Timothy Zahn is famous for being the father of the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" with his original Thrawn trilogy way back in the early 90s. He's mostly kept to that part of the universe until he wrote Outbound Flight, and even that was a prequel to a previous Zahn book. Now, Zahn has written Allegiance, a complete throwback that takes place between the first and second movie (or between the fourth and fifth movie, if you want to get pedantic with George Lucas' titles). He still includes his favorite character, Mara Jade, but it was interesting to see her in her "Emperor's Hand" days rather than the Jedi she has become. As well, it was nice that he didn't try to shoehorn his other adored child, Admiral Thrawn, into the mix. Adding to that is seeing our heroes in their relatively immature days. The story's fun and Zahn hits all the right buttons to make this a very enjoyable read.
Allegiance tells multiple stories that end up tying together at the end (like that's a surprise). The main story is of five stormtroopers (non-cloned ones, which is unusual) who become horrified at the executions they are ordered to carry out. When they are called on their reluctance, an accidental killing of an officer results in them taking a ship and flying away. But they find that the ideals that made them join the Imperial Forces are impossible to ignore, so they become a vigilante force that will right wrongs without official sanction. Meanwhile, Mara Jade, the Emperor's personal operative, is on the trail of a planetary governor who is setting up his own area of power and siphoning money away from the Empire, getting involved with pirates to officially secede from Imperial governance. Finally, our heroes (Han, Leia, Luke, Chewie) are involved in trying to keep that same planetary system allied with the Rebel Alliance, unaware of the governor's plans of playing one side off against the other. All of this comes together in an explosive climax that keeps you reading until the end.
First, I have to say that Zahn does a masterful job of keeping basic continuity straight in Allegiance. Mara's first meeting with Luke doesn't take place until after the Emperor is dead, but he gets them involved just enough that their paths brush together without ever meeting. I'm not a continuity die-hard, so I can't tell whether he makes any minor mistakes (I'm sure some Star Wars fan can, though!), but he does a good job with the bigger picture. The one part I'm not sure of is how much talking Ben Kenobi's spirit does with Luke. At the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, it definitely seemed to me that Luke was shocked when Ben's spirit appeared to him on the frozen wastes of Hoth. In Allegiance, they're having whole conversations, which struck me as wrong. Even so, that's a matter of interpretation more than anything else.
Zahn's character work is marvelous as well. He's captured the mid-trilogy era characters almost perfectly, with Luke being the young hero looking for adventure, Han being the reluctant rogue who finds himself tied to the rebels by a growing attraction to Leia and appeals to his somewhat limited better nature. Leia is the former politician who hasn't quite risen to a position of leadership within the rebellion (at least from an operational point of view). All of them are young and quick-witted, but also inexperienced enough (except Han, of course) to make mistakes. We see Luke's infatuation with Leia, shown clearly when he's excited to go on a mission with her and devastated when he's asked to do something else instead (said infatuation being a little creepy, given what we know now).
As for the Imperials, Zahn avoids his usual trap of making Darth Vader look incompetent next to Mara Jade. The story's about Jade and Vader plays a minor role, but it's nice to see that it's a matter of a shift in story focus rather than Vader just being a moron. Vader is still his menacing self, which is nice to see. It's also good to see a young Mara Jade doing what she does best. One mildly disappointing aspect, however, is the fact that we never really see her use any of the Dark Side of the Force. She's trained under the Emperor so you know that she's been coached in how to do that stuff. Instead, she seems more like "Super Agent Mara Jade" than a disciple of the Emperor. We don't see any of the darkness to her character that you would think would be there given who her master is. The five stormtroopers are also excellently done, with all five having interesting personalities and backgrounds. All of them are three-dimensional and add a lot to the book.
Which brings me to the plot of the book. While I've always had a little trouble with the massive coincidences involved in a Star Wars story that brings all of the storylines together, once I accepted them the story was a treat to read. The renegade stormtrooopers were fascinating to read about as they attempted to bring down the pirates that were terrorizing that sector of space. They are loyal to their ideal of the Empire, but they do seem a bit too intelligent not to realize that the reasons for their going renegade in the first place are systemic within the Emperor's power structure. They seem to believe it's mostly the fault of one bureau of the Imperial government rather than the Emperor's chosen way of doing things, which seemed a bit odd. Still, it was nice to see individualized stormtroopers doing their thing.
The intertwining stories are littered with twists and turns, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. The interaction between the stormtroopers and our heroic trio (Luke, Han, Chewie) was great as both sides know the other is holding something back but also know they must ally, at least temporarily, so they can each fulfill their individual missions. Zahn puts the characters in interesting situations, and the final battle on the planet's surface is a joy to read. Zahn's action scenes are extremely well done.
Overall, despite minor problems and disappointments, Allegiance is a masterful Star Wars novel that's very fun to read. It harkens back to the old days of the franchise where adventure was more important than a sappy, badly acted love story. I would love to see more stories set in this era, and Zahn has shown that he's capable of writing them. More, please!
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