Timothy Zahn

Name:	Timothy Zahn
Also Known As:
Occupation:	author
Medium:
Works:	Novels: Heir to the Empire, Fool's Bargain, Survivor's Quest, Outbound Flight, Allegiance, Choices of One, Winner Lose All--A Lando Calrissian Tale, Scoundrel, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future. Comics - Dark Empire series, Thrawn series.
Official Website(s):
Fan Website(s):
On Fanlore:	Related pages

Timothy Zahn is an science fiction author best known for his Star Wars tie-in novels in both the Expanded Universe and Legends continuities. He is the creator of fan favorites Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade, and his novel Heir to the Empire is widely credit for jump-starting the fandom in the lull following the release of Return of the Jedi.

Writing Philosophy

From a 2008 interview:

I often hear the argument that having major characters die is more realistic than having them always come through unscathed. Of course it is. But I personally don’t want my fiction to necessarily be “realistic” – I want my fiction to be entertaining. For me, that means watching engaging characters I care about get into and out of dangerous predicaments, working and thinking together in order to defeat the bad guys. While some authors (and readers) like the tension of wondering who will live and who will die, I prefer the tension of seeing how the heroes are going to think or work their ways out of each difficult or impossible situation they find themselves in. If I want realism and the deaths of people I care about, I can turn on the news.

Fan Comments

1993

Timothy (I Wrote Three SW Novels and All I Got Right Were The Names) Zahn's "Last Command". In my opinion it's bad...very bad. Do yourselves a favor, check out the "young reader" books". Though,juvenile, they have the SW spirit and are, I think, 100% better than "Hugo Generic's".

I must share my feelings about the new SW book (Zahn) that just appeared in the bookstores, the third part of "Heir". I went, and as is my habit, read the ending of it. Never have I seen such unadulterated, skinless, boneless garbage! Can't imagine how Lucas could approve the utter idiocy of it.[WE can, Z.P. A pimp will sell his own child for $$. He has as much respect for his"product" as he does for the "customers". -- Eds.] Zahn used the "cloning" of Luke's hand idea, something that every fan writer toys with once in a while. Fine, if we can do it, why can't he; however, his clone served merely as a monster-in the box, a disappointing plot device....

I you guys are going to trash the hell out of "The Last Command," and before the frenzy begins, I'd like to present my thoughts on the whole "I-Hate-Tim-Zahn" thing. I've noticed most of fandomites weren't happy with the books yet everybody outside of fandom( or people new to fandom) who have read the books enjoyed them tremendously. No, they're not perfect, but I liked them a lot and I've even re—read them. I think the deal is that we all have different perceptions on things. Zahn seems to have loved all of the spaceship battles and political intrigue stuff, so that's what he emphasized. Those of us who are used to fan-fic probably wanted to see more relationship oriented stories or more mysticism, or whatever. I don't know, that's just my theory. Anyway, when I bought Heir two years ago, I kept a few little rules in my mind before opening the cover: #1 This guy's version of post-ROTJ events are probably different from mine, and that's okay. #2 This is a book, not a movie, so things likepacing, plot development,etc. are going to be different. #3 Nothing is as good as a SW movie, except another SW movie.