I really enjoyed Heir to the Empire and feel stupid that I put this one off for so long! I don't tend to enjoy SW stories set in/post Empire, but I loved how many different settings we got and how vibrant everything felt. I do feel that Thrawn's characterization is rather bland - he's basically an Imperial Sherlock who is very rarely outwitted and I don't really feel as if I understand his motivations really. But, to be fair, we are seeing him always through other characters. I do hope his characterization improves, but I enjoyed all the other characters. I will definitely be continuing to see what happens and spend more time with our other characters. 

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Marc Thompson. My issue with every SW novel is the sometimes excessive background sound effects. It made it hard to hear at times. Marc does a great job overall, but his Han sounds SO different from Harrison Ford that I struggled a bit. It wasn't a big problem, I just never got over it. Overall though, I really enjoyed the audio narration!