I really don't remember it having Anakin in it. But then it's been ages since I've read it - I'm going to re-read it soon. It's the story of what happened to the Outbound Flight mentioned in the Thrawn trilogy - the expedition to the unknown regions the real C'Baoth went on.

But you probably should read it after Survivor's Quest anyway, since that's the way it was written. I think there's another fairly new Zahn SW book I've not read yet, so I'm not sure where that should go on the reading timeline - but just like with the films, I usually tend to read the books in the order in which they were published.

EDIT: Sorry, right, now I remember, it does have Anakin - but I don't think it's too Lucas prequelly - at the time I read it, I already didn't like the prequels, so I don't think I would have liked it so much if it was too much like the prequels.

After all, Zahn was able to brilliantly continue Return of the Jedi, so why not the Phantom Menace ;-)