Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn (5/5)

Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Ascendancy: Lesser Evil shocked me on every page. I found it difficult to put it down, which was torture because it came out during a very busy week for me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, even though it took me longer than anticipated to read it. I actually finished it on the bus on my way to work because I was not about to leave it alone with 30 pages at the end and suffer through my shift knowing what I would be coming home to. If I was going to suffer it would be because I had already experienced it. This, naturally, led to tears as Taylor Swift played through my Airpods. Yes, the song was exile… and it was probably a little bit too fitting. The foreshadowing in the book, leading up to the final events (like about halfway through the book), did not help me be okay. It was one of those things that made me go “I know what’s going to happen, but you didn’t need to remind me”.

Even though I knew what was coming, what was going to happen, in this book, I was transfixed. Knowing the ending wasn’t an issue, because I just wanted to see how we got to that point. Unlike the other reviews I’ve shared here, this one will have spoilers, so please beware before proceeding if you haven’t read Lesser Evil, the Thrawn trilogy, or seen Star Wars: Rebels, as all will be discussed below.

From the beginning, I was in tears. The words that Zahn chose for the dedication at the beginning really made me feel a kinship with Thrawn that I wasn’t used to feeling. It set me up to understand his character, his actions, and his motivations, better throughout this text and beyond. As someone who has been in the position of having to choose between the lesser of two evils, I know how Thrawn felt in his choices to do what he had to do for the Ascendancy.

Throughout the reading, I made notes of my thoughts. Some of this was just raging against various characters, scared that they would do something that would make me not want to like them anymore, and thankfully they didn’t do the things that might have led to that. I’m talking specifically about how one note says “Thalias, you better not prove Samakro right… EVER!” Other notes were solely about my ships, specifically Wutrolani (Wutroow & Ar’alani), Thalimakro (Thalias & Samakro), and Thurstalmu (Thurfian & Zistalmu). I just think they’re neat, okay? Especially Thurstalmu’s relationship, which is just based on hating Thrawn, I think that’s hilarious.

One note that hurts me is where I wrote “not friends, brothers” on the second Memories chapter, which is long before they actually say that in the book. I could not deal with reading it actually get written. Not that I was joking, I just wasn’t expecting them to actually get there in Lesser Evil, and this book already hurt, so every little poke hurt five times more than usual.

As a fan of The High Republic, I also thought that talking about Pathfinders was really cool in Lesser Evil, it feels like a connecting thread between the two. Specifically with the relationship between Che’ri and the Magys, it felt like (spoilers for The High Republic: Out of the Shadows by Justina Ireland) the bond between Vernestra and Mari, so I thought it was even cooler. Especially how both relationships seem to have a big thing about ‘paths’ and hyperspace. I need answers! Even more than just the relationships between these characters, I’m not sure if anyone else who is a fan of both the Thrawn books and The High Republic gets Nihil vibes from the Grysks, or Grysk vibes from the Nihil. It’s not strong vibes, but I just had a bit of a feeling when reading Lesser Evil. There also seems to be a theme with the Ascendancy trilogy, and more with modern Star Wars about how different Force users see and use the Force. It’s shown up with characters in Ronin by Emma Mieko Candon and, once again, The High Republic. I think it’s a super important method of world building because of course different people see and use the Force differently, because we’re all different. There was also allusions to how premonitions work with the Force, through the Sky-walkers and the Magys, which has come up in other stories like Cavan Scott’s Dooku: Jedi Lost with Sifo-Dyas and The High Republic (again) with Vernestra. This really does show the amount of work and love that the authors of Star Wars novels do to make these books this incredible. This whole universe is ever expanding and still connecting threads that, as I consume more of the content, I can pick out those threads and see how they all connect to one another, which is why I love this universe.

Another part I really enjoyed was seeing how Thrawn got the ‘odo’ added to his name, bringing him from Mitth’raw’nuru to Mitth’raw’nuruodo! It showed more of his devotion to the Ascendancy as a whole, which is an incredibly important trait of his character. With that, we also got backstory of what happened to Csilla, which I will admit to having wondered about ever since Chaos Rising. Having that answer was super satisfying.

The final part that I want to talk about comes close to the end, during the discussion of Thrawn’s exile and what he will be doing while he is exiled. It puts many of his actions that happen in the Thrawn trilogy in perspective, without excusing the harm that he did cause by working for the Empire. We can understand his motivations while not excusing the means he used to reach the end of protecting the Ascendancy. It also puts a lot of Thrawn: Alliances into perspective when he’s talking about Anakin and how Vader spent so much of that book telling Thrawn that Anakin was dead which remains hilarious to me. As a whole, after reading the Thrawn: Ascendancy trilogy, I really want to go back and re-read Thrawn: Alliances soon because of the amazing way that it fits into this trilogy.

I rated Lesser Evil five stars, and I really do mean that. I completely enjoyed this book, and while I have questions coming out of that, I prefer that to having all my questions answered. When there’s nothing left to find out in future works, I feel less of a draw to reading them. I can honestly say that there is nothing negative I have to say about this novel, or the trilogy itself. Timothy Zahn has a brilliant mind to create such a memorable addition to the Star Wars universe, especially one that has resonated with fans since 1991 and has gone from Legends to Canon!