Allegiance

My first Star Wars read in about 5 years, I am really glad I picked up Zahn to continue this journey. To me, Zahn is the master of the post-classic trilogy canon novel. His grasp of the SW universe and the way he really charges up the characters makes, to me, for the more enjoyable SW novels. This one takes place between Episodes IV and V, and makes the interaction between a lot of the classic characters very intriguing and enjoyable. A clever plot twist allows for Imperial stormtroopers to actually find themselves sympathizing with the Rebels in their quest to find star systems to join their attempts to fight the Empire. One of the more interesting post classic trilogy characters, Mara Jade, is introduced in this novel as far as the show more timeline is concerned, and she more than holds her own in a friendly showdown with Vader. Zahn should be required to write at least one of these a year. show less

If Zahn had quit Star Wars novels after the Thrawn trilogy, he would still be a genius. If he'd quit after the Hand of Thrawn series, he'd have still been great. But he keeps on churning out books, and each one is a lesser book than the last. Allegiance is fine, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's not exactly compelling stuff either. Really, it should have just been about Mara Jade and the Hand of Judgment, as the movie heroes feel squeezed in and don't seem to contribute much (and they never really know what's been going on). That said, Zahn does write a mean Han Solo, showing him in his glory days, before he gave up smuggling and craziness for good.

Timothy Zahn Star Wars = an excellent read in my book. It was great to see Mara in action as the Emperors Hand and the book really delved into areas that most during the Rebellion novels seem to miss. This book was about people rather than a mission, with the characters' individual missions almost seeming second rather than the main focus of the novel. Zahn successfully showed several things; the unease of some Imperials following the destruction of Alderaan, Leia coming to terms with that and the growth of the rebelling, Han's argument for/against joining the Alliance and Chewie's POV and while he also showed Mara's strengths we also see her naivety at 18. She remarks that there is only one 'Hand' in the Empire which most Star Wars show more readers will know isn't necessarily true :P

Really glad to hear there's a sequel as I loved the Hand of Judgment and the whole setting of the novel. show less

A pretty compelling read, especially given the fact that it takes place but one year after the battle of Yavin. It features a character we've read about in the Thrawn atrilogy. Unsurprisingly, given the fact that it's written by Timothy Zahn.

No doubt about it, this really has the OT feeling to it, but in book form this time. You also get Han, Luke, Leia, and of course Chewie. The title, being as it is, "allegiance" could be explained pretty easily, and I can summarize it thus, and with a single word. Stormtroopers!

A bunch of stormtroopers learn about the way the empire really is and decide to desert. Well, I'll let you see what happens. Do they join the rebelion? Will they be executed? RAFO.
You also get a few conspiracies, involving show more some local gangs of space pirates. And frankly, I quite enjoyed the scenes where the pirate conspiracy got untanggled. This is, after all, half of the book.
I've appreciated the fact that, we got to see that stormtroopers are not the evil white bucketheads, which follow orders without questions or complaints, no matter how cruel or unjust those orders are. In fact, there are some stormtroopers who think and believe, or rather believed in what the empire was supposed to be, " Freedom, justice and security." As the saying goes.

The rest will be for you to find out. show less

While not as great as his "Thrawn Trilogy" or as good as his "Hand of Thrawn" duology, I still find this an enjoyable book. Since the book is set between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", it's kind of hard for the story or characters to develop too much. Han and Leia can't fall in love because they aren't at that point yet. Luke is still a budding Jedi instead of having powers. Most of the development needed to fall on the characters not seen in the movies. In this case five disillusioned storm troopers and a more capable than she probably should have been Mara Jade. First though, the basics of the story. The five storm troopers become involved in an accident and desert the empire only to stay idealistic enough to want to show more continue defending the citizens of the Empire; their disillusionment is rooted in the corruption of power with which they must deal. Trying to be true to their ideals, they take it upon themselves to track down some pirates who are smuggling Imperial supplies. Meanwhile Mara Jade, acting in the role of the "Emperor's Hand," is tracking down a world governor who is stealing Imperial tax money. There is a lot more to the plot as Han, Luke, Leia and Chewbacca become first indirectly involved for political reasons and then direct participants. The story is tightly written with multiple angles and views to the events. Unfortunately the characters end up a bit flat. I think most of that is due to the timing of being squished in between two of the movies. I did find it difficult to remember key characteristics of each of the five troopers but if you consider the size of the cast (at least 15 different key characters), it's hard to give each of them something unique and easily memorable in only 400 pages. show less

Excellent work from Timothy Zahn, as always. He has a delightful blend of intrigue, humor, and action that keeps the pages turning, and it plays out well in this book as with his others.

I will note that there were, perhaps, too many characters in the book. Some of them were not as fleshed out as they could have been. Even so, the book flowed together well and even managed a few twists that couldn't be nailed down until the very end.

I also enjoyed the expert use of irony as Zahn foreshadowed events of the films and stories to come in the characters' future; this was especially noticeable with the relationship between Han and Leia, as well as with herein-Captain Ozzel's impending demise.

All in all, a very enjoyable book and a great show more addition to the Expanded Universe (not to mention its classic Original Trilogy setting). show less

The beginning of Mara Jade's career is interesting and there is a robust plot running through this novel but the pulpy style repelled me. On the first page a character "gazes out" with "a mixture of anticipation and dark brooding swirling through him. As far as he was concerned the entire planet was a snake pit, crawling with smugglers, third-rate pirate gangs, and other dregs of society." If this sort of thing is acceptable then you will enjoy this novel far more than did I.