From the Publisher: It began as the ultimate voyage of discovery only to become the stuff of lost Republic legend . . . and a dark chapter in Jedi history. Now, at last, acclaimed author Timothy Zahn returns to tell the whole extraordinary story of the remarkable and doomed Outbound Flight Project.The Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C baoth petitions the Senate for support of a singularly ambitious undertaking. Six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights, and fifty thousand men, women, and children will embark aboard a gargantuan vessel, equipped for years of travel on a mission to contact intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the known galaxy. The government bureaucracy threatens to scuttle the expedition before it can even start until Master C baoth foils a murderous conspiracy plot, winning him the political capital he needs to set in motion the dream of Outbound Flight.Or so it would seem. For unknown to the famed Jedi Master, the successful launch of the mission is secretly being orchestrated by an unlikely ally: the evil Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, who has his own reasons for wanting Outbound Flight to move forward . . . and, ultimately, to fail. Yet Darth Sidious is not the mission s most dangerous challenge. Once underway, the starship crosses paths at the edge of Unknown Space with the forces of the alien Chiss Ascendancy and the brilliant mastermind best known as Thrawn. Even Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, aboard Outbound Flight with his young Padawan student, Anakin Skywalker, cannot help avert disaster. Thus what begins as a peaceful Jedi mission is violently transformed into an all-out war for survival against staggering odds and the most diabolical of adversaries.Timothy Zahn s unique mix of espionage, political gamesmanship, and deadly interstellar combat breathes electrifying life into a Star Wars leg
Despite the title the book is really much more about Thrawn and first Republic contact with the Chiss than it is about the Outbound Flight Project. Outbound Flight is the central mechanism around which the plot unfolds, of course, but isn't the prime feature of the story. Nevertheless, this is a very good book, well worth reading (as are pretty much all of Mr. Zahn's works). The only thing I didn't like was the superfluous inclusion of Anakin and Obi Wan but they only play minor roles and leave before the s..
Back in the early 1990's, Tim Zahn wrote a series that opened up the floodgates for the expanded Star Wars universe. He introduced perhaps the most complex and interesting character ever created for science fiction: Grand Admiral Thrawn. Over the last 15 years, readers have been treated with small glimpses of the destruction of Outbound Flight and the personality of Thrawn but with the exception of a short story, the Grand Admiral has not shown up again. Now he does with a vengeance. The history of Outb..
If you, like me, read Zahn's Thrawn trilogy a very, very long time ago, and you've followed the universe even through all of the meandering nonsense of late, this is the book you've been waiting for. Aside from an early diversion with Obi-Wan and Anakin that's completely incidental to the plot (and almost feels like it was forced, as if he was required to add them to his story), this is completely and totally the first chapter of ZAHN'S Star Wars universe. His books hang together remarkably well, and form..
