Need more Thrawn, you got to love the way he read and manipulate everyone and get it right every time the best strategist I've ever seen or better yet heard haha!

Absolutely a great story, giving you more insight to the star wars universe leading up to the creation of the Death Star!!!

Thrawn! A brilliant and inspired character. Timothy Zahn clearly tapped into the mojo, allowing the muse to move his fingers as he typed. When I was first introduced to him in Heir to the Empire in 1991 I was blown away. Marc Thompson is an amazing perforner! He could make the tax code interesting. I kept forgetting there was not a cast performing...just one talented man! If you haven’t already, get the first 3 books. The books that set cannon.

The Farseer trilogy is a masterpiece. I think it had a worthy ending. I do suggest that you don't expect Fitz to be a hero in the traditional way.

Good story and thrilling

Great insight into Thrawn. Would love to see a movie that explores his role more.

I've loved pretty much all of Zahn's previous works and was thrilled to see more exploration of Thrawn's 'origin' story. Unfortunately, this particular endeavor left me wanting and as the first audiobook version, I had very mixed feelings about the interpretation. Regarding the audio production, the effects and music were initially nice at enhancing the atmosphere, but eventually felt very artificial and looped. For the most part, the mixing/balance were quite well done; that said, there were a few more 'intense' scenes of combat or tension where the dramatic music or explosions almost overwhelmed the dialog. The chapter headings did help break apart sections and the narrator was able to use distinctive voices to help clearly identify who was speaking. However, many seemed more caricature than character, falling to very modern and worn stereotypical speech patterns. Worse, some of the aliens were so heavily processed to be nearly unintelligible. (The description of one such voice is, admittedly, both musical and grating; however, I would gladly have sacrificed some of the 'realism' for something easier to understand and less likely to make me want to pull my earbuds out until that passage was over.) Finally, Thrawn's near-constant inner monologue as he 'reads' his companions and opponents is distinguished from his dialog with a well done echo filter, but becomes *extremely* repetitive. *** Spoilers Follow *** First the good: Thrawn is one of the most complex and interesting characters in fiction and this certainly extends that impression of unparalleled strategy and tactics. The introduction of the Chiss Ascendancy as a concept and Eli Vanto as Thrawn's aide and protege definitely got me hooked and left me wanting much more; hopefully, a series of full novels will explore both. Nightswan also is an intriguing foil and, in my opinion, should have been given a little more time for development. Or maybe this is just a teaser... Now the bad: As noted, structurally, Thrawn's musings and analysis are initially compelling to show his process of sizing people up with body language and his near-infrared spectrum sight. Similarly, using Vanto as an expository device effectively provides a way for Thrawn to explain his tactics and strategy. However, after a few chapters of this, the former becomes extremely tedious and repetitive and the latter simply artificial. Nevertheless, both still work within the structure of the novel. Alas, I cannot say the same for the treatment of Arihnda Pryce, who gets plenty of development, but all highly unlikeable and not very compelling or believable. For all the premise of her extremely savvy politicking and willingness to do anything to advance her power and career, this IS the Star Wars universe we're talking about and I cannot buy her not getting a blaster bolt through the head much past a third of the novel. She is pretty naive in combat and dirty tricks and, as we've seen in the Clone Wars animated series and elsewhere, many rivals would have taken her out through poison or treachery rather than risk her further manipulations. Most of the supporting cast of her threads were equally uninteresting and I felt like that entire portion of the book was tacked onto the more engaging Thrawn/Vanto storylines as a contractual afterthought that the author had little investment in.

Great book highly recommend

Possibly Timothy Zahn's worst book. It's not bad, but it's as dull as a bag of hammers. There's not much of a story until the book ties everything together with less than three hours to go. Until that point, it's just a series of events that sees Thrawn rising through the ranks of the Empire at warp speed. We're constantly being told that Thrawn has gotten more promotions in two years than most get in a lifetime. The book is basically like, "And then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened..." and on and on. This is not how you tell a story, and I'm stunned that this is a Timothy Zahn book, the guy who carefully crafted Heir To The Empire. Also, there is a lot of out-of-universe swearing in this book. I'm not offended by that sort of thing, but I've never heard it in a Star Wars book before. It just doesn't work. I don't like this book at all. Hopefully the next one will be better.

As always, Marc kills it as narrator. As for the book itself, there is a reason Zahn was one of the few writers who kept writing for Lucasfilms after the Disney purchase. The book is fantastic

Very well written, and give sa great psychological insight into Thrawns thoughts

So far I've only made it to chapter 5 but already am I drawn into the book. The narrator does an amazing voice especially for Thrawn and The Emperor. Keeps you hooked and wanting to know what happens next.

Great story, loved thrawns narration.

Engaging read. I had a desire to know each characters' outcomes at the end of the book, the dialogue flowed naturally and as always Zahn captured Thrawn's essence perfectly.

Very character driven. A different view of a familiar world.

A great book for fans. The narration is superb and is more like a radio play than a book.

Marc Thompson is the best narrator for star wars imo, great job

some of the best writing and storytelling i've come across, especially in the star wars universe. the narration is perfect and Thompson does a spot on Thrawn impression.

Fantastic intro into the world of Geand Admiral THRAWN. A must for Star Wars fans.

I'm sorry, I know this is a franchise about "space wizards", but this is getting ridiculous. oachie of bestoon comes off as a mustache twirling bad guy with no depth from a second rate d&d adventure complete with a dagger of life stealing, Rey's parents having a "hex charm", only 2 way finders when the rule of 2 wasn't established till AFTER Bane, about the only good thing was that there was no character assassination of Luke and Lando. No Jake Skywalker here for what it's worth. Also it appears the author has made Darth Revan canon once again which I can say about time, even if it was inadvertent. there was a lot of promise here, just if I wanted dungeons and dragons magic in space I would read or listen to a spelljamer novel from back in the day. oh last thing, I really liked how the narrator was able to mimic Lando, too bad he used the same voice for another scoundrel as well.... not great but not terrible if u can stomach this crappy forcing of the sequel stuff on us.

brilliant!

Thrawn is amazing and I (as a man) fangirl over him. The narrator captures his wistfullness in his voice of high intelligence. Just captures the idea that he is very much above everyone else purely because he is more intelligent than his peers and generals.

amazing narration, couldn't wish for anyone else.

Best narraration I have heard yet!

Awesome story telling. Star Wars fans will love this side story. "I look at myself in the mirror, the corner of my mouth is slightly turned up. I look satisfied. There is a glow about me that gives away the fact that I am a little bit smarter. A bit more adept at seeing plots within plots. Interesting."

Awesome story!

it's an amazing story and very well read, I like it a lot!

Loved the narration. SO good.

Love all the books. they really help fill in the miss holes that the movies leave out.

Excellent

Great addition to Thrawn character. I liked that the focus of the narrative is centered within the Empire itself. And the surrounding characters challenge him in very interesting ways. I really liked the intrigues and was very entertained by the smart dialogues. The narrator nails Thrawn's personality in his voice very well

I found this book to be pretentious without any type of strong story line. I particularly dislike books that cannot stand alone. This book sort of trails off and virtually obligates the listener to go to the next book. As such, it was a ripoff. The narrator, for an unknown reason, whispered much of the book. His narration was almost uniformly overly dramatic, giving dramatic weight to straightforward, descriptive sentences. It made for a "read" that was without much variation. Further, his accented "voices" were not uniform so it was not always easy to tell who was speaking. I would not recommend this book even though I have enjoyed Timothy Zahn books in the past.

Amazing narration to an exciting read

Timothy Zahn did a fantastic job in keeping me engaged and at the edge of my seat through his voice and enthusiasm!

The narrator was nice, but I was looking for a good Star Wars book instead I got something filled with swears.

Great voice acting and ambient sounds

its a really good book and I really enjoyed the narrator

great book and narrator.

Such an awesome story! I already loved Thrawn from the novels from the 90’s, and Zahn stayed very true to his character whilst immersing him into the past canonical timeline. There’s a character or so from the Rebels series that it was awesome to learn about their beginnings and insights as well, which in my opinion, was a sub-plot that added a lot to the story, and the way the different arcs would come together, divide, and then return, revealed the character’s individual evolutions through the mechanism of seeing how their relationships changed over time. I love Star Wars because of The Force, Jedi, Sith, and conflict. I want to see feats of Force magic, lightsaber battles, and crazy space battles. That being said, it is very difficult for me to maintain my interest in stories that don’t have Jedi, Sith, and/or Force users. Thrawn is such an other-worldly tactician, that he is a VERY rare exception for me in this regard. Amazing read, amazing narration, recommended to all SW fans.

Timothy Zahn is genius, Thrawn is great and the new Thrawn: Alliances is even better. I also like Marc Thompson's voice and reading style. Absolutely enjoyable!

Well written with a fresh new perspective of what was going on....it was fun to come back to a classic in a new way.

Good book, loved seeing thrawn again

Timothy Zahn does it again! Cannot wait for the next Thrawn novel. I have been a fan of Zahn since I read “Choices of One”, before the de-canonization of the Expanded Universe.

I liked the story but sometimes the deduction that he continuously does analyzing people got annoying.

If you love Star Wars then you'll love Star Wars: Thrawn! Zahn puts his amazing skills in writing to great use in this work. I can't wait to see what happens in the Star Wars universe after this read.

Great audiobook, could barely stop listening to it. Good characters and story that keeps you wanting more. A Star Wars fan must.

A fantastic listen. A must for any Star Wars fan. Thrawn provides an interesting insight into and now canon character. A masterpiece from Zahn.

Very good audio book. Great cast cast of characters and lots of audio effects.

Awesome book. Good voices and narration. Always been a fan of the expanded universe and was worried the new canon would be terrible, but was pleasantly surprised.

I am a Timothy Zahn fan. I read the Last Command series when it first came out, so when I saw "Thrawn" I was excited. The book was well written and the images it conjured through Zahn's choice of words provided imagery for my imagination. The narrator also did a great job. I have listened to other books Mr. Thompson has narrated and it is definitely a please to hear the author and him paired up. This book is worth the time and money.

If your into Star Wars nerd lore this is a must read.

My favorite star war book. Must read/listen. Such a great way to to more info from pre episode 4 and a great way to learn more of the empires citizens.

Best seventeen hours ever spent with a book. An absolute must have for any Star Wars fan.

Really interesting to learn the background of a character that has always been a bit of an enigma in the Star Wars world - doesn't really fit in the classic "good or evil" realm, but if you are a fan, this is a must have. Will warn you that it isn't the non-stop action type of book, but kind of like a mystery with a blue alien playing a Sherlock Holmes type character ... was a little slow at times and some parts just didn't seem to fit into the overall story (kept asking myself why did I have to know that ... and no reveal at the end) and some unanswered questions (like this was book one of a trilogy). But with all that being said the Narrator was flat out awesome, just awesome.

A fantastic book and narration. I was on the edge of my seat. This is well worth every moment!