Survivor's Quest

I've never made any secret of the fact that the main draw to the Zahn novels, for me, is his handling of Luke and Mara. Particularly Mara as an adult. Personally, this novel hit on all cylinders because it's primarily a Luke and Mara story. There are several other characters, some major, some peripheral, but none of them are any of our usual heroes.

I enjoyed that immensely. This is also a much more cerebral story than some of his other novels. I liked that also. I don't always need giant space battles to draw me in. I dig the deeper stuff.

Without spoiling anything, it's Luke, Mara, four stormtroopers, and a few others going out to look at the wreckage of the Outbound Flight. Because the novel Outbound Flight is a Prequel story, it will be the one Zahn novel I skip. However, because this novel was written first, it doesn't need Outbound Flight for it to make sense. I enjoyed it.

Fool's Bargain

This is a short story about the four stormtroopers from Survivor's Quest. It's the mission they were on just before leaving to meet Luke and Mara in the Survivor's Quest story. It is almost solely these four characters. Zahn is sometimes at his best in a short, focused story and this is a perfect example. Great story. I couldn't put it down. Again, fairly cerebral with a touch of action.