Outbound Flight

I was somewhat unsure about this one, but had heard good things about it, I must confess I have never read the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy books, for some reason the "Thrawn" character I never cared much for given what I know of him, however I didn't feel as if he were the villian here, however it becomes so toward the end, this one begins with Jedi Master Ca'Both & his apprentice Lorana Jinzler meeting with Palpatine in which we learn that Ca'Both is arrogant & practically talks down to Palpatine because of his refusal to fund his pet project, that being "Outbound Flight" a "Star Trek"-like vessel that Ca'Both wants to take beyond the reaches of the known galaxy, after a heroic display at a diplomatic meeting in which Ca'Both & Lorana along with Obi-Wan & Anakin save the day, Ca'Both's "Outbound Flight" is given the green light for it's maiden voyage to the stars, however Mace Windu has his doubts about Ca'Both & dispatches Obi-Wan & young Anakin to keep tabs on him during the flight, I had no problem with Obi-Wan & Anakin being secondary, unlike some readers, I felt that Mace's instincts were right, once "Outbound Flight" is underway, Ca'Both becomes a dictator to all those on the ship, so much that even Obi-Wan & Lorana are surprised at his behavoir & concerned rightly so, elsewhere Palpatine/Sideous dispatches one of his lackey's on a Trade Federation ship to intercept "Outbound Flight" & destroy it, however he halts its destruction when he learns that Anakin is on board & quickly makes a trip to get Obi-Wan & Anakin off so he can proceed with his diabolical plan, of course fans will know why he removes Anakin & Obi-Wan, elsewhere we are introduced to Thrawn as a young military commander who also learns of "Outbound Flight's" journey after the Trade Federation ship is found & detained & boarded by him & Car'das, it is here that he first meets Palpatine/Sideous & of course he uses Thrawn to do his dirty work for him, there are other sublots as well involving some mercenary type aliens who are enslaving an alien species & have a bone to pick with Thrawn, it didn't care much for this subplot, meanwhile as "Outbound Flight makes it's way to the unknown region of space where the Chiss rule, we see more of Ca'Both's dictatorship that creates resentment from the crew of families as he threatens to forcefully take Jedi-gifted children from their parents much to Lorana's disgust, some of the crew try to stage a mutiny, but are stopped by Ca'Both & confined, shortly therafter is when Thrawn begins his attack from the Trade Federation ship along with Trade Federation fighters & his onw personal army of Chiss warriors, "Outbound Flight" is severly crippled & damaged that it was at times difficult to read, however there is one moment when a bloodied Ca"Both is in a near death state, tries to force choke Thrawn to the point where Lorana feels it & realizes to her horror that Ca'Both has indeed gone to the darkside(think Kahn in "Star Trek II" on steroids as he activates the Genesis weapon) it is clear that Ca'Both is going to take Thrawn with him, however, he dies before he can succeed in force-choking Thrawn, but boy, did he come close, Lorana eventually stears the crippled ship to its fate, & Thrawn is later ousted by the Chiss for this misdeed it seems, all in all this was a good solid book, but left more to be desired, however "Surviovor's Quest" should wet my appetite for more, This is a must read for SW fans.

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.

You will enjoy this novel if you are curious regarding the back-story of Thrawn, or if you enjoy the Star Wars universe but deplore the quality of writing rampant throughout. Being of the latter persuasion, I picked this up based on Timothy Zahn's name alone. I generally have no interest in the side characters of Star Wars, and when I do, they are usually Jedi. This novel does not feature any Jedi per se. Lorana Jinzler, padawan of C'baoth is the only Jedi Zahn develops as more than a counterpoint to main characters. However, even her involvement is secondary to that of the Thrawn storyline. If you are not familiar with Zahn's work, then the most important fact to realize is that Zahn understands his characters. The most common failing I witness in Star Wars novels is the lack of established personality in characters that have been richly developed by Lucas and others. When Zahn puts words in the mouth of Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest, they aren't cringe-inducing, unsophisticated and uncharacteristic. Zahn is not the only author to avoid this blunder, but his company is few. Beyond that, Zahn also has a flair for the mechanics of story-telling. He doesn't "overplot" - the characters drive, and the plot is the terrain they maneuver through. At the same time (and to take the analogy further), Zahn doesn't set them down in a featureless expanse. There are twists and revelations that are a joy to uncover without being so overly complicated as to be distracting, nor are they so simple that they're self-evident and anti-climactic. For criticism, I will say that Zahn (at least in this novel) barely goes beyond the surface when he writes of Jedi. For me, this didn't detract from the value of the story, but made me wonder what would the result be if Zahn truly threw himself into the intricacies of Jedi politics, the mysteries of the Force, and the moral implications of the balance of good and evil when physically embodied in superhuman agents. He does something similar with a minor antagonist species - they are a two-dimensional evil race that are given no redeeming qualities. However, my criticism there is debatable. I personally find it lazy when villains (even minor, somewhat unimportant ones) are purely evil and easily hated, but the Star Wars universe is rife with such simple archetypes. I have a preference, but I don't have an answer. For those of you who haven't tackled "Heir to the Empire," I would recommend you start there. This novel is excellent, but definitely peripheral to his wonderful trilogy. For those who have enjoyed the trilogy, here's a bit more of a memorable character and a bit of Jedi heroism for seasoning.

I got it in the audible version read by Marc Thompson and listened to it day and night. It was great! He does the voice of Thrawn so well !!!!! The story is so good. I love this book! I would highly recommend it in the audible version read by Marc Thompson.

At last, the the cunning mind that made Mith'raw'nuruodo's military service in the Chiss Expansionary Fleet so remarkable--and eventually set him on the path of becoming Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn--is opened to us! Of course, Timothy Zahn is an author every bit as cunning as you would expect when dealing with such a character, and he knows very well that Thrawn should always be viewed from the outside in order to keep his allure. He is still every bit as complex and mysterious as in previous books, as we never see the story narrated through Thrawn's point of view. We get mere glimpses into how he thinks, and what he plans, as Jorj Car'das openly questions and guesses at Thrawn's motives, and Thrawn in his turn either confirms it or steers Jorj to the correct answer on his own. It's a little difficult to reconcile this version of Thrawn, milder in manner than the coolly detached Imperial leader who once had a crewman executed on the bridge and destroyed an alien village because those aliens failed in a mission. The deadly Imperial warlord who could do that without flinching is definitely not the same man that we meet in this book. The version of Thrawn we see in Outbound Flight is a military leader who is preemptively striking against a culture that enslaves other races as they raid their way across the Unknown Regions, and Thrawn is every bit as intent on stopping them because they are threat to weaker races as he is to stopping them because they MIGHT be a threat to the Chiss. This attitude gets him in hot water, of course, and if you know this character's general history by now, 30+ years after the Star Wars EU introduced him to us, you know how things ultimately end up going for him. If you don't, well the novel includes a short story called "Mist Encounter" which was originally published in Star Wars Adventure Journal 7 by West End Games in August 1995. This was the short story which told us how Thrawn actually came into Imperial custody. And a new novel coming out later this month should tell us the rest of that story and let us see Thrawn's rise to ultimate power. In case you can't tell, Thrawn is why I bought this book to begin with, and why I will read it again several times over. But he is hardly the only Zahn-created character we get to meet again. Jorj Car'das comes into Thrawn's life at this time, and most of the interaction with Thrawn is told through his eyes, and we see the birth of this very unlikely friendship. We also get to see the beginnings of Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth's descent into insanity, which actually explains a LOT about the version of C'baoth we got to know in "Heir to the Empire." Without giving away any spoilers, let me just say that the craziness we saw in C'baoth in HTTE was not entirely due to his circumstances in that book; this version of C'baoth was already teetering on the edge of Darkness. Like Thrawn, this mysterious creation of Zahn's is viewed through the eyes of others: his padawan, Lorana Jinzler; Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is, at this time, training a 12-year-old Anakin, and certain members of Outbound Flight's crew. You won't like C'baoth, and you are not supposed to. Personally, however, I didn't like Lorana Jinzler, either. Her constant worry and second-guessing herself fits perfectly well with her lack of self-confidence, which has been more or less carefully crafted by her master, C'baoth. But after so many years of having at least one strong female lead in nearly every book, not having one this time was a real let-down. Lorana spends so much time wondering if she is doing "the right thing" and, deep down, knowing that C'baoth is teaching her things which are against the Jedi Code, yet whenever she is given the opportunity to voice those thoughts, she simply pushes them aside and takes C'baoth's side. Her wishy-washy attitude makes her completely ineffective as anything other than a narrator for C'baoth's actions, so if you are expecting to see Jedi action out of her, don't hold your breath. She is certainly not on a level with someone like Mara Jade. I do wish Zahn had given us a stronger female this time around, like he has in the past, and I know Lorana has her place in this story and she fits there. I just was not impressed with her, even at the end. Obi-Wan tells most of the rest of the story, but unless you are a big fan of the Jedi and the inner workings of their Council, you might not care so much about what he is doing or how bratty Anakin is being. (Really, sometimes I think Obi-Wan could have saved the galaxy a whole lot of trouble by putting Anakin over his knee or in time out or something.) If I have one *real* disappointment about this book, it's that I don't see the point of having these characters in the story at all, let alone for so much of it. Their presence changes nothing in the outcome of the story, and in fact it seems like exposure to C'baoth may have adversely affected Anakin and given him ideas that he should not have at that age. Over all, however, the book is a tightly written piece of engaging fiction. We see the start of Palpatine's manipulations into power, the dissent in Jedi ranks that will have repercussions in the next generation, and an expansion into parts of the galaxy that maybe the Empire should have left alone in order to save itself. It's absolutely on par with Zahn's previous forays into the Star Wars mythos, and just being able to read Thrawn as alive and well and displaying the military brilliance which will, later in his life, bring the New Republic to the brink of defeat is a treat. I admire THIS Thrawn better than the one who was trying to kidnap and/or kill my favorite SW heroes all through the HTTE and its sequels, but that is part of what keeps him from being some throwaway two-dimensional evil character. The appeal in HTTE was that the bad guys are not supposed to win, yet he almost did, and it was actually impossible to hate him for it. I would not want to meet him in battle, or a dark alley, but I knew he would have respect for my strategical ability if I had to. What makes him more appealing now, in his younger and slightly more reckless days, is seeing that he still has the same military brilliance, and he is willing to lay down his life to rescue a friend, and risk his career and social advancement to stand up for his beliefs.

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.

Timothy Zahn has done what few authors in the history of a body of literature such as Star Wars has done: He has created a character, independent of anything shown in the movies, that has taken on a life of his own. The original Thrawn trilogy was the first of the Star Wars books I got a hold of when I was younger and they had an intensity about them that has only recently been matched by The New Jedi Order and The Legacy of the Force. In Outbound Flight, Zahn takes you back to where it all began. He shows you the root of the clone C'Boath's madness, sets up a couple of secondary characters in a manner that you don't fully realize until the end of the novel, and drops a bombshell about the coming Yuzhaan Vong invasion that was quite shocking. When Zahn introduces Thrawn for the first time, its a moment that almost gives the reader chills. He does so with a hint at what Thrawn will some day become and, throughout the novel, shows off Thrawn's brilliance and tactical prowess to an impressive degree. As a side note, this is one of the first books, at least for me, that really reveals the depth of Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious/The Emperor's duplicity. It really opens your eyes to just how much he manipulated things. All in all, an excellent book for anyone who has never met Thrawn before and even those who are old friends with the Grand Admiral. It's a very, very satisfying read and I'm anxiously looking forward to the arrival of Zahn's next Star Wars installment, Alliance.

While this novel is not the introductory novel to a very awesome protagonist, GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN, it is a backstory to him and enters the entire class of other beings, Far-Outsiders or Yuuzhan Vong. This novel is a LEGENDS book. It's no longer seen as canon, though I working tirelessly to change that at #GetThrawnIn #StarWarsRebels http://getthrawnin.tumblr.com @ThrawnInRebels. What I LOVE about this book is THRAWN. He doesn't care or know anything about the larger galaxy than his area called the Chiss Expansionary Defense Fleet, and he commits some questionable acts as a military leader per his people, the Chiss, and he BEATS THE CRAP OUTTA JEDI AND THE "PRE-IMPERIALS" and just by strategy and tactics. This book shows why he is a military genius. All the while, he's cool, calm and collected. What I did not like too much time on how awesome Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is and the activities they do. I did not feel they were leads here. THRAWN was. I was begging to see more THRAWN. Not the known ideas of the Jedi. But then THRAWN turns a Jedi to the dark side... A non-Force user turning a Jedi... WOW! Another thing I liked is the short story, "THE MIST ENCOUNTER". I liked it ONLY for THRAWN and how cunning he was after being stranded on a planet only to take down a newly formed Empire. And he did it so eloquently. Only thing was at the end was it was too quick in pace explaining how he did it, and how the leader of the expedition, Parck figured out it was an intelligent savage and only to find out it was an alien - a Chiss, which was THRAWN. The other issue was how welcoming Parck became and the 50 different directions he could use to control THRAWN. Apologies for the spoilers. The audience for this book is anyone who has a desire to read a really good Star Wars Legends book written by one the best Star Wars author, Timothy Zahn. I suggest that ages 13+ can read this book with ease.