“Chaos Rising,” Timothy Zahn’s new opening book of the Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy was an origins space opera novel of Mitth’raw’nuruodo, aka Thrawn’s military career in the Chiss Ascendancy, including how he was adopted into the Mitth ruling family among the Chiss, and his earliest days as a tactical specialist.

There is lots of interesting tidbits to gleam about Thrawn and where he came from in this first chapter of the new trilogy. However, parts of the novel were tedious and slow. I enjoyed learning about Thrawn’s earliest relationships with other Chiss that he allies with in other Zahn books. I feel like it ties many of the connections together between the series in a unique way Zahn does.

Overall, if you’ve enjoyed Zahn’s other Thrawn books, you should definitely read this one too. However, if you haven’t read other Star Wars books by Zahn, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book.

Get a copy of “Chaos Rising” by Timothy Zahn on Amazon here.