Survivor's Quest

This is another wet-dream book for me.

Luke and Mara the whole way through! What more could I want?

Married couple Luke and Mara are amazing to read together. Their chemistry is at its best and they are so good for eachother. They are an amazing team, and I love their interactions and how they work together well in this book.

Finally uncovering the mystery of Outbound Flight in this novel was absolutely thrilling, and we also finally get educated about the unknown regions, something I am excited to learn more about in the New Jedi Order, hopefully!

This novel has a plethora of great characters, as any Zahn novel does, including the suspicious but incredibly talented empire from Nirauan (which includes the 501st!).

The Vagaari are brilliant villains, extremely evil, but without the knowledge they need, they truly struggle against Luke and Mara as they wipe the floor with them repeatedly.

Mara is especially badass in this novel - in one particular moment, the Vagaari attack with their wolvkils which seem invincible as they have no knowledge of the lightsabers, and Mara effortlessly kills one in a single swing.

This novel truly understands Luke, as he tries his best to avoid killing the wolvkils, at one moment using the force to make them unconscious.

A beautiful line describes his character perfectly, “Even as the years had grown and matured and hardened him, the inner core of idealism and mercy he'd brought with him out of that moisture farm on Tatooine had never faltered.”

I love Luke!

Dean Jinzler is a really good character, who starts off mysterious, but gets better as we learn more about him. He has a really good, emotional arc that actually made me feel something!

The survivor's of Outbound Flight are an interesting set of characters, and it's cool to see how a society could form and live in the remnants of the flight.

Although we learn a lot about what happened, most of the major details are still lost to time, which makes me excited to read the novel ‘Outbound Flight!'

There is an unnerving suggestion from Mara that Luke agrees to, which makes perfect sense, as everything goes according to plan almost unnaturally well for the Empire from Nirauan, as they suggest that maybe Thrawn is helping them, that maybe the clone didn't die, or that Thrawn has other clones.

But either way, Thrawn is on their side. For now...

Overall, a fantastic standalone novel that bridges the gap between the Bantam era of New Republic novels and the New Jedi Order, further developing Luke and Mara's married relationship, which is intensely fun to read for me!

Timothy Zahn lit a fire in the Star Wars universe several years ago when he authored the Thrawn trilogy, beginning with Heir to the Empire. He resumes telling the story of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker in Survivor's Quest, sort of a mystery, which also explores Mara's doubts about her chosen path. An entertaining read. Zahn is also working on a followup to this novel.

Published in hardcover by Del Rey.