Timothy Zahn (born 1951) is an American writer of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

, chiefly the ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and has published several other series of sci-fi and fantasy novels of his own original creation, in addition to many works of short fiction.

Early life and education

Zahn grew up in

Lombard, Illinois Lombard is a village in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, and a suburb of Chicago. The population was 44,476 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Lombard was originally named "Babcock's Grove", after the Babcock brothers ...

, and attended Glenbard East High School in Lombard. He has been a fan of sci-fi since he was a child. He attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

, before working towards a doctorate in physics at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Career

Zahn's novella ''Cascade Point'' won the 1984

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

. Zahn novels also won five Dragon Awards

He is the author of the '' Blackcollar'' trilogy and the ''

Cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

'' series (nine novels so far), fourteen ''Star Wars'' Expanded Universe novels, including thirteen novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the ''Thrawn'' trilogy, the '' Hand of Thrawn'' duology, '' Outbound Flight'', '' Choices of One'', '' Thrawn'', '' Thrawn: Alliances'', '' Thrawn: Treason,'' and the '' Thrawn Ascendancy'' trilogy. Lucasfilm at times used some of the more detailed '' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'' supplements from

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made board, role-playing, and war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product lines included ''Star Wars'', ''Paranoia' ...

as references, and West End sent boxes of their sourcebooks to Zahn when he started work on a new ''Star Wars'' novel trilogy. At the time, Zahn was writing '' Heir to the Empire'' (1991), the first book in what became known as the ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and West End in turn released sourcebooks from 1992–1994 based on Zahn's three novels. 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 list, and set the stage and tone for most of the franchise's expanded universe content. Zahn also wrote the young adult Dragonback series and the ''Conquerors'' ''trilogy''. In 2014 Zahn collaborated with

David Weber David Mark Weber (born October 24, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He has written several science-fiction and fantasy books series, the best-known of which is the Honor Harrington science-fiction series. His first nov ...

on the Manticore Ascendant series set within the

Honorverse The Honorverse is a military science fiction book series, its two subseries, two prequel series, and anthologies created by David Weber and published by Baen Books. They are centered on the space navy career of the principal protagonist Ho ...

. In 2023, Dave Filoni confirmed during the ''Star Wars'' Celebration Europe that Zahn served as a creative consultant for the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

miniseries '' Ahsoka'' in order to assist the creative team in writing Thrawn correctly, as Filoni felt that only Zahn could advise them with the "right" way to adapt Thrawn as the character's creator.

Bibliography

References

External links

Timothy Zahn's page
at

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

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Timothy Zahn interview with RoqooDepot.com for Mara Month
May 7, 2012
Timothy Zahn 'Scoundrels' interview with RoqooDepot.com
December 31, 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Zahn, Timothy 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers Hugo Award–winning writers Living people Michigan State University alumni Grainger College of Engineering alumni American male short story writers American comics writers 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers People from Bandon, Oregon 1951 births