Outbound Flight: Star Wars Legends

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.

Good product, delivered quickly, no problems.

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 always felt that this book was underrated. It had a great look at the Chiss Hierarchy and how Thrawn was in his earlier years.I think this is great as also uses a lot of the other Thrawn books and characters from them including a favourite of mine is Cardas.It shows the Chiss and Thrawn in a different life. Thrawn was not a villain but he saw a lot of bad and was just trying to protect his people and he felt the best way was to go his own way

Supenso, accion y la mente maestra de Thrawn! Excelente.

When three smugglers are running away from Pragga the Hutt, they end up in unknow region space as well as Chiss space and Pragga the Hutt gets destroyed by the Chiss, the three smugglers are then imprisoned, one of the Chiss being called Mith 'raw' nuruodo, also known as Thawn from the animation of Rebels. They end up going to the Chiss Base called Crustai, back in the Republic, Master Jedi Jorus C'baoth has a go at Supreme Chancellor Palpatine about his ship, the Outbound Flight Flight Project being thrown away, in the end if he did a favour for Palpatine then Out Bound Flight would be on it's way to unknown space. Lorana Jinzler who is 22 and eventually knighted as a Jedi Kight, has to go along to Barlok, but Mace Windu wishes for Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to go along and keep an eye on Master Jedi C'baoth, on the other hand Darth Sidious asks an assassin called Dorriana to go to the same Planet and assassinate Jedi Master C'baoth which fails. And Dorriana finds himself on board a Trade Federation ship as well as facing the Vagaari, with 17 Jedi but 19 because of Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker who have to leave halfway through, but will Out Bound Flight Project go right or will it face terrible warships and go to it's limit?Cons:1: You have Obi-Wan-Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker leave halfway through but even on board, you hardly hear from Anakin, more from Ob-Wan2: You have 17 Jedi on board as said in the review but why is Master Jedi Jorus C'baoth and Lorana Jinzler just used?

Introuvable en français à un prix abordable donc lu en anglais. Un début en douceur comme souvent avec Zahn et puis ...décollage!Avant Disney, Star Wars c'était ça!

Ottimo romanzo costituito da due principali storie che procedono in parallelo per poi incontrarsi nell'atto finale. Il personaggio di Thrawn è quello che già conosciamo, tuttavia la scrittura di Zahn è sempre sinonimo di garanzia. Avvincenteeed iperconsigliato, collega tra loro tutti i romanzi dello scrittore statunitense.Contiene il racconto breve "Mist Encounter"