Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn
Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn
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Chaos Rising takes place after the Dark Disciple novel and before Revenge of the Sith. So the Clone Wars do get featured in the part of the book that coincides with Thrawn: Alliances. There are 23 chapters interspersed with 13 "Memories" that take us back even farther into Thrawn's and Admiral Ar'alani's lives. In fact, the book is as much about Ar'alani as it is about Thrawn. The two respect each other greatly and their lives are intricately intertwined as we find out. A third main character is the former sky-walker (see below for more information on these guys) Mitth'ali'astov, or Thalias, who met Thrawn as a young girl when he was still a cadet. She was Al'iastov at the time and her sky-walker career was ending--Thrawn managed to give her some life direction and hope for the future, something she gratefully latched on to, and thus she also becomes integral to Thrawn's story in this novel.
The 9 Chiss Ruling Families are as follows: Ufsa, Irizi (of which Ar'alani was a member before becoming an Admiral and was named Irizi'ar'alani or Ziara), Dasklo, Clarr, Chaf, Plikh, Boadil, Mitth (of which Thrawn is a member), and Obbic. Members can be adopted into these families as "merit adoptives" who eventually undergo a series of tests and, if they pass, become "trial-born." If they continue to prove themselves to the family, an adopted member can eventually become "ranking distant." Of course there are also "blood" members of each family and they hold the highest regard. But "ranking distants" are actually nearly as revered.
So on to some information about the geographical location and political/cultural proclivities of the Chiss Ascendancy. It is found in "the Chaos"--anything outside the Chaos is referred to as "Lesser Space." As the narrative proclaims, "For thousands of years it has been an island of calm within the Chaos. It is a center of power, a model of stability, and a beacon of integrity. The Nine Ruling Families guard it from within; the Expansionary Defense Fleet guards it from without. Its neighbors are left in peace, its enemies are left in ruin. It is light and culture and glory. It is the Chiss Ascendancy." The Ascendancy also has a very strict policy against preemptive attacks and Thrawn surreptitiously works his way around these policies quite frequently, making the higher ups incredibly and constantly frustrated with him. As one Chiss puts it, "We don't attack militarily, diplomatically, subversively, clandestinely, or psychologically. Those who do not attack us will not be attacked by us. Is that clear?" But Thrawn does this out of concern and care for others, not because he's trigger happy. He thinks it's important to protect those who can't protect themselves, hence the crux of this entire novel. The original Chiss homeworld is Csilla, a barren, icy planet, and its capital is Csaplar. The Chiss language is Cheunh. The Chaos itself, according to legend, was formed when, "millennia ago, a series of chained supernova explosions throughout the region had sent huge masses tumbling at high speeds between the stars, some of them demolishing asteroids or whole worlds, others sparking more supernovas with their near-lightspeed impacts. The movement of all those masses, coupled with regions of heavy electromagnetic flux, resulted in the constantly changing hyperlanes that made any voyage longer than a couple of star systems difficult and dangerous." This danger is what leads to the need for sky-walkers...
We learned about "sky-walkers" in the first canon Thrawn trilogy--young Chiss children (typically girls) with the Force ability to navigate a ship through chaotic space. These sky-walkers were the hyperdrives of Chiss ships. In this book we gain more information about these powerful children in that their abilities usually start to wane between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, and they must always have a caregiver on board their assigned ship with them to help them with their studies, cook for them, and comfort them when the job gets overwhelming. Sky-walkers even get their own suites for their caregiver and themselves aboard their assigned ships. The sky-walker on the job for Thrawn during the current timeline of the novel is Che'ri and Thalias works as her caregiver. Another Chiss idiosyncrasy is their hiding of the fact that sky-walkers even exist, for fear they will get stolen away from them. In the rest of the Chaos, Navigators are used who also have third sight and can act as hyperdrives for ships. When outsiders are involved, Chiss hire Navigators to cover up the existence of the sky-walkers. One of these Navigators who becomes integral to the story is Qilori of Uandualon. The following description of the Navigators' method for flying through hyperspace is extremely reminiscent of Dune to me!! "Qilori put on his sensory-deprivation headset and slipped into his trance, letting the Great Presence whisper into and around and through him." I find it interesting that sky-walkers and Navigators don't seem to have any other Force powers, but that the one they do have is pretty darn epic.
As for the story proper, we begin with an attack on Csilla, the first such direct attack in decades. The Aristocra, Syndics, and Speakers are all in an uproar and are hell bent on destroying whoever attacked, placing blame on the easiest target--the Paataasus. But Supreme General Ba'kif doesn't agree with their supposition and realizes the bigger question is why did they attack...which leads him to a derelict ship full of dead sentients in the middle of seemingly nowhere. He enlists Thrawn to help on his mission to discover the who part of the equation. Many Chiss, including Thrawn's own family (he's a merit adoptive of the Mitth), don't want to see Thrawn being given even an ounce of power or control, partly because of the relatively recent militarily successful but politically disastrous (Syndic Mitth'ras'safis died) Vagaari pirate operations. Regardless, Thrawn does discover the "who" in the form of the Nikardun Destiny, ruled over by General Yiv the Benevolent.
Yiv is one weird dude to put it lightly. "Draped over his shoulders like living epaulets were the fungoid strands of the strange creatures he'd taken on as symbionts. His cleft jaw was open in what passed for a smile with Nikardun, but which Qilori had always thought looked more like a predator preparing to strike." One of the Nikardun's giant warships is described as such, "A huge warship--Battle Dreadnought class at least, half again the Vigilant's size. Its flanks bristled with weapons clusters, angular lines marked sections of heavy armor, tight-spaced patterns of nodes proclaimed the existence of a strong electrostatic barrier. And the overly large bridge viewport--the arrogantly, invitingly, overly large viewport--marked it as Nikardun." These guys definitely exude bad from every pore!!
As the story progresses, we discover that the Nikardun and Yiv have begun taking over many different worlds, in a really politically sneaky, enslaving sort of way--not by direct battle and surrender. Either way, the overtaken planets, once out of Yiv's trick of a honeymoon phase, are treated as second-class and must bow to every wish of Yiv's. Thrawn sees through the tricks and sees instead the realities of what is happening right before the Chiss's eyes. The Chiss government wants nothing to do with attacking the Nikardun but Thrawn knows that if they don't attack, innocent people will lose their freedoms or even their lives and that the Chiss will be next! Much of the book hones in on this back and forth interplay between Thrawn/Ba'kif/Ar'alani and the Chiss higher ups--although that sounds potentially boring, it is instead utterly fascinating and you feel yourself being pulled magnetically to root for Thrawn all the way through to the last page!!
I won't go into much detail on the "Memory" portions of the book but did want to point out that "Memory I" looks back at Thrawn's adoption into the Mitth family. Typically, being accepted as a merit adoptive takes two-three months, sometimes even six. As Thrawn (at this point known as Vurawn) rides with Thurfian, a Mitth Aristocra, to the Mitth compound for further interviews and evaluations, a message gets patched through saying that Vurawn, now Thrawn, has been accepted into the Mitth family as a merit adoptive. Thurfian is none too happy about this low-on-the-totem pole cadet being accepted in such a non-traditional way...and he doesn't let Thrawn live it down as we see throughout the current timeline story's progression.
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Canon Connection:
At about page 290, this story coincides directly with Thrawn: Alliances, even reusing some dialogue from it and the effect is brilliant, because this time we get to see everything from Thrawn's side of the situation whereas in Thrawn: Alliances, the perspective was mostly Anakin's. We learn what happened to Duja before her death on Batuu and that Che'ri was piloting Thrawn's ship while he went down to the surface to help Anakin find Padme. Turns out, the whole reason Thrawn offered to help Anakin was because he was looking for ally's in the fight against the Nikardun! Love this kind of filling in the gaps!! Give me ALL the pov's!!
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Trivia:
-Various Chiss planets: Thearterra, Naporar, Dioya, Rentor, Schesa, Pesfavri, Kinoss, Avidich, and Sarvchi.
-Thrawn's homeworld is Rentor, a planet "physically close to Csilla yet paradoxically in the backwater of the Chiss Ascendancy." His given name at birth was Kivu'raw'nuru, shortened to Vurawn in casual conversation.
-Admiral Ar'alani's Nightdragon man-of-war is called the Vigilant.
-We come across a number of new planets and species who make the Chaos their home. These include the Paataasus, the Vagaari, the Paccosh of Rapacc, Bardram Scoft, the Lioaoin Regime, the Vak Combine of Primea, the Urchiv-ki of Urch, and the Garwian Unity of Solitair and Stivic.
-The Chiss participated in the wars between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, but then retreated back to their own borders. Give me more on these "Sith Wars" please!!!
-Trading languages used between different species include Minnisiat, Taarja, and Sy Bisti.
-The Chiss use acid globs as weapons to eat through the hulls of enemy ships!
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So a wonderfully detailed, engaging, and all around fascinating story that digs deep into what makes the Chiss tick. I highly recommend checking this book out and I cannot wait to see how the rest of this Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy progresses!!!
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