Star Wars: Mist Encounter

by Timothy Zahn

Mist Encounter is a short story written by Timothy Zahn and illustrated by Doug Shuler, originally published in Star Wars Adventure Journal 7 by West End Games in August 1995.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction

29 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

Timothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.

Reviews

[Adam Kiewel · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as short stories go, this one is great. Fantastic writing that provides great depth. I'm really glad it was used in the newer books written as well

[Kryptomite · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story isn't necessary, but it does fill in a small gap in thrawn's history between the events of outbound flight and prior books. If you're able to read it after Outbound Flight, I don't advise passing it up.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story shows how Thrawn went from high commander of the Chiss army to becoming a commander for the Empire. It's a bit of an aside, really, but it's still a relevant piece of the EU, since Outbound Flight didn't clarify how Thrawn makes that transition. I'm surprised to see how many short stories I've encountered so far that exist just to bridge different stories together, sometimes by doing some kind of retcon.

[B.A.G. Studios · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m certain I read this when I read Outbound Flight, but I’d nearly completely forgotten it. Now that I am finished with the Prequel era of books… well, with a couple exceptions set before all the rest… I decided to revisit this short story so I could most accurately add it to my ranking list.
Mostly I’m just fascinated that this is the only Legends story that has almost verbatim been translated into Canon. There are differences, and I skimmed to double check some of them, but the first two chapters of the Canon Thrawn novel are basically just this short story, with an additional Eli Vanto dropped in (shame that the Legend of Thrawn forgot about poor Eli…).
This is not too long, not too short, plenty investing, and at its worst it still holds great moments for Thrawn. Something I didn’t consider was how this was originally a reveal — Thrawn wasn’t known by his full name yet, apparently. Thats an aspect I can’t appreciate, having always known it was Thrawn hiding in the woods, but that is kind of neat to consider. Back in the day, just chilling with some West End Games material and get jumpscared by Thrawn. I don’t feel like this is any kind of must-read, the characters aren’t fully developed how they could be, and I don’t give a crap about this random smuggler Han/Chewie ripoff… oh what’s that? Majorly important for like ten full books? Seriously? Jeez, okay. Well, regardless, this is basically just a fluffy filler but it’s a fun one. I wish Thrawn was maybe a little more succinct in his explanothon, for pacing’s sake, but it’s a minor complaint.

[Daniel Greear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Wars: Mist Encounter by Timothy Zahn:

A fun short story that connects the character Thrawn’s story from the novel Outbound Flight to the original Thrawn Trilogy. The story is suspenseful and interesting and has superb writing. A knock would be to say that the Star Wars Universe, to be a literal universe, always seems so small.

Booster Terrick, the smuggler who appears in many books much later, is on the run from an imperial star destroyer in a remote part of the galaxy soon after the events of Revenge of the Sith. Booster, sly dog that he is, hides out in a cave and is none the wiser throughout the whole story. Meanwhile, an imperial ground crew keeps getting ambushed and can’t figure out who is attacking them.

Lo and behold, it’s Thrawn, who has been exiled from his people for his aggressive tactics, and now lives as sort of a wild man (err…alien). He impresses the imperial commander, who offers him an audience with Palpatine and ultimately, a position in the Imperial Fleet. Thus begins Thrawn’s path to where he is first shown in the original Thrawn Trilogy, leading the remnant of the empire.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most interesting parts of this short story is how it predicts Palpatine's political rise to emperor Zahn wrote, "Barely a week earlier the news had reached the Outer Rim that President Palpatine had declared himself Emperor of the newly restructured Empire, and had personally committed himself to taking charge of this mess" (Zahn). While not explicit, I found it interesting how, this short story written in 1995 shows how Palpatine was usurped a democratic elected position into an empire. It make sense the original Star Wars trilogy had undertones of real life politics at the time.

Lastly, I really liked how they introduced Thrawn's backstory here. Now I didn't know, this alien leader would be Thrawn but it makes sense. Obviously, this isn't Thrawn's full backstory in the EU but this is a good introduction for the Zahn's original Thrawn Trilogy.

Overall a 4 star out of 5 because the last part was just a bunch of board game stats and lore. I don't really care for encyclopedia entries. But the story itself was good.

[Helix · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original, somewhat shorter version of the encounter at the beginning of the Thrawn canon novel. It's a nice read and I love seeing how it differs from that version, and also less boring (admittedly, the beginning of the canon novel bores me to death), but it doesn't have much going on for it other than it just is. Maybe this is because I don't read it after it came out or at least before I read the canon novel, so there's zero excitement factor for me other than Thrawn.

[Kacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating anything with Thrawn in it this low hurts my soul, but this was really just okay. Maybe "Mist Encounter" would have been better if I hadn't read Thrawn somewhat recently, but compared to the way that the events of Mist Encounter were rewoven into the new canon, this original just feels...unfinished.

It's a quick read, and really not too bad, but as a standalone? It doesn't work for me.

[Lois Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

So discovered this short story at the end of Outbound Flight is basically the original version of how Thrawn was discovered by the Empire and he joined them - basically the first few chapters of the new canon book titled Thrawn. This one definitely seemed like the same Thrawn and even events he did on the planet to get the empire's attention, with one glaring difference - no Vanto, or even a Vanto like character. So, yeah, like the new version vastly better. :)

[Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little story with how Thrawn himself joined the Empire. I really enjoyed this little short story. This actually felt like small horror story at first. Stormtroopers getting ambushed in a forest with a lot of mist. They had no idea what was attacking them. Slowly troopers were getting killed. Eventually it was revealed that it was all Thrawn’s doing which was a great twist. The more Thrawn the better! Highly recommended!

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read shortly after reading Zahn's 2017 "Thrawn" novel and learning the first few chapters were essentially retelling this and I was curious on how they compared. Besides some annoying discrepancies in the old EU timeline (forgivable considering Zahn wrote this before the Prequels came out) this is just as good as the story told in the current Disney Canon.

[Quinn Kissell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short story. It is basically the exact same backstory for Thrawn that is told in the beginning of the cannon Thrawn book. I guess it’s cool that they kept that story the same in the cannon Thrawn books. I need to finish that cannon Thrawn book now

[Tijani Kay Aderemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story about how the great Grand Admiral Thrawn came into the employ of the empire. Skillful, and daring he is.

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great "interlude" between Thrawn meeting Car'das in "Outbound Flight" and Thrawn being a part of the Empire in the post-OT era.

[Leevi Järvinen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short story for Thrawn lovers.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great short story that reveals how formidable Thrawn can be when he's on his own, without the support of a fleet.

[RavenousRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was at the end of the Outbound Flight ELC and was the introduction to how Thrawn was discovered by the empire. Once he got introduced this instantly became required reading for me

[Ashton Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of crazy that this short story was repurposed for cannon and the new Thrawn book.

[Mike Corgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good Star Wars book by Timothy Zahn.

[CloneTrooperFanbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story about Thrawn’s first contact with the Empire. I’ve basically already read this since I read Thrawn 2017, but it’s still cool. The inclusion of Booster Terrik was a bit unnecessary

[Alexander Rosso · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75/5

[Michael Towers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too much to say about this one. A fun and quick read and along with Zahn's 'Jade Solitaire', is one of only two Star Wars short stories I would actually recommend reading.

This story shows how Thrawn went from being in exile to being recruited by the empire and even leaves hints about his eventual "exile" to the Unknown Regions. For fans of Thrawn.

[Andrew Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short story that shows how Thrawn became in the employ of the Empire. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain what directly caused his exile, though you are not surprised if you read Outbound Flight. All in all, a fun, quick read.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic short story about one of the most interesting Star Wars characters outside of the official canon. A great bridge between Thrawn's appearance in Outbound Flight and his appearances later on in the original trilogy/new republic era novels.

[Jamie Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, this was a 20 page short story, so it might seem a little iffy to count it as a book. But I'm going to so BACK OFF :-D

I enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say that I really enjoy every appearance of a certain character that made an appearance in this story as well.

[Jean Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story of how Admiral Thrawn came to be in the Galactic Empire's Employ. Quick but fantastic read.

[Evika · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

[Konstantin Samoylov · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most interesting stories outside of the official Star Wars universe. And it introduces one of the most interesting character.