Outbound Flight

I was somewhat unsure about this one, but had heard good things about it, I must confess I have never read the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy books, for some reason the "Thrawn" character I never cared much for given what I know of him, however I didn't feel as if he were the villian here, however it becomes so toward the end, this one begins with Jedi Master Ca'Both & his apprentice Lorana Jinzler meeting with Palpatine in which we learn that Ca'Both is arrogant & practically talks down to Palpatine because of his refusal to fund his pet project, that being "Outbound Flight" a "Star Trek"-like vessel that Ca'Both wants to take beyond the reaches of the known galaxy, after a heroic display at a diplomatic meeting in which Ca'Both & Lorana along with Obi-Wan & Anakin save the day, Ca'Both's "Outbound Flight" is given the green light for it's maiden voyage to the stars, however Mace Windu has his doubts about Ca'Both & dispatches Obi-Wan & young Anakin to keep tabs on him during the flight, I had no problem with Obi-Wan & Anakin being secondary, unlike some readers, I felt that Mace's instincts were right, once "Outbound Flight" is underway, Ca'Both becomes a dictator to all those on the ship, so much that even Obi-Wan & Lorana are surprised at his behavoir & concerned rightly so, elsewhere Palpatine/Sideous dispatches one of his lackey's on a Trade Federation ship to intercept "Outbound Flight" & destroy it, however he halts its destruction when he learns that Anakin is on board & quickly makes a trip to get Obi-Wan & Anakin off so he can proceed with his diabolical plan, of course fans will know why he removes Anakin & Obi-Wan, elsewhere we are introduced to Thrawn as a young military commander who also learns of "Outbound Flight's" journey after the Trade Federation ship is found & detained & boarded by him & Car'das, it is here that he first meets Palpatine/Sideous & of course he uses Thrawn to do his dirty work for him, there are other sublots as well involving some mercenary type aliens who are enslaving an alien species & have a bone to pick with Thrawn, it didn't care much for this subplot, meanwhile as "Outbound Flight makes it's way to the unknown region of space where the Chiss rule, we see more of Ca'Both's dictatorship that creates resentment from the crew of families as he threatens to forcefully take Jedi-gifted children from their parents much to Lorana's disgust, some of the crew try to stage a mutiny, but are stopped by Ca'Both & confined, shortly therafter is when Thrawn begins his attack from the Trade Federation ship along with Trade Federation fighters & his onw personal army of Chiss warriors, "Outbound Flight" is severly crippled & damaged that it was at times difficult to read, however there is one moment when a bloodied Ca"Both is in a near death state, tries to force choke Thrawn to the point where Lorana feels it & realizes to her horror that Ca'Both has indeed gone to the darkside(think Kahn in "Star Trek II" on steroids as he activates the Genesis weapon) it is clear that Ca'Both is going to take Thrawn with him, however, he dies before he can succeed in force-choking Thrawn, but boy, did he come close, Lorana eventually stears the crippled ship to its fate, & Thrawn is later ousted by the Chiss for this misdeed it seems, all in all this was a good solid book, but left more to be desired, however "Surviovor's Quest" should wet my appetite for more, This is a must read for SW fans.

I generally gave up on Star Wars books a long time ago. I got and enjoyed a few from the era of the new movies, but even that was a few years ago. However, I remembered how good the author was, and was pretty sure I would get a decent story out of this book. I was wrong. This is one of the best fiction books I have ever read. The quality of the writing is just superb. The main emphasis is actually outside of the Outbound Flight mission. The core characters are fully fleshed out and have all the ambiguities and uncertainties of real people. A lot of the other characters should come across as shallow, given the lack of detail and pages spent on them, but they do not. They are like background characters in a non-fiction biography: we know there is more detail to them, and it is not there because they are not the focus of the book. In fact, it is probably best to describe the book as a double biography, of Thrawn and Jorus C'baoth. The treatment of C'baoth is superb, especially since there is actually not that much about him. He is arrogant and overbearing and he would be impossible to put up with in person. However, his story evoked in me an enormous feeling of pity. This is a fundamentally noble person, who wants what is best for people, but his fear and his ego are combining to drag him into the darkness. The treatment of Thrawn is even better. The descriptions of the book are generally excellent, both in terms of how well we see the settings and events, and in what they see tells us about the characters. But we also get several descriptions of things and people by Thrawn. Sherlock Holmes is considerably outclassed when it comes to observation and deduction. Even in political maneuverings, Thrawn seems to match up with Darth Sidious. Finally, there are of course the battle scenes. Thrawn did some pretty awesome stuff as a Grand Admiral, with a gigantic battlefleet and advanced technology and a quarter of the Star Wars galaxy's resources. What he manages with a few light cruisers and their fighters just defies description. Thrawn is also a wonderfully complex character. I had intended to give a little summary of that character here, but I find I cannot do justice to the writing. I apologise for asking you to take my word for its quality. As you can probably guess, I would absolutely recommend reading this book. It is probably best if you have read Zahn's first Star Wars books, and have seen at least one of the new movies. However, the writing is so good, and the realism of the characters so deep, that I think - and hope - that it would reward any reader of fiction.

Introuvable en français à un prix abordable donc lu en anglais. Un début en douceur comme souvent avec Zahn et puis ...décollage! Avant Disney, Star Wars c'était ça!

Ottimo romanzo costituito da due principali storie che procedono in parallelo per poi incontrarsi nell'atto finale. Il personaggio di Thrawn è quello che già conosciamo, tuttavia la scrittura di Zahn è sempre sinonimo di garanzia. Avvincenteeed iperconsigliato, collega tra loro tutti i romanzi dello scrittore statunitense. Contiene il racconto breve "Mist Encounter"

perfecto

Tamaño adecuado, tapa blanda en perfecto estado

The original Heir to the Empire hinted at Outbound Flight, now we have the back story. Thrawn has gone from a minor villain in the Star Wars universe to a star in his own right. This is where it all began.