|
|
|
|
![[Rise of the Empire]](images/banner.gif) |
| Events that occur between 1,000 and 0
years before the Battle of Yavin. |
|
|
|
![[cover]](images/outbound-flight.jpg)
|
|
Title: |
|
Outbound Flight |
|
|
Author: |
|
Timothy Zahn |
|
|
Format: |
|
Hardback Novel, PAPERBACK NOVEL |
|
|
Published: |
|
2006, 2007 |
|
|
Synopsis:
Outbound Flight was an ambitious project that sent an expeditionary
mission of six Jedi Masters, 12 Jedi Knights and 50,000 men, women
and children beyond the borders of known space to make contact with
intelligent life. It was the brainchild of Jorus C'baoth, but even
so influential a Jedi Master had to navigate the cumbersome Republic
bureaucracy to get this monumental proposal approved.
With the foiling of a murderous plot, C'baoth gained the influence
he needed to get Outbound Flight underway. In truth, this turn of
fortune was carefully engineered by Darth Sidious, the shadowy Sith
Lord who wants Outbound Flight to begin, and ultimately, to fail.
The mission is doomed from the start, for lurking within Unknown
Space is the Chiss Ascendancy, and the brilliant alien mastermind
who will someday become Grand
Admiral Thrawn. Not even the presence of Obi-Wan Kenobi and his
young Padawan learner, Anakin Skywalker, aboard the gargantuan
vessel can avert disaster.
This book also includes the short story Mist
Encounter.
|
|
Chronology:
This story occurs approximately 27 years before the Battle of
Yavin. |
|
|
Related Stories (in chronological order):
|
|
Availability:
You can buy this book from:
|
|
![[amazon.com]](../images/logos/amazon(2).gif)
Click on the logo |
or |
![[amazon.co.uk]](../images/logos/amazon.gif)
Click on the logo |
|
|
| Story Reviews: |
Review by A-Oz, UK, 2006:
"It's a good jumping-on point for anyone coming straight from
the films, however anyone who's read Zahn's earlier books will
recognize how he's filling in his own back story, setting up
characters and species who first appeared in Heir
to the Empire and Zahn's other sequels. Lucas's back-to-front
storytelling has got a lot to answer for...
"It is clumsily structured at times, with Obi-Wan Kenobi and
Anakin Skywalker feeling rather misplaced, even in their restricted
supporting roles. They're there to pull in the fans, but the book
would have done better to drop them altogether and focus more on the
relationship between the female Jedi Lorana and her overbearing
master.
"However, parts of the book are truly dramatic, with a flurry
of late reversals, and the best scenes going to the sort of
shades-of-gray characters whose presence would have livened the
prequel films."
Rating: 3.5 / 5 |
 |
Review by GeePee, UK, 2006:
"Zahn finally completes his Outbound Flight story arc after
letting us wait more than ten years. Unfortunately, Outbound
Flight is not one of Zahn's best Star Wars books, just as in Survivor's
Quest, Zahn 'sneaks' in plotlines and story arcs that he didn't
initially raise in his own books and attempts to supplant them as
being original to the larger EU story arc, eg Sidious' fear of the
Far Outsiders (Yuuzhan Vong) as a reason for his plan to liquidate
the Jedi. He has also used this book to give some form of closure to
many of the characters that he created.
"The inclusion of Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker is a mistake,
their roles on Outbound Flight are totally superfluous to the
overall story and Zahn is quite capable of good storytelling without
the need to include two leading Star Wars prequel characters (of
course their inclusion helps sell to a new Star Wars audience and
removing Obi-Wan and Anakin would require a rewrite of Survivor's
Quest).
"Where Zahn excels is with Thrawn's story and his relationship
with his 'alien prisoners', his family and the Chiss hegemony. We
get a rather beautiful insight into the background of the mastermind
that would eventually threaten the New
Republic in Heir to the
Empire. Thrawn is portrayed as a more sympathetic character
(than he would later become) and the reader is more readily able to
identify with this younger Thrawn."
Rating: 2.5 / 5 |
|
| Do you agree or disagree with these
reviews? Do you think that they have missed the point? Then why not
review this story yourself? Click
here. |
|
|