David's Rating:   3.5 out of 4

This book concludes Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. Nothing new is introduced to the plot, rather all the divergent plot lines from the previous novels come together to bring the story to a close. With his newly reinforced fleet, Thrawn begins taking planets back from the New Republic, while continuing his stand off with Joruus C'Boath. Leia, trapped on the Nohgri homeworld, continues to try to convince the Nohgri that the Empire has deceived them. Talon Karrde and Mara Jade organize the smugglers into a coalition to fight the Empire. Luke continues to attempt to redeem Master C'Boath, what will happen when the two finally confront each other on Wayland?

David:

    A well-written conclusion to an excellent trilogy. Everything that made the first two books so great is right here in this book. The excellent characters, the detailed plots, and the plausibly written action that by now the reader takes for granted. I've run out of adjectives to describe this series. All I can say is this should be the first trilogy any Star Wars fan reads. It gives you a good perspective of how the Star Wars universe should and can be written.

David:

    Unfortunately, Zahn wrote himself into a corner. The plot against the New Republic was so foolproof, that it took a lot of coincidences and luck for the good guys to triumph. I felt slightly let down by Thrawn's death scene, although it was perfectly plausible and there was nothing actually bad about it, it seemed somewhat anti-climatic. Again, it was the only way he could have been defeated. I also find it hard to believe that Thrawn thought C'Boath would just roll over and die. I could go on and on, suffice to say there were just a few too many lucky breaks for the New Republic.

David:

    The evil clone Luuke. Zahn could've just left that out without damaging the story.