Trilogies are tricky beasts. Sometimes, the second book can supersede the quality of the first in a series, or it can suffer from what I call Second Installment Syndrome, which is fancy for “not as good as the first.” A lot of burden is put on a second installment of anything: will the characters be as beloved, will the plot make sense, will whatever electric brain juice that brought the story alive in the first place be as brilliant in the second? In addition to these concerns, the second installment still needs to a) be a self contained entity on its own and b) connect to the first novel in a significant way while c) paving the path for the third novel.
In essence, second installments get the short end of the stick because they are, at their core, essentially incomplete. Even if the story is self contained, the reader is experiencing the trilogy’s middle, and as any writer and reader can confirm, middles are always tricky.
So how did Zahn do with Greater Good, the second installment of the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy, of which Chaos Rising is the first?
He did fine. It was okay.
As a brief reminder before I delve into the review, the Chiss dwell in a region of unknown space called the Chaos. In order to successfully navigate that region of space, they need to employ children who have the gift of Third Sight, which most readers will recognize as The Force. Unfortunately, the gift tends to depart as the children grow up, except on very rare occasions. These navigators are called Sky-walkers.
The Chiss Ascendancy is essentially their government, comprised of Ruling Families, currently numbering nine, though there could be more or less. There are also a number of lesser families. Families are loyal to the Chiss Ascendancy, but also to themselves. Procuring honor for their families is a major recurring theme for the Chiss characters who grace the page. This political backdrop plays a significant part in the various Thrawn novels. Thrawn is pointedly reminded multiple times that though he is a master military strategist, he cannot play the field of politics to save his life–or, at least, his career.
In true Zahn fashion, Greater Good expands the horizons of the Chiss by bringing the reader directly into their home as we follow an elaborate plot concocted by the series’ Big Bad, Jixtus. Though I struggled with the similar sounding Chiss names (this may not be an issue if one is reading as opposed to listening), I enjoyed seeing Chiss home life on the ground, outside the expanse of stars and their military.
However, the true shining star of Greater Good is Lakinda’s introduction, whom I utterly adore, right behind Mara Jade and Admiral Ar’alani.
The beloved characters of Admiral Ar’alani, Thalias, and Sky-walker Che’ri from the previous novel make appearances in Greater Good, but they took a bit of a backseat, especially in comparison to their screen time in Chaos Rising. Zahn sets up Thalias for an interesting character dynamic when Thrawn’s Mid Captain still harbors suspicions she is a spy, but nothing comes from this except for a few spare lines towards the end of the book. Che’ri also shines when Thrawn encourages her to use Third Sight in a way that is not commonly done, but again this comes very close to the end. To my great grief, Ar’alani barely did anything significant.
I read a lot of Zahn’s Star Wars, so I expected the broad political machinations to overshadow character development and/or emotion, but the opening lines of the novel set an expectation I was in for something new, something different:
For those who recognize that the greater good is seldom good for all.
The line caught my breath. I rewound just to hear Marc Thompson speak it again. It’s not Zahn’s fault that I took one single line against the history of his previously published work, took a leap of faith for something elevated from his standard fare, and was ultimately left disappointed when I received a standard Zahn novel. Perhaps my opinion will change with the third installment.
There are so many threads weaving through Greater Good: the Chiss family politics, both on grand and smaller scales as ruling and other families seek honor and opportunity for themselves; the political desire to destroy Thrawn that sends him on a wild goose chase creating the opportunity for him to collide into Jixtus’ scheme to destroy the Chiss; Jixtus’ agents who desire to go home, but they can’t, because they have to destroy the Chiss first; the refugees who are convinced their land and their people are dead and so desire death in turn; the list could go on.
The threads never seem to weave themselves into the pointed question asked at the beginning of the novel, even before its first page: what greater goods will rise through the telling of this story, and whose greater good will pay the price?
Though I can easily pin point what each character’s greater good is, very rarely do they drive up against each other into crisis, forcing them to make their true choice at the cost of something or someone else.
Lakinda, I think, comes closest to what I was hoping for. She is torn between loyalty to her family and loyalty to the Ascendancy because what might be good for her family may not be good for the Chiss and vice versa. Despite her dreams for herself, for her family to once again join the Ruling ranks, she never has to make the hard choices in a significant and emotional way. Themes of exploitation are planted when she discovers that Chiss regulations allow captains to have Sky-walkers navigate in Third Sight longer than is good for them, but never truly grows into fruition as it becomes overshadowed by the overall plot of machination and deceit. This happened multiple times with the bulk of the main characters.
So much of the plot is based on interwoven deceptions, either on the part of the Chiss themselves or Jixtus, that it shrouds the characters’ own need for their own good, and how that will inevitably rise up in conflict against each other. On the rare occasions they did, the outcomes felt too easy. Thus, though an enjoyable read, the novel itself fails to land any significant emotional punches (despite its promise at the beginning).
That said, I am looking forward to Thrawn’s upcoming exile, foreshadowed by Jixtus’ promise to isolate and neutralize Thrawn instead of simply destroying him. I’m anticipating this will come to pass in the final installment, Lesser Evil (which will hopefully follow the theme established by its title a little better).
Marc Thompson fully delivered on his voice work, but that comes hardly as a surprise. The emotion he infuses into Zahn’s narrative is sometimes breathtaking in its intensity. In many ways, Thompson delivered the emotional grace notes I needed to fully enjoy this novel.
Overall, my disappointment is primarily my own fault. Zahn fans will find a novel that is very similar in tone and pace to Chaos Rising. That alone makes it worth the read, while Lakinda’s introduction is truly the novel’s main triumph.