I wouldn't say this one-off Star Wars novel is quite up to the high quality of Timothy Zahn's past books, and certainly isn't as good as his groundbreaking Thrawn trilogy starting with Heir to the Empire. Still, it was an enjoyable enough read that fans of the franchise will probably enjoy. What I particularly liked about Survivor's Quest is that it follows one single storyline from the perspective of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Most Star Wars novels are ensemble affairs that juggle multiple storylines bouncing back and forth between the many characters in this fictional universe, which is all fine and good, but it was nice to have a book (other than the X-Wing series) that simply focused on one story. It also helped that Mara Jade is one of the best Expanded Universe characters out there (perhaps second only to Thrawn himself), and it was interesting to see further development in the romantic relationship between her and Luke.

It was also interesting to see Zahn reconciling some of the prequels-era stuff with the Expanded Universe (before the entire EU was shifted over to the "Legends Canon" following the release of the new films). In particularly, I like that he addressed the ban on romantic entanglements among Jedi in the Old Republic, and Luke struggling with whether his marriage to Mara Jade was a mistake in light of that. I also liked that the Chiss, Thrawn's blue-skinned, red-eyed species, was expanded upon further and made such a central point of this story. I also thought the character of Jinzler turned out to be a surprisingly interesting one as his true motivations came to light, and as he was forced to genuinely play the part of the ambassador role he was posing as in the first place.

Survivor's Quest has more of a mystery/whodunit element to it than most Star Wars novels, with Luke and Mara confined to a ship full of suspicious people, unsure which ones can be trusted, with their suspicions changing from chapter to chapter. The book loses some steam in the final act, ironically when the action ramps up, in large part because it never truly feels like the antagonists are a match for Luke and Mara. Additionally, throughout the book, it often seems to happen that characters will be discussing something important, then say something like "But now isn't the time to discuss that more." The only reason for this is for the convenience of the plot -- Zahn needs to reveal that later, not now -- and it feels a little awkward.

Still, if Star Wars books are your thing, as they are mine, you'll probably enjoy this one well enough.

4/5
fun, but the action scenes dragged on at times. married luke and mara are a little too cute.

Normally I don't go this harsh on Zahn, and I do know this book was originally supposed to be part of Outbound Flight and it had to be separated due to length constraints.

But hoo buddy. The pacing was so weird, even knowing it was an "excised" book. The pacing doesn't really match OBF, in that... It was all over the place. The beginning was slow with sections of tiny bursts of action, then more snail's pace, then dry spells, then ACTION EVERYWHERE and then tense politics then MORE ACTION weaved with random meal time and character angst and revelations and MORE ACTION and...

There's a reason it took me over a year to read, ADHD notwithstanding.

Mostly disappointed there was no closure for Thrass' death at all, amused at Mara and Luke's suspicion about Formbi, who does almost a complete 180 in personality, and I wish that eventually, there'd be a release of the books as they were meant to be read in their combined entirety.

Before this novel, “Outbound Flight” was something referenced in Zahn’s Star Wars books, but never hashed out in much detail. We knew that a group of Jedi, led by Jorus C’Baoth, tried to find a way out of the galaxy; we also knew that Thrawn, at the prompting of Palpatine, destroyed the Outbound Flight Project. Lucasfilm and Del Rey had originally intended [b:Survivor’s Quest|46623|Star Wars Survivor's Quest|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330605305l/46623._SY75_.jpg|1197542] to be a Luke/Mara parallel to [b:Tatooine Ghost|87490|Tatooine Ghost|Troy Denning|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320548512l/87490._SY75_.jpg|1019184], a Han/Leia book that came out in 2003. However, Zahn came up with the idea of having SQ provide the closure for [b:Outbound Flight|192523|Outbound Flight (Star Wars)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405546347l/192523._SY75_.jpg|556530], which was originally scheduled to be published before Attack of the Clones in 2002. But can it stand on its own merits?

Yes??? Sort of?? Er, it’s complicated…

SUMMARY
Luke and Mara are having some much needed together time, taking out a decrepit droideka (foreshadowing!) and firing people for Karrde, when they hear that Admiral Parck (from Nirauan, place of such significance in the Hand of Thrawn duology) tried to contact them. Unfortunately, the message was stolen by one of Karrde's employees, Dean Jinzler. They head out to Nirauan, only to find that the Chiss have discovered the remains of Outbound Flight. L&M really have to book it to make the rendezvous on Crustai in time, but once there, they find a bunch of other people joining the trip: obviously, there are some Chiss, led by Aristocra Formbi of the Fifth Ruling Family; Dean Jinzler is there, pretending to be a New Republic Ambassador; Parck sent Chak Fel and some stormtroopers from the new 501st; and an alien race called the Geroons—supposedly saved by the Jedi from slavery at the hands of the evil Vagaari—tag along as well.

Even before the trip gets underway, things are not right. A cable almost falls on Mara; someone pulls the ship out of hyperspace; one of the Geroons is shot. It turns out that Dean Jinzler stole the message because his sister was one of the Jedi assigned to Outbound Flight, and they didn't part amicably. And once they arrive in the Redoubt and go onboard Outbound Flight to pay their respects to the dead....BUM BUM BUM! Yep, that's right. As you may have guessed from the title of the book, there are survivors. But these survivors are cunning, and don't like Jedi, so they split the boarding party up.

The Geroons turn out to be Vagaari in disguise, and there's a bunch of them. Fight scenes ensue. L&M find a Chiss charric and a lightsaber on the command deck of D-1, and wonder what is up with that. The Vagaari detach one of the Dreadnaughts and fly off. L&M pursue them in an old Jedi starfighter, and sneak onboard the Dreadnaught. Fight scenes ensue, one of which involves a fully-functional droideka (foreshadowing paid off). L&M triumph! The Vagaari leadership dies.

Turns out, the Chiss were behind this whole thing, trying to push the Vagaari into attacking them first so that they could attack them back. This seems to have been Formbi's plan (with some help from Jorj Car'das), although L&M realize that it sounds like a typical Thrawn scheme. Dean Jinzler comes to terms with his family issues, and the Chiss agree to settle the survivors somewhere in the Unknown Regions. L&M wonder if anyone will ever know what really happened to Outbound Flight...

THE VERDICT
It's difficult for me to properly articulate my thoughts about this book. But here's an attempt!

On the one hand, SQ finally shows us Luke and Mara working together as a couple. If the Hand of Thrawn duology was all about L&M realizing what a great team they made—mostly professionally, only very briefly romantically—then SQ is the logical next step of their relationship. They both have duties and responsibilities to perform, and a few years into their marriage, they're still trying to figure out how to balance those. Their interactions together are stellar, and it's nice to see them doing a little low-key investigating before the angst parade that was the Yuuzhan Vong war.

What I love about Zahn novels, though, is how well he gets these characters. He has the best handle on Mara Jade of anyone—not surprising, since he created her. But his characterization of Luke is equally insightful:

The wolvkils reached their jumping-off spot and started to leap straight at her—

They squealed like small lap dokriks, coming to an abrupt and simultaneous halt as Luke stretched out with the Force to momentarily scramble their nervous systems. As they stood stunned, he sent a second, more precise mental jolt into their systems, his mind searching out and focusing on their sleep centers.

With a group sigh, the animals' legs collapsed beneath them and they dropped unconscious to the deck.

Luke got back to his feet. "Well?" he challenged.

Farmboy-—the word ran affectionately through Mara's mind. She herself had been trained in ruthlessness, taught never to risk herself for those who threatened her and who, by definition, had therefore forfeited their right to live.

But Luke didn't see things that way. 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. Others might sneer at that, she knew, or use his farming background as an insult.

But for her, the title was an acknowledgment of his moral high ground, a large part of what she loved and admired most about her husband. And at the end of the day, she slept better for knowing that even their deadliest opponents had been given every chance they could possibly hope to receive.

--Survivor's Quest, page 291

THAT is Luke in a nutshell (and the reason why I have problems with Luke's characterization in later books). He values life above everything else--he couldn't kill his father but tried to redeem him. He sees the potential good in everything, and instead of being weakened by his compassion, he's strengthened by it. (To jump sideways over to [b:Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor|2861954|Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (Star Wars)|Matthew Woodring Stover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320503726l/2861954._SY75_.jpg|2888094], I think this attitude is a logical extension of his guilt over destroying the Death Star. He's been forced to kill so much that when he has the opportunity to save instead of destroy, he grasps it with both hands and never lets go.) And it's endearing, in a way, that Mara recognizes she's not compassionate at all and yet still can respect Luke's value and appreciation for life. Star Wars novels rarely present us with portraits of healthy relationships, and Luke & Mara (at this point in time) are definitely one of the best.

I also like the mystery element running through SQ. It's a small one, with almost a "village mystery" air: someone on the ship keeps trying to sabotage the trip, and L&M must figure out who and why. Of course, this mystery balloons out of control a bit once they reach Outbound Flight, but I liked that even Mara was taken in by the Vagaari's harmless Geroon pretense.

On the other hand, so many things are left open-ended or outright unanswered in SQ. Reading SQ, then OF, then SQ again helps to clear up a lot of those questions, but let's be honest--how many readers are going to read a book more than once?

And once you start to think about it, it's sad that L&M never find out what really happened to Outbound Flight. Car'das's knowledge ends once Outbound Flight took off for the Redoubt, and the survivors are even less informed. (And Car'das will probably never tell his side of the story.) While the reader gets all the missing pieces in OF, L&M essentially end the novel saying "huh, guess we'll never find out what really happened there."

The Chiss machinations are interesting, but not intriguing enough to change my opinion of them as "those blue bastards." The allusions to the Vong, while well-placed for the New Jedi Order series, ultimately made me remember how much I disliked that whole plot thread. Why must there always be endless war in the GFFA? Why couldn't there have been more books like this one, where the dangers aren't quite so apocalyptic and dire?

***

But here's my hypothesis behind the failings with this novel: sometimes, Zahn just works better with trilogies or multi-book series. Think back to the Thrawn trilogy: [b:Heir to the Empire|40604754|Heir to the Empire (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #1)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529605994l/40604754._SY75_.jpg|1133995] is essentially hundreds of pages of set-up, introducing the characters and laying the stage for big galactic adventures. [b:Dark Force Rising|216442|Dark Force Rising (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #2)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1510280150l/216442._SY75_.jpg|463790] takes it a step further, with everything culminating in [b:The Last Command|216422|The Last Command (Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy, #3)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451092026l/216422._SY75_.jpg|397139].

SQ & OF are supposed to serve as the set-up for each other, but they don't; whether because there's too much time in-between the two, or because they cover such different events, I'm not sure. With SQ, the mysteries start out small (who's sabotaging the ship?) and shift to monstrously large (how are the Vagaari still alive and bent on mayhem?) yet are never truly resolved for the characters. The Chiss seem on the verge of starting a massive war with the Vagaari and L&M still know nothing about Outbound Flight, but the story is tied up with a pretty little bow and THE END. I'm not saying I wanted a trilogy, or a massive tome on the Tragedy of the Outbound Flight and Its Descendants. But I do feel like Zahn took a fascinating, involved story and chopped it down to tiny digestible bits that barely whet my appetite.

CONCLUSION AND CLOSING THOUGHTS
[b:Survivor's Quest|46623|Star Wars Survivor's Quest|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330605305l/46623._SY75_.jpg|1197542] ends with almost as many questions as answers: what actually happened to Outbound Flight? Why do the survivors hate Jedi? Why was there a lightsaber and a charric on the flight deck of D-1? Who were the "Visitors" Feesa referred to?

Obviously, Zahn and Del Rey want you to continue with the next book to find out. But while [b:Outbound Flight|192523|Outbound Flight (Star Wars)|Timothy Zahn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405546347l/192523._SY75_.jpg|556530] makes some attempt to explain these things, there's far too much back-story that's merely hinted at. We end up being told a lot of things, because it would take too long to show them. I suppose you could always read SQ, then OF, then SQ again, but who has time for that?

RECOMMENDED, BUT ONLY FOR LUKE & MARA FANS.


SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING
Wiki articles referenced:
Mystery fiction
Survivor's Quest
Outbound Flight
TV Tropes entry for both novels

Survivor's Quest is a sequel of sorts to Outbound Flight, and gives Zahn one more chance to feature the Chiss in one of his novels. I kinda feel like Zahn wears out their welcome, since the story feels overlong; it's detailed, without that details adding much to the story. As usual, the story is serviceable, but I'm not enough of a Zahn fanboy to let my feelings overrride a story that's functional, but not necessarily the best he has to offer (see: Joe R. Lansdale).

The paperback edition includes the novella Fool's Bargain, which features the 501st squad before they get to the story of Survivor's Quest, and I liked that story a lot more than I liked the full novel. For one, it's short enough that Zahn doesn't get too bogged down in his detailed plots; for another, that lack of detail lets the characters shine, for once. They're about the same kinds of characters one would expect to find in a Zahn novel, but they're more impactful in the shorter form.