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Star Wars: Hand of Judgment #2.5
Star Wars: Crisis of Faith
Crisis of Faith is a novella by Timothy Zahn released on September 6, 2011, included in Heir to the Empire: The 20th Anniversary Edition and features Grand Admiral Thrawn.
ebook
Published September 6, 2011
About the author
Timothy Zahn
504 books8,834 followersTimothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 22, 2021
This novella comes bundled with the 20th Anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire, and is a good recommendation for picking up that edition if you can.
This is more Thrawn backstory, picking up the pursuit of Thrawn’s Moriarty—the Warlord Nuso Esva—previously introduced in the novel Choices of One.
Thrawn is in his element here, but portrayed more as the Holmsian master strategist than as the ruthless villain of Zahn’s first trilogy. It’s a bit incongruous to go straight from one to the other, but this characterisation is much more in line with the Thrawn of the new canon Ascendency trilogy.
To be honest, when it comes to Zahn and Thrawn, I don’t distinguish between Classic Star Wars EU and Disney canon, because Zahn is a clever enough writer to keep his novels in reasonable continuity with each other, so if you like the characters you can happily follow Thrawn’s timeline from Outbound Flight to Survivor’s Quest, picking up all the stories in between regardless of “canonicity”. They make a darn sight more sense as a cohesive work than TFA, TLJ & tRoS, that’s for sure!
Anyway—as usual I enjoyed my jaunt in the Thrawniverse. As satisfying as a Sherlock Holmes short story.
This is more Thrawn backstory, picking up the pursuit of Thrawn’s Moriarty—the Warlord Nuso Esva—previously introduced in the novel Choices of One.
Thrawn is in his element here, but portrayed more as the Holmsian master strategist than as the ruthless villain of Zahn’s first trilogy. It’s a bit incongruous to go straight from one to the other, but this characterisation is much more in line with the Thrawn of the new canon Ascendency trilogy.
To be honest, when it comes to Zahn and Thrawn, I don’t distinguish between Classic Star Wars EU and Disney canon, because Zahn is a clever enough writer to keep his novels in reasonable continuity with each other, so if you like the characters you can happily follow Thrawn’s timeline from Outbound Flight to Survivor’s Quest, picking up all the stories in between regardless of “canonicity”. They make a darn sight more sense as a cohesive work than TFA, TLJ & tRoS, that’s for sure!
Anyway—as usual I enjoyed my jaunt in the Thrawniverse. As satisfying as a Sherlock Holmes short story.
December 31, 2021
Okay, so I'm out to hit everything he ever wrote with Thrawn in it.
This story was okay - and after the past couple of legends Thrawn things I picked up where they mentioned his analyzing art but never actually showed any of it, the good thing about this story is that yeah, we actually see it.
But overall, the story is short and its main purpose was to end the warlord stuff he went after, and sort of a small prequel to the Heir to the Empire books.
This story was okay - and after the past couple of legends Thrawn things I picked up where they mentioned his analyzing art but never actually showed any of it, the good thing about this story is that yeah, we actually see it.
But overall, the story is short and its main purpose was to end the warlord stuff he went after, and sort of a small prequel to the Heir to the Empire books.
July 8, 2026
Though published as part of that Heir to the Empire anniversary edition, "Crisis of Faith" is a novella, so it gets its own entry.
The usual post-9/11 Zahn content warnings apply. The story, by necessity, is a product of the War on Terror era, specifically the neocon side. It can easily be read as making the point that supposed "lesser" cultures - in this case, a literal bug colony - are best served by living under the rule of a benevolent "cultured" Empire - Grand Admiral Thrawn's Empire of the Hand - following a violent deposing of their own leaders, of course. Look, I've gone through Zahn's mid-00s output, I've inflicted Karen Traviss' entire SW bibliography on myself. I'm more than done with the topic. To write a love letter directed at Dick Cheney in 2011 (if you agree with this interpretation) certainly takes some chutzpah, I'll give The Holy Star Wars Author that much.
But of course that's just one reading primarily motivated by context. Put straight after HttE, the average reader is probably not going to catch any of that, since Thrawn at this point was still an unquestionable villain. It's a story about two villains fighting, with our sympathetic bug POV character stuck in-between. Viewed through that lens, the story is harmless, and even compelling. I like how Zahn brings so many different parts of the shared Zahn/Stackpole corner of the universe together. Soontir Fel makes an appearance, for the first time since 2003's Force Heretic II: Refugee! It's interesting - a new reader's presumably going to meet Fel and Thrawn's pseudo-Empire for the very first time right here, whereas for me, reading in rough publication order, this is presumably the last I'll ever see of them. As with the question of its message, it's funny to think how context changes our perspective.
I'm still a bit unsure about the story's inclusion with HttE, though, given how different in tone and even genre "Crisis of Faith" is. HttE goes for escapist 90s pulp, this reminds me of Heinlein. Maybe it's the bugs. Though it does retroactively make the two HttE sequels hit that much harder, to see Thrawn's approach to culture go in a much different direction. Again, perspective.
For any new readers: If you like this approach to SW fiction, with sophisticated, multilayered plotting put in the forefront, I recommend Timothy Zahn's fan-dubbed "Hand of Judgment" duology: Allegiance and Choices of One. The latter's part of the Essential Legends Collection, whereas the former... isn't...
The usual post-9/11 Zahn content warnings apply. The story, by necessity, is a product of the War on Terror era, specifically the neocon side. It can easily be read as making the point that supposed "lesser" cultures - in this case, a literal bug colony - are best served by living under the rule of a benevolent "cultured" Empire - Grand Admiral Thrawn's Empire of the Hand - following a violent deposing of their own leaders, of course. Look, I've gone through Zahn's mid-00s output, I've inflicted Karen Traviss' entire SW bibliography on myself. I'm more than done with the topic. To write a love letter directed at Dick Cheney in 2011 (if you agree with this interpretation) certainly takes some chutzpah, I'll give The Holy Star Wars Author that much.
But of course that's just one reading primarily motivated by context. Put straight after HttE, the average reader is probably not going to catch any of that, since Thrawn at this point was still an unquestionable villain. It's a story about two villains fighting, with our sympathetic bug POV character stuck in-between. Viewed through that lens, the story is harmless, and even compelling. I like how Zahn brings so many different parts of the shared Zahn/Stackpole corner of the universe together. Soontir Fel makes an appearance, for the first time since 2003's Force Heretic II: Refugee! It's interesting - a new reader's presumably going to meet Fel and Thrawn's pseudo-Empire for the very first time right here, whereas for me, reading in rough publication order, this is presumably the last I'll ever see of them. As with the question of its message, it's funny to think how context changes our perspective.
I'm still a bit unsure about the story's inclusion with HttE, though, given how different in tone and even genre "Crisis of Faith" is. HttE goes for escapist 90s pulp, this reminds me of Heinlein. Maybe it's the bugs. Though it does retroactively make the two HttE sequels hit that much harder, to see Thrawn's approach to culture go in a much different direction. Again, perspective.
For any new readers: If you like this approach to SW fiction, with sophisticated, multilayered plotting put in the forefront, I recommend Timothy Zahn's fan-dubbed "Hand of Judgment" duology: Allegiance and Choices of One. The latter's part of the Essential Legends Collection, whereas the former... isn't...
August 5, 2024
Only four stars because I NEED to see the aftermath of this!!! Also because I don’t feel like the 501st actually would’ve ended up in this place and time so it doesn’t track in my head canon lol. Once thrawn comes on the scene it’s game over man he MAKES the story for me. I loved the conciliator, Parck, Fel, Balkin, Stent (SUCH A COOL ADDITION to have a Chiss that left when Thrawn did) and I seriously need more of those side characters. They were so much fun and I absolutely love how Zahn wrote them. While the beginning was a little boring for me, once we saw Thrawn I was hooked for the rest of the story.
January 22, 2022
A good little novel that only took me a few hours to read. It's an EU novella that bridges Choices of One and Heir to the Empire. It gives an idea of what Thrawn was up to with the Hand of Thrawn and why he returned to the Empire.
Thrawn is actually portrayed as a good guy in this story similar to some of the newer novels that came out recently. The only problem I had with this story is that his ability to read people through art was a little overstretched and was made less credible.
Thrawn is actually portrayed as a good guy in this story similar to some of the newer novels that came out recently. The only problem I had with this story is that his ability to read people through art was a little overstretched and was made less credible.
September 21, 2023
Sehr coole 80 Seiten. Gut dass ich es mir aufgespart habe. Ein guter Grund warum Thrawn die Noghri holte und allgemein coole backstory zu parck und Thrawn Rückkehr
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2025
Entrega un buen contexto, sin embargo después de leer "heir to the empire" no me gustó tanto.
February 1, 2026
A good look into how calculated Thrawn is, and what happened before the start of Heir to the Empire. Very fun, very interesting.
August 3, 2023
(Read this originally during my last read-through of Heir to the Empire but did a read-through in 2023 while reading any and all of Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars books that I hadn't read yet).
“Crisis of Faith” is a short novella that is non Canon to the Star Wars films but fans of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Timothy Zahn should still consider checking it out. Set before the beloved Thrawn Trilogy, it follows Thrawn’s campaign against his evil (well eviler) counterpart, Warlord Nuso Esva (the main antagonist of Zahn’s “Choices of One”) and the Professor Moriarty to Thrawn’s Sherlock Holmes. The story is short but Zahn makes good use of his limited page count to introduce a new alien species and culture, show Thrawn’s attempts to better understand them and then launch a strategy based around that against his rival. It’s brief but a delight to any fan Thrawn and Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars work.
4.0-4.5
“Crisis of Faith” is a short novella that is non Canon to the Star Wars films but fans of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Timothy Zahn should still consider checking it out. Set before the beloved Thrawn Trilogy, it follows Thrawn’s campaign against his evil (well eviler) counterpart, Warlord Nuso Esva (the main antagonist of Zahn’s “Choices of One”) and the Professor Moriarty to Thrawn’s Sherlock Holmes. The story is short but Zahn makes good use of his limited page count to introduce a new alien species and culture, show Thrawn’s attempts to better understand them and then launch a strategy based around that against his rival. It’s brief but a delight to any fan Thrawn and Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars work.
4.0-4.5
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews