Outbound Flight

The year was 1990. Return of the Jedi was now seven years behind us and the last remnants of Star Wars toys had been swept away at bargain-bin prices. There was no real indication that George Lucas would ever move forward with another Star Wars picture in our lifetimes. It was a dark time for fans. Into this void came a Star Wars book from Timothy Zahn titled Heir to the Empire, promised to be book one of a trilogy. It stormed up the bestseller charts and into many fans' hearts. Zahn delivered an exciting, rambunctious tale set five years after Return of the Jedi, full of familiar faces and introducing several new ones who would play immensely significant roles in the EU, most notably Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade. The trilogy mentioned a project in the Old Republic era named Outbound Flight. While it gave some tidbits concerning this ill-fated expedition, there wasn't much detail. Years later Zahn wrote Survivor's Quest, in which Luke and Mara enter the ruins of Outbound Flight on a mission of discovery. Finally, with the publication of Outbound Flight, we get the full story of what happened to the project and light is shed on Thrawn's origins. Zahn skillfully weaves in the prevailing themes of the prequels; the Trade Federation is involved, Sidious is up to his usual scheming and has reasons for wishing Outbound Flight serious harm, and our favorite master-apprentice pair Obi-Wan and Anakin manage to worm their way into the narrative. Even though he is at times almost obnoxiously omniscient, Thrawn is a favorite character of mine. He is truly a villain who would never regard himself as an evil man; indeed, he has very firm beliefs and a strong moral code. Still, he is written in such a way that it is believable he would choose to partner with the future leaders of the Empire rather than the bloated and failing Republic government. The main characters such as Jorj Car'das and his crewmates, Vicelord Kav, and Kinman Doriana are interesting enough, but the real standouts of the tale besides Thrawn are Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth and his Padawan Lorana Jinzler. C'baoth is arrogant, condescending, extremely strong in the Force and probably well on his way to tapping into the Dark Side; however, it's hard to shake the feeling that a Jedi like him might have caused Palpatine some serious problems. Some of his statements seem overtly aggressive and very un-Jedi-like, but the Jedi way is one that is soon to fail to protect the galaxy. It's very clear why Sidious wants him out of the way. Lorana Jinzler is a nice counterpoint to the polished and confident Jedi we are used to seeing and reading about. She is a fundamentally good person but being under the thumb of a domineering master has restricted her growth as an independent person and hampered her path to Knighthood. I found her and Thrass' (Thrawn's brother) efforts to save the remnants of Outbound Flight at the end extremely moving; Zahn effortlessly achieves a cinematic feel to the cli

I generally gave up on Star Wars books a long time ago. I got and enjoyed a few from the era of the new movies, but even that was a few years ago. However, I remembered how good the author was, and was pretty sure I would get a decent story out of this book. I was wrong. This is one of the best fiction books I have ever read. The quality of the writing is just superb. The main emphasis is actually outside of the Outbound Flight mission. The core characters are fully fleshed out and have all the ambiguities and uncertainties of real people. A lot of the other characters should come across as shallow, given the lack of detail and pages spent on them, but they do not. They are like background characters in a non-fiction biography: we know there is more detail to them, and it is not there because they are not the focus of the book. In fact, it is probably best to describe the book as a double biography, of Thrawn and Jorus C'baoth. The treatment of C'baoth is superb, especially since there is actually not that much about him. He is arrogant and overbearing and he would be impossible to put up with in person. However, his story evoked in me an enormous feeling of pity. This is a fundamentally noble person, who wants what is best for people, but his fear and his ego are combining to drag him into the darkness. The treatment of Thrawn is even better. The descriptions of the book are generally excellent, both in terms of how well we see the settings and events, and in what they see tells us about the characters. But we also get several descriptions of things and people by Thrawn. Sherlock Holmes is considerably outclassed when it comes to observation and deduction. Even in political maneuverings, Thrawn seems to match up with Darth Sidious. Finally, there are of course the battle scenes. Thrawn did some pretty awesome stuff as a Grand Admiral, with a gigantic battlefleet and advanced technology and a quarter of the Star Wars galaxy's resources. What he manages with a few light cruisers and their fighters just defies description. Thrawn is also a wonderfully complex character. I had intended to give a little summary of that character here, but I find I cannot do justice to the writing. I apologise for asking you to take my word for its quality. As you can probably guess, I would absolutely recommend reading this book. It is probably best if you have read Zahn's first Star Wars books, and have seen at least one of the new movies. However, the writing is so good, and the realism of the characters so deep, that I think - and hope - that it would reward any reader of fiction.

Zahn is pure genius. He writes Star Wars characters as if he came up with the idea of Star Wars. His characters are unforgetable. And with Outbound Flight we get to read more about the mastermind that is Thrawn. Too bad he got killed in Zahn's first trilogy. He would have been an excellent villian for many stories. However we are treated to stories from his deep and dark past. One of the things that I liked about Outbound Flight is how it ties the prequel era characters to the new jedi order characters in hints that Palpatine was aware of the Yuzhann Vong, and was preparing the Empire for them. That subplot tied into the NJO series that certain characters felt Palpatine would have been better off against the Vong. Another great twist in Outbound Flight is the inclusion of Jorj Car'das. Another of Zahn's great characters that was left with lots of questions and not a lot of answers. Now I have more questions and some answers. The character of Aristocra Frombi is one of my questions? Why did he take on a different persona in Survivor's Quest? Did Thrawn's actions have a deeper impact on him or did something tragic happen to him to change his thinking. After reading this it only makes me want to see another book or series come out with Thrawn. Perhaps dealing with his exile...Days with the Empire...or a clone on another unkown region planet which could tie into the ending of the Dark Nest trilogy. If Zahn writes only one more Star Wars book, however. I would like to see him write the backstory of another of his great and loved Star Wars characters. And that would be Mara Jade.

Back in the early 1990's, Tim Zahn wrote a series that opened up the floodgates for the expanded Star Wars universe. He introduced perhaps the most complex and interesting character ever created for science fiction: Grand Admiral Thrawn. Over the last 15 years, readers have been treated with small glimpses of the destruction of Outbound Flight and the personality of Thrawn but with the exception of a short story, the Grand Admiral has not shown up again. Now he does with a vengeance. The history of Outbound Flight, the totalitarianistic ideals of Jorus C'Boath, the Chiss, Obi-wan and Anakin, Palpatine and most importantly Thrawn all appear in this book set approximately 5 years after Episode I. The characters come to life with startling clarity and at the head is Thrawn himself and his genius for combat. What Zahn does not do is give too much about Thrawn away. Even though the reader learns much about this fantastic character, Zahn still keeps him shrouded in mystery. He never commits the cardinal sin of letting us inside Thrawn's head in the way that so many other bad guys have been ruined (Boba Fett & Darth Maul to name a couple). Overall this is a great read, a fantastic addition to the Star Wars universe and a fine book.

If you, like me, read Zahn's Thrawn trilogy a very, very long time ago, and you've followed the universe even through all of the meandering nonsense of late, this is the book you've been waiting for. Aside from an early diversion with Obi-Wan and Anakin that's completely incidental to the plot (and almost feels like it was forced, as if he was required to add them to his story), this is completely and totally the first chapter of ZAHN'S Star Wars universe. His books hang together remarkably well, and form a very small, rational subset of a universe otherwise churning with inconsistencies of theme, plot, and character. This book introduces us to Thrawn before he was an imperial commander, Jorj Car'das before he was a famed outlaw, and Jorus C'baoth before he was an insane clone. We finally get the whole story of Outbound Flight, and along the way a healthy helping of Palpatine's machinations and Thrawn's motivations (to the point where I'd argue that Thrawn is more Zahn's tragic hero than a villain at all.) And, if all that wasn't enough, the book is worth it just to see Thrawn back in action again - Zahn's knack for writing his extreme genious in a thoroughly believable way hasn't gone anywhere. Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to say that these days I'm getting very tired of Star Wars. The prequel movies didn't impress me, what prequel era novels I've read are laughable, and the New Jedi Order was about two plot holes shy of complete incoherence. But this, here, finally ties together the last threads left of Zahn's stories, which are essentially the reason I became a fan in the first place. I don't know if this would appeal as much to people that are new to the universe, or that have only read prequel era novels (I would highly reccomend having read Zahn's utterly fantastic Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn series before this novel), but it certainly is exactly what I wanted. Incidentally, if you are the same kind of fan as I am and bought Survivor's Quest and was disappointed, read it again after you've finished this. Zahn intended Outbound Flight to be published first, and it shows. Read in the proper order, the books make a magnificent bookend to Zahn's Star Wars adventures, which, for my money, are the only Star Wars adventures genuinely worth spending any time on at all.