Space Opera Fans discussion

The October 2025 READER Pick is Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
On an epic voyage far beyond the Republic, the Jedi will confront their most extraordinary enemy--and test the limits of honor and sacrifice against their most devastating challenge. . . .

The Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth petitions the Senate for support of a singularly ambitious undertaking: the dream of Outbound Flight. Six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights, and fifty thousand men, women, and children will embark-aboard a gargantuan vessel, equipped for years of travel-on a mission to contact intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the known galaxy.

Unknown to the famed Jedi Master, the successful launch of the mission is secretly being orchestrated by an unlikely ally: the evil Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, who has his own reasons for wanting Outbound Flight to move forward.

Yet Darth Sidious is not the mission's most dangerous challenge. Once underway, the starship crosses paths at the edge of Unknown Space with the forces of the alien Chiss Ascendancy and a brilliant mastermind named Thrawn. Even Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, aboard Outbound Flight with his young Padawan student, Anakin Skywalker, cannot help avert disaster. Thus what begins as a peaceful Jedi mission is violently transformed into an all-out war for survival against staggering odds-and the most diabolical of adversaries.

Hello everyone, I am new to the Space Opera Fans group and started this book the other day! If it helps others, in Australia, the only place I could find a copy was the audiobook format on Spotify. So far it is interesting. There is a lot of tactical and political discussion, but I believe this is a trait of many Thrawn books? This is my first time reading a book featuring Thrawn. What is everyone else's first impressions?

Alex wrote: "Hello everyone, I am new to the Space Opera Fans group and started this book the other day! If it helps others, in Australia, the only place I could find a copy was the audiobook format on Spotify...."

Hello Alex - and welcome to the group. I suspect you're fastest off the mark with this one. I haven't even got a copy yet.

Good tip about audiobook on Spotify - I would never even have thought of looking there - but I'll do so in future.

I hope you continue to enjoy the book - keep us posted.

I own a Kindle copy. I started a reread of the book in late September, and I am a little over halfway through now. I'm a big fan of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, so it's great to spend some time in between those two movies here.

I have forgotten most of what happens since my first reading almost 20 years ago, so it is a bit amazing to me how much that felt new in the Disney-era Thrawn books about Chiss culture was actually established here at the end of Zahn's Legends period.

Brandon wrote: "I own a Kindle copy. I started a reread of the book in late September, and I am a little over halfway through now. I'm a big fan of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, so it's great to spe..."

Hey Brandon, oh cool! That's helpful to know the specific timeline spot because I'm a fan of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones too! I would actually say The Phantom Menace is my favourite Star Wars movie, which is probably nostalgia because I watched it a thousand times as a kid haha.

John wrote: "Hello Alex - and welcome to the group. I suspect you're fastest off the mark with this one. I haven't even got a copy yet."

Thanks for the welcome, John! Let us know when you get started on your copy. :)

I finished this book over the weekend. I still give it three stars. Once the action gets going and all the fleets are meeting, then I am more invested. For the rest of the time, it's just moving pieces around the chessboard, and the characters don't have enough cool things to do for a lot of their page time.

This is a bit of a weird story, as we know from Survivor's Quest (published two years earlier) the aftermath of the mission, so Outbound Flight has to set all of that up by the end. Since I finished early in the month, I'm also going to reread Survivor's Quest to see what was already established and revisit the scene that stood out to me then with Luke, Mara, and a droideka.

A question for those of you who've read this one - given that I've never read a single Star Wars book, or watched any of the movies, (although I have watched a number of episodes of "The Mandalorian") - I am likely to understand, let alone enjoy, this book?

You will understand it easily, only familiar characters (and not important for the book) are Anakin and Kenobi (and maybe Palpatine appears, but not important all the same), between Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. As for enjoyment, Zahn is in top 3 EU writers, so it will come down to whether you like the plot or not, since you won't get the prequel feel that you would have if you've read Thrawn trilogy and Thrawn duology.

Outbound Flight has nothing to do with Mandalorian tv show (or any mandalorians :) ).

I'd say that it is understandable enough. It might help if you know what a Hutt is or that large gravity wells disrupt FTL travel in Star Wars, but neither is crucial to the main plot.

I firmly believe that you can like any part of the franchise and be a Star Wars fan. However, I do recommend that you watch one or more of the movies, John. The original was nominated for Best Picture, and it is a cultural touchstone worth seeing.

Thanks for the comments everybody - you've convinced me to give it a try so I've just downloaded a copy.

I'm getting close to the end of Frontier Incursion, so I should be able to start this one in a day or two.

Brandon wrote: "I finished this book over the weekend. I still give it three stars. Once the action gets going and all the fleets are meeting, then I am more invested. For the rest of the time, it's just moving pi..."

I finished the book too and I feel exactly the same. I gave it three stars because I felt it was fairly interesting and I was keen on reading it all the way through, but there was a lot of strategy discussion. Some may find that more interesting than I did, and I feel that I could have been, but perhaps this book just doesn't hit the mark.

I will have to read Survivor's Quest now to join the final dots!

Thanks for the book recommendation and I hope to join next month's Star Wars read too. :)

This is the first time since I joined the group that a Star Wars novel has been picked for the monthly read, but you are more than welcome to nominate them, Alex.

I'm reading the recent release Sanctuary right now alongside Survivor's Quest, and it is really capturing the feeling of The Bad Batch. Giles has the characters from the show down, and he's also using the strengths of the prose medium to his advantage.

Brandon wrote: "This is the first time since I joined the group that a Star Wars novel has been picked for the monthly read, but you are more than welcome to nominate them, Alex.

I'm reading the recent release Sa..."

Oh cool!! Thanks Brandon. I don't know why I assumed that perhaps you guys were reading one Star Wars and one other space opera novel a month haha.

This is the most I've interacted in a Goodreads group and I love it here so far. Maybe I just will nominate some Star Wars novels for us because there's hundreds I haven't read and it would be a great excuse for me to get stuck in.

I've finished Star Wars: Outbound Flight - mainly thanks to the fact that I was away for a few days holiday and had some time on my hands.

I know there's a huge number of dedicated Star Wars fans, but reading this has just confirmed the fact that I'm not one of them. Maybe its just because I'm so unfamiliar with the Star Wars universe, but I found this book too long and it had become a chore long before the end.

But many in the group enjoy them - so keep the recommendations and seconds coming.