As a kid, it always irked me that the audio versions of the Thrawn trilogy were heavily abridged and had very few sound effects. Anthony Daniels and Denis Lawson didn't seem well suited to narration either. So I've been spending the last couple of weeks listening to the unabridged versions narrated by Marc Thompson. His voicing of the characters is fantastic, and I'll never imagine Borsk Fay'lya the same way again. The use of music is brilliant as well. For instance, I cannot believe how much the "Anakin's Dream" piece from Revenge of the Sith enhances the early scene in Heir to the Empire where Obi-wan says goodbye to Luke. It feels as affecting as Vader's "I want to look at you with my own eyes" and made me revisit the tune.
Some other random thoughts:
Mara Jade really comes across like an angst-ridden teen in Heir to the Empire. Some of this is because of Thompson's interpretation of the character I think. Having men voice women is always rough. She becomes infinitely more interesting in Dark Force Rising when Zahn starts giving us scenes from her point of view.
I know Zahn disagrees butI still think the parts with C'Boath would've been more interesting if Lucasfilm hadn't vetoed Zahn's original plan for him to be a demented clone of Obi-wan. As it stands, he comes off as just a more unhinged version of Palpatine. I also think his mind control abilities were a bit overdone in The Last Command. Thrawn was foolish for letting Paeleon meet with him without an Ysalamir and should have gotten rid of him.
Thrawn's death comes from completely out of nowhere and is basically inevitable once Leia visits Honoghr. It hits like the Martians' end in The War of the Worlds. I don't know if Zahn took inspiration from WotW, but it's affecting in part because he's almost more likable than the New Republic. Zahn depicts the fledgling new government as being plagued by the type of disfunction that's turned Baltimore and Washington into rotting relics. The galaxy really may have been better off under Thrawn given that he promoted an officer for trying a new strategy to snare Luke in a tractor beam.
So, have other people heard these versions? What other audiobooks do you enjoy the most? The X-Wing series benefited the most from the use of sound effects and the radio dramas are almost better than the movies. Dark Empire is fun, but the acting is quite cheesy and really takes me out of it at times. I'd originally planned to listen to the novelization of TFA, but I've never been that impressed with Alan Dean Foster's work. Since it's not being released prior to the film, I'll probably give it a pass. Do you think you'll try it?
Some other random thoughts:
Mara Jade really comes across like an angst-ridden teen in Heir to the Empire. Some of this is because of Thompson's interpretation of the character I think. Having men voice women is always rough. She becomes infinitely more interesting in Dark Force Rising when Zahn starts giving us scenes from her point of view.
I know Zahn disagrees butI still think the parts with C'Boath would've been more interesting if Lucasfilm hadn't vetoed Zahn's original plan for him to be a demented clone of Obi-wan. As it stands, he comes off as just a more unhinged version of Palpatine. I also think his mind control abilities were a bit overdone in The Last Command. Thrawn was foolish for letting Paeleon meet with him without an Ysalamir and should have gotten rid of him.
Thrawn's death comes from completely out of nowhere and is basically inevitable once Leia visits Honoghr. It hits like the Martians' end in The War of the Worlds. I don't know if Zahn took inspiration from WotW, but it's affecting in part because he's almost more likable than the New Republic. Zahn depicts the fledgling new government as being plagued by the type of disfunction that's turned Baltimore and Washington into rotting relics. The galaxy really may have been better off under Thrawn given that he promoted an officer for trying a new strategy to snare Luke in a tractor beam.
So, have other people heard these versions? What other audiobooks do you enjoy the most? The X-Wing series benefited the most from the use of sound effects and the radio dramas are almost better than the movies. Dark Empire is fun, but the acting is quite cheesy and really takes me out of it at times. I'd originally planned to listen to the novelization of TFA, but I've never been that impressed with Alan Dean Foster's work. Since it's not being released prior to the film, I'll probably give it a pass. Do you think you'll try it?
