Timothy Zahn

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Timothy Zahn

Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is a science fiction novelist. He is best known for the Thrawn Trilogy, a Star Wars Expanded Universe series that takes place five years after the end of Return of the Jedi. Zahn's work isn't limited to Star Wars; he also wrote the Dragonback series and the popular Conquerors' Trilogy, about a war between humans and a race of aliens that have seemingly indestructible spaceships and can remain in spirit form after death. He has also written short fiction; he won a Hugo award in 1984 for his novella Cascade Point.

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Zahn's characters are noteworthy for taking various pieces of information, putting together a picture of events, and planning a course of action around it. Sometimes, they have a correct picture based on very few facts, and other times they make incorrect assumptions but create a good plan out of it anyway. Grand Admiral Thrawn is, perhaps, the seminal example. Zahn's Star Wars books also usually focus on a certain core group: Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, Jorj Car'das, Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Chiss species. Throughout his Star Wars books, he often makes references to other characters or events that were created by him in previous works, that would normally not be mentioned for no reason. For example, characters or events that were created by him in previous works would be mentioned in later books before the characters would even be aware that the upcoming events would be connected with what has been referenced. As with the original Star Wars trilogy, all books in both The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn Duology begin with an "exterior shot" of a Star Destroyer. Zahn tends to focus more on the logic of his characters rather than their feelings and has characters from the original trilogy re-use some of their distinctive dialogue.

Zahn's books are often described as "fast-paced". For example, he tends to develop settings only as necessary to advance the plot.

A distinguishing mark of his work is his fondness for wordplay. For instance, in the Thrawn trilogy, the name "Thrawn" comes from a word meaning "twisted" and the names of two pets ("Sturm" and "Drang") come from a Romantic movement. The names of characters, planets, and solar systems appear to betray a certain acquaintance with both Old Norse and Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic) lexic and morphology. Note, for instance, the mysterious planet Myrkr with its near-impenetrable forests (cf. Old Norse myrkr "dark"), or the literally-minded species Elomin, sg. Elom (cf. the Hebrew m.pl. suffix -im). There are numerous instances of this in his Star Wars books, but it is uncertain whether this use of a linguistic pattern that would indeed correspond nicely to Zahn's style (reminiscent of both medieval saga literature and the Old Testament histories) is intentional.

There exist certain sentence structures that are "pristine Zahn". For example, starting in the first Star Wars series (and especially in the second series) is his usage of the "What sentence". That is, to expose the plot in an interesting yet believable way, he will have a character say "what" and then introduce a creation of Zahn. For example, in "Vision of the Future" (page 124) Zahn invents the "bridgebreak confirmation" and has Han Solo explain it by asking Leia, "That's, what, the crypt-embedded code trick Ghent came up with a couple of months ago?" (on this, see also "Specter of the Past" page 170 and "Heir to the Empire" page 141).

Timothy Zahn was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and passed away. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He is married to Anna, and they live in Bandon, Oregon.

Zahn has expressed interest in writing more Star Wars novels. At Celebration III he has expressed interest in writing a novel set after Legacy of the Force featuring Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, and their teenage son Ben Skywalker.

  • The Blackcollar (1983)
  • The Backlash Mission (1986)
  • The Judas Solution (2006)

Both The Blackcollar and The Backlash Mission were released in one joint novel titled Blackcollar in 2006.

  • Cobra (1986)
  • Cobra Strike
  • Cobra Bargain (1988)

The first two were also released in one compilation called Cobras Two in 1992. A complete compilation was released as the Cobra Trilogy in 2004. See COBRA (science fiction novels) for more detail.

  • Conquerors' Pride (1994)
  • Conquerors' Heritage (1995)
  • Conquerors' Legacy (1996)

  • Dragon and Thief (2003)
  • Dragon and Soldier (2004)
  • Dragon and Slave (2005)
  • Dragon and Herdsman (2006)
  • Dragon and Judge (2007)
  • Dragon and Liberator (2008)

  • A Coming of Age (1985)
  • Triplet (1987)
  • Spinneret (1985)
  • Deadman Switch (1988)
  • War Horse (1990)
  • The Icarus Hunt (1999)
  • Angelmass (2001)
  • Manta's Gift (2002)
  • Green and the Gray (2004)
  • Night Train to Rigel (2005)

  • Cascade Point and Other Stories (1986)
  • Time Bomb and Zahndry Others (1988)
  • Distant Friends and Other Stories (1992)
  • Star Song and Other Stories (2002)

Persondata
NAME Zahn, Timothy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION science fiction novelist
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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