This was actually a really great book. There was lots of action, enough so that I basically read it straight through in 5 hours, and was never bored. At the same time though, there are subtle literary techniques that are used to show the character development of the two main characters, Thrawn and Anakin/Vader. Thrawn remains relatively constant, always very clever, reasoning, a smart tactician (the reasoning he uses throughout the book is similar to Jack Reacher/Lee Child), intensely loyal. There's even one area where he says a catchphrase (something to the effect of the warrior's path has been chosen) at the end of a chapter in the Empire error, and says it at the beginning of the next chapter in the Republic era. There's also another instance where Thrawn asks Vader for trust, and immediately after, Anakin tells Thrawn "All I'm asking is that you trust me", and while this does feel a little gimmicky, it also shows how much thought the author put in to the dialogue and arc of the book. Meanwhile, Vader at the beginning of the book is more than a little distrustful of Thrawn, that with their competition for the Emperor's ear and the fact that Thrawn is fresh off his failure to destroy the rebels, and this distrust extends to the level below the two, as their right hand men/head of security are equally distrustful of each other. But by the end, Vader comes to appreciate Thrawn's loyalty and sense of tactics. Of course, the fact that the book is really two stories, told 20? 30? years apart but with the same two main characters automatically contrasts the two, though truth be told there wasn't a huge difference in interactions. In theory Thrawn doesn't know that Vader is really Anakin, but by the end of the book, it is pretty obvious to both the reader and Vader that Thrawn knows. Another interesting part is the epilogue of the Republic-era story, which ends with Anakin unintentionally partially blowing up the planet and ruining it as an inhabitable place, in a move (blowing up the mines) that was cautioned against by both Thrawn and Padme, possibly a foreshadowing of his turn to the dark side and his eventual disregard for humanity for the sake of military objectives, which is basically what is so wrong about the empire. There are several lines by Anakin in the story that reveal his trust in Palpatine to do good, rather than referencing the Republic in general, or even the rest of the Jedi order, another character sign pointing to his eventual decision to betray the Jedi and the Republic and go with Palpatine. Also telling is Padme's thinking that the displaced people would just be seen as collateral damage by the Galactic Senate, and not much would be done, showing that the Republic, the "good guys", wouldn't care about these people, raising the question of whether the Republic was all that good, and showing how the Republic could become the empire. Also, as I suspected, Palpatine was actually the one directing the factory, and Vader admits (in his own thoughts) that the clone armor with cortosis would be used to help them with the eventual Order 66. Finally, it was interesting to get a look into Vader's thoughts, something that could only happen through a book. The way he referred to his memories as Anakin Skywalker by referencing The Jedi (vs. the Sith Lord), as if he were a different person, which to be fair, at this point he basically is (I think Thrawn acknowledges this too through some subtle word choices). His constant mistrust of Thrawn, and his willingness to just kill the guy, were it not for the fact that the Emperor trusted him, and his eventual respect for the smart moves made by the tactician were all interesting to see. Ok at this point I'm pretty sure I've spent at least 2 hours writing this, which is almost half of the time I spent just reading the book, so I'm going to finish it up. But this was a really good book, and I would be surprised if this was the last Star Wars book I read, just because of how well they tie into the existing universe and the look at weaponry, systems, thoughts, and just new environments/heroes of the book.