That's what it should've been in America this book is absolutely way too long. This duology is a mess in my opinion way too convoluted & no where near as good as the og thrawn trilogy and for some reason is like 100x longer. I could see casual fans not wanting to read it because of its ridiculous length & convoluted story
To be fair to Zahn, other authors (over which he had no control) wrote multiple stories which filled the ten year span between his trilogy and this duology. I'm sure it had to be unsettling to watch other authors take characters he created (particularly Mara Jade) in directions (and onto paths) he likely never intended them to go. I haven't read any of his comments about other author's handling of his characters, but I can't imagine he was entirely pleased with what they did with Mara Jade in the interim between these two sagas. While, granted, Luke made no commitment to Mara in the Thrawn trilogy, his being so easily distracted by other women in the intervening period between the sagas didn't feel quite right to me in keeping with his character. Of course, I could be completely wrong. It's possible that Zahn never intended for Luke & Mara to get together at the time he wrote the trilogy. The closing chapter of "The Last Command" seemed to hint at a future between them, however, I have no idea what he may have imagined.
I think it's easier to sit back and accept how the other authors will use (or misuse) your characters when you don't know if you'll write in the SW universe again! I believe that Zahn didn't get the contract for the Hand of Thrawn duology until after (or around?) Children of the Jedi, which was probably enough time to start thinking about how he would fix and conclude things. (At least, that's how I would feel.) In interviews, Zahn didn't say anything super specific about the developments in the EU after the Thrawn trilogy, but Anderson said in a 2008 interview that he asked Zahn about Luke & Mara (he was writing the Jedi Academy trilogy while Zahn was writing The Last Command) and got the answer that they were just friends. Which lead to...well, the Lando/Mara pairing and Callista and all that mess. I wonder how much of Luke's relationship drama came from the authors knowing that Luke & Mara were meant to be endgame (maybe explains Luke's weird relationship with Akanah in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy), but I do wish they had more friendly encounters in the intervening books.
@@MegReviews Makes sense, and I agree. Along these lines I wonder why people become so attached (and care about what happens) to fictional characters -- myself included. When a character we like dies, it bothers us, even though we know he or she is not a real person. However, what's worse, IMO, is when an author brings back a character they (or another author) killed, pretending that character was never dead in the first place. I can't think of any instance in Star Wars off the top of my head (I haven't read all of the EU), but it's been done ad nauseum in other fiction (it's practically mandatory in comics).
Read these two books around 2007 for the first time. I liked them well enough. I did like the fact that it leads into the Vector Prime story line.To be fair, Luke was deprived of any genuine romance in the trilogy and wasn't written with a personality that lended itself to anything spicy. Keeping his character romantically sterile was probably a calculated decision, especially considering the demographic for these books. Han and Leia not actually get hot and heavy in any of the books as far as I can remember, every was previously flushed out in Empire Strikes Back. Thanks for the reviews.
Yeah, in retrospect I shouldn't have expected actual romance novel scenes--this is Star Wars, after all. It was more that I felt like Luke's marriage proposal came out of left field (and ends up leaving the characters in an awkward spot, because they don't appear to be married in the Young Jedi Knight books...)
I did not expect to see an actual clone of thrawn in the end awesome twist... loved this book series gutted im finished now but I’m looking forward to see what happens in legacy era (also doesn’t feel like Luke showed to much love for his academy in legends haha)
The poor Thrawn clone didn't deserve his fate--drowned before he ever woke up :( Luke is a very absent Jedi Master in regards to his academy, I guess it's best that he has good teachers like Kam and Tionne in place because he's never there... I hope you enjoy the NJO next!
It seems that you don't like that Han is also looking for the document. I think if it is that important, everyone would be looking for it! Prejudice against clones: Remember, that Thrawn kind of intimated that the clones were responsible for a HUGE war not too long ago. I think people would be prejudiced against them
The one plot line I was disappointed with was Tallon Kardde's spy Miranda battling the two Imperial plants. I really thought she was going to outwit them and stop them. But in the end their active desperation led too much death and mayhem throwing her carefully constructed plans out of whack. I loved her character. Just what any intrique novel needs. A clever old lady outwitting all those youngsters.
I also didn't like that the computer hacker character is last seen on the base getting attacked by the new Republic. We never see if he actually managed to crack the Imperial library or survived the attack entirely. These two comments just point out how good the secondary characters are in these books. You actually do care about them. It might be the way that their voiced in the audiobook. Very distinctive
I don't understand your ideas on the lack of romance-Luke and Mara got to know each other, and realise their compatibility. Why does that not seem romantic?
I got up to chapter 30 and couldn’t continue unfortunately as I was just so bored. I have no problem with politics, I just felt the story was hard to be interested in.
Oh dear. I fear I may be the only Star Wars fan on the planet that dislikes Zahn books. I felt this tried to do so much but ended up giving me so very little, too many threads to the story and so very very slow. Literally at the half way point I was having to look up who the heck some characters were and what they were supposed to be doing (Carib, Nalgol, Navett) This is only about the tenth book in the Bantam era I've read and it it made me feel like I need to take a break from Star Wars books 😒 Gah.
Actually. I'm not taking a break - but I will be reading Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights before I move onto NJO. I wonder if I'll enjoy them more than Zahn 🤣
I find it telling that when I would reread Vision of the Future, it was only Luke and Mara's cave trek, because there is a lot happening in this book. Loads of new characters introduced and new plotlines--the duology really could have used another book, but then would that have helped the pace? I guess Zahn is an acquired taste (somehow I acquired it XD )--his original fiction skews a lot more military sci-fi, which maybe contributes to VotF's problems here. I have very fond memories of the Young Jedi Knights series, but also no idea how the books hold up!
This book is waaaaay too long. This is probably the most ridiculous book I've ever seen in Star Wars. I love a good story but this book is overkill & way too much going on
Fun fact, this duology was split into a trilogy in Germany with the other book being called "Admirals Wrath."
That makes a lot of sense, because Vision of the Future was decidedly heftier than book 1!
That's what it should've been in America this book is absolutely way too long. This duology is a mess in my opinion way too convoluted & no where near as good as the og thrawn trilogy and for some reason is like 100x longer. I could see casual fans not wanting to read it because of its ridiculous length & convoluted story
God damn man. I'm reading VOF and it feels like certain parts contrast each other alot
I like that "the big battle" fizzled out. After all, there were no "bad guys" in it-everyone was fairly duped into fighting
I adore the original Thrawn Trilogy books, and this Hand Of Thrawn Duology is closely behind them.
To be fair to Zahn, other authors (over which he had no control) wrote multiple stories which filled the ten year span between his trilogy and this duology. I'm sure it had to be unsettling to watch other authors take characters he created (particularly Mara Jade) in directions (and onto paths) he likely never intended them to go.
I haven't read any of his comments about other author's handling of his characters, but I can't imagine he was entirely pleased with what they did with Mara Jade in the interim between these two sagas. While, granted, Luke made no commitment to Mara in the Thrawn trilogy, his being so easily distracted by other women in the intervening period between the sagas didn't feel quite right to me in keeping with his character.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. It's possible that Zahn never intended for Luke & Mara to get together at the time he wrote the trilogy. The closing chapter of "The Last Command" seemed to hint at a future between them, however, I have no idea what he may have imagined.
I think it's easier to sit back and accept how the other authors will use (or misuse) your characters when you don't know if you'll write in the SW universe again! I believe that Zahn didn't get the contract for the Hand of Thrawn duology until after (or around?) Children of the Jedi, which was probably enough time to start thinking about how he would fix and conclude things. (At least, that's how I would feel.)
In interviews, Zahn didn't say anything super specific about the developments in the EU after the Thrawn trilogy, but Anderson said in a 2008 interview that he asked Zahn about Luke & Mara (he was writing the Jedi Academy trilogy while Zahn was writing The Last Command) and got the answer that they were just friends. Which lead to...well, the Lando/Mara pairing and Callista and all that mess. I wonder how much of Luke's relationship drama came from the authors knowing that Luke & Mara were meant to be endgame (maybe explains Luke's weird relationship with Akanah in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy), but I do wish they had more friendly encounters in the intervening books.
@@MegReviews Makes sense, and I agree.
Along these lines I wonder why people become so attached (and care about what happens) to fictional characters -- myself included. When a character we like dies, it bothers us, even though we know he or she is not a real person.
However, what's worse, IMO, is when an author brings back a character they (or another author) killed, pretending that character was never dead in the first place. I can't think of any instance in Star Wars off the top of my head (I haven't read all of the EU), but it's been done ad nauseum in other fiction (it's practically mandatory in comics).
Read these two books around 2007 for the first time. I liked them well enough. I did like the fact that it leads into the Vector Prime story line.To be fair, Luke was deprived of any genuine romance in the trilogy and wasn't written with a personality that lended itself to anything spicy. Keeping his character romantically sterile was probably a calculated decision, especially considering the demographic for these books. Han and Leia not actually get hot and heavy in any of the books as far as I can remember, every was previously flushed out in Empire Strikes Back. Thanks for the reviews.
Yeah, in retrospect I shouldn't have expected actual romance novel scenes--this is Star Wars, after all. It was more that I felt like Luke's marriage proposal came out of left field (and ends up leaving the characters in an awkward spot, because they don't appear to be married in the Young Jedi Knight books...)
I did not expect to see an actual clone of thrawn in the end awesome twist... loved this book series gutted im finished now but I’m looking forward to see what happens in legacy era (also doesn’t feel like Luke showed to much love for his academy in legends haha)
The poor Thrawn clone didn't deserve his fate--drowned before he ever woke up :( Luke is a very absent Jedi Master in regards to his academy, I guess it's best that he has good teachers like Kam and Tionne in place because he's never there... I hope you enjoy the NJO next!
It seems that you don't like that Han is also looking for the document. I think if it is that important, everyone would be looking for it!
Prejudice against clones: Remember, that Thrawn kind of intimated that the clones were responsible for a HUGE war not too long ago. I think people would be prejudiced against them
The one plot line I was disappointed with was Tallon Kardde's spy Miranda battling the two Imperial plants. I really thought she was going to outwit them and stop them. But in the end their active desperation led too much death and mayhem throwing her carefully constructed plans out of whack. I loved her character. Just what any intrique novel needs. A clever old lady outwitting all those youngsters.
I also didn't like that the computer hacker character is last seen on the base getting attacked by the new Republic. We never see if he actually managed to crack the Imperial library or survived the attack entirely.
These two comments just point out how good the secondary characters are in these books. You actually do care about them. It might be the way that their voiced in the audiobook. Very distinctive
I don't understand your ideas on the lack of romance-Luke and Mara got to know each other, and realise their compatibility. Why does that not seem romantic?
I got up to chapter 30 and couldn’t continue unfortunately as I was just so bored. I have no problem with politics, I just felt the story was hard to be interested in.
You skip thru the books on reading? Wow-that's something I couldn't do
Only on rereads! Sometimes I get the urge to reread a certain scene or plotline, so I'll skip everything else.
Oh dear. I fear I may be the only Star Wars fan on the planet that dislikes Zahn books. I felt this tried to do so much but ended up giving me so very little, too many threads to the story and so very very slow. Literally at the half way point I was having to look up who the heck some characters were and what they were supposed to be doing (Carib, Nalgol, Navett) This is only about the tenth book in the Bantam era I've read and it it made me feel like I need to take a break from Star Wars books 😒 Gah.
Actually. I'm not taking a break - but I will be reading Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights before I move onto NJO. I wonder if I'll enjoy them more than Zahn 🤣
I find it telling that when I would reread Vision of the Future, it was only Luke and Mara's cave trek, because there is a lot happening in this book. Loads of new characters introduced and new plotlines--the duology really could have used another book, but then would that have helped the pace? I guess Zahn is an acquired taste (somehow I acquired it XD )--his original fiction skews a lot more military sci-fi, which maybe contributes to VotF's problems here.
I have very fond memories of the Young Jedi Knights series, but also no idea how the books hold up!
This book is waaaaay too long. This is probably the most ridiculous book I've ever seen in Star Wars. I love a good story but this book is overkill & way too much going on