Favorite Zahn Novel

[JME2]

Now that Outbound Flight's been out for a while, I feel the time is appropriate for the opening of this poll. Of the seven Star Wars novels written by Timothy Zahn thus far (an eighth book, Allegiance, is due out in February of 2007) which is your personal favorite?

[Ghost Rider]

Honestly? Heir to the Empire. Last Command almost takes it, but Thrawn's death came off as too much of "Wha, who, huh?", and the second book had too much of Thrawn being a bit too good. The first one was an establishing point and he did bring a lot of good flavor for the first shot in a long time into the SW universe.

I still enjoy his latter books but the duology was not as much to my liking as the first trilogy, Survivor's Quest was eh, and the latest I was enjoyed some but disliked the Thrawn parts.

[Noble Ire]

My personal favorite is Vision of the Future, with The Last Command coming a close second. Both books were very well done, with endings that were significantly better than most other EU books. I liked VotF a bit better though, both because the final battle/resolution (Pellaeon's signifcant role didn't hurt either) was a bit smoother (though I did like Thrawn's death), and because I wasn't such a big fan of certain elements of the Mt. Tantis battle, like Luuke for one.

[Anguirus]

I gotta say Last Command.

Outbound Flight would have been very good, possibly my favorite, but for the fact that the one Lucrehulk still should have been able to destroy Thrawn's forces and Outbound Flight because of its excellent shields, which someone apparently forgot to raise. That crosses the line from nitpicky tech issue to plot hole.

[General Soontir Fel]

Dark Force Rising.

If this is supposed to be a joke, it's in poor taste. If this is supposed to be a test, get with it.

[Glocksman]

I kinda liked Outbound Flight, but Heir to the Empire is better, though my favorite Zahn books have nothing to do with Star Wars.
They're long out of print, but if you ever get a chance pick up his Blackcollar books.
They're great reads.

[Vaporous]

Got to be Heir, with Vision of the Future second. Zahn established the gold standard for EU.

My biggest problem with Thrawns death was that it was sad. I actually liked him. There was also a sense that Zahn felt at the last second that he needed to kill the villain off, or maybe that the Noghri sub-plot needed a conclusion. It may have been for the best-they couldn't go on fighting Thrawn forever, and it wouldn't seem right for the series to end with the threat only marginally diminished. But it still seemed hurried, and came out of the blue.

Heh. Based on the above, you could make a case for Thrawns last words to be an irony. Zahn may have been kidding us, and himself.

Or not.

[atg]

I'm not sure about Thrawn's death coming out of nowhere. The noghri freedom plot started in Dark Force Rising, technically Heir when whats-is-face noghri got captured, and is logically led to with Leia showing how they've been betrayed, etc.

What else do people expect a bunch of betrayed assasins to try part from killing the one that's caused their suffering? (or at least is the only one left they can kill)

[Stofsk]

Honestly? Heir to the Empire.

I'm with the guy who's head is on fire. Heir to the Empire was the start of something pretty cool.

[B5B7]

I kinda liked Outbound Flight, but Heir to the Empire is better, though my favorite Zahn books have nothing to do with Star Wars.
They're long out of print, but if you ever get a chance pick up his Blackcollar books.
They're great reads.

Yeah, I like the Blackcollar books too (and also the Cobra series, and many of his other books); he never finished the Blackcollar history - I hope he does some day - Earth still under the alien heel.
[before submitting this post I decided to google to see if a new Blackcollar novel - and there is one - coming in June 2006 that will complete the trilogy - Blackcollar: The Judas Solution - that's very good news].

Have read Outbound Flight recently - it confirmed a theory I had about Palpatine and the Yuuzhan Vong.

[Lazarus]

I would probably say that Dark force Rising would be my favourite. I think Heir to the Empire had the capacity to be, except that I've only ever read the graphic version; I never got round to buying the novel. Last Command was pretty good, except for some Wayland related sillyness, and of course Thrawns death which seemed as if it was an 'Oh I'm nearly at the end,time to kill the bad guy' moment. It didn't seem like a well thought through, logical and realistic demise, it seemed motivated more out of the necessity of having the Rebels win that the villain genuainely losing.

[Ace Pace]

I kinda liked Outbound Flight, but Heir to the Empire is better, though my favorite Zahn books have nothing to do with Star Wars.
They're long out of print, but if you ever get a chance pick up his Blackcollar books.
They're great reads.

I'm in this camp, but his book Angelmass.

[Utah Jak]

I'm a huge fan of Heir to the Empire. It was the first Zahn book and introduced several concepts that defined the EU.

[Glocksman]

I kinda liked Outbound Flight, but Heir to the Empire is better, though my favorite Zahn books have nothing to do with Star Wars.
They're long out of print, but if you ever get a chance pick up his Blackcollar books.
They're great reads.

Yeah, I like the Blackcollar books too (and also the Cobra series, and many of his other books); he never finished the Blackcollar history - I hope he does some day - Earth still under the alien heel.
[before submitting this post I decided to google to see if a new Blackcollar novel - and there is one - coming in June 2006 that will complete the trilogy - Blackcollar: The Judas Solution - that's very good news].

Have read Outbound Flight recently - it confirmed a theory I had about Palpatine and the Yuuzhan Vong.

Isn't the general consensus around here that the Empire at its height would have curbstomped the Vong?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Isn't the general consensus around here that the Empire at its height would have curbstomped the Vong?

It is, even the Vhong admitted it. [Warlord Tsong La was told it by Nom Anor by my recollection]

[JME2]

Isn't the general consensus around here that the Empire at its height would have curbstomped the Vong?

It is, even the Vhong admitted it. [Warlord Tsong La was told it by Nom Anor by my recollection]

Yes, during the events of Book 13, Traitor.

[Faqa]

Honestly? Spectre of the Past. It's much more sophisticated than the trilogy(Zahn's style developed), the writing is crisp, and Zahn goes out of his way to accomodate continuity he didn't write. Besides, it's got one of THE most awesome Jedi traps around....

Vision might've gotten it if not for the "Skywalker-Jade and the Temple of Doom" storyline. Annoying and confusing, even if the character growth was good.

Heir was pretty good, but less sophisticated. The other two have the annoyance of Zahn cheating to get out of painting himself into a corner(Thrawn's ridiculous conspiracy theory in DFR and his tragic comedy of stupid errors in TLC).

EDIT: I will point out, however, that his non-SW stuff rocks. He had this really moving story about telepaths who need to avoid physical proximity at one point(can't recall the title).

[B5B7]

I kinda liked Outbound Flight, but Heir to the Empire is better, though my favorite Zahn books have nothing to do with Star Wars.
They're long out of print, but if you ever get a chance pick up his Blackcollar books.
They're great reads.

Yeah, I like the Blackcollar books too (and also the Cobra series, and many of his other books); he never finished the Blackcollar history - I hope he does some day - Earth still under the alien heel.
[before submitting this post I decided to google to see if a new Blackcollar novel - and there is one - coming in June 2006 that will complete the trilogy - Blackcollar: The Judas Solution - that's very good news].

Have read Outbound Flight recently - it confirmed a theory I had about Palpatine and the Yuuzhan Vong.

Isn't the general consensus around here that the Empire at its height would have curbstomped the Vong?

My theory involved Palpatine foreseeing the Vong invasion and this explaining some of his actions. I certainly agree the Empire would have pwned the Vong.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Heir to the Empire.

[General Brock]

I have only read the Thrawn trilogy and duology, and of them, agree that Heir to the Empire is the best one. It is really to bad Thrawn had to die.

Reading the duology I toyed with the notion that the Chiss brain can survive for a short time after the body dies, and Thrawn's people were trying to clone a new body around it. (Just an idea of mine; the book indicated it was a full clone).

On the other hand, dead is dead, and TZ didn't try to capitalize on the popularity of the character by ressurecting him, which is classy.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I liked Survivor's Quest. But that's mostly because I'm a Stormtrooper fanwhore and it gave us some hot Stormie action.

[SylasGaunt]

Heir to the Empire.. it was my first EU read so it holds a special place for me.

His non-SW stuff is indeed cool though. I liked the Conquerer's trilogy a lot (and I loved the idea of the humans managing to kill alien ships who's hulls they could barely scratch by battering all the fragile bits inside into uselessness).

[Lord Pounder]

Heir To The Empire. Sure it has its flaws but HTTE was the first proper EU book, SOTME doesn't count IMHO. I red it when i was 16, the school library in a rare moment of brilliance got it. As i read the book it captured my imagination in a way nothing had since i saw the original movies as a child. I could almost hear John Williams' music in the background.

[GrandAdmiral]

I liked Heir to the Empire and Survivor's Quest. Heir to the Empire for all of the above stated reasons, and SQ because I got to see the Hand of Thrawn is action. I also liked the twist with the Geroons/Vagaari. Lastly, I liked the hinting at the end that Thrawn might still be around.

[Mange]

I actually recieved Vision of the Future in the mail today (I remembered last week that I had forgotten about it some eight years ago ), so I'll vote in a day or two.