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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Reviews Books The JC Lit Reviews Special OUTBOUND FLIGHT (Spoilers)

Discussion in 'Literature' started by NJOfan215, Feb 1, 2006.

  1. Card_Dreamer

    Card_Dreamer Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2003
    I finished this book several weeks ago, but never really participated in these kind of threads before now.

    I'll give it a rank of 9/10

    As for my review: It's Here

    I know, I took the format for the old TF.N reviews. But it's really the best method, so, don't fix what isn't broken, right?

    I think I cover some things I haven't seen others cover, while some here covered things that I agree/disagree but felt I was inadiquate to cover.
     
  2. ezekiel22x

    ezekiel22x Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 9, 2002
    First off, I appreciated Zahn?s ability to juggle a decent amount of characters. The inclusion of Anakin and Obi-Wan didn?t seem nearly as contrived as I feared, while pacing wise and in terms of intersecting plot lines, Zahn does carry the ability to tell a very brisk, cinematic tale.

    Of course, the actual conveyance of the story mostly served to remind me that Zahn is a very pedestrian writer. In terms of simple construction, I really have no idea how Zahn gets away with all the horrid adverb usage. One of the most basic rules of the trade is to always end a line of dialogue with a simple he said or she said. The dialogue should be written with enough coherence and sincerity that no awkward descriptors are needed to convey tone. For Zahn, though, it?s always a ?He intoned darkly,? or ?Thrawn said acidly,? or my personal favorite, ?he replied unblinkingly.? Plain and simple, that?s bad writing, and at best makes one with any working knowledge of proper rules of construction cringe, and cringe, and cringe again.

    Moving away from style and into content, I thought Thrawn?s stiff dialogue and never-faltering composure rang way too hollow even for an alien who?s always supposed to keep his cool. His characterization as a morally-inclined and sociable protagonist was taken to such an extreme that I question how and why this same character could possibly become the calculating menace from Heir to the Empire. On a broader scale, the majority of the main characters exhibited such brazen naiveté that the credibility of their positions was belied. C'Baoth was so narrow-minded in angry, aggressive world-view that he existed as a caricature lacking any real depth. I had an equally hard time with Maris the smuggler, who for some reason pursued a career on the fringes of legality despite the fact that her morals were shimmering. I had no idea why she was ever attracted to Quennto in the first place, as the interaction between her and the bumbling, greedy archetype was totally lacking in anything meaningful. Her subsequent crush on Thrawn might have been interesting had the relationship been explored in any detail, but unfortunately Zahn?s portrayal left for nothing more than a picture of a gawking, girlish woman with little relevant life experience in any field.

    On the plus side, Zahn?s action scenes were fluid enough that my attention span didn?t waver too much, while I also appreciated his attempts to portray the disparity between average people and what they rightfully considerd a very elitist Jedi Order. But still, through things like this I liked there still lacked a certain amount of exploratory depth that was necessary given the nature of the story. I never felt the urgency that should be expected upon 50,000 lives being lost aboard Outbound Flight. And while the prospect of seeing key Zahn characters in their early days carried some level of superficial cool, unfortunately he failed to delve deep enough, instead relying on stilted dialogue and static, self-aggrandizing shells of characters that can?t hold their own against those of other contemporary EU authors who don?t shy away from more honest conflict and characterization.

    5/10
     
  3. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    225.6/25=9.02
     
  4. Ive_Got_Two_Legs

    Ive_Got_Two_Legs Jedi Youngling star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2005
    10/10. Great book.
     
  5. Darth Hakuna

    Darth Hakuna Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Mar 14, 2000
    10/10. Fantastic dialogues. Thrawn is perfectly written. One of the EU best books by far!!
     
  6. NJOfan215

    NJOfan215 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    245.6/27 = 9.09
     
  7. rogue_wookiee

    rogue_wookiee Jedi Youngling star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 24, 2004
    9/10

    An extremely well written book. Zahn shows why he is the master and I had a hard time putting it down. Thrawn was perfectly written. We see that he is a compassionate person and does what he thinks is best. I think the complaints about him being changed into a good guy can be addressed by pointing out that he was probably hardened by years of Imperial service. The relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan is easily the best portrayal since Rogue Planet. It almost makes me wish Zahn had written AotC and RotS...

    My only major complaint is that it had a few too many little moments straight out of the movies.
     
  8. Lord_Hydronium

    Lord_Hydronium Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 11, 2002
    9/10. The ending was somewhat rushed, and as mentioned, the death of everyone on Outbound Flight was awfully low-key for the climax of the book (and I would have liked a more personal death for Jorus, but that's just my taste). The rest was consistently entertaining, though. It was very interesting to see Thrawn take his first step from the idealistic CEDF officer out to save everybody to the cold, ruthless admiral of later years. I know people have mentioned the fall of Vader, but I think the parallel with Revan is much more striking. Both men wanted to stop something from beyond from threatening the galaxy that only a few knew of, and somewhere along the way lost the nobility of their original goals, turning to any means to reach that end.

    I didn't think Thrawn was too uberized (in fact, I think the worst he got was actually in TTT itself, not counting "Oh, I'm so scared of Thrawn!" Han from HOT), and throughout the book I couldn't help but think that when he did start to get over-the-top, whether that was very much intentional of Zahn. That is, I suspect Zahn knows perfectly well how out there Thrawn's deductive reasoning can get, but knows equally well that as long he doesn't go too far beyond the ability to suspend disbelief, it can make the story a lot of fun. In that vein, the shooting-through-shields trick of HTTE may have been edged out of my "favorite Thrawn tactic" spot by the "killing the Vagaari in droves, thus effectively crippling the Jedi and using that opportunity to attack" move. Jorus doomed them in more ways than one; had he let regular crewmen man some of the guns, the Outbound Flight's defenses wouldn't have been completely useless then.

    It's been a while since I read SQ and I don't remember a lot of it, but I did like the tie-ins that I caught, like Jorus' casual mention of droidekas on Outbound Flight or the Delta-12 that was never used. In regards to the latter, whether Anakin and Obi-Wan were put in at LFL insistence or not, they were incorporated quite well into the story. And something I positively loved, Zahn got Anakin right. Yeah, he's going to be Darth Vader, but right now he's a fourteen year old kid, and Zahn makes him act like one, rather than the creepy snap-to-the-dark-side-at-every-opportunity mini-Sith Lord he gets written as so often.
     
  9. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    263.6/29 = 9.09
     
  10. Master Chbel

    Master Chbel Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    May 6, 2000
    9.3/10

    I enjoyed this book--and love the fact that even after ROTS and the revelation they are the same person, Palpatine and Sidious are still being kept *distinct*.

    Anakin and Obi-Wan really fit into the story line, even though it is obvious they were there only because someone said so. And I like how Palpatine got them off the ship.

    I can see why Palpatine wanted Jorus gone--but then why clone him?
     
  11. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    272.9/30 = 9.10
     
  12. Ataro_Soresu

    Ataro_Soresu Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    My review, reprinted from elsewhere:

    The classic Zahn characters are back...or rather, here for the first time, and it's awesome to see them. The original Jorus C'baoth is fantastically arrogant....and even though you know it's wrong, it's hard for a part of you not to cheer for the hotheaded, self-centered, and incredibly powerful Jedi supremacist. (A great scene when Obi-Wan first sees C'baoth's Meld in action, when he wonders if perhaps C'baoth's arrogance may be less than unjustified.)

    And equally thrilling, we have our first encounter with Mitth'raw'nuruodo, and we get a great sense of his relationship with his fellow Chiss. We get our first (chronological) look at Thrawn's chilling insight into the minds of his opponents and his skills in battle. And the first one from the Republic to meet him is no less than our good friend, Jorj Car'das. (It'd be awesome if Zahn wrote another book about Car'das's exploits, from Bpfassh to Dagobah, as I was sort of crossing my fingers for, but at this point in the timeline, it's way too soon.)

    Palpatine's machinations are masterfully laid out, and it's cool to see Kinman Doriana doing double-duty for Palpatine and Sidious, and wondering about what would happen if Palpatine ever caught him working for the other.

    On top of all that, even Anakin and Obi-Wan get thrown into the mix, and Zahn does a fantastic job of writing them, as well.

    All in all, a great read. I devoured it in less than a day.
    -----------------
     
  13. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    No numbers?
     
  14. The_Samurai

    The_Samurai Jedi Master

    Registered:
    Mar 31, 2006
    I just finished the book yesterday and I have to say it was awesome. It seems to me that with every book Zahn writes, SW or otherwise, he just gets better and better.

    I thought Thrawn was really well written and did a great job of showing the character much the same except younger and a bit less experienced. Some people complained that Thrawn was being redeemed but I never really thought, at least after reading the HOT duology that Thrawn was really that bad a guy. All it did for me was to make me an even bigger Thrawn fan than I was before.

    Jorus C'baoth was also really well done. It was kind of interesting to me that he had many of the same character traits as in the TT but to a smaller level, which is fairly consistent as his clone in TT was mad. Although he was getting close to his clone's way of thinking towards the end he also turned to the dark side at that point so it kind of makes sense.

    As for it taking about a quarter of the book before you saw Outbound Flight I didn't mind that either. Sure, it was a little slow-moving but it was kind of needed to set the scene of who the characters, (particularly Jorus and Lorana) were so that you could see how they changed over the course of the book.

    A brilliant book, I couldn't put it down. My only problem now is that I'm scared to read DN3 because I'm worried it'll ruin the way Zahn wrote/writes the Chiss and the Unknown Regions.

    Anyway, I'll give it 9.8/10(and that's only because I want to leave some room for any later books to be better.)


     
  15. Ataro_Soresu

    Ataro_Soresu Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    Poodoo. Sorry. Wrote that awhile back and forgot to tack on a grade.

    Hmm...I guess in keeping with the weird decimal/fraction trend, I'll go with 9.5/10.
     
  16. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    292.2/32 = 9.13
     
  17. Kyptastic

    Kyptastic VIP star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    Just read it for the first time.

    I'm going to go with 8.5/10

    I really enjoyed this novel, especially considering I hadn't really enjoyed much from Zahn before. I would loved this to have been the first of Zahn's books, then going on to read the rest. It adds so much, not only to Survivors quest, but the rest of the Thrawn books. The story didn't lose anything from having Obi-Wan and Anakin in it, especially since they weren't forced down our throats throughout.

    I would have liked to have seen more from C'Baoth's point of view, but Jinzlers adequately filled some of that. The subtleties of some of the references more than matched something that Luceno would have put out, which was enjoyable.
     
  18. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Average score: 300.7/33 = 9.11
     
  19. Crox

    Crox Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 30, 2006
    9.5/10
     
  20. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Average score: 310.2/34 = 9.12
     
  21. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Unlock and bump.
     
  22. Darth_Foo

    Darth_Foo Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 24, 2003
    the good-
    -characterizations of c'boath for starters. turns out the clone wasn't so far from the original eh?

    -zahn's ability to show characters thoughts and POVs not as fact but subjective yet understandable. example: some people thinking the jedi are the end-all be-all of tyranny (and thrawn's "perfect" tactics. both ideas are shown from different angles so its not so one sided. i think you all can think of an author who writes her characters slanted POVs as absolute truth.

    -pacing. the first 1/3 was a lil boring, (especially the language lessons :rolleyes:
    on that subject tho, its nice to have a real reason why these different species can talk to each other)
    the remaining 2/3 was very gripping. i had the feeling like i was watching the titanic sail
    away with full knowledge of what will happen.

    the bad-
    -all these characters see the Vaagri yet in SQ what they look like is a mystery.

    -this is the most minor of complaints: the mentions of the Vong. as my sig gives away i'm not the biggest fan of the Vong and NJO in general. so having them be mentioned a few times in this made it that much harder for me to ignore them.

    the ugly-
    -forgot about the living shields. thats one way to have an alien species that is ruthless and evil and still believable.

    well worth the $ eventho i got the PB lol

    i don't believe in giving high scores unless it really deserves it. and while this wasn't perfect its still quality

    8.5/10
     
  23. Jedi Vince

    Jedi Vince Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Aug 2, 1999
    I've been tough on Timothy Zahn in the past, but I have to call it like I see it -- this book was awesome.

    I found myself ripping off 75 pages every time I sat down to read it.

    Solid construction, vivid characterization, and deft pacing -- great book.

    9/10
     
  24. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    Average score: 327.7/36 = 9.10
     
  25. Stymi

    Stymi Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 10, 2002
    Damn fine book.


    9