Books The Official Outbound Flight Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Jeeze, I really wish I had known so many others from this board were going...

Aaargh! My library finally gets Outbound Flight, and I have to head of for class in ten minutes. And this is already the most boring class ever (The Philosophy of Sexuality - not nearly as interesting as it sounds) - now it's going to be a very long 75 minutes.

 

^^^ Skip out, then.

 

I was able to hold out. It was a pain doing homework, but then I stayed up till 2 reading (although I probably could have stayed up later, since I always have trouble getting to sleep). Now classes are done for the day and I'm back to reading. Page 170 so far and just as enjoyable as I'd hoped.

 

This is a great Zahn book. I enjoyed reading about the younger Thrawn.

 

I like how Zahn is mentioning other EU a lot in this book. Besides Vergere and the Vong, so far he's mentioned: the Appropriations Committee from Cloak of Deception; swoops; hawk-bats; those mutants from Coruscant's undercity; the small TF ships from Rogue Planet; and a list of EU planets and sectors, the only ones I can remember at the present being Ilum and Argai.

 

I can't wait for mine to arrive. I'm a bit behind on my Star Wars books, but I just bought Dark Lord of the Sith and Outbound Flight on eBay, so I'll be caught up soon.

 

Just finished it around 26 hours after I started. 350 of those pages within the past 16 hours, probably a new record for me. Everything positive that people commented about it, it was.

 

Don't you like taking your time? What's the rush? I enjoyed Memories of Ice so much, I prolonged those 1200 pages for a month of weekends. And then it ended . . .

 

Finished it. I liked it.

Couple points:

- Huns exist in the SW Galaxy, eh?

- Doriana's relationship with Palpatine/Sidious is even more interesting than in Hero of Cartao. I got the impression that Palpatine kept up the ruse to keep Doriana on his toes-- Doriana comments to himself at one point that he "so love this game."

- Doriana mentions that Sidious doesn't like nonhumans.

- Chiss are all but confirmed as being human.

- Car'das is Corellian? This likely makes Old Tarmidian a regional Corellian language.

- Didn't like the Thrawn vs. Doriana/Kav fight. Did Zahn forget about shields?

- By 8 rS people as knowledgable as Doriana and Kav are unaware that gravity well projectors exist. Was the technology lost after the Jedi Civil War, or was it simply a military secret all along?

- Kav is a common Neimoidian name. That's right, people, certain names are actually common among non-family members!

- I liked Thrawn's characterization. The destruction of Outbound Flight seems to have been the start of his loss of idealism.

- Formbi is an entirely different character than in SQ. It could mean there's some truth to the later him being Thrawn-- but more likely he changed greatly in fifty years. Plus, why would Thrawn steal Formbi's identity?

- Liked the lack of resolution with Thrass. It's sad Thrawn never found out what happened to him, but it's realistic.

- Jinzler's story was moving. Although, what's up with insecure young women as Padawans? Is this the start of a sterotype?

- I can't see the benefit that the Vagaari's slave shields would have, so it must be a cultural thing.

- C'Baoth's attitude and beliefs prove that there's room for an elitist sociopath in the Jedi order. Dooku's characterization is perfectly believable.

- Who is Justin Manning?

- Skywalker was great-- presented as a kid, not a mini-adult. I like his and Kenobi's father/son dynamic.

- The widespread knowledge of Sy Bistil was an annoying plot device. Why does everyone, including all the (high ranking) Chiss and Coruscant-raised Jedi speak an obsucre Rim language?

- K'rell'n. Heh. Liked the "Mist Encounter" reference. Granted, Zahn wrote both, but I still liked it. Apparently Thrawn's knowledge of Basic declined a bit in the ensuing seven years, but that's to be expected.

More later, if I get around to it.

 

- I can't see the benefit that the Vagaari's slave shields would have, so it must be a cultural thing.

The same benefit as in any normal case of criminals keeping people as hostages. The Vagaari hoped that the people they fought against wouldn´t shoot them, because the hostages would die before any Vagaari would die. At least it would give the Vagaari a slight advantage before the targets of their attack would understand what Thrawn did - that the hostages we already dead - and start shooting.

 

I think with C'Baoth's blazing ego and his treatment of her it was no surprise she's insecure.
But you are right, ther might just be a trend there...

 

Only had a short time to read it since I had to return it before going home. Although even then I didn't expect to read it as fast as I did.

Also, I didn't get the impression that Chiss were confirmed as being humans. The novel mentions them as having different vocal cord and spinal structures.

 

Different spinal structures? So I assume it is possible the heart of a Chiss could be a little higher, lower, left or right or in a totally different place? And a Yuuzhan Vong in an ooglith masquer of a Noghri wouldn't know ...

 

I don't recall anything about spinal structures, but the vocal cords are apparently a non-issue, since Car'das doesn't have as much trouble speaking Cheunh as Thrawn expected. Like the early adulthood, it's a cultural thing-- think about how difficult it is for Westerners to speak Asian languages and vice versa.

 

The Chiss better be near humans. Convergent evolution can go only so far...

 

When Car'das is sitting down near the book's beginning, he notes that the Chiss chair seems to be countered in ways that don't quite fit a human back.

 

Oh, yeah. Again, that can easily be a cultural issue. Or just Car'das feeling uncomfortable.

 

- Doriana's relationship with Palpatine/Sidious is even more interesting than in Hero of Cartao. I got the impression that Palpatine kept up the ruse to keep Doriana on his toes-- Doriana comments to himself at one point that he "so love this game."

Too bad more people don't get that.

- Doriana mentions that Sidious doesn't like nonhumans.

The question is whether or not this is actually true, or just something Doriana is led to believe. It doesn't make much sense to lie to Doriana about that, as Doriana doesn't seem to share those prejudices.

- Car'das is Corellian? This likely makes Old Tarmidian a regional Corellian language.

I didn't like that. Every third human is Corellian, apparently. Alternatively, he only said that they were Corellian traders. The other two could be Corellians, the ship could be of Corellian registry, etc.

- Didn't like the Thrawn vs. Doriana/Kav fight. Did Zahn forget about shields?

Some people have implied that particle shields weren't widespead at that time . . . think what you will.

- By 8 rS people as knowledgable as Doriana and Kav are unaware that gravity well projectors exist. Was the technology lost after the Jedi Civil War, or was it simply a military secret all along?

This is another continuity annoyance. It could be secret, or more likely was lost during the 1000-year Republic-Sith war (for some reason the name escapes me right now). Alternatively, the Leviathan could have had one-of-a-kind tech, and Malak annihilated the technicians who made it at some point, wiping out them and all there research. It's possible . . .

- Formbi is an entirely different character than in SQ. It could mean there's some truth to the later him being Thrawn-- but more likely he changed greatly in fifty years. Plus, why would Thrawn steal Formbi's identity?

More likely he just developed.

- Jinzler's story was moving. Although, what's up with insecure young women as Padawans? Is this the start of a sterotype?

The story was good, but that sterotype is starting to really get on my nerves. The Padawan could at least be male. Darsha Assant, Scout, Etain, and Lorana Jinzler is just too much of one type, if you ask me. It's getting to be like with Corellian smugglers/flyboys.

- I can't see the benefit that the Vagaari's slave shields would have, so it must be a cultural thing.

It's supposed to scare inept, idealistic morons out of shooting at you.

- Who is Justin Manning?

That's what I want to know.

- Skywalker was great-- presented as a kid, not a mini-adult. I like his and Kenobi's father/son dynamic.

They were both written extremely well, IMO. Their inclusion in the book didn't feel like a cheap marketing gimmick at all, and in fact helped it feel like a sequel to Rogue Planet, which in many ways it is.

- The widespread knowledge of Sy Bistil was an annoying plot device. Why does everyone, including all the (high ranking) Chiss and Coruscant-raised Jedi speak an obsucre Rim language?

Sy Bisti. But I think you hit it right on. It's a plot device to allow people to communicate. That said, the evidence seems to suggest that it isn't that obscure. It's probably the dominant trade language in that region of the galaxy.

 

It could be that Doriana is just assuming it based on Sidious' (understandable) vocal dislike of the Neimoidians. Palpatine's statement that Doriana is a junior member of his staff (a bit strange given his position in CoD) seems to imply that he might not know about Maul. Or alternately it could just be something Sidious said to prevent an equation with the alien-accepting Palpatine (which I don't think anyone can argue Plapatine was during the PT era).

On the subject, I liked how Zahn managed to work in an anti-Gungan joke between Kenobi and C'baoth.

 

It's stated that he knew about Maul.

EDIT: The way Doriana is presented as a new staffer leads me to beleive that he's been juggling jobs in between. He may have been a Senatorial Aide, been transferred to Deputy Underminister of Justice or something when Palpatine became Chancellor, and then gotten moved back to be Chancellor's Counsel or something. It happens often enough in the real world.

 

Where? I remember him mentioning Dooku, but not Mual.

 

P. 211 "The rumors about how Darth Maul had died sprang unpleasantly to mind."

So there you go.

 

Quick question for someone with the book: a couple paragraphs into Chapter 4 Quennto says: "Yeah, well, the Huns have a civilization, too, or so they say."

Is that really Huns, or is it a typo on my end and he's saying Hutts?

 

Mine says Hutts.

 

Ah. Thanks. I was thrown for a loop when I read it; hence my reference to it on the first line of my quasi-review.

Well, that's what I get for not reading the actual hardcopy.