Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn
Mara Jade is still my favorite
My rating: 4.5/5
Pub Date: May 1992
Legends/Canon: Legends
Timeline: 9 ABY
Welcome back to the Star Wars Book Club! Today we’re talking about the second book in the original Thrawn trilogy, Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn. Seeing as how this is the second book in a trilogy, this review will contain minor spoilers for Heir to the Empire.
I’ve come to the conclusion that writing reviews is hard. Because reviewers need to be analytical readers, which is something I most definitely am not. I read purely for entertainment purposes, and that really came back to bite me on this book in particular. I finished this book two days ago, and now here I am still trying to come up with something insightful to say about it. Maybe not even insightful, just something at all to say about it.
Writing that sentence might make it seem like I didn’t enjoy this book, but I actually did, quite a lot. In fact, I think I liked this one more than the first one. But now we come to the hard part, why did I like it more? I just can’t seem to put my finger on the answer to that question.
Dark Force Rising was exactly what you’d expect the middle book of a trilogy to be. It picked up right where we left off in Heir to the Empire, and does a lot of heavy lifting with the plot. Luke is trying to decide whether or not to go and visit the Jedi Master C’baoth. Leia is trying to keep the promise she made to Khabarakh to visit the Noghri people. Han and Lando are working on clearing Admiral Ackbar’s name and figuring out who the Imperial spy is that Thrawn has placed in the Imperial Palace. Meanwhile, Thrawn is still looking for ships and Talon Karrde just so happens to know where a whole bunch are.
Wow that’s quite a few plotlines to keep straight, but somehow it all works. Everything comes together by the end of the book and sets up for what’s going to be an intense third book, if I had to guess. My favorite plot line has to be Leia’s visit to the Noghri. That whole trip was so intense and I think there are going to be some big ramifications from it. My second favorite thing in this book was Karrde and Mara Jade. I said it in my last review, and I’m saying it again, I think both of them are great characters! I love reading about them and trying to guess where their loyalties will lie by the end.
Mara Jade deserves her own paragraph here because her character gets some good background and development throughout Dark Force Rising. We learn more about her time as Emperor’s Hand and how that still affects her even though the Emperor is dead. We get to see her strategize and fail and move through some hard emotions. Her loyalties are pushed to their limit, and I think that’s when we truly get to see a glimpse of who Mara Jade is. She’s just a cool character to get to know.
After all that, I still don’t know if I found anything super insightful to say about the book. It was just a good Star Wars adventure, and it succeeded in making me want to continue on in the series. As I said in my Heir to the Empire review, I can see why this series is a fan favorite, and I think anyone who’s reading this newsletter would enjoy reading this trilogy, whether it’s your first time through it like me, or you’ve read it before and want to take the time to enjoy it again.
Consider this your invitation to go find some quiet reading time! I promise it’s worth it.
I appreciate your honesty.