Vision of the Future

This review is full of blatant spoilers! TL;DR: the book is great, I recommend it.

Vision of the Future is the excellent conclusion to the setup of Specter of the Past and much of the New Republic entries in the Expanded Universe in general. The story contained within these two books is both compelling and realistic - of course citizens of the New Republic will use one atrocity as an excuse to revive their own old grudges! Zahn plays with a philosophy of judgement and who should be held responsible for something done by people possibly long-dead. I found it fairly remarkable how many favorite New Republic characters turn out to dislike different alien races, but he also doesn't shy away from the thought that common "sins" in those alien cultures play into such attitudes.

Imperial rule is given a much more sympathetic view in this duology than it was ever given in the original movie trilogy. The noble character of Admiral Pellaeon and various planets joining the Empire under "Thrawn" all back up Zahn's clearly-communicated idea that Imperial rule now is very different than Imperial rule under the Emperor. Even the political philosophy of the Empire's more authoritarian rule is given a slightly sympathetic twist due to the chaos brought on by the Caamas Document Crisis. Clearly, though, the Empire still has much work to do when blatantly evil and corrupt political leaders like Moff Disra remain in power.

Reading this book as an adult, it's clear which EU stories Zahn was fond of and which he disliked. Plot points from the X-Wing novels (which I have not read at the time of this review's writing) are given respect and built on. Zahn's later direct collaborations with Michael Stackpole make it clear that he enjoys that writing.

However, Zahn dedicates practically Luke's entire arc in this duology to fixing his character from the wild deviance of previous entries. While a criticism of those particular stories is out of the scope of this review, Zahn definitely sets things back on track. Rather than have try to do everything himself with the incredible Force power he's capable of wielding, Luke elects to give people more agency and deliberately limit his power. Instead of exhibiting the destructive pride that moves one to unilaterally declare himself a Jedi Master, Luke shows tremendous restraint and humility in this book. And Zahn really proves that this is who Luke is supposed to be by citing the original movie trilogy numerous times. I must say that I had a bit of a chuckle at Mara's possible retcon of the Emperor's clones in Dark Empire: "Personally, I’m not convinced it was really him." Really, the only thing that Luke did that was out of character was to kiss Mara (on the lips!!) as she slept. That's just straight-up gross.

The Nirauan plot with The Hand of Thrawn fortress was an absolutely perfect setup for not only Survivor's Quest and Outbound Flight, but also the New Jedi Order books and the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. "There are a hundred different threats out there that would freeze your blood if you knew about them," Stent says, and he couldn't have been more dead-on. Although it seems that Zahn didn't necessarily have the Vong specifically in mind for this, it still serves the purpose of foreshadowing them. It's a peek into a far graver threat than an evil empire or a civil war: an extragalactic invasion. The fact that Thrawn was so focused on this threat that he cloned himself really sends home how important this is to him.

There's a lot more good that I could say about these novels. Their painstaking faithfulness to Lucas' original trilogy and even the begrudging tolerance of the EU's worst content show a great deal of respect for source material; Zahn knows that he is writing in someone else's universe, not his own. The writing of Moff Disra's "Sinister Triumvirate" perfectly encapsulates Sith traits, especially distrust. Han & Leia are the perfect couple.

A couple minor criticisms:

• Luke and Mara's romance felt just a little bit off. This may be due to the lecture Mara gives Luke about his prior EU escapades. This might be less of a Zahn issue, because he really did need to address that in some way, but maybe it could have been written slightly differently due to the time spent on it. It does at least make sense that their relationship is able to really kick off after all the elephants are addressed.
• Ghent's arc was great, but it hits a bit of a dead end at the Ubiqtorate base. It's excellent that he was willing to sacrifice his life - tremendous character development - but the book clearly hinted at the fact that he could have been killed because of his exact location on the base. His part just ends rather abruptly, and it would have been nice to see it buttoned up more cleanly.

I've written far too much already. SOTP/VOTF tell a truly quality story worthy of the name Star Wars.