The Greater Good is Often Found Amidst Rising Chaos, but is it Good for All?

Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Ascendancy Greater Good continues the story set up in Chaos Rising and allows the side characters to take an active role in the story, transforming them into main characters to lead readers into the final installment in the Ascendancy trilogy. As I mentioned in my Chaos Rising review, Thrawn’s story in that book is primarily told through perspectives outside of his own; although Chaos Rising had Thrawn’s consistent perspective sprinkled in various chapters, Greater Good drastically steps away from that model. The side characters established in Chaos Rising, along with some new faces, take over and essentially become the main characters, so Thrawn’s almost like a secondary character in his own book - at least that is how it felt to me. It is a risk to flesh out secondary characters in a series focused on a well-known character in order to allow said characters to take on a life of their own while also having said characters carry the story; however, this strategy mostly worked for me because, thanks to Chaos Rising, I became invested in Thalias and Che’ri’s stories - plus I’ve had a general intrigue about Ar’alani since her first appearance in Thrawn 2017.

I find Che'ri interesting since she is the first current sky-walker - a Chiss with the third sight, aka a Force sensitive, that allows the Chiss navy to maneuver through difficult territory - we have closely followed, so beyond gaining insight into the dynamic of what it is like to be a sky-walker, I feel like there is potential with her character in general. Through Che'ri is how we met Thalias, Che'ri's momish who was a former sky-walker, and so far Thalias has an interesting storyline that has only become more central in Greater Good, so I am excited to see where she will go next.

There are a handful of old and new characters that are developed in this book, and I am glad that Thalias and Che’ri had meaningful time in the spotlight - they are definitely my favorite new characters to come from this series so far. If you found potentially new favorite characters in Chaos Rising and/or are open to finding new favorites outside of Thrawn, then Greater Good has the potential to work for you. If you are going into this series looking for significant Thrawn content, you are not going to find it at the extent you are hoping for. Going into Chaos Rising I was initially disappointed because Thrawn was not as central as I was expecting, but I found other characters that saved the book for me and it was those characters who saved Greater Good for me as well. As for the overall story, it is mostly centered around political schemes and it was not overly engaging for me; although, there is substantial world building which I feel like that is why the story suffered a bit - it is ultimately personal preference if sacrificing story for world building is a fair trade, but I appreciated the world building for what it was. Despite enjoying reading about Thalias, Che’ri, and Ar’alani; I felt as if the pacing was slow at times but it was almost evened out by Zahn’s prose since it is always fun to soak in. Additionally, the use of memories in Greater Good provides an intriguing glimpse into our villains' inner-workings and schemes that we would not otherwise get. Zahn provides a refreshing method of learning about these characters that I feel has great potential for the final installment, Lesser Evil, coming this Fall and overall worked smoothly for the story presented in Greater Good. However, the whole book, especially the ending, feels like a prolonged set up for Lesser Evil, so I think that is when the payoff for reading Chaos Rising and Greater Good will finally cash in.

Final Thoughts:

Thrawn Ascendancy Greater Good is a decent middle novel that acts as a bridge from the first novel to the conclusion of the series, with the world-building done in this novel serving as the foundation for the epic conclusion that is to come this Fall. There have been an abundance of new characters introduced in this book and series as a whole that provide opportunities for new fans to find interest in Thrawn and his adventures in this trilogy and beyond. Timothy Zahn's captivating prose works wonders in diving into the complex story that encompasses Thrawn, and the stylistic choice made to use memories as a glimpse into pertinent moments in a character's past is a staple of the Ascendancy trilogy that will continue to set apart this trilogy from the others; I can not wait to see what Zahn does with memories in Lesser Evil.

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