Book Review: "Thrawn: Alliances" by Timothy Zahn, original novel

"Thrawn: Alliances" by Timothy Zahn is a novel set in the current Disney Canon version of the "Star Wars" universe.

The novel sits in the middle of Timothy Zahn's second trilogy of works about the Chiss Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nurodo or "Thrawn" consisting of

"Star Wars: Thrawn" (2017)

"Thrawn: Alliances" (2018)

"Thrawn: Treason" (2019.)

These novels are reasonably consistent with and form part of what is at January 2026 the approved Disney "canon" as do the three books of the "Thrawn Ascendancy" prequel trilogy set during Thrawn's youth and while he was an officer of the Chiss Ascendancy.

Thrawn: Alliances tells two stories set a little less than twenty years apart, alternating between the two. The first story arc takes place in 20-19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) during the latter part of the Clone Wars (e.g. between the action of the two Star Wars prequel films  "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith") and the second story arc is set shortly after the rebel escape from Atollon, and about a year before the battle of Yavin. The action of the novel switches between these two stories, with the start of each segment set in 20 BBY marked "Then" and the start of each segment set in 1 BBY marked "Now."

The prologue to the book begins, kicking off the second story ark, in 1 BBY with Emperor Palpatine summoning his two most powerful and useful servants, his sith apprentice Lord Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn. He tells them he has felt a disturbance in the Force on a world named Batuu at the edge of the "Unknown regions" of the Galaxy, not far on a galactic scale from where Thrawn's people the Chiss live, and he orders Vader and Thrawn to go there together and resolve it.

The second part of the prologue, set 19 years before, begins as Jedi general Anakin Skywalker is about to leave Coruscant to fight a Clone Wars battle against the separatists, when his wife, the Senator for and former Queen of Naboo, Padme Amidala, tells him she is going to go to Batuu at the edge of the Unknown Regions. She is heading off there to meet up with Duja, one of her former handmaids who has found "something going on" that she thought should be investigated.

When he returns from his battle, Anakin finds that Padme has disappeared on Batuu, so he goes to rescue her. While there he meets another visitor to Batuu, who gives his name as Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn, an officer of the Expansionary Defence Fleet, servant of the Chiss Ascendancy. Thrawn offers to help Anakin on his quest to find and rescue Padme.

Both stories test the warrior and deductive skills of Thrawn and Anakin/Vader to the utmost and both link together with ironic parallels and undertones.

Both central characters are often seen as villains, but they are both shown here as a lot more morally complex and neither are villains in this story.

"Thrawn: Alliances" is one of my favourite Star Wars books, one that justifies reading more than once to catch the things you miss the first time, and I strongly recommend it.

You can order the book from Amazon at  Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars): 2 (Star Wars: Thrawn): Amazon.co.uk: Zahn, Timothy: 9780525481287: Books


In this book, Thrawn gives Anakin his rank as Commander. His actual Chiss rank at the time was subsequently retconned as Senior Captain. 

I explained a possible in-universe explanation for this apparent inconsistency in my post with the comedy song "All I want for Christmas is Batuu" which you an find by following this link:

Space Opera Christmas "All I Want for Christmas is Batuu"

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