Survivor's Quest (Star Wars)

This is definitely the least appealing of Zahn's full-length Star Wars books. But I said that in another review which I seem to have deleted.

I'm beginning to think that certain reviewers may not be reading the books very thoroughly, to put it mildly. Why? As the title of this review states, OUTBOUND FLIGHT DID NOT CRASH ON NIRAUAN.
It's just that the text material in the book jacket says that it did. No big deal... I guess some so-called "editor" has some problems with reading comprehension.

From reading one review, it's like the reviewer only read the book jacket, while being compelled to put out a 5-star review. I don't see why anyone who actually read the book would think that Nirauan was the crash site. Nirauan was merely the site for the meeting between L&M and the Chiss government.

Nirauan's defining feature is a huge fortress in the shape of a hand. No crashed Outbound Flight dreadnaughts, sorry.

It starts with Talon karrde on Booster's ship the Erant Venture when they have discovered that a message sent to luke was intercepted and stollen involving information about the Outbound Flight (an expidition ship meant to find life in other galaxies). Luke and his wife recieve the message eventually and head out for the unknown regions to the Chiss relm of space. where they find the ship along with some deadly suprises.

this book is generally easy reading probably 12 and up and has an excellent author it is a must read if you are a Zahn fan.

Timothy Zahn hooked me with his original Thrawn Trilogy, but I was ultimatly dissapointed with this outing. I give it 3 instead of 2 stars only because there are some interesting action sequences, and in the end, it is a moderatly fun book.
My dissapointment arises because the mystery aspect of the book is so implausible. I enjoyed seeing the mystery set up, and was interested to see a SW novel written with that genre in mind, but either the Jedi have super-human deductive capabilities, or Timothy Zahn doesn't get the idea of drawing logical conclusions. There are several moments when Luke and Mara see a set of clues and draw some wildly implausible conclusion, which then turns out to be correct. There is, therefore, no sense of discovery for the mystery, as the Jedi are drawing conclusions and making deductions that would be impossible for the reader.
Zahn's dialogue is also quite bad, as I had difficulty imagining the character actually speaking as they do in this novel. Also, much of the 'married couple' banter was kind of trite and smug. Next, Zahn has this annoying habit of giving names to even the most periphary characters, such that they seem like they'll be important, even though they more times than naught dissappear never to be seen again. And while I like the 501st Stormtroopers squad, I would have preferred more menacing monichers than "Cloud" and "Grappler" and "Watchman". Finally, the villians' reason for engineering the entire affair is kind of lame. When they're first suspected of trying to discover a route into the Chiss' stronghold, I was sold; but to have them just seeking droid technology was a bit anti-climactic.
In the end, I personally prefer the far superior Thrawn Trilogy, or the recent mega-epic New Jedi Order series. I guess I'd rather my Star Wars be more serious and epic instead of just quick popcorn-type fun.

I'll have to admit that before I bought this book I read some bad reviews people had given it. I think I had a bit of thier criticism when I started reading, so the book seemed to start slowly. As a read deeper into this adventure, I found myself getting hooked and couldn't put the book down. I'm sorry I ever listened to other people's opinions, and I should have trusted more in my favorite Star Wars author Timothy Zahn. I give this book four stars because it was a wonderful, captivating adventure, yet doesn't deserve five stars because I reserve five stars only for my very favorite.

STAR WARS

SUVIVOR'S QUEST

Written by Timothy Zhan

Virus

Summary

Luke Skywalker has been married to his wife, Mara, for three years and they are just beginning to understand what it means to be married. The couple is soon asked to accompany former enemies on a mission to salvage a piece of Jedi history. Along the way they will meet a self-appointed ambassador (for the New Republic), a peaceful race of aliens that worship the Jedi, and a race of aliens into which Thawn (Empire's greatest taction) was born. Along the way the two Jedi will meet deception, sabotage, and secrecy. Luke and Mara are soon fighting for their lives against an alien race that are legendary for their brutality and ruthlessness. To survive the two Jedi must team up with old enemies, stormtroopers.

Response

Over all I think STAR WARS, Survivors Quest is an excellent book, its right up there with the original series. It immediately grabs your attention and holds it till the end of the book. It leaves you hanging at the end of each chapter. If I could rate this book on a scale from one to ten (ten being the highest) I would rate it a ten. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked the original STAR WARS series.

The Chiss have discovered the wreckage of some of the Outbound Flight dreadnoughts. Luke and Mara are sent to be delegates for the Jedi--among several other delegations from other worlds. But is someone trying to sabotage the mission? And WHY???

Luke Skywalker has a wife, also a Jedi Knight, and other alien characters are thrown into this timeless and highly successful space opera series. Written by Timothy Zahn, who has written other books in this series, proves why he is a Hugo Award holder. Buy and add this book to: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.

I have always loved Luke Skywalker both in the movies and even more in the books and I loved Mara Jade as soon as Zahn introduced her. I love that Luke and Mara have a relationship that blossomed from pure hatred on her part to something that goes beyond love due to their shared connection with the Force. Great read and Tim Zahn does it again.

Survivor's Quest is a fine Star Wars adventure and makes a fine addition to the Star Wars expanded universe, which is now much improved since Del Rey have been given the contract for producing the Star Wars novels.

Survivor's Quest has a mystery filled plot starring the newly married Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. It contains a number of good and interesting twists aswell as plenty of Jedi action. Star Wars books are best when the writer and the reader approach it for what it is good entertainment. So if you want a Star Wars adventure that will keep you entertained over a couple of evenings then this is a good book for you.

Ok, I'll start with the good. Overall, I really enjoyed the book due to the action, intrigue, and the fact I'm a Star Wars fan. I thought the characters were done really well (although I did miss Han, Leia, and the droids), the action was great, the appearances of the droidekas were pretty cool (even though I don't remember the Jedi unable to beat them in the past), and the story did flow reasonably well in my opinion.

However, there were 2 things that bothered me. The first was just simply the reason for the bad dudes to pull this off, really, for that reason only??? This whole extravagant plot into this dangerous area only for this (and how did they know about it)? NOW the big problem!!! Why even bother having this be about Outbound Flight(OF)??? Why not just go meet the Chiss somewhere else in the galaxy? The whole concept of OF was wasted in this book. You learn nothing about it!!! So, all the questions that you already had and all the questions that are raised in this book are all left unanswered!!

SO, what does that tell me?? Especially now since I see that Outbound Flight the book was written just 3 yrs later. Survivor's Quest was written basically for one reason, to get you to spend more money to buy Outbound Flight by making you want to know the answers. I understand this is sort of how things are done in the world or business, except, in SW, I would think people are interested mostly in one era of the timeline, either Pre-Quels, Luke, Han, and Leia era, or the NJO series. So, since OF is in the Pre-Quel era, most of those of us who read the New Republic Era with Luke and the others don't care much about the other eras. I don't want to read one book from that era just so I can know about something in this era, and that just annoys me, sorry. So, even though the book was good overall, it left a bad taste in my mouth at the end for that reason which just sort of sucks.

I have to admit that I was disappointed. After suffering through the last half of the New Jedi Order series, I was hopeful when I saw that Zahn had written another Star Wars book. While the story itself is not bad, I just found myself not caring much for any of the new characters and felt that many of the questions raised early in the story were simply left unanswered.
First, the fact that any part of Outbound Flight survived for 50 years half-buried on a planetoid in the middle of a star cluster didn't seem to make much sense. If Thrawn was supposed to have attacked Outbound Flight, I never got the impression that it would have survived at all. But six Dreadnaughts have survived, and they are found by the Chiss, who promptly ask Mara and Luke to help visit the site to pay their last respects. Luke once again goes in a quest to find any information about the Jedi of the Old Republic.
I was hoping for more information on the original Jedi Jorus C'Baoth, but there is only a passing mention of him. There is essentially nothing about the Jedi in this whole book, and it turns out to be yet another story of how Luke goes to find one thing but instead discovers another. This time the new discovery is a group of survivors of Outbound Flight.
One question that is brought up, but never really answered, is how the remains of Outbound Flight and its survivors got to where they are. It is suggested that Thrawn, or someone else, may have carried or left it there, although why remains a mystery. It is more strongly suggested that Outbound Flight crash-landed, but that seems like an easy answer and doesn't make sense that Thrawn, continually put up as the most thorough and cunning villain since the Emperor, would not have checked for survivors. Everything just seemed half-hearted.
One other glaring thread that was left untied was why the survivors of Outbound Flight despised and hated Jedi. We never find out what the Jedi of Outbound Flight did to garner such hatred, to the point where Force-sensitive survivors are banished from the rest of the community because of the fear and hatred of all things Jedi. I still have no idea where this came from, and the fate of the Jedi aboard Outbound Flight, except for one, is never ever touched upon.
I just thought this whole story was an excuse to have Mara and Luke get a story of their own, after taking a backseat for most of the NJO. It was good to see Luke and Mara in action, and Zahn writes their personal interaction as well as ever. The dialogue in Zahn's books is always much better than in other Star Wars novels, although lately that is not saying much. But this story, which wraps up a little too nicely, did not have the punch to it that I had hoped for.
Overall, I loved Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy and thought those books read like something I would love to see as films. The Hand of Thrawn duology was okay, but to be honest I didn't get too into it. And now this book is not even as engaging as those prior attempts. It is worth reading, but only in paperback.
One final note for those reviewers who explain away a story's shortcoming because it is "setting up a sequel," that is exactly the problem with the Star Wars series. Nothing can be told in one book and readers are required to buy volume after volume to fully read a story that could stand in one book, and unlike Zahn's other outings, which were billed from the beginning as a trilogy (Heir to the Empire) and a duology (Hand of Thrawn), nothing suggests that Zahn is revisiting this story any time soon. So if any of the glaring plot holes are purposely left open so another substandard writer can fill them in later (Dix and Williams, anyone), then I doubt I'll keep shelling out money for stories that fall flat.

SQ is Tim Zahns return to the Star Wars Universe left off from his "Hand of Thrawn" series. I will admit I never could get interested in the NJO series therefore I am completely unaware of events, politics, technology etc therein. However, TZ attempts to pass over those events, some might argue that he deliberately left them out, but he goes on with a Luke/Mara standalone story about Outbound Flight (OF)! An event TZ created during his original Thrawn series and alluded to briefly again in the 2nd Thrawn series.
What begins as a promising suspense filled revelation about Clone Wars-era politics tied together with SW supervillian Thrawn, a story of immensity was awaited. Instead, the book falters from too much promise. Key conditions surrounding OF were just dropped or forgotten, such as Thrawn's involvement? This novel presented Thrawn's legacy only as a passive vehicle reference to create a story surrounding what was otherwise a footnote event in SW literature. What was it about OF that made it so nasty? What happened to its JEDI aboard?
Unfortunately, either TZ got bored with this idea and instead went with a L/M save-the-day direction, or else the editors got cold feet, perhaps thinking it would spoil all the surprises that Prequel III will reveal.
On a few occassions, TZ mentions some events from Prequels 1 & 2.
Various plotlines that I really cared about but left me hanging were:
-Why did Outbound Flight survive the way it did, if Thrawn, the great tactical genius he was, supposedly destroyed it?
-How did OF get to its current location if that location was deep within heavily defended Chiss territory? Further, this novel presented OF's final resting place as being one quite difficult to reach even under the best of circumstances. Somehow I can't imagine very well, how a derelict half destroyed ship drifting into a starcluster planet, and not pulverize itself to nothing when it "landed".
-Why didn't Zahn tell us more about OF itself? This event, although small in the grand scheme of things, was obviously a pivotal event in Old Republic politics. How come we didn't learn more about its mission? Its crew? or its Jedi?
-Why did the suriviors hate Jedi? What motivations did they have for banshing those they suspected of beind Jedi? Why did they not want Evlyn to be a Jedi? Furthermore, why did they hate the Republic so much? Surely, politics of the day weren't so terrible that these "exiles" would never want to return even that The Old Republic is long gone. Did it have to do with OF original mission parameters or something?
-Why were the Vaagari so intent on getting hold OF ships themselves? surely there are more modern ships avaialble?
-Thrawn still might be alive? Not again.
-What about this whole idea Mara had about going back to the Empire's deathbed remains?
-Nirauan, this planet was so full of mystery the first time, why couldn't we see more of it?
-Formbi? Why do I sense their was more to him, and his subordinates such as Feesa, were let us to believe?
-Car'das, why bring him into this story? In the last series, TZ opened this character as one who doesn't just conviently show up. He knows how to hide. Why use him only as a way to tie the poorly used Dean Jinzler with Formbi and the Chiss? Whats his motivation? Where did he go? OF struck me as quite a treasure trove even for the likes of him?
-Why is this novel called Survivor's Quest? what 'quest' were the OF crew really trying to acheive. A better title would have been Survivor's Dilemma or something along those lines.
All and all, i was dissappointed in this novel, it is better than many I have read, but it just leaves too many more questions than answers/resolutions? Many of these questions were central to the plot early on, but are quickly forgotten. For people who seek the truth, this novel doesn't have it.

This book is more than amazing. As can always be expected from Timothy Zahn, this is an wonderful Expanded Universe novel. If you don't own this book get it now! I have read 50+ Star Wars novels and this one remains my very favorite! It acts as a sequel to Outbound Flight although the two happen over thirty years apart. It follows Luke Skywalker and his wife Mara Jade Skywalker on their search for the remains of the lost Outbound Flight project. The book takes many unexpected turns and will keep you guessing. I would recommend reading Outbound Flight (Timothy Zahn) before this to make for a great duo.

This book is a great book. If you ever read the Thrawn trilogy you know about something called the outbound flight. This is three years after Luke and Mara'a wedding so it's been 50 years! Luke and Mara are accepting the chiss's invitation and with stormtrooper squad 501 they find survivors aboard outbound flight.

This book was an amazing read. For any Mara Jade fans out there I would definately recommend you picking this book up. Being she is Timothy Zahn's character no one else writes her better. He stays true to her sarcastic nature but shows us into her core as a new and loving wife. The ocassional "Skywalker" still slips out of her mouth as she gets irritated at Luke. Gotta love it! Some parts of the book drag a little bit but the second half of the novel runs rapid in that "I just have to read one more-no two more-chapters" kind of pace. It is a very character motivated novel and insightful into the love and marriage between the Skywalkers. It is a must read to bridge the loooong gap between The Hand of Thrawn and the NJO. Happy reading!

From start to end Zahn keeps you in mystery. Out of all the characters in the book the most innocent party in the book is actually the one enemy that could end the Chiss empire. Zahn knows Star Wars and he is the only person I will read when it comes to those books.

This was a complete disappointment. I really looked forward to reading another Timothy Zahn Star Wars novel but this was boring, predictable, and had poor character development throughout. The relationship between Luke and Mara was barely explored except with some "mystical Jedi nonsense". Mr.Zahn's previous efforts for the series were outstanding---what a shame this did not meet his own standard of excellence.

A lot of Star Wars novels have become extremely formulaic to me over the past few years, and I've missed terribly the days when there are really GOOD stories out there, not just spacefaring jargon.

Survivor's Quest is one of those! It keeps truly to the spirit of Star Wars and the characters are all given distinct personalities. At the end of the story, you just can't help but wish that all these great new characters will continue to appear in the "new" storylines, which are sadly lacking in charismatic characters.

This Book is very easy to Read even for those casual readers, like myself, who dont even like reading all that much. I read this 368 Page book in less than 2 Days i just simply Couldnt put it down and i really felt a connection with the Characters especially Jinzler (later on in the book anyway), Mara (who is my favorite Character), and Luke. Couple scenes even had me laugh which i was surprised about for a book. This is a must read for Die Hard star wars fans with nothing to do for a day or two!!

I have fond memories of the Heir to the Empire 3 books and couldnt remember why I stoped reading Zahn's work. I wanted a scifi book for a long flight and I picked up Zahns Survivor's Quest. Then I remembered why I stopped reading his work, this book, like all the others I read after Heir 3, are dull trodding titles that have none of the fun of the first 3. Save yourself the trouble and dont even bother getting it from the library.

Even after this I still love the Heir to the Empire 3. If you have not read them yet you really should.

This has to be one of the worst books ever written for the Star Wars Expanded Universe. The story doesn't seem suspenseful at all and is very slow. I gave up this one after the first 150 pages.This was a major disappointment especially coming from such a good writer as Zahn.

Even though this came out before Outbound Flight I did not read it until after reading Outbound Flight. Outbound Flight was such a good book, full of back story and insight, that I felt a let down when reading Survivor's Quest. It did not have the same feel to it. I still liked it as a story, it just did not grab me in like Outboud Flight did.

Proving once again why Del Rey is winning the war for pulp fiction litter, Survivor's Quest is a stunning performance of outstanding mediocrity.

Commencing with the cliché Impstar opening for no reason other than to mimic decades-old movies, did seeing Karrde or Terrik's only appearance splash nostalgia on your face?

Matters degrade further with yet another hundredth cantina scene, showcasing nothing more than Mara's personality and combat skills we already know. Mature readers starved for proper stories will ask what point it was. Seasoned readers will spot the pattern of the droideka; events in the beginning full circle back at the end. Dark Tide did this too. Predictable. It therefore came as no surprise the droideka came back in the end.

By midbook you're realising two frogs in the ointment: pure boredom, and not interesting. 2/3rds is actionless chapter after another, heavily conjectural and conversational. You persevere because money was spent, and Exchange work is a one-way deal, hoping the goods pay before Davik Kang comes collecting.

But it just doesn't, as Sauron's Mouth would accent better. Suddenly you have a third left, and intrigue is forgotten in a sudden blaze of silly action scenes as Zahn suddenly unleashes the feeble wizards on aliens whose written format perfectly matches the Conquerors' trilogy Mrachani.

Now, this works two ways. Ugnaught cubs who delight in Jedi sabering the pizza without that irritating pacifist philosophy, dig in boys. The Skywalkers ram-bam brute over brawn. On a Worrt's other leg, they're gunning for you but you need some moralist reflection if violence returned is the only way. Those frustrated with all the Clone War / NJO dithering philosophy, this is a rare exception.

Oh, Zahn tries to intrigue, but after the action fades you never get the explanations owed. Only why the Chiss withheld the feeble wizards' Force performance, and what Chak and the boys were doing with that piece of equipment, and if those revelations dazzled you then I'm Revan's mum.

What exactly were you expecting Outbound Flight was, magical fantasyland of exotic maiden-infested castles? It's a spaceship. They have limited rooms and passageways. Seeing Dreadnought corridors and cargo bays was awesome, wasn't it?

You saw no Outbound habitation levels, or the colonists' harsh environment they had to adapt to. What you saw was ship corridors, fellas, yay!

Known for enticing excitement out of simple events (Thrawn/Conquerors/Icarus Hunt), Zahn failed to excite at all. In the first half, when excitement was sparser than genuine Dalek fear, you have these ridiculous action "moments" he tries to make exciting. The rush of a cable swinging at Luke, Mara monkey-climbing. Pah, might as well kiss Gregor Clegane.

How does seeing an Imperial dominion invoke a sudden rush of career options? You know Mara won't side with the Empire of the Hand. Del Rey knows it. Humphrey B bear knows it, but he's mum on the subject. Her sudden Nostalgic Attack that was barely touched on is as empty of sincerity as Errant Venture's "blushing."

Del Rey's strict formatting demands Luke formally address Threepio as C-3PO each time. Empire of the Hand is a bit long to say each time. If I didn't want a serious read, I'd read Terry Brooks' blatant LOTR plagiarism. Standard Zahnism prose means there's fixed format to speak, think, reflect, and express emotions. It's rigid.

Zahn's subtle anti-female sentiments all but screamed in this book. 3 times Mara is told "Silence, female!" A third, Luke is asked if his female always does his fighting for him. And don't tell me it's the alien's way of talking. Who types the books? The Conquerors' trilogy was rife with this bias. Even his special stormtrooper unit has a male alien, instead of a female.

Since when are Impy stormtrooper composite armour near-blaster-proof? Why did Chak Fel exhibit little page charisma, and is Bullyak the new sow on the block?

You have 4 key parties: Jedi, Imps, Bluey and Geroon. You know the Jedi aren't villains; the Chiss cheeks were written too well, the Chak chaps too bland. Which leaves the hapless Geroons. If the shoulder shot scene didn't give it away, you could see this group just HAPPENED to join the ride, with NO major role in the expedition.

Experienced Zahn readers (Icarus Hunt) will pick up his trick of revealing the truth amidst endless pages of tedious speculation and conjecture. Was it nostalgic to see Luke briefly flying a civilian Delta-12? It could've been a Holden Commodore sedan for all you cared. Whether Car'das's sole mention gets back-developed in the Outbound Flight book, it was boasting with irrelevance here. Feeble Jedi fighting made the wolvkils overrated.

Ragnos' holy breath, how could you say clawcraft, when that was Jaina's slang for it in Ruin, a fighter they only see 3yrs later? A chance to show one "serious threat" from the Unknown Regions is wasted on the Vagaarians, whose scheming is offset by their Medieval weaponry. This is a bridge book suddenly filled with Trade Federation references and battle droids.

His Blueness Thrawn III's possibly being alive is fouled by two gastronomic winds: it's only Mara's speculation; and her opinion it was all a "masterplan." Gathering those parties wasn't a work of geinus in any Clawdite shape, and what forthcoming book will we see this potential Thrawn?

It took two fully armed "Jedi" a full dozen pages to eliminate a single droideka, for the sake of showing drama, not to kill it too quickly.

This was Survivor's Quest. A generic bridge book of wasted potential, transparent intrigue and feeble emotional characterisation.

Survivors Quest was much better than the hand of thrawn series by Zahn. Some parts were slightly predictable, but it was still a good read. Though the book doesn't quite enthrall the reader like Heir to the Force. All in all a good book.

I completely enjoyed this entire series from Timothy Zahn, this book nicely ties everything together. I'm sad that there won't be any more books with Thrawn -- unless they come out a prequels.

A must read.

This was not written by Timothy Zahn. I don't care what the cover says, this was scribbled out by an amateur hack in a week. It was unpolished, unbelievable, and a travesty to Zahn's earlier masterpieces. If he really did write this book, it takes Zahn from being the best writer in the Star Wars library, to the absolute worst, surpassing even that team of two guys who wrote that abysmal duology in the middle of the New Jedi Order series.

A few unforgivable weird things:

-Not once does it mention anything that ocurred during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Not a single mention of a ravaged Coruscant, a Republic in utter administrative chaos, or razed worlds. Admittedly, the entire book takes place far from any of the events of the NJO, but still; this is just very strange.

-Although this is supposed to be the first of a new series, the only part that might lead into this is mentioned in the last 5 pages of the book, in a bout of wildly unsubstantiated guesswork by Mara. Several pieces integral to the book's specific plot are left unanswered, but instead of making me want to rush to the store to see when the next book will be released, I'm just annoyed.

At least he doesn't have any technical errors about technology, etc. He does bring in a reference or two to the prequels, which is slightly annoying, since the vast majority of the Expanded Universe was written before the films were released. For some reason, the sudden mention of Naboo, droidekas, etc. tend to just stick out.

Chances are, people will buy this book because of what it is and whose name is on the cover, without reading any of these reviews. I certainly did. But if anyone does bother to dig this deeply, here's my advice: skip this one. If it turns out you absolutely must have the backstory, hunt it down at a library. Certainly don't waste your money on the hardcover edition.

Bottom line: poorly written, huge letdown.

This is a pretty good book, but there are many plotlines that are left unresolved when the last page rolls around. I was left dissapointed, because I know that Zahn is a better writer than this!!
Is there a sequel in the works?

i love the way he writes, and the universe he develops. this book is awesome. the only problem is, when it ends, i am left wanting more. i really hope he continues his story with luke and mara, and the rest of the star wars 'verse.

For those of you who actually know what good writing is, this is the book for you. But if you're an arrogant, pompouse and impatient (not to mention ignorant) reader, then I guess you can start with the Harry Potter series, a fifth grade read. Timothy Zahn, or TZ as some say, must have thought that his readers could handle a plot more complicated then the Clifford the Big Red Dog.
So if you like to be intrigued, and if you enjoy suspense and mystery, then you'll love this book.
P.S. To answer the questions of some reviewers, "TZ" is leading into a sequel. Its not difficult to catch

I really enjoyed this book. But It was'nt as good as The original thrawn trilogy which was the high water mark for star wars fiction. It seems like with each star wars installment he does the quality is starting to ebb. Specter of the past and vision of the future for instance were not as gripping as his original trilogy. i.e.(Heir to the empire, dark force rising, the last command). Don't get me wrong tim zahn is probalbly the single greatest writer of military science fiction today, but he creativity seems to be hampered having to stay within the star wars canon. As he said once in an interview, it's like playing in some other kids sandbox. It's more satifying to be able to create wondefully original human stories for science fiction, your own chracters your own worlds. My favorite tim zahn chracter owned by lucasfilm is Mara Jade, because it provided luke skywalker with a love interest. He had'nt had one since he found out Leia was his sister. I can't wait for his next book which he was particularly excited about, the outbound flight project in the prequel era, which involves one then Liutenant thrawn in the service of the emperor. And his rise to admiral and destroying the jedi of outbound flight. I wish Del Rey would do a book series set in the future about ben skywalker luke's son, and another book like tatooine ghost instead Luke and Leia visit Naboo to find out about their mother kinda a sequel to tatooine ghost, or leia visits the site of the remnants of alderaan and remembers about her life on alderaan and her mother, and bail organa. Would vader have tortured her on the death star if he knew she was his daughter? If Padme had told him about the twins would he have turned to the dark side?

Good overall but a little disappointing considering the 5 prior Star Wars novels by Zahn. The plot was a bit contrived and some of the more interesting sub-plots were not followed up or developed. A question which constantly popped into my mind was, "why are two of the heavy hitters (Luke and Mara Jade) in the universe going on this little rinky dink mission?" If you are a Star Wars fan you will enjoy the book, just don't expect it to be on par with Zahn's other work.

"Survivor's Quest" is a little different from other Star Wars books I've read by Timothy Zahn. Whereas the Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn duology occur on many different battle fronts, this story focuses almost exclusively on Luke and Mara. Han, Leia and Lando are nowhere to be seen. For Luke and Mara fans, there is as much of them in the story as is possible for any author to cram in. They're married now and their relationship is maturing. We get to see now why they are the perfect match. Amidst all the battle scenes, the love and care they have for one another shine through. No mush. This is love, Star Wars style. I hope Zahn writes more books like these. Only he can write them so well -- beautiful.

This is a review of the 5 CD, 6 hour Audio Book. The story takes place after Vision of the Future, after the comic where they marry, UNION and before the New Jedi Order NJO period.
This book is such a joy that I have already listened to it twice. It stars Luke and Mara as a wise cracking team in search of the Outbound Flight which disappeared 50 years ago with 50,000 people. I was reminded of Nick and Nora of the old Thin Man movies from the 40's, except with light sabers because of the way the characters confronted their mystery with humor and brilliant dialog.
Outbound flight was a Jedi lead group of Dreadnaughts that were to explore another galaxy, but disappeared. The story was originally told in the first Zahn trilogy, with Grand Admiral Thrawn finding and using the workable remnants of that fleet to attack the New Republic.
In this story the Chiss have located what was left of the expedition and want to return those remnants to the new republic. An expedition is put together that includes the Chiss, another race who is apparently grateful to the Jedi and Outbound Flight, a New Republic ambassador Luke and Mara.
This is Luke and Mara the way they should have been portrayed in the NJO. In NJO they were often included in stories, but written in a manner to keep them out of the way of the main plot. I suspect together, they are too formidable a team, and in NJO the writers were told to minimize them to keep them from solving the problems too easily. In NJO Luke was often written as if he was the half idiot son of a crazed monster, and Mara was given a disease to keep her half incapacitated. But here, they are the devastatingly powerful team we would imagine them to be.
As good as the story is, it has a flaws and unanswered questions. Why would the remnants of a Jedi recruited and lead expedition revolt kill and imprison Jedi? Why would the Chiss permit inclusion of enemies into their expedition? Luke's final solution was confusing; I had to go over it a few times to understand it.
Those minor questions aside this is a most welcome addition to my SW library. The CD production is superior. I am very pleased with the longer audio book versions now being made. The older SW audio books were usually 2.5 to 3 hours max.
Some have criticized this book as targeting teen audiences. I would saw NJO targeted young teens. This book is a throwback to what got me hooked on the expanded universe. Lets hope we get more of these types of books and less of the type that make Luke a fumbling lost fool. Lets have more of L&M together.