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Outbound Flight
Feb. 28th, 2006 05:16 pmSo I'm reading Zahn's Outbound Flight. This is a man in love with his original characters. So much so that he neglects the "main" characters almost to the point of having them being completely unrecognizable. His characterization of Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship is... well, one has to wonder if he's actually seen the movies, or read any other source material. I know Zahn normally writes post-RotJ (and yes, Thrawn is a major player in Outbound Flight), but that shouldn't excuse him from shoddy characterization.
The premise itself is pretty interesting, but I have no sympathy for Jorus C'baoth and he is not a person that, in my mind, anyone should encourage Anakin to form a relationship with - particularly Windu and Obi-Wan. I mean, dude. The guy is just dang nasty evil, and Anakin feeds right off of his charisma. Which, technically, is very interesting - but Obi-Wan's reactions are not what I would have expected them to be. He's not happy with C'baoth's involvement in Anakin's training, but at the same time, Obi-Wan is not the kind of man to just sit by and let C'baoth encourage Anakin's arrogance, which seems to be what Zahn has him doing. Although Obi-Wan does get a good jab in when he tells C'baoth that he was glad that the Council allowed him to train Anakin, as opposed to someone else. (read: "I rule. You suck. Bite my ass.")
Overall, I'm not entirely impressed. The original characters tend to bore me, although C'baoth's growing totalitarianism aboard Outbound Flight and his influence on Anakin is getting a little more interesting. I'm going to read til the end and then make a final judgement, but so far... Zahn doesn't deliver on this one.
Give me Stover any day, thanks.
The premise itself is pretty interesting, but I have no sympathy for Jorus C'baoth and he is not a person that, in my mind, anyone should encourage Anakin to form a relationship with - particularly Windu and Obi-Wan. I mean, dude. The guy is just dang nasty evil, and Anakin feeds right off of his charisma. Which, technically, is very interesting - but Obi-Wan's reactions are not what I would have expected them to be. He's not happy with C'baoth's involvement in Anakin's training, but at the same time, Obi-Wan is not the kind of man to just sit by and let C'baoth encourage Anakin's arrogance, which seems to be what Zahn has him doing. Although Obi-Wan does get a good jab in when he tells C'baoth that he was glad that the Council allowed him to train Anakin, as opposed to someone else. (read: "I rule. You suck. Bite my ass.")
Overall, I'm not entirely impressed. The original characters tend to bore me, although C'baoth's growing totalitarianism aboard Outbound Flight and his influence on Anakin is getting a little more interesting. I'm going to read til the end and then make a final judgement, but so far... Zahn doesn't deliver on this one.
Give me Stover any day, thanks.
