Customer Reviews

Conquerors' Pride

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Although I found the book difficult to get into during the first hundred pages, by the end I had been transformed into a chronic page turner. The characters all grew on you, the plot kept you reading, and the Zhirzh were a well constructed and truly alien culture. It may not be in the same league as Asimov, Doc Smith, or Herbert, but it will make you want to read the next installment. A good job by an extremely talented writer.

With the first book of the Conqueror's trilogy, Zahn sets the mood for a gripping and exciting saga. When a fleet of human ships encounters a previously unknown species, they transmit a standard 'first contact' communication package. The aliens instantly open fire and destroy the entire task force in six minutes. As the human government moves towards war the saga focuses on the Cavanaugh family and thier involvement in the war. Zahn's development of specific technologies was facinating and unique. It is rare to find anyone in the SF field who can truely come up with anything new. If you are a SF fan I highly recommend that you read this book.

Conqueror's Pride is the first book in a well conceived trilogy. Commander Pheylan Cavanagh, in charge of a space task force encounter a new race of aliens, and attempt to make first contact. However, when the radio package is sent over the airwaves, the mysterious aliens attack the force, destroying all of the ships and escape pods, save for Commander Pheylan Cavanagh's pod. They find him and take him prisoner. In the meantime, Cavanagh's father finds out about the disaster and uses his influence to organize a task force to find out what happened to his son and his fleet. Among his forces are Copperheads, fighter pilots who use an interlink to fly.
They then set out to find out what happened.
Cavanagh has been taken prisoner, and Zahn writes out this well. His discriptions of the aliens, who come in periotically to check up on Cavanagh and to study him, are well done. As Cavanagh learns more, we learn more, and soon he is plotting his escape from the aliens.
What happens is that he escapes, and a war is about to be fought between the Humans and the aliens.
Zahn does a great job with this book. It's top-notch Sci-Fi writing, down to the technical and social details of a galactic civilization.
Along with the action, Zahn throws politics in, and plays with that well. The senators don't want to find out what happened, and Cavanagh's father has to play behind the scenes illegaly to get a task force together.
The first contact situation is also well done, as I mentioned above. The aliens don't quite know what to make of Pheylan and probe him for his mentality and personallity.
A well done book.

Words cannot say how great this book was for me. I have always been a person that hated to read books, not that I have not tried. I have read two-thirds of all the greats. I always lose interest in any of the books that I read. This is the first book that I can say that I have enjoyed reading, all the way to the last page. In this book there is always something that keeps you turning to the next page. Note: If you start to read this book, the story does not end with this book. You will need to read the Conquerors' Heritage and Conquerors' Legacy. You might as well order them all at the same time. This book (writer) ignited a fire in me; the fire of reading. Due to the fact that I am 22 years, that is saying something. A love for reading, I am told, is something that has to start young. If you read this, Mr. Zhan, thank you. I will forever buy you books.

Timothy Zahn is an excellent writer. There's no other way to put it. Zahn has a way of weaving characters and events together in his storyweb that places the writer, not just in the action, but in the characters themselves. You empathize and sympathize with the key players in his drama, and understand the strange and alien cultures of the Zirrh, in a way that few writers can accomplish. This entire series is an excellent choice for science fiction readers, but would also captivate lovers of other genres as well. This author has shown himself to be among the best, and the Conqueror's series is among the best of his works. Look out Asimov, watch out Clarke - there's a new kid in town.

I have to agree with another of the reviewers in saying that, this book was better than I expected. This is my first "space opera" type of book, and while I was hopeful that it would at least be entertaining, I was surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the story. I listened to the unabridged audiobook and the narrator, David Colacci, did an excellent job. The details of the book -- such as the ships used in flight, the aliens, alien equipment, different personalities, etc. were very interestingly described and added to the believability of this "world." The book has action, a good story, and interesting and varied characters and aliens. I will be purchasing the sequel!

This being the first of three books in the Conqueror's trilogy, it introduces a whole new group of characters. The development of the characters is quite good, you get to know enough of the history to get up to speed on this view of the universe. While the ending of the trilogy was rather anitclimatic, there is enough action, alien descriptions, family values (the Cavanaugh's are almost "Cleaver" in their stick-togetherness) and suspense to keep the reader interested through all three books. This book should not be confused with his "Star Wars" story lines, it is completely different, but very readable. Book two, in particular, is quite good, taking the same story from book one and putting it in the view of the "villain". It is full of suprising twists, and one can use the metaphor to view our current friend/foe constructs in American life. Highly recommended.

I read this trilogy, and found the first novel to be pretty solid and held my interest.. however, the second novel in the series began to weaken as the author struggled with the alien culture and let us almost forget about the humans out there. The third novel redeemed itself only slightly in that as I completed the last page I was SOOO glad it was over. Just avoid getting involved.. His Star Wars books are infinitely better.

Zahn can write action, and Zahn can write aliens. What more do you need for a great space action adventure story? If Hollywood did half as well as Zahn, then Sci-Fi would not be relegated to mostly bad 'B' movies. I could almost hear the battles as I read the pages.
The only place this book is in any way lacking is in human character development. It in no way takes away from the book, but it is always better to have some feeling of knowing and understanding the characters you are reading about. The aliens are fleshed out more, mainly, I think, to give a better understanding to the reader about their unusual culture/existence.
I look forward to Zahn's next book.

The plot of this book is adequate. As you may have read in other reviews, an alien species attacks. Our protagonists are all human, the race that is first among equals of the space federation which keeps the peace. The federation has a doomsday weapon it hasn't used for decades, some species of the federation don't like the way the humans run the show, the new aliens are truly alien. It's a pretty good setup.

But the execution is wooden. The characters are cardboard-like, the few aliens we meet get a page of dialogue each and are then gone, and there are three parallel stories which all get too little treatment to be interesting. Characters are either good or evil and their motives are simplistic and along the lines of "find my son", "dislike main character", "be loyal bodyguard", etc.

BEGIN, SPOILERS: And the author even makes characters this thin behave in unnatural ways. For example, a career soldier and politician who spent 20 years containing the threat from one warlike alien species lands on their planet. After two pages of dialogue, he has been convinced that they aren't warlike at all. A page or two later, he commits high treason against the federation to help them. In another passage, the good guys (who are civilians) somehow forge orders to get a squadron of space fighters sent to them. They then explain to the fighter pilots how they are looking for a relative in hostile territory and need help. Half the pilots agree to ignore the impending war and go AWOL to help out. Come on.
END, SPOILERS

Wooden characters are nothing new in sci-fi. Think about Asimov's or Clarke's work. The difference is that their stories had interesting science in them (the Foundation, laws of robotics, century-long space travel, etc). "Conqueror's Pride" doesn't. So I found myself not caring what happened to these simplistic characters with weird behavior as the flitted by half a dozen uninteresting worlds.

Not my cup of tea, but I see others liked it. If you like straight-forward action and spy stories in a sci-fi setting and you don't care much about character development, this may be for you.