| Timothy Zahn | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 1, 1951 |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | United States |
| Genres | Science fiction, fantasy |
Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951 Chicago, Illinois) is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award.[1] He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound Flight, and Choices of One. The Thrawn trilogy marked a revival in the fortunes of the Star Wars franchise, bringing it widespread attention for the first time in years; all three Thrawn-trilogy novels made the New York Times best-seller lists, and set the stage and tone for most of the franchise's Expanded-Universe content. While many of Zahn's characters have been embraced by franchise writers and readers, some still appearing in novels written seventeen years later, Thrawn has been particularly influential. Zahn also wrote the young adult Dragonback series and the popular Conquerors' Trilogy.
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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 thesis adviser quite suddenly died, leaving Zahn with three years of thesis work down the drain. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and later he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.
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. Grand Admiral Thrawn is a character that reflects this. Zahn's Star Wars books also usually focus on a certain core group. Throughout these books, he often makes references to other characters or events that were created by him in previous works. As with the original Star Wars trilogy, all books in both The Thrawn Trilogy and The Hand of Thrawn Duology, as well as Survivor's Quest begin with an "exterior shot" of a Star Destroyer. Zahn tends to focus more on the logic of his characters (as with Thrawn) rather than their feelings and has characters from the original trilogy re-use some of their distinctive dialogue. Timothy Zahn is also credited with naming the galactic hub of the Star Wars universe, Coruscant.
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 "Urge", 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 seem to betray a certain acquaintance with both ancient Norse and Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic) lexic and morphology. Note, for instance, the mysterious planet Myrkr with its near-impenetrable forests and utter "darkness" in the Force (cf. Old Norse myrkr "darkness"), or the literally-minded species Elomin, sg. Elom (cf. the Hebrew m.pl. suffix -im). There are numerous instances of both medieval literature/saga and Old Testament references in his Star Wars novels. However, it is uncertain whether the linguistic patterns (associated with these sources) are intentional or simply a side-effect of said familiarity.
Both The Blackcollar and The Backlash Mission were released in one joint novel titled Blackcollar in 2006.
The first two books were also released in one compilation called Cobras Two in 1992. A complete compilation was released as the Cobra Trilogy in 2004.
(tentative, not released yet)