briankrakow's Full Review: Timothy Zahn - Allegiance
It's always interesting to imagine the untold aspects of our favorite stories. When you have a series of films like the Star Wars movies, there is plenty of past and future that we never hear about. While some of the gaps were filled in by the prequels, and others filled in by the long series of novels that followed Heir to the Empire, we never did get to see what happened in between the films. How did the Empire react to the destruction of the Death Star? What did the Rebels do before they got to Hoth? Timothy Zahn’s Allegiance is an exciting adventure that fills in some of these gaps, but frustratingly leaves much more untouched.
Allegiance takes place in between the films Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Familiar faces from those movies are present, but more attention is paid to newer characters. Future Jedi Mara Jade, created by Zahn in his Thrawn trilogy, is working as the Emperor's Hand and investigates a local Governor's plot to betray the Empire. Meanwhile, the Empire's actions against civilians don't sit well with a Stormtrooper unit led by Daric LaRone. After refusing to fire on innocent civilians on the planet Teardrop, a series of events forces them to flee their posts and go into hiding. The Rebels themselves are on a mission to soothe some conflict in their fragile alliance.
It's impossible to ignore the parallels to the situations depicted in Allegiance and our current political climate. The massacre on Teardrop seems to clearly mimic what happened at Haditha, and the theme of not obeying illegal orders also brings up memories of Abu Grahib. Despite such similarities, Zahn stops short of turning Allegiance into an outright polemic. This is an adventure story, not a blatant attack on the Bush administration. Still, it is hard to imagine that Zahn wasn't somewhat inspired by such events.
Zahn occasionally gets lazy when trying to work through the intricacies of his plot. Just like in the movies, Obi-Wan Kenobi uses the force to send Luke advice from the beyond. However, at a crucial point Zahn has him spell every little thing out for Luke. There's also an exceedingly stupid moment where Mara finds out Darth Vader has been searching Luke's name on a computer. One of the most imposing villains of all time is apparently too stupid to clear out his browsing history.
There are a few inventive bits where Zahn ties things into the movie trilogy. Especially interesting is a part where Mara warns Vader about Captain (and future Admiral) Ozzel's incompetence. This fits in perfectly with the beginning of Empire Strikes Back where Vader has already had it with Ozzel's idiocy. Other moments are a bit more awkwardly worked in. Daric and his fellow stormtroopers seem to know a little too much about events that happened in the Star Wars universe, almost as if they've already seen the movies themselves.
One of the most surprising aspects of the novel is how little attention is paid to the well known characters from the movie trilogy. Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine all have a role in the plot, but they mostly have a secondary purpose. Zahn seems to be more interested in his own original characters, created fresh for this book or from his original trilogy. This is certainly his right, but it's awfully disappointing for those of us who were interested in seeing the untold story of what happened to our favorite heroes and villains in between the films.
Eventually, Zahn is able to build his separate stories toward a very exciting and sharp climax. His descriptions of some complex action sequences are very easy to follow. Allegiance is a pretty light and fast read. If anything, it’s perhaps too easy to read, suggesting it was intended for those who felt Zahn’s earlier Star Wars novels were perhaps too wordy. When he does include the original characters, he seems to capture them very well, especially doing a good job with Han Solo's ambivalence about joining the Rebel Alliance. Allegiance may leave you with more questions than answers, but it's still a pretty fun read along the way.
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