Customer Reviews

Star Wars: Allegiance

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

As books go, I found Outbound Flight rather on the boring side, not so with Allegiance. This book, I finished in 2 days. The characters are a mite on the flat side, but Mara Jade pulls through fine. Everything ties together neatly in the end...perhaps too neatly but heck, that's most good fiction out there.

The dialogue's decent, the actions great, the plot twists are good. Overall, Zahn pulls off another lovely star wars novel.

BTW, the idea of including non-clone stormtroopers is only logical, this is a long time after the clone wars. Palpy wouldn't be spending credits on more clones when he can just invest in some nice propaganda and get lots of youngin's ready to defend the Empire.

Timothy Zahn returns to the Star Wars universe with his eighth novel set in the galaxy far, far away. This time he has a new era to play around in: Allegiance is set right after the events of A New Hope. It features many familiar film characters as well as a prominent role for a teenage Mara Jade and an intriguing squad of rogue stormtroopers. Perspectives vary among fans of the Expanded Universe as to how fleshed out the three years between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back truly are. If you include the Marvel comic series, the newspaper strips, and various articles in journals and magazines as canon, this period is already quite busy. If you are incorporating novels only, it is considerably thinner. My personal view on canon is I don't spend much time dwelling on it: if it is Star Wars and I am entertained, I'm happy.

In Allegiance, Zahn weaves a very complicated plotline that verges on being a mystery tale. Many new characters are introduced and then discarded quickly as events unfold, making the story a bit choppy. For this reason, it's likely to be a more satisfying read when digested in larger chunks than read piecemeal a chapter or two at a time (which is what I did).

A few new characters do stand out, though, and they are the five Imperial troopers on the run that comprise the Hand of Judgment. Much like Karen Traviss and her beloved clone troopers featured in her Republic Commando novels, Zahn takes a group of helmeted anonymous soldiers and makes them dynamic individuals. Their attempts to reconcile their doubts in the Empire with their need to to serve the galaxy with honor and duty are quite interesting and continue the trend in Star Wars of placing shades of gray into what once seemed like straightforward good vs. evil yarns.

Zahn is indisputably a big fan of his two most famous characters he has created, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade. Thrawn does not feature in this story, but Mara certainly does. While I very much enjoyed the role she has played in Zahn's books so far, I felt her characterization in this novel stretched credulity. She is a teenager (eighteen, I believe), and yet she possesses the poise, confidence, and skills of someone far older. She is depicted too favorably compared to Darth Vader for my tastes, and I would have liked to have seen a Mara who is making novice mistakes and desperately trying to claw her way up the Imperial ladder into Palpatine's good graces.

What is more disturbing is comparing Mara in Allegiance to Luke. While their ages are similar, they couldn't be portrayed more differently. Luke is stumbling, uncertain of himself, and appears to have regressed to the farm boy we saw at the start of Episode IV, not the newly emboldened warrior at the Yavin ceremony who has just destroyed the Death Star and saved the Rebellion. Han and Leia behave largely as they did toward the end of A New Hope and fare a bit better.

Timothy Zahn is an entertaining writer and I always enjoy his Star Wars stories, but I would classify this one as a more middle-of-the-road effort than his usual. I would be onboard for a sequel featuring the Hand of Judgment more prominently, possibly focusing on what seems the almost inevitable path that will lead them to joining the Rebellion.

As far as Zahn's books go this was not his best. However it was still better than other recently release Star Wars books. The story just wasn't as engaging as I had hoped. While it was interesting to see Mara as "the Hand" she was pretty clueless at times. Ofcourse 18 years of brainwashing by an evil dictator will do that. This book is worth your time to read so I don't want to give to much about the story away,however it would be better to wait for the paperback.I will say that the rogue storm troopers would be interesting to follow in other stories.

The first 40 pages of Allegiance show some glimmer of thought, effort and promise. The rest is little more than a novel-by-numbers - shallow characters shuffled through a convoluted plot that adds nothing to the Star Wars universe.

Set in the days between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Allegiance opens with the story of five stormtroopers deserting their posts after taking part in a retributory slaughter of innocent civilians. When the story then shifts focus, it turns into a slow, uneventful, and for the SW universe pointless story about an Imperial governor using a criminal syndicate to skim funds to finance secession. There are three separate threads, one each with Mara, the stormtroopers, and Han, Luke, and Chewie following the criminals, another with Leia meeting with rebels who want to bring the secessionists over to the Alliance, a thread on the criminals, and yet another on Captain Ozzel. The five stormtroopers manage to stumble across most of these, teaming up with Han and Luke to get to the scene of the crime and then aiding Mara in putting the conspiracy to rest. As with much of Zahn's work, keeping up with the various threads is a tiresome and unrewarding endeavor. He doesn't write about people so much as he does build complex plots and would be better suited to writing video games.

His characters are flat, two-dimensional stand-ups, puppets that he moves about in very carefully choreographed sequences. You never really feel anything for any of them because you never get to know them. Allegiance is built around five new characters, stormtroopers that except for their names and specializations are indistinguishable. There's not a funny guy, a philosophical guy, a serious guy, a sentimental guy, a guy with kids, a guy with girlfriends, a guy who wanted to be a painter, a rich guy, a poor guy, a guy who wants to travel, a guy who likes flying, a guy with sisters, a guy who wants a big family - just five guys in white armor who call themselves the Hand of Judgment and who in moments of great decision regurgitate platitudes, the ideals that motivated them to first enlist, such as protecting the weak and preserving order (as well, presumably, as mom, apple pie, baseball, and puppies).

These five socktroopers (lead by former Quebec pro-wrestler Daric LaRone) decide to chuck their careers as casually as you might decide to throw out some old clothes. Their moment of truth is about as believable as Anakin's conversion in Revenge of the Sith. When was the last time you heard of elite soldiers (of any country's service) deserting because they were asked to carry out ethically questionable orders?

The socktroopers aren't the only characters that strain credibility. Mara Jade is far more competent in the use of weapons, her ability to pilot ships, and her knowledge of espionage than any 18 year could ever be. What's more she never makes a mistake (one that matters, that is), and she sasses both the Emperor and Vader - and gets away without a Force slap or shove.

Whatever happened to the Bad Guys, anyway? Mara, Vader and the Stormtroopers are supposed to be evil. But in Allegiance (as in many EU novels and comics of recent vintage) the Good Guys are good and the Bad Guys, well, they're Bad, but only if they're minor characters. The characters fans know by name and reputation (and the ones they dress up as because they have cool costumes) - Mara Jade, Darth Vader, Admiral Ozzel, Stormtroopers - they aren't really bad. They don't kill people without just cause. They're not sadistic. They're just trying to do their jobs. They're the lovable bad guys, the lower case bad guys. The deserting troopers, for example, seem more concerned with protecting civilians, and with their oaths to do so, than with their own lives; Mara goes out of her way to try and save a pirate she captured in battle and who acted as an informant; Admiral Ozzel is shocked by a plan proposed by an Imperial spy to kill a few low-ranking troopers to cover up his mistake. So who is it the reader is supposed to identify with?

If a meandering story and wooden characters weren't bad enough, Zahn's style shows a complete lack of variety or wit. Nearly every direct quote has to be attributed with a reporting verb. His characters repeatedly shiver, wince, groan, and growl. Vader broods and strides, and his cloak swirls and billows. The good guys (which are also the bad guys, not to be confused with the really Bad Guys) are painfully earnest, trotting out cliches on duty, honor, responsibility, order and freedom that are meant to fortify their resolve (while helping the reader feel good, in the case of the Hand of Judgment, about supporting what are supposed to be the fantasy equivalent of Nazi soldiers).

If fan response is positive, we have the unfortunate possibility of future volumes featuring the Hand of Judgment. It's hardly giving anything anyway to let you know that all the major characters survive, as do the five socktroopers, who by end the book are adopted by Mara Jade as her private security force. I can't think of anything worse than a Hand of Judgment series except perhaps another chapter of Dark Empire, or another Thrawn novel.

Del Rey, please do us all a favor and put Zahn out to pasture.

If you'd care to read a well written novel about the ethical dilemmas of soldiers, that just also happens to be a Star Wars novel, try True Colors

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Timothy Zahn writes the very best Star Wars books, and now he has a new one, "Star Wars: Allegiance".

There are dozens of Star Wars books, expanding the universe of the six films. But none of them are as good as Timothy Zahn's. The genre really launched with Timothy Zahn's original sequels following on "Return of the Jedi": "Heir to the Empire", "Dark Force Rising", and "The Last Command".

In those books he expanded the Star Wars universe with characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn (who tried to lead a resurgent empire after the death of the Emperor), Mara Jade (who became Luke Skywalker's wife after a rocky decade), and Talon Karrde (master smuggler/information broker).

The same characters returned in the the follow-up "Hand of Thrawn" books, "Spectre of the Past" and "Vision of the Future".

Zahn later returned to the themes he had created in "Survivor's Quest" in which Luke and Mara travel to the crash site of an Old Republic mission intended to explore another galaxy, and "Outbound Flight" about the fate of that mission.

Originally George Lucas said he was going to make nine Star Wars films. He later revised it to six, with three prequels to the original three films. It may be that after Timothy Zahn mapped out the continuation from "Return of the Jedi", Lucas could no longer create his own future, and perhaps there are reasons why the initial Zahn trilogy can't be filmed.

The new book is placed in the period between the films "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back". When the former film ends, Han has barely aligned himself with the rebels and Luke is just starting to learn Jedi skills. By the beginning of the latter, Han has basically joined up (even if he has plans to leave), he and Luke are much more of a team, and Luke's skills have grown. The new book explores the transition. Han is asking himself about joining the rebels, he and Luke are starting to work together, preparing for the moment at the beginning of "The Empire Strikes Back" when Luke says "Han, old buddy".

We meet characters from the first film, obviously Leia and Darth Vader, as well as General Rieekan, from Hoth base in "The Empire Strikes Back". We have an early introduction to Mon Mothma, who otherwise first appears in "Return of the Jedi". We also meet a very young Mara Jade, just beginning her service as the Emperor's Hand, honing her skills and with a naive image of the empire is supposed to be.

Zahn also repeats his homage to the fans in "Survivor's Quest" and introduces us to the 501st legion, named after the fans who dress up in armor and drill as storm troopers. In the ultimate homage, he makes them Vader's personal troops. (Then again, the Acknowledgments thank the founder of the fan 501st for inspiring one of the best parts of the book, the five renegade do-gooder stormtroopers of the "Hand of Judgement".

We know from Zahn's previous books that Mara and Luke do not meet in this timeframe: Mara sees Luke in Jabba's Palace, and the two actually meet one another much later. One of the fun things about this book is the way the various characters almost meet, all in the same place at the same time, but just missing.

We also gain an insight into why Vader was so quick to kill Admiral Ozzel at the beginning of "The Empire Strikes Back". Ozzel's actions as a captain in this book set the stage, and Vader comes off less horrific. A nice touch now that we know it is Anakin inside that black suit.

Zahn also introduces us to one of the characters we will see in the "Hand of Thrawn" books, the corrupt imperial administrator Disra.

It would have been nice if Talon Karrde had wandered through, and where were the droids? C-3PO and R2-D2 are completely missing, which seems a bit strange, although I really didn't think about it until after I finished reading the book.

But the person I really would have liked to have had the Zahn fill-in treatment is Jorj Car'das. Zahn created this kingpin of crime and told us about his recent history in the "Hand of Thrawn" books, then gave us a glimpse into his very early life in "Outbound Flight", which was very satisfying. But this book would have been a nice opportunity to experience Car'das at the height of his criminal powers.

Zahn tends to space his creations out, so a direct sequel to "Allegiance" is probably not going to happen. But I would sure love to follow the adventures of those renegade stormtroopers.

Let me preface this by saying that I've loved virtually all of Zahn's Star Wars novels to date and tend to blaze through them like the pages are on fire. The "Hand of Thrawn" duology might have been kind of slow, but the more recent "Outbound Flight" was great and the original "Thrawn Trilogy" was just classic.

So I was rather surprised when it took me three attempts and a final, concerted act of willpower to get through Allegiance.

I wanted to like it. I really did. But Allegiance was something that I hadn't expected a Star Wars novel to be: it possessed the fatal flaw of being extremely boring. Others will obviously disagree, but I found nothing in this novel to really connect to. The characters were all tepid at best, lifeless cutouts that utterly resisted my every attempt to know or like them. The new renegade Stormtrooper characters are boring, and there was so little difference between them character-wise that I found myself forgetting which was which for the first half of the book, and then eventually gave up the effort for the second half and discovered that it didn't actually matter if you could tell them apart. They might as well have been clones for all it mattered. The Stormtroopers are just dull, their desertion and escape from the Empire convenient, contrived, and unconvincing. Their main role in the plot is to shoot stuff and provide angst about their desertion. I hope we never hear from them again, because honestly I can't think of a single thing that they could add.

A few classic characters from the movies star as well: Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and cameos by Vader and Palpatine. As characters, they are remarkably poorly-written. Zahn's rendition of Luke, Leia, Han, etc. in his books has never been great, but this is a low point. Luke is useless and annoying. Leia is written blandly and spends the book doing bland things (including, at one point, waiting tables and shooting at drain pipes). And Han is polite and reasonable with everyone, with nary a trace of sarcasm, wit, or personality.

Zahn's own Mara Jade is another major player in the book, and while I've always been a fan of her, this is a very weak rendition, and with good reason. I think that many people will squeal with glee at the prospect of seeing Mara in her prime, as the Emperor's Hand, carrying out Palpatine's dirty work without actually being a dark Jedi or anything. Personally I was bracing myself for it, and my fears were confirmed: Mara Jade in this book has practically no personality. She is entirely defined by her uber-powers, her elite assassin/espionage abilities, her Force use, innovative lightsaber skills, etc. This might be in part my personal vendetta against the stereotypical "elite assassin" character that has been proliferating in literature over the last ten years, but Mara Jade really has no personality here. She's like an empty shell stuffed with assassination and infiltration skills. If you want to see her doing "cool stuff," then I can see the appeal. But you could use a find-and-replace tool to change every reference to "Mara Jade" in the text to "Belinda Stronach" and the characterization would be just as accurate. She's faceless, and that's a real shame.

There are also a few character moments that are just downright silly and make me wonder what Zahn was thinking when he wrote this. Here's a few of my least-favorite examples, some of which I've already mentioned: Han being nice to everyone. Leia waiting tables. Vader throwing a temper tantrum and attacking Mara Jade for absolutely no reason. "Captain Ozzel" and his dumb, convoluted plan to murder a high-ranking Imperial agent. Vader sitting at a computer terminal doing research at the library (okay okay, this is a personal quibble, but every time I go to a public library there's always a bunch of homeless guys slouched at the free Internet access stations, and I could not get this image out of my mind when I read about the Dark Lord of the Sith doing the same thing). Just silly things that really poisoned my reading of the book.

There's other stuff I could whine about, but I'll cut this short. The action's okay, but there's too much talking and being reasonable and rational when people should just be doing interesting things. I've noticed this with Zahn before, but never to this extent. But for me, it all comes down to characters. If you can't pitch me good, believable, compelling characters, then you won't have my attention and I probably won't finish your book. I finished this one in tribute to Zahn's earlier Star Wars work, but consider it a waste of time and effort. The characters were all badly rendered, and the plot was structured entirely around the characters; there wasn't even any particularly big plot points going on to take our attention away from the weakness of the characters. It was all small, piddling stuff centered around a bunch of boring, lifeless protagonists.

I really wanted to like this, and I really want to like what Zahn writes for Star Wars in the future, if he continues at it. But this weak effort speaks to me of someone who's about to hang up his spurs and call it a day. And maybe that's for the best.

Mr. Zahn is best known for his seven previous Star Wars books, and I have always enjoyed his books that I have read. Allegiance is good but not my favorite. The characters are interesting and there is plenty of action, but it all gets very complicated and I grew somewhat tired of referring to the list of characters.

The story takes place soon after A New Hope. Luke is still not comfortable with his Jedi skills and Han is not sure if he and Chewie should be part of the Rebel Alliance. Leia exhibits her strengths as she mediates a dispute in the Shelsea Sector. Also, the young Mara Jade plays a major role on a mission from Emperor Palpatine. All of them have to deal with problems caused by bands of pirates. It is interesting to note that Luke and Mara are both callow youth at this point, but Mara's effectiveness shows her to be light-years ahead of Luke. I doubt that the difference between the two would have been that blatant.

The most interesting characters to me were a group of five Imperial Stormtroopers led by Daric LaRone. For the first time we see Stormtroopers who wonder if they are doing the right thing by serving an Empire that would wantonly destroy the civilization of Alderaan. When LaRone stands up for his rights and kills an officer of the Imperial Security Bureau, he and four other troopers are forced to desert. They spend the rest of the book trying to elude Imperial forces and trying to do what they think is right in various situations. They end up working with Mara Jade and are still free at the end of the book even though she knows who they are. They also survive a face-to-face meeting with Darth Vader. I found that a little hard to accept because Vader surely would have deduced that something was wrong. I doubt that he would have let them go on their merry way. Mara Jade has an important role in the book, and you have to admire her skills and fearlessness, particularly at such a young age.

Mr. Zahn's books are always worth reading, and Allegiance is no exception.

Timothy Zahn is my absolute favorite author so when I saw this book about Mara Jade in the Empire era I jumped.

Plot:
There are three plots that intertwine towards the end. LaRone, a stormtrooper, accidentally kills an ISB agent. He and four other stormtroopers desert and run to the nearest planet where they begin an investigation into pirate activities.
Mara Jade was sent to investigate a Moff's possible embezzlement. This leads to a pirate consortium.
Han, Luke, and Leia are originally sent to investigate a possible way to win the war. With pirates threatening supply lines, Han and Luke (along with Chewie) are diverted to investigate and Leia is sent to accomplish the diplomatic mission by herself.

Good:
Timothy Zahn does amazing things with the characters. Han Solo in his books is Han Solo from the movie: cocky, independent, and self-absorbed. Luke Skywalker is the apprentice Jedi, experimenting with his talents, naive, and unsure of who he is. Leia Organa is absolutely perfect: the independent woman who is able to mediate between differing factions.
The stormtroopers reminded me of one of the best portrayers of them--or at least their clone compatriots, Karen Traviss. The stormtroopers are real men who face real consequences. It is refreshing to see plain men who only want to do what is right instead of officers who only want power and money (as you see in so many Bantam Star Wars novels).
And Mara Jade...it's nice to finally see her at work in a novel. I felt that, for the most part (see below), she was the perfect agent--naive about the Empire and not overly practiced in every agent technique, but knowledgeable enough to be convincing for this mission.
Lastly, although this is petty, it was fun to see Leia work as a waitress. This practical, pedestrian job is often overlooked or delegated to dispensible characters but it was so nice to see the Star Wars universe in a normal light (ie having the main characters eat, bathe, etc.).
The action is superb. I love the confrontation between Darth Vader and Mara, the battle of the AT-ST, and much, much more.

Bad:
I don't know what it is with Timothy Zahn, but recently, all his books seem to be mysteries (not bad) about one of the characters being duplicitous. Night Train to Rigel: the main character was working both sides. Outbound Flight: Doriana. The Green and the Gray had the boys that fought against them. This is a little boring after awhile.
And the plot was so convoluted that I had trouble following it. Who was Disra serving: the Empire, himself, pirates, or the governor? How did Mara conclude all the things she did about the pirates? What about Han and Luke? What did Caaldra want? And so on. All three (Mara, stormtroopers, Han/Luke) make some pretty hefty assumptions that turn out pretty conveniently right.
Also, although Zahn portrays Mara as a young woman fairly well, I still have trouble believing that an 18 year-old knows this much about espionage, spying, weapons, and the like. What was she, brainwashed as a child?

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Only dialogue is in the form of made up Star Wars references. Mara wears form fitting dresses and a man oggles her. Violence is typical Star Wars fare.

Overall:
A good book, but not the best that Timothy Zahn has ever delivered. I was rather disappointed, not only because it didn't have as much Mara as I thought, but also because the story was so hard to follow. I had to just forget who wanted what and who worked for who and just enjoy the action sequences and the characters. I hope that Timothy Zahn continues to write more about Mara's adventures, but not make his plots so confusing.

I've read most Star Wars novels and Zahn has always been my favorite author. There's always a feeling of reading a genuine Star Wars episode, with classic and new interesting characters and events that will irremediably affect the Star Wars saga, for the better. This book is a good and entertaining book but feels more like a side story than a true Zahn epic.

First off, I usually like Timothy Zahn's star wars novels. This is the eighth one I've read, and unfortunately it's been the only novel of his that has made me feel mildly disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I believed a better story with all these character's could've been told. All of the new character's that are introduced in this novel haven't made an impact on me. While the stormtrooper perspective is an intriguing ideal for a novel, the five character's were rather flat for the length they were given. I couldn't tell the difference between some of them (and if that's the point, I feel it a rather poor one). Seeing the empire through the eyes of a stormtrooper, and the mixed reactions they have after technically no longer serving, might've worked best as a short story/novella (tales from the empire type perhaps?).

I think Zahn did a great job at nailing the dialogue/chemistry with the classic character's of Luke, Han, Leia, Mara, Vader, and so on. I had mixed reactions with Ben Kenobi's tutorial of Luke, but overall I think that worked okay. It would've been interesting to see more emotions from Mara, or perhaps a closer third person narrative to her, especially since she's a teenager/ young adult. Since this might be the only novel (and I'm certainly hoping not) that deals with the possibility of Jade and Vader together, or her with the emperor for that matter, as a reader I really felt short changed. Yes, I think it's good to leave a reader wanting more, but not to the point where we're given only a handful of pages in a 320 some page novel.

The book is well paced, easily readable, and it bounces back and forth with the events. Overall I wonder if Zahn should've taken a little more time to think about spending so many pages on trooper's and pirates - especially since this takes place in that special four year period between ANH and ESB.

So, yes, I was disappointed. But the novel, for what it is, is average to good. I hope a lot of people who read it liked it better than I did. The classic trilogy is incredibly special to me as it is to many (if not all) star wars fans, and perhaps my expectations were too great on this one.