21 Star Wars Books You Should Read

Cover of Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn. Image via publisher Del Rey

16. Outbound Flight

Timothy Zahn gets his second entry on this list with this standalone novel. Outbound Flight visits characters first introduced in his famous Thrawn trilogy, albeit before the events of that series. (So yes, the later events were made first. Remind you of anything?)

Before the Clone Wars even break out, Jedi Master Jorus C’boath proposes a massive expedition to seek out new life and new civilizations (wait, wrong franchise, but similar concept) beyond the known limits of the galaxy. Obi-Wan and a still pretty young Anakin join the expedition, at least for part of the way.

Unsurprisingly, Zahn’s Chiss and Thrawn make an appearance here as well, before Thrawn became the Grand Admiral. Palpatine also appears, both in that identity as well as Darth Sidious. In other words, there are several different plots going on, which is bog-standard for Zahn’s work.

Goodreads reviews praise Zahn tying in multiple different aspects of his own little corner of the Legends universe with the greater universe, including nods to the Yuuzhan Vong. It also praises his work with Palpatine/Sidious.

Read this after you read the original Thrawn trilogy to get the full picture, and pair it with Survivor’s Quest, also by Zahn, for the best experience.