The fact remains that there are a select few authors out there who do great work within the genre (well... "sub-genre"). I'd guess the percentage of good licensed fiction to bad licensed fiction is a lot lower than the percentage of good fiction (period) to bad fiction (period).
On that short list of writers who can do justice to TV/film universes is Timothy Zahn. His trilogy of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command were the three Star Wars books that started the entire Star Wars fiction line. Dozens of writers have followed him in hundreds of books. At first, I read most of them. But slowly I realized that no one could do it half as well as Timothy Zahn. (Well... Michael Stackpole is a close second. But still a second.) That original trilogy of books he wrote was so vastly better than the prequel trilogy of films George Lucas made, it's painful. Shameful. Pameful.
Anyway, point being that whenever Zahn does come out with a new Star Wars novel, I have to check it out. And thus, I recently finished Outbound Flight. This was his first book set in the "prequel films era" (all his others were post-"classic trilogy"). It serves as a prequel to his other books (Survivor's Quest in particular), telling the story of how the villain that was the focus of that original trilogy first came into the picture.I have to say that of the seven Star Wars books Zahn has written (I've read them all), this is his weakest. Which is not really to say I thought it was "bad." A book that's not his best work is still worlds beyond the crap some of the other Star Wars writers have spewed out. (Though probably all of it was better than the prequel trilogy. Ugh.)
Bottom line... if you're a "passing fan" of the Star Wars books and haven't read this one, it's probably worth your time. If you haven't read any of the Star Wars books, but are a fan of the movies (the trilogy), then do yourself a favor and track down that original Zahn trilogy.
I wish they had been the next three movies.
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