind whenever Zahn writes
from her perspective is one of those repetitions of the novel that is almost
too repetitive, even when it comes around during the climax of the novel. C’baoth’s madness is portrayed well but sadly
as a villain the more interesting aspect of the character are Mara and Luke’s
reactions and defeat of him instead of anything he has become himself,
something that may not have been the case had he been the clone of Obi-Wan as
originally planned. The added tension
with the building of a new clone army and the potential reignition of the Clone
Wars, something that would obviously be a mystery to readers at this point, is
still fascinating.
The political aspects of the novel is something that
Zahn also excels at, largely because it allows a continuation of seeing Leia as
a leader while Han Solo is almost put in the backseat for the novel. The set piece of her apartments being broken
into by Empire spies allows Zahn to show a more riveting side to his writing as
it comes after several revelations and builds to this extended sequence. It ties in quite nicely in terms of themes to
the ending of the smuggler plotlines of the novel, something that sees an
alliance between the Rebellion and more of the galaxy’s smuggling rings which
feels as a statement from Zahn about the necessity of the Republic to move on
and be better, to give the smugglers a chance at something better. Zahn’s commentary with the New Republic is
largely on the cyclical nature of oppression, though through quite a particularly
limited view of authoritarian oppression of people painted with a large
brush. This is no takedown of systemic
oppression in its intricacies and instead is interested in the systemic overview
as is often the case with these types of stories. It has the double effect of having more depth
than the systems of the Empire of the original trilogy but being trapped in the
storytelling conventions of 1990s pulp tie in science fiction which isn’t so
much a problem as a quirk in the nature of the thing.
Overall, The Last Command manages to show that
Timothy Zahn clearly understands the structure of presenting a trilogy of
stories while managing to make a sequel trilogy to one of the most influential
science fiction films of all time, while still remaining in the remit of that
original trilogy. Obviously this is not
going to be a story where the main characters are going to die but Zahn is
fascinating at finding ways to move these characters forward and ending with a
particularly interesting subversion of expectations that if executed in a filmed
sequel trilogy would perhaps have fanboys in shambles that would last for
years. The Last Command is a
great book. 8/10.
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