Wait for it in paperback

I have to admit that I was disappointed. After suffering through the last half of the New Jedi Order series, I was hopeful when I saw that Zahn had written another Star Wars book. While the story itself is not bad, I just found myself not caring much for any of the new characters and felt that many of the questions raised early in the story were simply left unanswered.

First, the fact that any part of Outbound Flight survived for 50 years half-buried on a planetoid in the middle of a star cluster didn't seem to make much sense. If Thrawn was supposed to have attacked Outbound Flight, I never got the impression that it would have survived at all. But six Dreadnaughts have survived, and they are found by the Chiss, who promptly ask Mara and Luke to help visit the site to pay their last respects. Luke once again goes in a quest to find any information about the Jedi of the Old Republic.

I was hoping for more information on the original Jedi Jorus C'Baoth, but there is only a passing mention of him. There is essentially nothing about the Jedi in this whole book, and it turns out to be yet another story of how Luke goes to find one thing but instead discovers another. This time the new discovery is a group of survivors of Outbound Flight.

One question that is brought up, but never really answered, is how the remains of Outbound Flight and its survivors got to where they are. It is suggested that Thrawn, or someone else, may have carried or left it there, although why remains a mystery. It is more strongly suggested that Outbound Flight crash-landed, but that seems like an easy answer and doesn't make sense that Thrawn, continually put up as the most thorough and cunning villain since the Emperor, would not have checked for survivors. Everything just seemed half-hearted.

One other glaring thread that was left untied was why the survivors of Outbound Flight despised and hated Jedi. We never find out what the Jedi of Outbound Flight did to garner such hatred, to the point where Force-sensitive survivors are banished from the rest of the community because of the fear and hatred of all things Jedi. I still have no idea where this came from, and the fate of the Jedi aboard Outbound Flight, except for one, is never ever touched upon.

I just thought this whole story was an excuse to have Mara and Luke get a story of their own, after taking a backseat for most of the NJO. It was good to see Luke and Mara in action, and Zahn writes their personal interaction as well as ever. The dialogue in Zahn's books is always much better than in other Star Wars novels, although lately that is not saying much. But this story, which wraps up a little too nicely, did not have the punch to it that I had hoped for.

Overall, I loved Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy and thought those books read like something I would love to see as films. The Hand of Thrawn duology was okay, but to be honest I didn't get too into it. And now this book is not even as engaging as those prior attempts. It is worth reading, but only in paperback.

One final note for those reviewers who explain away a story's shortcoming because it is "setting up a sequel," that is exactly the problem with the Star Wars series. Nothing can be told in one book and readers are required to buy volume after volume to fully read a story that could stand in one book, and unlike Zahn's other outings, which were billed from the beginning as a trilogy (Heir to the Empire) and a duology (Hand of Thrawn), nothing suggests that Zahn is revisiting this story any time soon. So if any of the glaring plot holes are purposely left open so another substandard writer can fill them in later (Dix and Williams, anyone), then I doubt I'll keep shelling out money for stories that fall flat.

ANOTHER winner from the BEST Star Wars author working today

For those of us who are either casual or even serious Star Wars readers, the name Timothy Zahn usually means one thing in particular: a REALLY GOOD BOOK. Zahn's original Trilogy still remains the absolute BEST Star Wars novels in print, and I am happy to say that for the die-hard Admiral Thrawn fans out there, we finally get to see a glimpse into where he came from. The Chiss, as they are called contact the New Republic -- specifically Luke Skywalker -- to offer a gesture of good will by informing them they have located the remains of the original Outbound Flight where the original Jedi Master C'Baoth disappeared some 50 years before on a quest to map out the Unknown Regions of Space. Thrawn intercepted this flight under orders from Emperor Palpatine and utterly decimated all within -- or so we were told.

From the very beginning, this story absolutely ROCKS. I would describe it as a finely tuned mystery that, like an onion, is peeled away slowly but surely as the chapters fly by at Lightspeed. Someone has intercepted the message meant for Luke and as they travel deep into Chiss space, they discover abruptly who it is who made that interception, and along the way Luke & his wife, Mara find more than they bargain for. Mysterious problems happen on the Chiss spaceship, seemingly to be nothing more than choreographed diversions for other more interesting crimes to take place. Along the way we meet another race of aliens who wish to pay tribute to the Jedi who fought to save them from enslavement by a mysterious unknown race of ruthless conquerers and very nearly slaughtered them all. When Outbound Flight is finally reached, Luke, Mara & the Chiss are rather surprised to find out that not only are the 6-Dreadnaughts in remarkable shape considering their crash-landing, but they also find the last thing they ever expected: survivors -- survivors who apparently wish to have nothing to do with Jedi. A chance to discover what really happened to Outbound Flight and what role the Chiss really had in their destruction is quite a mystery indeed -- a journey that is very much worth taking.

For those of you who ONLY enjoy Star Wars tales that include all of the major CORE characters (Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, R2D2 & C3PO etc) you just may be slightly let down. For the rest of us who read ANYTHING written by Timothy Zahn, you will NOT be disappointed in the slightest. As this story unfolded I found myself absolutely wrapped in the mystery and I had a very difficult time putting it down to do mundane things like eat and sleep. I was also VERY thrilled to hear that Zahn is also planning an additional novel based upon the actual mission OF Outbound Flight scheduled for release sometime next year. Fans of Timothy Zahn Rejoice! This is just an additional adventure in that Galaxy Far, Far Away that truly lives up to the Grand Adventure that began with Episode IV back in 1977. Great Stuff!

Very interesting

Luke Skywalker has a wife, also a Jedi Knight, and other alien characters are thrown into this timeless and highly successful space opera series. Written by Timothy Zahn, who has written other books in this series, proves why he is a Hugo Award holder. Buy and add this book to: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.