Star Wars - Hand of Thrawn Duology - Specter of the Past

Specter of the Past is a novel by the American writer Timothy Zahn, published by Bantam Books in 1997. It is the first half of the Hand of Thrawn duology, and it is set in the years after the films, when the New Republic governs in place of the Empire.

The book begins with a declining power taking one last gamble. The Empire has lost its fleets and most of its territory, and what remains is being handled by men who understand that a straightforward war is no longer winnable. Their answer is a plan that would do damage from inside the New Republic rather than from outside it, and the news that accompanies it is that Thrawn, the Grand Admiral whose campaigns are still studied by his enemies, may be alive. The novel follows both sides as the claim is tested, with the Republic's leaders trying to work out whether the threat is real and the surviving imperial officers choosing what they are prepared to risk on a rumour.

Zahn's earlier novels introduced Thrawn and a cast of characters the wider Star Wars publishing programme kept returning to, and the duology is set against the political settlement the Republic is still trying to build.