Read an excerpt from Thrawn: Treason, the new Star Wars book

One of the best decisions Disney made for its new Star Wars canon was to bring author Timothy Zahn’s character Thrawn out of the discontinued Star Wars Extended Universe, or as it’s now called, Star Wars Legends. He’s a popular character, and now he doesn’t have to be left to quietly fade away.

If you’re unfamiliar with Thrawn, he’s a Chiss — a species of blue-skinned aliens from the planet Csilla who closely resemble humans — who left his people and joined the Empire. He quickly rose through the ranks of the imperial military, reaching the rank of Grand Admiral, and joined Emperor Palpatine’s inner circle. As re-conceived for the main Star Wars canon, he interacts with Anakin Skywalker before he becomes Darth Vader. And when Anakin does join the Dark Side, he and Thrawn are tasked with missions directly from the Emperor.

Zahn has released two books in his new Thrawn series: Thrawn and Thrawn: Alliances. On July 23, the third book in the series, Thrawn: Treason, will hit store shelves.

RELATED PRODUCT

New York Yankees Game Of Thrones Ice Dragon Bobblehead

Buy Now!

Buy Now!

Now, thanks to i09, you can read an excerpt from Thrawn: Treason. Behold:

"It had all started out well enough, Lieutenant Eli Vanto thought as he paged through yet another data listing filled with delicate Chiss script. Thrawn had told him that the Chiss Ascendancy had vital need of his talents and abilities, and that he’d arranged for Eli to be quietly released from his current duty aboard the Chimaera. Eli had accepted the new assignment and left Imperial space, arriving at the rendezvous point Thrawn had sent him to full of hope and expectation, with the excitement of the unknown tingling through him.I am Admiral Ar’alani of the Chiss Defense Fleet, the blue-skinned woman had greeted him from the bridge of her ship. Are you he?I am he, Eli had confirmed, making sure to fill his voice with the mix of confidence and respect that had served him well during his years in the Imperial fleet. I am Eli Vanto. I bring greetings to you from Mitth’raw’nuruodo. He believes I can be of some use to the Chiss Ascendancy.Welcome, Eli Vanto, she’d replied. Let us learn together if he was correct.That had been over a year ago. In retrospect, Eli thought a little sourly, he should have realized from Ar’alani’s neutral words and tone that she wasn’t impressed.His first act aboard the Steadfast was to receive demotion from Imperial commander to Chiss Defense Fleet lieutenant. No real surprise there—different militaries would hardly have equivalent rank systems. His second act was to be dropped into an intensive course in Cheunh, the main Chiss language. Again, no surprise—though many aboard spoke the Sy Bisti trade language Eli was fluent in, it was certainly unreasonable to expect everyone to bend to the needs of a single crew member. Especially a newcomer and an alien.But in and through all of that, Eli had expected to be put onto some kind of leadership or command track. Instead, he’d been dumped down here in the analysis department, sifting data, looking for patterns, and making predictions.It was something he was very good at. Even Thrawn, with all his tactical and strategic genius, had recognized Eli’s superiority at such things, and had utilized his skills to their fullest. In retrospect, it wasn’t all that surprising that he’d passed that information on to Ar’alani.The problem was that as far as Eli could tell, none of the data he’d been tasked to analyze meant anything at all.They weren’t listings of ship movements or cargo or smuggling manifests. They weren’t groups of personnel, or alien troops, or alien operations. They weren’t even anything internal to the Steadfast, patterns of power usage or data flow or something else designed to spot flaws in ship’s functions or to predict imminent system failures.To be honest, the whole thing felt like busywork. Eli had always hated busywork.Still, Ar’alani struck him as a subtle sort of person. Maybe this was a test of his patience, or his willingness to enthusiastically obey even orders that seemed to make no sense. He’d certainly gone through a lot of such scenarios with Thrawn.And really, it wasn’t like the tour had been all routine. There’d been a seriously nasty skirmish with the Grysks and some of their allies near the Imperial edge of the Unknown Regions, which had made for a very interesting couple of days. After the excitement subsided, he’d hoped things might pick up a little.To his disappointment, they hadn’t. In fact, in many ways they’d actually slowed down.Which wasn’t to say the Steadfast wasn’t in danger. On the contrary, it was in about as much danger right now as it had ever been."

If you like what you’ve read, head on over to i09 for the rest.

In Thrawn: Treason, we’ll see the return of a favorite character from Star Wars Legends: Commander Eli Vanto. Vanto was an aide and translator for Thrawn when he first joined the imperial military, and he followed Thrawn as he rose through the ranks.

Eventually, Vanto ascends to Commander and is sent into the Unkown Regions to serve as attache to the Chiss Ascendancy, the secretive governing body of the Chiss. Long-time Star Wars fans who read Zahn’s original trilogy will be excited for Vanto’s return.

Again, Thrawn: Treason drops on July 23.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels