Timothy Zahn

As I read through the Star Wars books again, I have noticed that I enjoy the books written by Zahn far more than other authors (Anderson, Hambly, Stackpole).

I also really like Matthew Stover's style of writing.

Any opinions?

This is why we have the Authors and Artists forum...

 

Zahn's great. Stover's great. I agree. Luceno's churned out some good books, too, most notably Cloak of Deception.

PS: One time when I was reading Zahn, the stars turned into starlines and then to mottled sky. And I was safe.

 

Zahn, Luceno and Stackpole are the Hall of Famers of the EU, in my opinion.

 

I'd throw Allston in too.

 

As probably is the case with a lot of EU readers...my journey started with Timothy Zahn and TTT. I was 13 or something when I started reading them. They were the EU to me. I didn't read subsequent books for a long time, except for HoT because I thought Zahn was "Real Star Wars" and the others were probably just generic. Of course, I've found that there are other great books and writers out there (Yeah, I'm a big fan of Matt Stover, in particular) but I will always have the fondest memories of Zahn.

 

Hugely overrated, I think.

 

Whether or not you think Zahn is great or merely overrated, it's hard to deny the impact he had on Star Wars. His Thrawn Trilogy (along with Dark Horse's "Dark Empire") helped to establish the "modern" EU, and many of the characters and story points from TTT are still used to this day. Without Zahn we don't have Jacen, Jaina, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, Chiss, Pellaeon, Noghri...do I need to go on?

 

I too also started the EU back with the first Zahn trilogy came out. I was about 21 at the time. I really enjoyed them. Definitely felt like Star Wars. I think I reread those books about 3 times in the following 2 years. They also had some other really good books as well. The Truce at Bakura, Shadow of the Empire, the Jedi Academy trilogy (or rather volume one was the only really good one). The Courtship of Princess Leia wasn't that good. And then I kinda drifted away from the novels. Probably to due with Star Trek being in it's prime, Babylon 5 on the air, and movies like Stargate and Independence Day filling the void for good sci-fi. But then I reread the Thrawn trilogy again about seven years ago. That's when I started noticing a couple things that made them feel a bit fannish. Zahn did overdue using famous lines that we the audience would know well, but there really wouldn't be any reason for those lines to hold any special meaning to the characters themselves. Of course that didn't take away from the excellent story. He did take some things from episodes IV, V, VI and use them to great effect, like Luke's hand and his old (Anakin's) lightsaber, to create a clone of him. The action could have been a little better(and they were in his 2 part Thrawn story), but then this was long before Episode I and Darth Maul made lightsaber duels a must for everything Star Wars, hehehehehehe. And just having finished Betrayal, it is proven that you can have great battle scenes in novels.

And I also must deduct points for Zahn never telling us what color Leia's lightsaber was, grrr. In Betrayal, my first time reading about adults Jacen and Jaina, and the first Ben Skywalker, I already know what color their lightsabers are, as well as Mara's current color. All in one book, Zahn!! You couldn't tell us what color Leia's was in three!?

Okay, I sometimes get carried away, hehehehe. Besides, according to comic adaption of the Trilogy they have Leia's saber as green so I go with that. But in a couple of recent covers she's holding a blue saber, so I figured that's the one she constructed herself, whereas Luke built the one from the Zahn trilogy.

Joseph B

 

Zahn's books were some of the first things in the EU that I read and I've loved everything I've read of his since. The only other EU author I like more than him is Stover. The RotS novelization was far better than the movie, and Shatterpoint and Traitor were great also.

 

I also thought that the book of ROTS was better than the movie in a lot of parts. Stover really did an amazing job in that one book in particular. The battle sequences were written brilliantly.

 

I agree, the ROTS novel was way better than the film. The film has some scenes missing that shoud have been in the movie. Notably the Battle of Utapau andn the Dagobah scene. As far as Zahn is concerned, to me he is the best. He should have been given the chance to write a novelization of the movie and a clone war novel. Luceno, Alliston, and Stackpole are also great.

 

If Lucas is the Father of Star Wars, then I have to think Zahn is it's Godfather. Survivor's Quest was the only Zahn book I felt disappointed by.

I get a bit miffed though when he's able to distance himself from the other EU authors though and be discluded from the multi-author series.

He could have really helped NJO. That and he should have been involved by all rights with the current "major event" in the EU.

 

I thought I was the only one discouraged by that oversight.
I heartily agree, JoB. I've been fiddling with a screen adaptation of Heir for years and it's a detail I've had a great deal of trouble with nailing down.

I'm sure there have been tons of lightsaber color threads. Does anyone know if Leia's color has been delved into?

More-to-topic: While waiting in line for the EP I Premiere back in '99 I overheard one fan ask another if any of the Star Wars books were worth reading. I thought the reply was right on the money when the other fellow answered by saying that Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy" was widely accepted as the saga's Third Trilogy (back when it was widely believed that Lucas planned 9 movies instead of only 6). And that the lion's share of the others were largely unreadable. Of course that was only 4 years of novels at the time, but from what few others I'd read back then I had to agree.

I actually sent Mr. Zahn a copy of my screenplay the summer of 2000 after being encouraged to do so by Shannon McRandle [then Shannon Baksa] - the first model to portray Mara Jade whom I met at a convention earlier that year. Having done numerous events with him before, she gave me his card and assured me he was very down-to-earth and wouldn't be offended by such a thing.

True to form he wrote back a few months later, thanking me for writing and for my enthusiam for his book. Unfortunately he also explained that he could not read it due to contract clauses that forbid him from reading unpublished Star Wars material; the concern being the potential for unintentional plagiarism in any future work he may produce for Lucasfilm.

Even so I was tickled to death just to hear back from him. It only served to strengthen my feelings that his novels remain my favorite to date.

 

In homage of this thread, and, even tho I don't know if it's been done, but we should start a thread dedicated to Zahnisms. And maybe even Allstonisms (I just like the ring of that last one..)

 

I'm thinking of sending him a note, He is one of the most gracious end engaging authors in the SW universe.
Reb

 

My fave EU authors are:

Stackpole
Allston
Zahn
Denning

 

about leia's saber's color in TTT, i seem to remember it being green in HTTE. also mara is holding a green on TLC's cover and in the story she grabed leia's

but yea zahn's the best.

TLC is my fav SW book.

 

I'll address this to the two posters above this post as well. I think it is a ridiculous comment when people say that a Star Wars book is better than the corresponding *film*.

So, what are you going to do when you have a group of friends around, and want to watch the saga in a marathon?

Watch Episodes I-II, sit down for a few hours in a group reading of Episode III, then watch IV-VI?

 

That has absolutely nothing to do with quality and everything to do with convenience and medium. I consider The Godfather to be a superior film to The Italian Job. Yet, if I had friends over, I would be more likely to put in The Italian Job precisely because it is lighter fare which isn't as long, requires less attention, and has much more of a party tone. It proves nothing about quality.

 

I did not say that I disliked the film. I do enjoy the ROTS movie. What I said was that I like the book a little more than I do the movie.

 

I've been decidedly unimpressed with Zahn's latest SW books. It took me four tries to get into Allegiance and even then I think I read through it just to be done with it. It was nice having Chewie alive again. I enjoyed the references to other things that have occured or would occur (in the movies), but overall it was just, meh for me.

I also didn't enjoy Outbound Flight, but I think that had to do with the misconception I had gathered form reading another book that Outbound Flight actually existed and was still out there somewhere. So imagine my shock when it got destroyed. I didn't like how the Jedi were portrayed at all in that book either so I was meh for that book as well.

His older stuff I love though, TTT, amazing.

 

Along with a number of others TTT kick-started the EU for me and got me right back into everything SW once more. Zahn will always be one of my favourite EU authors, he breathed life back into the EU and without the enthusiam that TTT generated I'm not sure we'd still be getting the amount of EU material that we do now. His stories just seem to have an authentic SW feel and his characters are always very good, Thrawn is without doubt one of the finest EU characters, add to that the likes of Mara Jade, the Solo children, Talon Karrde, and so on. Allegiance wasn't my favourite Zahn novel, but it was still better than most of the stand-alone EU novels out there. I really enjoyed Outbound Flight, but that probably stems from the fact that Thrawn featured centrally for the first time since TTT.

I think it may well be to do with his own choices that Zahn doesn't seem to get involved in the multi-author series, he seems to prefer to stick to his own characters and thus his own storylines and rules, I think I read something to that effect somewhere but I can't be certain of that.

Stover is probably my favourite EU author right now, his mix of psychological characterisations and fight scenes just seems to work perfectly for me. Traitor is easily the best of the NJO IMO, Shatterpoint is superb and RotS is awesome, like others have said I prefer the book to the film, it conveys those small parts which are almost impossible to do with a film. Can't wait to see his take on Luke in his upcoming novel.

As for others Allston is great, no other author seems to be able to get the same amount of laughs and comedy into a SW novel and still get it right. SoA is hands down the funniest EU novel, the play between Wedge, Wes, Tycho and Hobbie is brilliant, along with the likes of Face and Phanan in the other X-Wing novels. Stackpole deserves a mention, the X-Wing books are great along with I, Jedi and the Dark Tide Duology was a highlight of the early NJO, it seems too long since he did something in the EU. Finally, being a bit of a fandalorian I suppose I should give Karen Traviss a mention as well

 

I agree, his newer stuff isn't as good, Allegiance was alright, but I did enjoy Outbound Flight though I think that's because Thrawn was in it, it was nice to see him again, he's one of my favorite EU characters.

 

While I might make a point certain "Zahnisms" , he definitely is one of my fave authors in the EU and what he has contributed cannot be underestimated. IMHO he's up there with Stover, Luceno and Stackpole.

Zahn and Stackpole are actually friends, one of the Dark Tide novels is dedicated to Zahn saying "next time we are in Tasmania I want to drive" and Outbound Flight is dedicated to Stackpole saying "one day I will beat you at Star Wars Trivia pursuit".

 

No. We'd read the novelization of VI, too.