Outbound Flight

What Lucas creates Lucas destroys. What Lucas destroys Zahn fixes. And thus do we find an apt description for what Outbound Flight is. A fix to Lucas's playing with the Star Wars continuum (now re-engineered further by the Mickey Mouse consortium).

In 1991 Zahn relaunched the entire Star Wars saga with his Heir To The Empire novel. Within it the eponymous antagonist Admiral Thrawn of the Chiss Ascendancy assembles his Imperial Naval forces to attack the New Republic and succeed Palpatine as Emperor of a new galactic Empire. In this maniac scheme he is aided by the insane clone of the mysterious Jedi Master Joruus C' Baoth.

Who is Baoth? Luke Skywalker learns of his Outbound Flight endeavor, a mission to chart the furthest distances of show more the galaxy for the pre-Empire Republic which ended in catastrophe. Can the clone reveal the secrets of Jedi which Luke is hunting for? Only if Thrawn can be taken out of the mix.

In Outbound Flight Zahn ties in the legend of Anakin Skywalker with that of Baoth. We observe an arrogant Baoth; a conniving Sidious and a young Thrawn, preparing to confront a species of savage warmongering Aliens whose existence is known only to Palpatine.

A spectacular novel which restores the franchise's glory though one cannot help but wonder how far Lucas influenced it given that Zahn initially had no conception of the Skywalker mythos interrelating with Outbound. show less

Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars: Outbound Flight works akin to Greg Bear’s Star Wars: Rogue Planet in reconciling elements of the Prequel Era with the New Jedi Order series. Further, Zahn helps to reconcile his portrayal of the Clone Wars from his Heir to the Empire trilogy with that in Attack of the Clones and the subsequent Clone Wars series, specifically in relation to Jedi Master Jorus C’baoth.

Zahn, ever a master storyteller, balances several narratives along the course of the novel. First, the Chiss and Commander Thrawn are learning about the Republic while remaining in the shadows. Second, Jorus C’baoth is campaigning for his Outbound Flight program to explore the Unknown Regions and other galaxies, contacting possible show more Force-sensitive individuals while also creating Jedi enclaves free of the growing turmoil in the Republic. Third, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is balancing his official role of trying to foster stability within the Republic while, in his identity as Darth Sidious, he pursues his own agenda. Sidious has become aware of a group called the “Far Outsiders” (the Yuuzhan Vong) who are establishing a foothold in the galaxy preparatory to a full-scale invasion. He worries that, should they encounter Outbound Flight, it will provide tactical information that could hasten the invasion before he can establish the power necessary to repel them (pgs. 318-319). Finally, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are involved in negotiations and the Outbound Flight project in order to keep an eye on C’baoth and his growing paranoia. The Jedi Council also hopes the Outbound Flight program will help to determine what happened to the missing Jedi, Vergere (pg. 50), who first appeared in Greg Bear’s novel, Rogue Planet, which released six years prior to Outbound Flight and similarly linked the Prequel Trilogy with the New Jedi Order.

These various narratives might leave a lesser writer mired in confusion, but due to Zahn’s skills as a writer, it’s easy to follow everything and see how the narrative threads begin to connect. The novel neatly incorporates elements from both the Prequel era and the New Jedi Order era while working as a successful standalone story. Readers of the Expanded Universe will find Zahn’s deft weaving of all these elements from Star Wars chronology most impressive. show less

Timothy Zahn's books are definitely the cream of the crop as far as Star Wars novels are concerned, and this book takes it to another level. He ties this story into his original Thrawn trilogy, Survivor's Quest, and the New Jedi Order incredibly well. He even provides a glimpse of Anakin Skywalker getting his first role model of Jedi as fascist powermonger. It's a great read, especially for anyone who has enjoyed his previous novels. I just hope this isn't his last Star Wars (and Thrawn) project.

Another thing I really admire about this book, aside from how everything ties together, is that everything is in shades of gray and not necessarily the way you would expect. One of the major characters is a Jedi who is unsure of herself and her show more master, and this character really comes into her own as situations demand. The book also gives a good feel for how normal people could come to fear and mistrust the Jedi. On the flip side, it also implies that Palpatine's reasons for taking over the galaxy were not wholly evil, even if his actions generally were. I really dig the character complexity, which is something you don't always get, especially to this degree, from Star Wars. show less

Zahn makes another outstanding contribution to the Expanded Universe (rebranded "Legends"). Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo (Thrawn) is a compelling hero in this novel. Thrawn is characterized by honor and discipline, maintaining a level of dignity and civility whether interacting with prisoners, subordinates, or superiors. In contrast to the villainous Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Empire, Commander Thrawn violates the defense-only norms of his culture by defending those who come under attack by pirates (the Vagaari).

NOTE: Some minor spoilers may follow.

Timothy Zahn did a truly excellent job with young Commander Thrawn; I enjoyed his interactions with Car'das, but especially his tactics and strategy for dealing with the Vagaari and Outbound Flight.

Speaking of Outbound Flight, I enjoyed the perspective of the Jedi, but I felt that perhaps Zahn covered too much ground. We went from before Outbound Flight was officially and finally green-lit until its destruction, and I thought more could have been done on the vessel (especially as things deteriorated between C'baoth and the non-Jedi crew). I also thought that, while Obi-wan was well portrayed, Anakin was a bit wooden (I guess maybe it was the Hayden-Christensen-in-"Attack-of-the-Clones" show more version).

C'baoth, I had read before reading this book, seemed to be way too much of a jerk to be a genuine Jedi Master. Sure, he apparently had a lot of power and a lot of experience, but he was completely emotional, arrogant, and obsessed, and nobody ever called him on it (to his face, at any rate). It's a fair question to wonder how such a man managed to become a Jedi Master. Still, it does explain his clone's personality, and it seems to have been the only way to compel Thrawn to destroy Outbound Flight in the end.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the book immensely, but it wasn't Zahn's best work. show less

A mixed lot. The opening is surpassingly slow and rivals the worst wooden scenes between Obi Wan and Anakin in the movies; Zahn catches the awkward tone of the script perfectly. Feel free to skim anything featuring these two.

The real joy, of course, is seeing more of Zahn's greatest character, Thrawn. Zahn writes him like the alien love child of Sherlock Holmes and Napoleon, and it's great fun watching Thrawn outwit the galaxy again. The young smuggler whose point of view we follow in the Thrawn storyline isn't very annoying at all.

Then, we have a pleasant surprise in the form of Jedi Lorana Jinzler; Lorana's storyline is readable, and I became fond of the character.

This wasn’t what I expected. I feel like this was not fulfilling but gave us too little too quickly. I really liked reading about Master C’Baoth having read the Thrawn trilogy and been introduced to him by way of his insane clone but I don’t realize he was already so close to the dark side. I felt like there were a lot of characters in this book that complicated the plot for a short a story as it was. Being a side story I think it could have been a little more in depth; the build up of the project, getting to know Master C’Baoth more, maybe getting to know some of the colonists and their side stories, and finishing the book with what happened to Outbound Flight; especially since the ending was already hinted at in the Thrawn show more trilogy in one of his memories. show less