Lit Timothy Zahn Reddit AMA

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2aa1kh/im_timothy_zahn_star_wars_novelist_and_author_of/

Some interesting stuff on what he watches, perks of being an author, how he's confident the Noghri would defeat Traviss's clones, and the like. But I think this is the only really new bit of Star Wars related information I saw, in response to a question on what he had planned for the alien invasion mentioned at the end of Vision of the Future:

I'm curious what exactly those ideas might be. Stackpole was the one who introduced the Vong pain-worship, right?

Still, even if no new Star Wars stuff, worth a read-through.

 

Whatever it was it would make your blood freeze cold.

 

Not with Thrawn 2 steps ahead of everyone it won't

 

Wouldn't have been the real Thrawn - would have been yet another clone - struggling to live up to the legacy of his donor.

 

In all earnestness, I find it interesting that there were apparently three alien invasion storylines developed at incept independently of each other, between Zahn and Stackpole, Stradley and Richardson, and the NJO team (of which Stackpole became a part).

 

He wasn't there that long, he even got his 3 book story choped into 2.

 

Stackpole was heavily involved with the planning.

 

So you had a Clone of Thrawn, Another guy pretending to be Thrawn, with another Clone with Thrawn's mind and all completed by having Car'das who was in love with Thrawn.

 

Car'das respects Thrawn - big difference.

 

this one is my favorite

 

based on what he has stated I kinda get the feeling he may not be contacted for Star Wars books in the future

 

I'm pretty happy to hear that TBH. I've been pretty dissatisfied by Zahn's last few works. In fact the last book he wrote that I actually enjoyed was Outbound Flight.

 

I haven't read enough of his works to judge if I like him as an author or not (I've only read Outbound Flight and I enjoyed it. Read the comic adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy and I assume the books have way more necessary information needed to enjoy them)

That being said, Zahn's track record on here seems solid except for people disliking his pet character gushing. I'd hate to lose a good author.

 

Thing is, Zahn had a lot more involvement in the workings of the EU in the early days, when the circle was a lot smaller and continuity was just beginning to start up in earnest. Ever since Del Ray took the reins, he's been just one of a stable of authors out there, and apparently had no interest in the NJO or that era. So he tries to keep the circle small IU as well, writing about characters he knows well in a period he is comfortable writing about (before, during or soon after the OT films), which doesn't really work when that circle includes Mara, Thrawn and the Big Three plus Lando, who are already either decried as pets or in every other story in the era. Outbound Flight was a real aberration in that regard, since it had only one of his stable of "pet" characters in it (C'boath doesn't count) and drew more from the Prequels than the OT.

I'd love to see Zahn write another book or two for the new continuity, since I think he captures the spirit and tone of Star Wars really well. I don't see it happening, though, since if anything the Story Group and editors at Del Ray will be even more restrictive than previously, and characters like Mara and Thrawn might not even exist anymore. Maybe they'll tap him for a Thrawn origin novel if they make him a part of the new films, likewise for Mara, but that's about all I see happening. I think the torch has been passed on to JJM, Luceno and others.

 

I think that interpretation is slightly overgenerous to Zahn, honestly.

 

Yeah I think the Thrawn trilogy and Hand of Thrawn are some of the best Star Wars books to be published but he's always expressed this sense of entitlement or ownership over the Expanded Universe in his writing where he's "correcting" perceived mistakes that other writers made.

Like I said in another thread, the writers shouldn't treat each other's work like fanfic if the EU isn't supposed to be regarded as glorified fanfic.

 

I agree with you partially here. Yes Zahn's early work (TTT) captured the Starwars feel perfectly but since then, that feel has been less and less, so that his latest, Scoundrels, despite the label, was not even Starwars at all.

I think he will be involved if only because he is the most recognised author name in the EU and so will sell more.

 

I think the worst thing is when he said other authors are liars if they say different from him. That was uncalled for.

Nowdays though it's not other EU characters but about saying how much better his characters are than Film characters which is simply absurd thing to do and I am not sure why he does it. He should show and don't tell anyway.

 

I disagree, sort of. Allegiance and Choices of One definitely didn't have the Star Wars feel, but I thought Scoundrels recovered it -- it's tone was more similar to TTT than the other two books. I think Outbound Flight captured the feel of the PT era to a good degree -- I'm not saying it was like the movies, but kept with the feel of the era as seen when they are taken together with the EU.

 

Or mistaken. That's if he wasn't referring to in-universe characters rather than authors.

 

Nope pretty plain there what he was saying

You've reviewed the Star Wars Gamer, what do you think about the "Many Hands of Palpatine" article?
TZ I actually haven't read the article yet, but it is my opinion he had only one Hand, and anybody that says otherwise is lying, or conniving.

 

Again - why can't he be referring to "in-universe" characters like Thrawn?

http://jadecrusades.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/timothy-zahn-michael-stackpole.html

You've reviewed the Star Wars Gamer, what do you think about the "Many Hands of Palpatine" article?

TZ I actually haven't read the article yet, but it is my opinion he had only one Hand, and anybody that says otherwise is lying, or conniving.

And why is that?

TZ She had a unique relationship with Palpatine. She was able to hear his voice anywhere in the Empire. When I did the story "Sleight of Hand," because Lucasfilm gawked at that communication, we had to establish that was absolutely unique. It was Mara and the Emperor who had that telepathic communication. He didn't have it with anybody else, and she didn't have it with anybody else. That is a unique position, and Palpatine obviously had other agents, but he only had one Hand.​

Of course, since Sleight of Hand got written, it was made clear that the "telepathic communication" applied to Jeng Droga as well - but Zahn probably hasn't heard of him.

 

Apparently it applies to Anakin too, since Episode III implies that Palpatine communicates with him telepathically when he's in the Jedi Council chamber after informing Mace Windu that Palpatine is Darth Sidious. We hear a voiceover of Palpatine and the dialogue was not previously spoken, so it's not a memory unless we're to infer it's dialogue that the audience didn't see spoken but which was said earlier.

 

And Luke (half trained) telepathically communicates with Leia in ESB, when they had not been written as brother and sister at the time.