I've been meaning to get my hands on this book since the day it came out. Tuesday I bought it. This morning, I finished it.
And I am baffled. No, not by the story. I'm baffled by the people who claim that Timothy Zahn has fallen off since the transfer to Del Ray. While Outbound Flight is undoubtedly his weakest addition to the Star Wars tome, and Survivor's Quest is probably next from the bottom, Allegiance rightfully deserves a place somewhere between Zahn's original trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology. It had me enraptured from start to finish, and that's tough to do with a novel that takes place in between the movies. I was, amazingly, in real suspense.
The true genius of Zahn is that he can take military, tactical, or strategic geniuses and show them make the wrongest leaps of logic that they possibly can- and it works out. He did this with Thrawn and Karrde, and he does it again with Mara, and the portrayal of these giants as fallible makes them both human and- somehow- even more infallible.
It's amazing reading Zahn's take on the Lord Darth Vader, particularly in light of the Karen Traviss viewpoints that have dominated recent portrayals of him (that I've read). Just like with Boba Fett, you really need to immerse yourself in both sides before you can truly feel the character- by the end of the book, I could really feel what Vader feels for the young Hand- the jealousy, the resentment. If only she could ever understand it...
The most striking thing about reading Allegiance was the way I was forced to look at Mara Jade. Bantam-era Mara, the earliest glimpses we'd seen into her head thus far, never would have left me thinking that I could ever see her as a poor, naive girl of about my age. (And yes, Zahn's descriptions of her were as tantalizing as such a clean novel could get, and it was enough for me.
) Another comic or two and I'll have her psychological development as neatly mapped out as I do her father-in-law's.
Most of the suspense in this story, of course, came from the few people who were not GCW supergiants- the Hand of Judgment. Very rarely are you presented with a faction in the GCW era where you do not know at the beginning of the novel with whom they'll be affiliated at the end- ARR, Empire, etc.- and yet, at the end of Allegiance, I sitll don't know where they're going to end up. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read it, but all it would have taken is them expressing an interest one way or another and they could have ended up with either of the three main factions present. I'll have to read Zahn's "later" works to see if they're mentioned.
Speaking of Zahn's other works- at times, I've been irritated by the package he wraps himself in. This was particularly the case in Outbound Flight, but it wasn't the first time I noticed. In the case of Allegiance, though, it was pulled off spectacularly. When I came across Disra's name, I would not allow myself to continue reading before I remembered where he came from. Luckily, I was able to remember he was a moff within seconds, and by the time I cleared the page I remembered the end of his career. I spent the rest of the book waiting to see if Talon Karrde or Jorj Car'das- even Zakarisz Ghent would show up. Much to my dismay, they didn't- though I was far too busy with everybody else's escapades to notice at the time.
Come on, TZ, keep it up. Now put all of your short stories into a single anthology, so I don't have to go and buy five different ones.
Oh, and the Rule of Two chapter at the end. It almost made me squeal with delight. Who wouldn't want to read it after hearing a ten year old girl say "Then they were weak, and they deserved to die." So proud!
And I am baffled. No, not by the story. I'm baffled by the people who claim that Timothy Zahn has fallen off since the transfer to Del Ray. While Outbound Flight is undoubtedly his weakest addition to the Star Wars tome, and Survivor's Quest is probably next from the bottom, Allegiance rightfully deserves a place somewhere between Zahn's original trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn duology. It had me enraptured from start to finish, and that's tough to do with a novel that takes place in between the movies. I was, amazingly, in real suspense.
The true genius of Zahn is that he can take military, tactical, or strategic geniuses and show them make the wrongest leaps of logic that they possibly can- and it works out. He did this with Thrawn and Karrde, and he does it again with Mara, and the portrayal of these giants as fallible makes them both human and- somehow- even more infallible.
It's amazing reading Zahn's take on the Lord Darth Vader, particularly in light of the Karen Traviss viewpoints that have dominated recent portrayals of him (that I've read). Just like with Boba Fett, you really need to immerse yourself in both sides before you can truly feel the character- by the end of the book, I could really feel what Vader feels for the young Hand- the jealousy, the resentment. If only she could ever understand it...
The most striking thing about reading Allegiance was the way I was forced to look at Mara Jade. Bantam-era Mara, the earliest glimpses we'd seen into her head thus far, never would have left me thinking that I could ever see her as a poor, naive girl of about my age. (And yes, Zahn's descriptions of her were as tantalizing as such a clean novel could get, and it was enough for me.
) Another comic or two and I'll have her psychological development as neatly mapped out as I do her father-in-law's.
Most of the suspense in this story, of course, came from the few people who were not GCW supergiants- the Hand of Judgment. Very rarely are you presented with a faction in the GCW era where you do not know at the beginning of the novel with whom they'll be affiliated at the end- ARR, Empire, etc.- and yet, at the end of Allegiance, I sitll don't know where they're going to end up. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read it, but all it would have taken is them expressing an interest one way or another and they could have ended up with either of the three main factions present. I'll have to read Zahn's "later" works to see if they're mentioned.
Speaking of Zahn's other works- at times, I've been irritated by the package he wraps himself in. This was particularly the case in Outbound Flight, but it wasn't the first time I noticed. In the case of Allegiance, though, it was pulled off spectacularly. When I came across Disra's name, I would not allow myself to continue reading before I remembered where he came from. Luckily, I was able to remember he was a moff within seconds, and by the time I cleared the page I remembered the end of his career. I spent the rest of the book waiting to see if Talon Karrde or Jorj Car'das- even Zakarisz Ghent would show up. Much to my dismay, they didn't- though I was far too busy with everybody else's escapades to notice at the time.
Come on, TZ, keep it up. Now put all of your short stories into a single anthology, so I don't have to go and buy five different ones.
Oh, and the Rule of Two chapter at the end. It almost made me squeal with delight. Who wouldn't want to read it after hearing a ten year old girl say "Then they were weak, and they deserved to die." So proud!
