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 is not 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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Biography
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 died. 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.
Writing style
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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 obliquely referential wordplay. For instance, in the Thrawn trilogy, the name "Thrawn" comes from a word meaning "twisted", while the names of two pets—"Sturm" and "Drang"—are actually the real-world German words for "Storm" and "Stress", and seem to nod directly toward the "Sturm und Drang" writing style born out of the German Romantic movement. Given that the Star Wars science-fantasy saga is overtly rooted in Romanticism, Zahn's arcane referencing here would seem appropriate. 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). Another example of "pristine Zahn" is his preference for calling a second party "the other" when describing conversations or events. This is used a great many times in all of his books. Another notable hallmark of Zahn's writing style, particularly prevalent in his Star Wars output, is his excessive overuse of the adverbs "wryly" and "dryly"; also, in all of his books, he repeatedly uses the verb "counter", used when characters are responding to a statement spoken by another party ("[dialogue]" [character] countered.)
Bibliography
Blackcollar Series
- 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 Series
- Cobra (1985)
- Cobra Strike (1986)
- 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 Trilogy
- Conquerors' Pride (1994)
- Conquerors' Heritage (1995)
- Conquerors' Legacy (1996)
Star Wars
The Thrawn Trilogy
- Heir to the Empire (1991)
- Dark Force Rising (1992)
- The Last Command (1993)
The Hand of Thrawn duology
- Specter of the Past (1997)
- Vision of the Future (1998)
Other novels
- Survivor's Quest (2004)
- Outbound Flight (2006)
- Allegiance (2007)
Graphic novels
- ; a graphic novel with Michael A. Stackpole (1999)
- , comic in Star Wars Tales 1
- Specter of Thrawn (cancelled)
Shorter works
- "Mist Encounter": short story in the paperback edition of Outbound Flight (originally written in 1995)
- "Hammertong": short story in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (1995)
- "Sleight of Hand": short story in Tales from Jabba's Palace (1995)
- "First Contact": short story in Tales From the Empire (1997)
- Side Trip: novella with Michael A. Stackpole, in Tales From the Empire (1997)
- "Jade Solitaire": short story in Tales from the New Republic (1999)
- Interlude at Darkknell: novella with Michael A. Stackpole, in Tales from the New Republic (1999)
- Fool's Bargain (eBook; also reprinted in the paperback edition of Survivor's Quest) (2004)
- "The Saga Begins": short story in The DarkStryder Campaign
- "Command Decision": short story in Star Wars Adventure Journal 9
- "Hero of Cartao": short story in Star Wars Insider
- "Changing Seasons": short story in Star Wars Insider
- "Judge's Call": short story on Del Rey's website.
- "Duel": short story / Hasbro tie-in.
- "Handoff": short story in Star Wars Gamer
- "Sword's Man": short story in Space Gamer
- "Symmkyn's Edge": short story in Space Gamer
- "Vampire Trap": short story in Space Gamer
- "Fantasy World": short story in Space Gamer
- "The Challenge": short story in Space Gamer
Dragonback series
- Dragon and Thief (2003)
- Dragon and Soldier (2004)
- Dragon and Slave (2005)
- Dragon and Herdsman (2006)
- Dragon and Judge (2007)
- Dragon and Liberator (coming in May, 2008)
Other novels
- Spinneret (1985)
- A Coming of Age (1985)
- Triplet (1987)
- 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)
- The Third Lynx (2007)
Collections
- Cascade Point and Other Stories (1986)
- Time Bomb and Zahndry Others (1988)
- Distant Friends and Other Stories (1992)
- Star Song and Other Stories (2002)
See also
External links
- Timothy Zahn on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
- Timothy Zahn at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Bibliography on SciFan
- Interview online at Starwars.com
| 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 | |
