Book review
Chaos Rising gives us a look at the Rise of Thrawn and his rise through the ranks of the Chiss military! This gives us a look at how Thrawn went about gaining his ranks and developing his strategies as well as taking on the challenge of his art obsession etc but we also get to see how the Chiss go about doing things both within the military and within the civilians of the Chiss which are ruled by Nine families with other below them in the social pecking order all routinely interfering in military matters! The families such as the Mitth, Zarr etc are all brilliantly complex and you never know who side that they are really on so adds to the tones of mystery throughout the books and ties in with books other tones of adventure and action brilliantly! The same time due to the nature of this structure means that many of military with ranks below Commodore have somewhat divided loyalties! This makes Chaos Rising a great tangle of obligations for its characters that prove intrinsic to the plot and Thrawn’s ambitions to rise in the military!
Thrawn is as complex as ever with the various families all recognising him and either lauding him or running in terror from him about what he might do to the Chiss! This adds in brilliantly to the already tangled nature of Chiss policies that to his friends like Admiral Ar’alani, General Ba’kif etc with his who continuously seem to have eye roll at what Thrawn is going to pull out of the hat next! General Yiv as the bad guy trying to bring down the Chiss Ascendancy with his Nikardun Alliance which is busily swallowing up civilizations like the Vak, Paccosh etc! This makes for a great battle of will as the Chiss families are trying to block Thrawn so the situation that Thrawn is dealing with is spiralling out of control! How Thrawn and Ar’alani deal with this is brilliantly handled and will keep you on the edge of your seat from the start!
Chaos Rising is filled with an epic cast of characters to Thrawn’s colleagues in the military such as Ar’alani and General Ba’kif to the former Skywalker Thalias and her entanglements with the family of Mitth and her own entanglements with Thrawn are brilliantly done and how these two characters developing the way they are is brilliantly done and also sets up new plotlines! We also get appearances from angry Jedi Anakin which neatly ties into events that we see in other books!
This also happens to illustrate that while Thrawn is busily getting to know the Jedi he leaves a a kid in orbit namely Che’ri but she is independent and a Skywalker so I don’t think Thrawn will get in to much trouble! Che’ri herself shows that is capable of anything Chaos Rising really works on her character, Thalias and the others and set up future plot for them! At the same time the military officers like Samakro, Kharill etc with Samakro doing the first officer job like for Thrawn like Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager, Ivanova on Babylon 5 etc but gradually having himself realise that is the real deal! This adds to the great character development that we see from the start with with all the characters such as Thrawn, Ar’alani all getting developed! Ar’alani really shows what she is made of from the start as well and her relationship with Thrawn is a brother sistster relationship from we can see and their own causal nature with each other even when bypassing ranks is brilliantly done and you are constantly get a feeling their bond where they make a great team which really add to Chaos Rising’s tones of adventure, action etc !
Chaos Rising pace is epic from the beginning! It never lets up from the attack on the Chiss homeworld to Thrawn’s and Ar’alani’s ruthless investigation of what General Yiv activities really are! The fact that Yiv is up to no good in the neighbourhood is also neatly handled as he is an opponent that like Thrawn does not reveal all of his cards at once! The use off different time period s to show how character got to where they are and where they are going in neatly handled as well and gives us insight into what makes the characters tick and what their future actions will be! This all makes for a brilliantly epic book that never lets up from the start and will keep you guessing from the start!
Chaos Rising does not let up from the start with the pace coming brilliantly! The Attack on the Chiss homeworld is rebelled brutally leaving an epic mystery that again adds to the tone of Chaos Rising, The heroics are all up there on the page as the Chiss military under General Ba’kif, Ar’alani, Thrawn etc swings into action pulling off classic maneuvers and new ones outsmarting superior numbers, Family entanglements that stretch loyalties throughout, word building as Thrawn and Ar’alani set out to make new contacts, explore the universe three dimensional characters as we learn more about our characters their origins and where they are going, adventure as Thrawn, Ar’alani come across more alien races and action! Brilliant Plots, Edge of the Seat Adventure and Action! Crisp High Five! Get it When You Can! 😀
- Goodreads rating – 4.25
- REVIEW – Christopher