Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy, Book 3: The Last Command

Wow, what a ride. The fantastic conclusion to the original Thrawn trilogy. These three books would've made a superb Episode 7, 8 and 9. A thrilling plot filled with action and perfect characterizations, you can hear the actors speaking. Zahn ties it all together (I would've loved more in the ending, it stopped too soon for me) and makes it work. His gift of amazing characters, Thrawn, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde are just as interesting as the film characters. I particularly loved Thrawn and Karrde. Karrde could have a series of his own. Luke and Mara Jade, you can feel the partnership that will lead to their marriage. I listened to most of this on audiobook and Marc Thompson's brilliant performance makes this an epic must listen. Reading alone doesn't make it come alive as it does on audio. Every character is voiced perfectly and the production by Kevin Thomsen is outstanding. Looking forward to the Hand of Thrawn duology. Simply superb.

These stories were so good it’s a shame they can only fit certain pieces into the main canon. Love the new stuff but I miss Luke, Leia, Han and Lando as the central characters

This was a good series. My first Star Wars series I've read. I felt this book didn't focus a lot on Thrawn. I expected more of his involvement. I strad it seemed to focus more on Luke and Leia.Still it was enjoyable and makes me wish Disney would focus on these books for inspiration with TV shows or movies.

Recently discovered there were books revolving around Thrawn’s story, became a fan of this character, and indulged in all the Thrawn related books by Zahn. They are well written and interesting. Although, this book and the 2 before it no longer apply to the current Disney SW storyline, they’re still very much worth the read and a great intro to original (legends) Thrawn. I recommend following up this book with The Hand of Thrawn books, Survivor’s Quest, and Outbound Flight to continue the storyline after this book.

the reason I'm giving this book the 5 star is simply out of appreciation for the author's fantastic work. Like all the books of the Thrawn Trilogy, it was fast-paced, witty, action-packed, and compelling. Everything in the Star Wars we know and love. This one however eclipsed the past two completely. The conclusion involved the internal struggle of Mara Jade as she wrestles with the decision of fulfilling her dead master's last command and Luke prepares for his final battle with the psychotic dark jedi Joruus C'baoth. The battle against the empire seemed hopeless as we keep seeing the new republic pounded by Thrawn's clone troopers and dark force fleet to the point where the reader thinks: Are they going to do it? Will the New Republic prevail? What's going to happen?! Zahn does a good job of building up all this hatred toward C'aboth and yet understanding why he is what he is. I liked seeing what was happening in both fleets and every move they pulled. Nice that the military theme in Star Wars was expressed. Something that was glossed over in other books. Last thing, my most favorite part of the book was the events speeding up to the end and the most epic conclusion in science fiction; including the last battle against C'baoth which brings out a big surprise. I won't give spoilers but I'll give you a hint: A duel of the soul in a dark cave. Thank you Timothy Zahn for writing such a great book worthy of Star Wars! Thank you and may the force be with you!!!

The Last Command is the third book of the Trawn trilogy, which takes place a few years after "Return of the Jedi". In this final installment of the series, full-scale war has reignited in multiple sectors acoss the galaxy, and the Empire is regaining control of planets necessary for reestablishing system dominance. The brilliant part about this final book is we get to see Grand Admiral Thrawn demonstrate his full tactical genius in combat as the Empires chief of command. Not only has be managed to make massive restorations to the empires fleet through expert covert operations resolved at the end of the second book, "Dark Force Rising", he is also able to utilize his gains with surgical precision and efficiency. My favorite part is that Thrawn establishes himself as a villain that you come to respect and believe in! Not only is he clever and effective he is also respectful to his crew and subordinates. One may argue that this is because the insane Jedi Master C'baoth is seeking to gain supremacy over the Empire and establish himself as the new emperor. Thrawn is placed in a difficult position of having to guarantee the loyalty of his soldiers by maintaining troop morale, and establishing mutual respect while C'boath uses his dark powers of manipulation in an attempt to subvert Thrawn's hard-earned authority. This is, by far the most complex and compelling villain dynamic I have yet seen in a star wars storyline!The situation with the rebels is also brilliantly executed. Mara Jade must carefully navigate her shifting allegiances as she struggles with her own challenges both internally and with her continually shifting circumstances. She must find a way to resolve the awful spell that palatine beset upon her, compelling her to kill Luke Skywalker in vengeance. She also doesn't exactly like Luke, because the death of the emperor terminated her previous position as hand to the empire, which was considerably lucrative. All of this occurred years ago, and Mara is beginning to process this anguish, which only makes the conflict within her even more difficult. It's far easier for Mara simply to hate Luke, but she finds herself needing his help in this third book, and her situation becomes only more complicated, when the alliance learns of her history with the Empire!Sadly, Winter plays a minimal role in this book. I always found her to be one of the more fascinating characters with her photographic memory. She spends most of her time caring for Leia's child in this book. Leia makes a big power play, going off on a limb to lend aid to the Noghri, a race of short lizard-like aliens that have been loyal to the Empire, but only because of their respect for Lord Vader. Leia uses her investigative and diplomatic skills to utilize this inherited esteem, which ultimately results in significant effects.Many other exciting challenges take place for Luke Skywalker in this book. Master C'boath, Thrawn and a few other surprises along the way keep him more off his feet than usual! There is so much else that happens, that is masterfully resolved in this book it would take too long to describe. The smuggler Talon Karrde attempts to rally the rest of his smuggler associates against the empire, which proves to be a very difficult task. Every storyline in this book is entertaining, and finds a way to wrap itself into the significance of the overall conclusion. I only had one problem with this book, and it has to do with a rather silly quote in one of the final chapters having to do with Thrawn's fascination with art. You'll know it when you get to it. For that to be one of the only things that really bothered me about the book though is amazing, because I'm usually really picky. This book is defiantly a good pay-off if you weren't as impressed with the first two. Timothy Zahn makes this one count, and puts in a lot of great moments as well as excellent conclusions.