Book review "Thrawn: Alliances" parts 1-4, the graphic novel version
The original book, "Thrawn: Alliances" by Timothy Zahn is a novel set in the current Disney Canon version of the "Star Wars" universe.
I reviewed that novel in the post immediately before this one: this is a companion review of the four part graphic novel (or comic book) adaptation which credits Timothy Zahn and Jody Houser as the writers, Pat Olliffe and Andrea Di Vito as the artists and Rachelle Rosenberg as the colorist. (A number of other contributors are listed on the credits page.)
Like the written novel on which is is based, these graphic novels are reasonably consistent with and form part of what is at January 2026 the approved Disney "canon."
It is perhaps worth making clear at the start that the four existing graphic novels published in 2024 only cover about the first two thirds of the original book.
The original Timothy Zahn novel has a two-part prologue, twenty chapters, and a two-part epilogue, and 345 pages. The graphic novels essentially cover a slightly abridged version of the original, up to a clearly comparable point on page 220 in Chapter 12 of the original book, and then states "The End?" when it quite clearly isn't the end.
I must confess that if I hadn't read the original to tell me how the story ends I would have found the lack of a proper conclusion in these four graphic novels as they currently stand quite unsatisfactory and probably been forced to buy the original to see how the story ends.
Like the original, the series of "Thrawn: Alliances" graphic novels 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 in 1 BBY with Thrawn on the bridge of his Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, in battle against a group of opponents who have been threatening Imperial shipping. As he is winning the battle, he receives a message summoning him to Coruscant to meet the emperor and Darth Vader.
Emperor Palpatine has summoned his two most powerful and useful servants, 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" area of the Galaxy in which Thrawn's people the Chiss, live and he orders Vader and Thrawn to go there together and resolve it.
Shortly after Thrawn and Vader leave for Batuu, the story cuts to that planet but nineteen years before, as Senator and former Queen Padme Amidala arrives in orbit over the planet, responding to a message from her former handmaid Duja, who has found "something going on" that she thought should be investigated.
Not long after, in the earlier story arc, Padme's husband, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker arrives at Batuu in response to a message from the Senator, to see if she needs protection and assistance. While he is looking for her, he finds a blue skinned alien who introduces himself as Commander Thrawn, an officer 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. these graphic novel books are slightly but not catastrophically dumbed down from the original novel, and the only thing seriously wrong with them is that as they currently exist they have a cliff-hanger ending and only tell two-thirds of the story.
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