A review by fandom4ever
Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“Stupid, stupid, stupid. A big fat diversion—the oldest trick on the list. And I fell for it like some dumb farm kid.” 

“Watch your language.” 

 

Vision of the Future is the second book in the Hand of Thrawn duology and as such continues where the first book ended. It was a good book but not great. At the end of the day, this duology just felt overly long. There were so many characters and happenings at different points of the galaxy, that sometimes I found myself having difficulty keeping track of it all. And many of the characters were trying to all do the same things just in different places. I’m really not sure there needed to be two books or perhaps there still could have but they could have been edited down to less pages. After all, this one was nearly 700 pages! 

The New Republic government irritated me more than usual here, in their unwillingness to bend or to see how a Republic cannot function well within a galaxy so big and full of different beings. I also couldn’t believe what Gavrisom was willing to do in regards to the Empire all to ‘prevent the New Republic from dissolving into a civil war’. I really missed the Solo children who didn’t appear at all in this duology, being off on Kashyyyk with Chewie. But, it is in this book that we learn about the Dark Jedi who died on Dagobah and left the dark side scar, which was really interesting. The last 40% of the book really takes off and had me more riveted. I loved the reveal for one of the characters and how the confrontation with ‘Thrawn’ went. 

 

But my favorite parts were the moments with Luke & Mara, and the sections with Pellaeon. I knew where this book was going to end up in regards to Luke and Mara’s relationship before I began. And I’m completely happy it did, it was just odd to see it happen so fast, almost seemingly out of nowhere, as Mara was barely in any of the books since the Thrawn trilogy so she and Luke didn’t have much interaction. I know Zahn had always intended them to be together, which also just heightens the weirdness of others trying to put her with Lando. But other than that, Mara and Luke’s growing connection was incredibly cute and sweet as they open up to each other. I love seeing how well they understand each other, and Mara getting Luke to understand the true consequences of his time with Palpatine in Dark Empire, was brilliant. I just wish there had been more of it. 

Overall, this duology serves a big purpose in the overall scheme of the Star Wars universe and man is it a thousand steps up from the Corellian trilogy just before. I would recommend it for the Star Wars EU fan. If you want to see how the New Republic and Empire finally reach terms of peace, then this is definitely a read for you.