Reviews for Last Command

The average rating for Last Command based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-09-23 00:00:00 Trefor Szabo A trilogy that evolved in a wise way. But it was so artistically done. HOW A TRILOGY SHOULD BE Maybe how a trilogy should be it’s that all three parts would be the same as good. I am sure nobody would mind about that. However, if perfection isn’t in the equation, I think that a wise approach is constructing a solid first part, not necessarily extraordinary, but with great potential to become better and introducing interesting new characters. Then, having a second part involving a bigger scope action and since we would have an expected third part, so why not a victory for the bad guys? So far, it was a format quite similar to the original movie trilogy of Star Wars (while I do think that the first film was truly extraordinary, where yes, the scope in the second film was bigger and more intense, both movies the same as epic and iconic). Then the fearful third part comes. Moviegoers can tell you how hard is having good third movies in a trilogy (why? I don’t know, maybe some voodoo curse, or something!) but it’s almost inevitable after two good movies, having a failure in the third movie. Even sometimes, if we are so kind with those third movies, we can rescue some elements, we can appreciate some effort, but the unmerciful general opinión decrees that the third movie wasn’t near as good as the previous ones. You know? I like the third movie of Star Wars. Close friends know that my complain is about the use of the Ewoks. And it’s not the Ewoks per se, since I find them as an interesting alien species and even they had a whole better 80’s animated series in comparison with the boring and poor produced Droids. My objection falls in making a comedy-like battle of primitive almost-naked care bears against profesional trained armored-suited soldiers. In any case, we could have an eternal discussion if Return of the Jedi is as good as its two previous installments. The same kind of arguments, I’m sure, since I have no doubt there must be many readers who consider that all three books in the Thrawn Trilogy deserved a full 5-stars rating. Where I have no problems with that, since it’s the right of each reader to give the ratings that they feel that it reflects as their own personal reading experience with the books. In my own personal case, it was like an increasing reading experience. Heir to the Empire was a 3-stars’ experience (still on the good side of a positive reading), then Dark Force Rising was a 4-stars’ experience, and now, in this book, The Last Command, I am truly glad of finding it as a truly 5-stars’ experience, that seeing the trilogy as a whole long story, I found that it’s the ideal way to present a story, since indeed the climax, the final part should be the strongest and most solid section of the entire narrative. A LEADER IS AS GOOD AS HIS/HER OFFICERS Grand Admiral Thrawn was a formidable strategist and a born leader. However, a leader is as good as his/her officers. I still am kinda hesitant about his appreciation of how the Emperor may use the Force to coordinate fleets formations but it’s clear that Thrawn has a vision, a clear vision of how to deploy an effective plan to give back the Empire its former glory. Sadly, he can’t be everywhere, and he needed to trust in the decisions of his/her officers and associates where even they may have “good intentions” to help the cause (sometimes they may be just plain crazy), but the final result can be disastrous. And even Earth’s Roman Emperors’ history can give useful tips of how crutial is who you choose as your own personal security (of course, it’s possible that since Earth is in another galaxy, far far away from them, the Empire wasn’t aware of certain history’s valuable lessons) but still since Thrawn is shown as some formidable strategist and a military leader seeing two steps ahead of his fellow comrades and enemies, it’s kinda odd that he may be susceptible to such dangerous situations. ATTACK OF THE CLOONEYS The idea of having evil crazy clones is really cool. However, their choices of names is kinda odd. I mean, without making any spoiler (don’t worry), there are clones there, okay? But their names is basically the same name of their original counterparts but just adding an extra vowel (a,e,i,o or u) in their names, and while there are some vowels where when you have a distinct sound (Geez! I feel like doing a Sesame Street segment!) there are some vowels that even having two of them, the sound would be pretty much the same. Sure, in a prose novel like this one, you can easily differentiate them from your comfy position as reader... ...but how the heck the characters can tell any difference in the names?!!! It’s not like Jango Fett’s clones just decided to name themselves “Jaango” as an unanimous call. No, they chose to name themselves like Cody, Rex and so on. Even Jango’s unaltered clone is named Bobba. Totally different names. Even weirder, I think that there is some intention of deception in the crazy evil clones here, in the sense that they may want to be perceive as the “originals” and not clones, so why bother even to choose names that they are virtually the same that hearing them, it will be heard without any sound difference? Street Fighter may show easy wisdom in the case of Ryu, where his evil clone is named... Evil Ryu!!! See? Easy! Anyone will be able to say... “Aaah! Sure! You’re Evil Ryu!” (Of course, besides the clear name, you have a cool dark aura, but still…) it’s not like Evil Ryu appears and he says... “I’m Ryuu!” and people would just hear the name as “Ryu” without knowing that there is a dang extra vowel “u” in the name! Geez!!! NEVER WILL BE THE SAME ANYMORE Any good book in a series should create an everlasting impact, in the sense of the introduction of new characters, the forge of new interactions between characters, crutial change in the status situation of the characters, etc... in that way, the story can be felt as something relevant in its existence in the developing of the series. And certainly, the Thrawn Trilogy had all that! So, putting aside some inconsistencies due the theatrical films made several years after the publication of this book trilogy, no one can deny the importance of it, with the introduction of key characters that they become crutial in the development of the Expanded Universe in Star Wars during 25 years since then.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-24 00:00:00 John Topaum Strictly speaking, the poster of the original Star Wars movie does not have too much in common with the last book of the trilogy except for the settings and main heroes, but my child self really loved it when I saw it first. I was waiting for a chance to use it and this looks like a good place as any, so there you have it: The New Republic is besieged on all sides thanks to the genius machinations by Thrawn - behind the scenes and open battles. Torn by internal struggles, the Republic is poorly equipped to handle the deadly threat. The main heroes desperately try to save the situation while being pursued by even more powerful forces than Thrawn and his resurrected Empire. The decisive battles and final confrontations are coming. The main villains still remain the best written characters in the trilogy. They are interesting, devious, powerful, and smart. Unfortunately the latter definition cannot be applied to the good guys all the time - especially Luke Skywalker. The Delta Force revelation was very clever and unexpected. Despite my lower rating the book is on the same quality level as the first two. Once I accepted that the main surviving heroes from the movies do not feel like themselves in the books it was a smooth sailing. Actually by the end of the book Han Solo finally regained his sense of humor - even if for a brief moment. The reasons for the lower rating are not significant, but taken together they were enough. First of all I kept saying it is a fun mindless entertainment. Well, by the middle of the last book the novelty wore off. I would not say the mindless entertainment overstayed its welcome, but it came very close. The ending was a little letdown and cliche. It felt a little overdrawn with big bad guy giving an obligatory Evil Villain Speech. Other overused tropes that I will not discuss also show up. The final rating for the book is 3.5 stars. The whole trilogy rates the same despite slightly higher grades I gave to the first two books. I said it before and I say it again, "Mindless, but very entertaining". A must read for any serious Star Wars fan.