[Jason Vines]

Timothy Zahn's newest Star Wars novel, Outbound Flight, isn't as good as Zahn's pedigree indicates it would be. The actual Outbound Flight occupies only the last third of the novel. Before then, Zahn fills pages with a mining dispute on some world I can't even remember now, political maneuvering in preparation for Outbound Flight (which isn't as exciting as the political intrigue in Cloak of Deception), and language learning sessions between Thrawn and Jorj Car'Das. If Outbound Flight were longer, this all might be well-appreciated setup. Before you knock over dominoes, you must stand them up, after all. But as the book is, these elements detract from what the novel is supposed to be about: the voyage and destruction of Outbound Flight. It feels more like a slower Star Trek episode than a thrilling installment of Star Wars.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, whose role in the story the cover jacket touts, figure into the plot but little. Their only apparent purpose is to give the book some characters from the movies. Car'Das, who supposedly needed Yoda to lead him away from brutality decades later when he crash landed on Dagobah, appears calm and compassionate in Outbound Flight. Jedi Master Jorus C'Boath, the leader of Outbound Flight, doesn't appear much more sane than his clone in Zahn's classic Thrawn trilogy, which makes me wonder why the Jedi Council didn't expel such an obviously unstable individual. (With Jedi this foolhardy, no wonder the Sith decimated them and overthrew the Republic.)

As for Thrawn himself, the star of the book, whose painting graces the back cover, Zahn has emasculated him. In the original Thrawn trilogy, the Chiss warlord was an honorable yet dangerous alien. His moral scruples in no way overshadowed his deady menace. Outbound Flight, however, shows us Thrawn as a good pal who happens to be a military genius. In his off time, he learns English with Car'Das and teaches him the Chiss language. He also makes time to flirt with the human female starpilot Maris. (Zahn seems to have fallen in love with the Thrawn character for which he's famous, so he doesn't want to portray the warlord in a bad light now.)

And how does he destroy Outbound Flight? He doesn't. Thrawn eliminates Outbound Flight's weapon systems, after C'Boath refuses a reasonable request to detour around Chiss space and exit the galaxy in another region so as not to run into the Yuuzhan Vong, thereby accelerating their invasion plans. (Cool New Jedi Order reference.) C'Boath then completes his fall to the dark side and Force chokes Thrawn across space. Only at this point does someone else, to save Thrawn, press a button, not knowing what it did, resulting in Outbound Flight's destruction. So... Thrawn didn't destroy Outbound Flight to curry favor with Darth Sidious; it was an accident precipitated by C'Boath. Outbound Flight meets its fate in the space of a few pages, too, instead of after an exciting hunt by Thrawn.

Afterwards, we don't even have the satisfaction of knowing how Thrawn gets exiled from the Chiss Ascendancy. We don't see how he enters the service of the Sith Lord. Hell, I don't see how this ethical Thrawn ever could, or how he could become the deceptive conqueror of the Thrawn trilogy. (Thrawn objects to slavery in Outbound Flight, and yet he apparently changed his mind by the time he took control of the Noghri.)

Don't get me wrong: This is an enjoyable novel. I wouldn't recommend skipping it. But don't go into it with your expectations too high.

Grade: B-

[Jason Vines]

Addendum: If Zahn writes more books detailing Thrawn's evolution into an Imperial Grand Admiral, sensibly transitioning Thrawn from good-natured commander to warmaking conqueror, I might revise upward my opinion of Outbound Flight. For now, though, my evaluation stands.