Allegiance (Star Wars - Legends)

Allegiance was clearly one of the best Star Wars books I have read in recent years. I was very interested to learn about Mara's early years working for Emperor Palpatine as the, still learning, Emperors Hand.
I was also very interested in seeing a different side of the Stormtroopers rather than just seeing them getting killed right in left. You learn that they aren't a bunch of moronic and inept troops like you surmise from watching the movies, rather they are a crack squad of troops who are intelligent and extremely skilled warriors. Just seeing the Stormtroopers from this point of view was in itself worth the read of Allegiance. A good Star Wars book by a great Star Wars Author, Timothy Zahn.

Timothy Zahn is the premiere writer in the Star Wars universe. Despite all the long series that have been written, overall it is Zahn whose works grab the most attention. He does it with style, adding in great characters in totally insane situations. Seeing Mara Jade & Luke Skywalker working together despite being on opposite sides and not knowing each other was great. No one writes Mara Jade as well as Zahn (since she is his character one would expect that) but he still captured the essance of a naive Skywalker, the cynical Solo and the regal Princess before they became heroes of the galaxy. I also liked how the story revolved around the squad of 5 stormtroopers who color what was once black and white into shades of grey. I really enjoyed this book, it was fun to revist these old characters when they were young before kids spoiled everything. Well done Mr. Zahn.

The following review has some vague references to what's in the book but no actual spoilers so it is safe to read. Overall I really liked this book. I stopped reading SW books mid way through the wretched New Jedi Order when things in the "Expanded Universe" went horribly wrong and this was the first SW book I've read in years. I'm really glad I picked this one up.

The story takes place just after the original movie, now called: "Star Wars A New Hope." Some SW books try to stuff ridiculously grand adventures into gaps left by movies or other books. Timothy Zahn describes an interesting and believable adventure without diminishing the landmark events of the Star Wars universe.

Most of the story is told from three points-of-view: Han, Luke & Leia; a group of five stormtroopers and Mara Jade.

Zahn really nailed the Han, Luke & Leia portions of this book, brief as they were. It was great to spend time with characters from the original movies being realistically portrayed in between-movie adventures. These scenes justified buying the book all by themselves.

The Mara portions of this book were a rare guilty pleasure for me. Mara haters with their clone-quality minds will absolutely detest this book but that just made me smile and enjoy it even more. There was one scene with Vader that was a touch over the top but it's a small criticism. Again, for fans of the Emperor's Hand, her scenes alone were worth the purchase price as well.

The book is not without some faults. The stormtrooper's portions were less than convincing, especially early on. I found these characters to be too idealistic and too quick to get involved in the business of others when they should have been watching out for themselves. I think the book could have used at least fifty more pages, with most of it fleshing out these new characters, their motives and justifying the decisions they made.

Also, the plot, though clever and skillfully crafted, was complicated and I had a hard time keeping the plots/theories and off-screen characters straight in my head. However, the patient reader is rewarded in in the end, all is made clear. What a welcome relief from the bowels that SW literature has been in lately.

I wanted to like this book, i really did, there is only 1 problem, i didn't. The story picks up shortly after Episode IV of Star Wars and has several stories going on at once. Probably the main story is about a band of Stormtroopers ( you know those evil guys in white armor we all loved to hate) well they decide to jump ship after an incident onboard their Star Destroyer to become some kind of roaving band of semi do gooders. Their characters are flat and lifeless theough the entire book. Mara Jade bounds about and instantly licks everyone she comes into contact with despite being little more than a kid. Luke, Han and Lea are all there but their characters are never developed or enhanced. The rest of the book is packed with 2 bit villans who come and go by the truck load.

This book Humanises the Stormtroopers far too much to the point where you start to feel something for them and would like to sit down at a bar and have a beer or two, sorry but that's not the way I want to feel about Stormtroopers, they arn't supposed to be all Human and sympathetic, and heroic, they are the Empires evil crack troopes, something to be feared and hated. The rest of the book is a kind of rambling mixture of pirates and politics that really is of little interest and adds nothing much to the overall saga of Star Wars.

2 out of 5

I'm afraid the more Zahn writes in the SW universe, the further away he gets from what made his Thrawn Trilogy so amazing for me, and that is the characters. I always thought he, more than any of the other SW authors, was able to capture the voices of the movie characters and take them in interesting directions without straying too far from the originals. And his own characters were so great! Karrde and Thrawn, and most of all, Mara, have become as well-loved by me as Luke and Han and Leia (and they're so much more interesting than say, Padme or Dooku...but that's another rant entirely.)

So I was completely bewildered when I read Allegiance. It seems Zahn channeled all his efforts into another one of his classic twisty, tightly-knit plots and didn't bother much with the character work. Ok, the Han/Leia interaction was pretty enjoyable, but there could have been so much more, especially considering she was probably still grieving for Alderaan and her family. I was sort of chagrined with just how much Luke relied on Ben, but I guess I can buy it, it's just not how I pictured things working.

My biggest complaint however comes with the Zahn original characters. As fans of SW novels we have to put up with authors mishandling Lucas' characters all the time, and it can't be helped because we all have little possessive people inside us that feel like we personally own Luke/Leia/Whomever. But I expected better of Mara and the stormtroopers. I kept expecting to see some real growth in Mara - she may be the Emperor's hand-picked, brain-washed assassin girl but she's still a teenager who might be highly trained but can't be highly experienced. It would have been great to see at least some vulnerability in her character if not a full-blown coming-of-age story. I mean, she wasn't exactly infallible, but it'd be nice if she had realized it. As for the stormtroopers, it was very hard for me to be engaged in their storyline because I found them all very two-dimensional. The sad thing is it felt like they had some potential in the beginning, but it was barely realized.

I still love Timothy Zahn and I still want him to write more SW books (especially with Mara and Thrawn) but if he does I reeeeeally really hope they're more satisfying than Allegiance was.

For those who are easily chapped because Mr. Zahn focused less on the Main SW characters and more on some of his own creations, I believe William Shatner said it best on Saturday Night Live when speaking to a group of Trekkies at a convention: Get A Life. Zahn almost single-handedly reinvented the Star Wars literary universe when he was tapped to write 'Heir To The Empire' well over 13 years ago. In that original trilogy came some of THE greatest characters ever introduced in the Star Wars Universe -- including (IMHO) the Greatest Bad Guy: Grand Admiral Thrawn. For YEARS now, everywhere Mr. Zahn goes, he is pelted with the question of WHEN he is going to give the back-story of how Mara Jade became the Emperor's Hand (among other plot-lines) and his editors have been asking for it, too. With 'Allegiance' all he is doing is fulfilling the wishes of MANY of his fans. That some people who bought this novel were unaware of that I say: Get Over It.

While the exact details regarding the actual recruiting of Mara are not developed, it is clear that Mara's job, (among many others) is to inspire Darth Vader to overcome his recent failure to protect the Death Star. It is VERY interesting to see Vader reduced to a jealous Sith. We also see a small group of Stormtroopers who feel rather disillusioned with how the Empire is casually murdering it's inhabitants, and before long, they find themselves on the run from the very people they swore to kill for. Zahn has TOTAL control over the plot and all the events going in -- which are plentiful considering how thin this novel is. I must say that I was hoping the book was going to be much thicker, but I'll take a Zahn Star Wars book any way I can get it.

All things considered, I have yet to read ANY Star Wars novel written HALF as good as ANY of the works by Timothy Zahn. I have read the good (Steve Perry & Troy Denning) and the supremely bad (pretty much everything by Kevin J. Anderson) and they ALL pale when compared to this guy. I know not everyone agrees with me, but I haven't read any novelist who has so completely captured the *essence* of this universe created by George Lucas like Zahn has. Often I find myself reading simply an ordinary Sci-Fi story that happens to have characters with the names, Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie. With Timothy Zahn at the helm, we read his situations and think, "Dang, that is EXACTLY what C3PO would say" or you could substitute Han or ANY of them to be honest. While Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie are NOT the main focus of Allegiance, I for one do not care because the overall story is first-rate regardless. Personally I am hoping that Mr. Zahn will grace us with a multiple novel storyline featuring Thrawn and some of his escapades AFTER being appointed Grand Admiral by the Emperor (please??). Simply put: if you are already a fan of novels by Timothy Zahn buying this book is a given...if you tend to shy away from Star Wars books that do not feature the main characters in MAIN roles, you may think to buy something else...however, if you consider yourself a Star Wars fan and you haven't read Zahn yet, start with Heir To The Empire and move your way up and keep going until you have read them all. Not just good Sci Fi Drama but GREAT, enduring entertainment every bit as good as the best Star Wars movie (some would say better).

If you love Star Wars like me then you will enjoy this book tremendously. Timothy Zahn combines classic characters with a mix of new ones in a dynamic, exciting story that is filled with adventure, political intrigue, and good ole fashion Star Wars storytelling at its best. Scroll up and get this book now...you will be glad you did.

Enjoy the adventure. God bless.

Mark Bowser
www.the store.com/author/markbowser

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.

Timothy Zahn here writes an entirely predictable adventure tale with three branching paths: one about a stormtrooper squadron who deserts the Empire, another about Mara Jade doing odd jobs for the Emperor, and the third about Han, Luke, and Leia on a diplomatic mission. The tales converge in a fashion only possible in novels and wrap up with no bearing on the movies.

The problem with this novel is that it is entirely predictable. The stormtrooper squad deserts the Empire quickly in an unlikely fashion. I knew a few pages after this had happened that they would doubtlessly join Han, Luke, and Leia by novel's end in Zahn's attempt to provide some entertainment for the readers. I flipped ahead to the end of the book at that time and my prediction turned out to be right.

Mara Jade's branch is exceptionally boring for the majority of the novel, as she chases after nameless thugs just to get some pricey statues back to her Emperor. She's written as an unbelievably mature and confident 18-year-old, and actually tells the Emperor what she is going to do instead of being ordered around. Zahn also writes Lord Vader as being childish toward her, while at the same time inserting a silly scene where Vader Googles for Luke.

Han, Luke, and Leia's branch is unremarkable. The characters act toward each other much like they did in Episode IV. However, Luke takes a back seat and isn't very confident about himself.

Timothy Zahn writes this novel in a very constrained space, which forces him to create new characters and just as quickly kill them or shuffle them away. Obviously in love with his own character of Mara Jade, he portrays her as overly powerful. The stormtrooper deserters were a good idea, but Zahn doesn't do enough to distinguish them effectively as memorable individual characters. For such a task, Aaron Allston would've been better. Han, Luke, and Leia's story is unremarkable. This novel is passably written and will provide some brief entertainment for literature fans, but is an awful choice for newbies to the novels.

(Reviewer's note: I've read all of the Star Wars novels of the 1990s and most of the ones from 2000-2003 that weren't prequel novels. Seeing that this was not a prequel novel, the influx of which put me off reading Star Wars novels a few years ago, I picked it up, remembering Timothy Zahn's earlier excellent work in the Star Wars universe. I was disappointed.)

HE'S BACK!! Those were my very thoughts when I finished reading the very first sentence of the very first page. After the hack job that's been done with Jacen at the latter end of Star Wars continuity, it's refreshing to see an old master like Timothy Zahn show what the Expanded Universe is all about.

For the first time since 'By the Emperor's Hand', we see a young Mara Jade as the Emperor's hand. Luke is the lovable farm boy that we knew from the movies, blissfully unaware of his paternity. Han is still the scoundrel we know and love, consistently getting under Leia's skin (and we love him for it). And Vader is his Darthiest, on his search for Luke Skywalker which takes him...no I won't tell you.

Then there's Daric LaRone, a stormtrooper who goes to the planet Teardrop to "shoot some Rebels" and ends up in the middle of something that makes him think back to Alderaan. One thing leads to another, then he's deserted and on the run from the Empire.

'Allegiance' is the operative word here and we see it through the eyes of four different characters. Mara Jade, whose view of the Empire is rather naive and to an extent explains her when she first appears in Heir to Empire. Han Solo, not really wanting to join the Rebellion yet not wanting to leave Leia. He also resents being sent off on missions by Mon Mothma as if he IS part of the Alliance. And finally Disra, willing to play both sides of the fence whenever it suits him.

Yet this is only the tip of the novel. Also there are the fight scenes, the space battles (including a few GREAT ones on the Falcon) and some very, very interesting espionage sequences from Mara. Plus there's the engind, which I won't spoil as I think it's one of his best yet (barring Outbound Flight).

Hopefully after this novel Zahn will write the one I have long been waiting for him to do: a Clone Wars one with young Pellaeon.

Zahn has surpassed his already high standards for complexity and plot, but his characters, especially Mara Jade and Luke, are not especially well-developed, which is quite outside of the normal Zahn standard. The problems with this book are caused by the fact that we already know how these characters turn out, as the vast majority of Star Wars Fiction and two of the movies take place after this one. The author succumbed to the temptation of making Mara Jade what she becomes in the original Thrawn Trilogy, which is to say good. Mara Jade is not viewed as evil in the book although she has been raised by the most evil man the universe has ever seen. My favorite characters were the new ones, the five stormtrooper deserters. They were well-thought out and they fit in well with the story. All in all, an excellent book, but zahn has done better, and will do so again.

P.S. Did anyone notice how Zahn sneakily sneaked in Captain Abel Quiller from the Thrawn Trilogy into the book as one of the stormtrooper deserters? Or that he also sneaked in the execrable Disra from the Hand of Thrawn?

What happens when a member of the Empire realizes that they may not be fighting for the side that is right? This is the central issue at the heart of this novel. A group of four storm troopers desert their post once they are given orders to destroy an innocent village. I have always been fascinated by the idea of Imperial agents changing sides. As this group struggles with the idea of who they should give their allegiance, Mara Jade (another popular Zahn character) has to decide who she is allegiant to. Is it to the Emperor, Vader, or the citizens of the Empire. Wrapped up in all this are the big three: Han, Luke, and Leia, whose own bonds and relationships are tested. Altogether, this novel is an extremely well written addition to Timothy Zahn's collection of Star Wars books.

The action doesn't stop in the Expanded Universe--not after "Return of The Jedi," and not even between the films. Thus we have Zahn's "Allegiance," an examination of at least three disparate groups within the galaxy and where they stand on the pervasive and perceived tyranny of Palpatine's Empire (especially in a galaxy recently bereft of Alderaan).

Of course, our Rebel and Imperial familiars are still running across the galaxy pursuing their own ends, mutually exclusive of each other--all the while operating under their own loyalties and allegiances. There are, however, other, more intricate plots at work, and it may take a scrupulous eye to discern all of them. Thanks be that Zahn's style seems crisper here--easier to follow, lacking some of the more complex elements of the Thrawn trilogy and thus hearkening back to a simpler time in the Empire when men were men and a single one of them (not a bunch of squabbling warlords) ran the show.

There is, first, Mara Jade. At this point in her life she's still utterly in thrall to the Emperor and the Empire; certainly she questions his motives and "ability to see Rebellion where there is none" to a very limited extent, but by and large Zahn gives us a Mara Jade sans the sardonic disposition of the later Thrawn Trilogy; if she doesn't crack wise per se in the middle of a battle, she nonetheless takes control of the many situations of which she's in the middle--and comes out on top (if a little worse for the wear). Her loyalty here is to perceived good men--and though she may look at Palpatine askance once in a blue moon, Zahn presents Mara as someone who nonetheless believes in Palpatine's goals; Palpatine in return seems to grant her more latitude in doubting his orders than he would with even Vader (though that's another story).

Then there are our cover characters, the Hand of Judgement: rogue stormtroopers stationed aboard the ISD "Reprisal," who suddenly desert when their de facto leader, Daric LaRone, kills an Imperial Security Bureau officer in self defence. From their desertion, they amble about Selsha sector, doing random acts of kindness (such as can be done when one's wearing the gleamy white of Imperial Stormtroopers) and inadvertently crossing paths with Rebellion peacemakers in the area. LaRone gives the reader an important look at the concept of a Stormtrooper gone rogue--and it is something worth examining. The trend lately has been to personify Stormtroopers as the Empire's (and Vader's) faceless enforcers who rush headlong into any situation with little thought in their head except Imperial Loyalty. Zahn, however, goes ever further and shows us that these faceless enforcers have names, and lives, and values, and sometimes they don't always mesh with Palpatine's designs on the New Order. In LaRone, one of Zahn's one-off characters who hopefully gets further treatment, we see the Empire at war with itself, personified in this highly decorated and dutiful trooper. Torn between personal convictions (though Zahn thankfully stays away from protracted internal monologues when discussing LaRone's loyalties) and military convictions--Door 1 or Door 2, as it were. LaRone instead cannibalizes his options. He breaks free of institutionalized Imperial Doctrine, and in the process becomes an exercise in contradictions.

After all, how can a Stormtrooper--one of the Empire's finest--suddenly and simply desert? How can he cast off the gorier parts of the New Order and instead adhere to straight-up service to the people? By doing what made LaRone great in the first place: straight-up soldiering without the politics (though those come in later, too).

Zahn shows us, without being preachy, that Stormtroopers don't always hold with Company Policy, and that's not really a bad thing. After all, as old Obi-Wan's ghost instructs Luke, "not all strangers are enemies"--and neither are all Stormtroopers. Our heroes get a lesson in relativism, and while that doesn't necessarily jive with Lucas' idea of a stark good-and-evil universe, Zahn packages it in such a way that the reader is entertained nonetheless. Happy Reading!

This is a great book, as is normal from Timothy Zahn. This book takes place after Episode IV but prior to Episode V. You get to see Mara Jade in action as the Emperor's Hand. Along with that, there's an actual like-able band of Storm Troopers entering into the action. Combined with Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and of course, Darth Vader (who is as angry as ever), this is a great read.

This is a definite page turner, one of the better EU novels for Star Wars. Enjoy!

The Star Wars movie stories incorporates a lot of cliches and common myths. This book bypasses the two-dimensionality of the original stories by letting the reader get a better understanding of how good people can partner with and support movements and groups thought-of as bad or evil (please excuse the two-dimensional terms) along with the choices they are confronted with and make. While this could easily lead to a boring or moralizing book, it was actually a very good read. I believe it to be one of the better books in the Star Wars series - not as action packed or as exciting as some - but a little more insightful in terms of human nature. People can evolve from simple ideologues to those who grapple with life's greater moral complexities. Five stormtroopers go through this awakening process to a limited extent and shift from stereotypes to multi-dimensional characters. If there was more action and if the major Star Wars characters were equally multi-dimensional then the book would have been five stars but it is still a good and recommended read.

I am a huge fan of the Zahn star wars books and actually credit him with getting me into the expanded universe way back with the first printing of the Heir to the Empire. But this book was a big disappointment and didn't come close to living up to the standards I am used to from him.

We are first introduced to Mara Jade in the Heir to the Empire, set years after the Emporer's death. While not much is said about her time as the Emporer's hand specifically, the reader is left with the impression that she is sort of like a secret female vader; dark, mean and ruthless. Yet here, when we are introduced to her at this time in her life, she comes across as more of a Jedi than anyone the emporer would be associated with, and her character reads more like a child exploring new powers than anything. I found her character to be totally unbelievable for most of the book and was left with a whole different opinion of her as a person than I have had for the past decade or so.

She is meaner and badder now, as a Jedi Master, than she was back then. The only reason anyone even feared her was because she was a direct line back to Palpatine. After reading Darth Maul, Shadow Hunter I wonder if the Palpatine in this book is even the same guy he was in that one. He is more like a nice old grandfather in this book. Not a man whose grip on the galaxy is starting to slip and whose ultimate weapon was just destroyed.

The stormtrooper story was pretty good. I liked how Zahn showed the empire starting to rot from within with the destruction of the Death Star and how people within the government were getting more and more disaffected with the New Order.

There was not near enough story of Luke and Han and it almost felt as if the small parts they had were being forced in a way. Zahn usually does really good with writing his own characters but apparently he does not do as good with other people's characters.

All in all not a bad book (think Crystal Star and Jedi Academy Trilogy) but far from the best I have read. Zahn was off on this one and I was left sorely disappointed.

I finished Allegiance and its a fine novel though it goes very fast. If you like Star Wars, and you like Zahn, you'll likely enjoy this book. I don't need to convince you to read it if you're anything like me. It's Zahn. It must be read.

But I found one thing /very strange/ about this novel. Even though Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie are all very active characters in this book, C-3PO and R2-D2 are not once even mentioned. Seriously. It's like Han Solo's bizarre absence in Splinter of the Mind's Eye. You have no clue where the droids are or what they're up to. But wait, there's more.

Not only do C-3PO and R2-D2 make no appearance, but the entire book has NO DROIDS AT ALL. Read it again if you don't believe me. There is I recall one /reference/ to droids but never does a droid appear at any point in the story. Was this some kind of bet Zahn made with a friend on whether or not he could write an entire star wars novel without droids? (Though technically, I think he already did that with Outbound Flight).

Just an odd trivial note. If you read it, enjoy it. The stormtroopers are appealing characters and I wouldn't mind seeing more about them following the events of this book.

I know a good chunk of Star Wars readers think Zahn is the best of the lot (personally, give me Stover or Luceno any day) but "Allegiance" is just so far from a good novel, and in many places its an outright bad novel.

Yeah, I wanted Luke, Leia, and Han, and rebels versus Imperials, Zahn using this opportunity to the fullest to make a really interesting impact and take an introspective look on that time, from inside the characters out. I think a lot of people did, and the novel was rather billed that way, but overall, I just wanted a well put together piece of fiction.

I didn't get that. I knew twenty pages in that the book had been rushed, that an editor hadn't looked at it other than to check for punctuation, and that my expectations weren't going to be met. I got some Mara Jade as Super Hand (rather like a full out Jedi) and I got some conscripted stormtroopers that had the mental IQ and morality of ten year olds, whom make the choice that starts the novel "because" Zahn has a bad habit of "because I said so" plot writing.

I got a 300 page novel that felt like a 200 page novel. Paper-thin characters plagued the pages, especially those we know and love (the main characters were completely one note, Han saying "worshipfulness" so many times I was gagging, Ben-as-Ghost acting like Luke's personal wikipedia, even giving out a passcode, and Darth Vader as whiny madman, sulky and getting his butt kicked by an 18 year old girl).

Pushing away everything, all the expectations and the "bait-and-switch" of the time period, I look at this and just shake my head that people think its good writing. Its so back and forth (clearly, actually, of course, in reality), that you feel like you're playing pong. And theme...other than the occasional "the Empire is EVAL" not a single thought popped up. Its cheap writing at a fundamental level and in the end, that's what struck me the most.

What I got from "Allegiance" was a lost opportunity and a rushed novel, where Zahn didn't seem to care other than to finish the deadline.

Final Thought: I usually don't buy SW in hardcover outside of the big series (NJO, LOTF) where I'm forced too to keep up to date with the paperbacks, but the era it was set in got me, and I'm sure there are tons of cash-strapped SW fans out there that feel it pulling them in as well. Resist it, you can wait for the paperback. There's much better SW out there than "Allegiance".

Nobody does Star Wars like Zahn - this was a very nice installment, taking a trip back to just after the original Star Wars movie, later retitled Episode 4, A new Hope.

All the base characters from that era are there in limited form, as well as some early era Mara Jade, and a group of dissatisfied Storm Troopers.

If you like Star Wars, READ IT!

Nobody does Star Wars like Zahn - this was a very nice installment, taking a trip back to just after the original Star Wars movie, later retitled Episode 4, A new Hope.

All the base characters from that era are there in limited form, as well as some early era Mara Jade, and a group of dissatisfied Storm Troopers.

If you like Star Wars, READ IT!

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.

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.

If you are a Timothy Zahn fan then you are going to be disappointed with this book. If you aren't then you are going to think it's just an average Star Wars book. I'm in the latter group. I don't think Timothy Zahn is that great of a Star Wars writer because I get into characters, their development and the politics of the world. Mr. Zahn is more into the action. This book has action but no focus. There are about 4 or 5 different storylines that are all over the place. I enjoyed the Mara Jade one but the rest were convuluted and almost unnecessary. I loved the Darth Vader makes a short appearance to throw his weight around some. However, I just found the character development lacking and I didn't really care about any of the new characters and the older characters weren't used in a way to further anything. I would recommend this book only to serious Star Wars readers to continue the series or to Timothy Zahn fans that won't believe me. ;-)

A stormtrooper unit led by Daric LaRone refuse orders and will not fireon civilians. They steal a shuttle and flee, vowing to seek out and destroy corruption they find inside the Imperial ranks--even if it means coming to the aid of the Rebels!

The novel never truly reached the apex I was hoping for. The story focused too much on the deserting storm troopers and Mara Jade. Though Mara Jade is welcome, I was hoping for an ultimate confrontation between Luke and Mara. But it never happens. Maybe that was impossible given the other novels, I don't know. But, Luke doesn't do much of anything in this story and that was hugely disappointing. In addition, I don't feel it was written all that well either. The plot was way too convoluted to follow. That was the chief problem. Even the best of writers can create a dude now and then. This was a dude.

I can't believe I just read a bad Timothy Zahn book maybe I was expecting too much from Allegiance but it had all the ingrediants of being good. Written between ANH and ESB, a few stormtroopers who begin to question the Empire's orders and my favorite EU charactor Mara Jade. Yet it was...bad. There was so little of Luke, Han and Leia and they really didn't seem like themselves. It would have been nice if it had touched on both Luke and Leia losing their families in ANH especially with Alderaan being the main reason for the stormtroopers' disillusionment. None of the stormtroopers were particularly interesting neither was Mara Jade, who came off to me being more like Luke then someone trained for 18 years by Palpatine. When all else fails you can expect Palpatine and Vader to be interesting and yet they weren't either. Hopefully his next book will back to the normal Zahn level.

It's like it was written by a 13-year old. Or at least Zahn filched the premise from one.

"So what if there were some Stormtroopers, but they were GOOD stormtroopers, and then they went to help the good guys! YAY!"

How do they do that?

"Ooooh ooooh! They steal a magic spaceship with every conceivable weapon they could ever want hidden inside. YAY!"

That sounds unlikely.

"It gets better! Also, these stormtroopers, it just so happens, are the only Stormtroopers ever who could shoot straight and not screw everything up."

* * *

But really, I never would have pegged Zahn for one of those guys with a weird affection for stormtroopers. I've read that there are groups of men, in real life, who dress up like stormtroopers and do things like charitable events. How do you do charitable acts by personifying evil and scaring small children? Beats me.

The five imperial storm troopers are tired of the endless war in which the innocent die, but no one at least on their side seems to care. Their leader Daric LaRone believes the enemy Rebel Alliance is no different though they cloak their efforts as freedom fighters. Still when a superior officer orders Daric and his four followers to commit an atrocity, they kill their leader instead forcing them to go AWOL where they meet rebel leaders Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca.

Meanwhile Emperor Palpatine decides he needs a new apprentice as his previous one Darth Vader may need some competition to keep him sharp after a recent unacceptable failure. He chooses amoral teenage beauty Countess Mara Jade Claria to become his "Emperor's Hand", angering the Sith though Vader takes out his rage on others and not his mentor or the new rival.

Allegiance takes place between the events of A New Hope (the original 1977 movie) and the Empire Strikes Back as Timothy Zahn seamlessly fills the gap by humanizing the storm troopers. The story line is action-packed but character driven by Daric and his men, and the renowned heroic four; but especially fascinating is the triangle between Vader, Mara Jade and Palpatine. Star War fans will enjoy this well written interlude.

Harriet Klausner

Timothy Zhan is perhaps the absolute best Star Wars author currently writing for the series. His writing is polished and flows very smoothly and he doesn't turn every book into a history lesson. In this book, we are introduced to a squadron of rogue stormtroopers having trouble with their conflict between their loyalty to the Empire and their loyalty to its citizens. The book reads with the same high intensity pace of Zhan's previous work in the Star Wars Universe and the tale weaves together with a story of my favorite Zhan character, Mara Jade. If you enjoyed his other six star wars novels you will love this one.

C'mon people! There are more people in the Star Wars universe than just Luke, Leia and company! I enjoyed reading this book ... the whole "Hand of Judgement" premise was fascinating. Looking through the Empire through the view of 5 stormtroopers was a great idea....and looking at Vader through the eyes of others gives us a different perspective on his development.

I, for one, would like to read more about Mara and the 5 stormtroopers.

Keep up the great work, Tim!

Timothy Zahn does a great job getting the reader interested in his newly created stormtrooper characters early in the story. As I finished the book I was emotionally tied to the stormtroopers in the sense that I wanted more. I do hope he writes further stories on these guys since their relationships with each other are very dynamic and just enjoyable to read.

The book can become some what confusing as the story shifts to multiple points of view throughout, but Zahn does a wonderful job of tying up everything towards the end and making everything make sense without it becoming too hokey. If you want a great story that does not rely fully on Han, Luke and Leia then give this book a read as its refreshing and just plain fun to get into.

A horrible book and certainly the worst Zahn has ever written. Not only is he ripping off scene's from his previous books and simply copy and pasting them in here, Leia gets a job as a waitress, Luke acts like a shallow fool with Obi-wan on ghost speed dial, before being left locked in a cupboard by Han and Darth Vader web-surfs on Google and pretty much acts out of character and get's pawned by an 18 year old girl. Yes all those things actually happened and are as bad I make them sound.

As for his own character well Mara despite being the best-est Imperial agent ever still seems just only go after pirates and for some reason have other Imperial officers try to kill her for absolutely no reason, except the author feeling he needs to try and introduce some excitement in an otherwise boring book. Long gone are the days when Zahn made this character really interesting with great development, now she is nothing more than a computer game cut out.

As for the Storm-trooper A-Team (who are wanted for a crime they did not commit !), well they do not act like Storm-troopers but then these are Zahn-troopers since they seem to be able to shoot straight and are able to survive multiple blaster shots. They also incredibly generic and you could switch the names around and still not tell the difference between any of them as characters.

As for the plot its a big mystery that starts off with pirates and leads too.... more pirates seriously that's it, all in all it's a terrible book and I am struggling to see how anyone could rate it so high especially when compared too Zahn's original trilogy which was great that great

I had trouble staying engaged, and in fact put the book down for a few weeks after which I had lost major parts of the plot.

The 4 stormtroopers besides LaRone kind of blended together without any discerning personality traits, and the Luke/Han/Leia subplot seemed bolted on just to give the fans a taste of the main characters.

Overall it was okay and it was interesting to get a glimpse of the story between ANH and ESB, but I'd say it's Zahn's worst novel to date.

I really enjoyed this book. I'll be honest, I'm tired of what so many writers have been doing with the all the characters in the EU. Zahn still writes a great story, and focusing on 5 stormtroopers who have to come to terms with the realization that their empire is changing into something they can't serve anymore. I know Zahn lost his patience with the last series of books (and I can't really blame him), so he stuck to the parts of the world that he started. Mara is a huge part of this book, and her perspective is interesting, I don't think anyone writes her as fully as Zahn does. So he writes about her, incorporates characters from the bigger universe and creates new characters in hopes of finding a new plot line to write about. I am greatful that he did, his writing started all of this EU, how he made it big... If he writes for Star Wars, it's going to be worth reading.

First off, it needs to be said that if it wasn't for Timothy Zahn, I wouldn't have even bothered with the EU novels. If he hadn't done such a great job and set the standard in the Thrawn Trilogy, well we probably wouldn't have the EU we have today.

That said, when I first heard about this novel, I didn't know what to expect. Sure, I knew Mara Jade was going to be in it and there were going to be some rogue stormtroopers, but I didn't realize how it would all fit together. Honestly I didn't think it was even going to be a very good book. Thankfully, Mr. Zahn came through. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but trust me when I say that you won't be disappointed. Granted, it's not at the same level as the Thrawn Trilogy, but it's a definite read for any fan of Zahn or Star Wars.

I only give it four stars because I would have liked to have seen Vader a little more. Also, from personal experience I would be patient and wait for the paperback edition just because of the price of the hard cover. Unless you're a hardcore collector that is.

Zahn is definitely one of the best Star Wars authors out there. (He delivered the only readable prequel-ere novel in Outbound Flight.) With him behind the story, I was hoping for a good classic-trilogy-era novel showing Luke struggling to be a jedi without a teacher and Han and Chewie being the rogues of old. Unfortunately, there is too little of our favorite characters. Most of the book follows a group of weak-minded stormtroopers, whose simple logic and motivation grew tiresome quickly. The few shining moments in Allegiance, in my opinion, were the interactions between Mara Jade and Darth Vader. If we're going to get any more of the young Mara during the Rebellion, I hope to see more on the tense relationship between her and Vader.

This book was awesome, I loved the storyline and the overall flow of it. I enjoyed watching what happened to LaRone and his fellow Stormtroopers. And there were just so many thing I did not expect, twist and turns but I never really got confused. One point I lost track but it was shorter than a page. The second Star Wars book Ive read, I dont really remember the other, but Im deffinitly buying more. I would recomend this to Every star wars fan...

I enjoyed the various threads spun in this book. A bit predictable, but it is Star Wars. The story provided some background for future events and some of the main SW characters, such as Mara and her bad self, and it also gave the stormies a warm fuzzy lovable side. I picked this up during a flight delay and found it hard to put down. Definately a good read.

Now, I love this book. It kept me energetic and amazed the whole way through. I highly recommend this book to any Star Wars fan big or small. I have even purchased this book in paperback for most of my friends.

I loved Zahn's Heir to the Empire and this book had the potential to be as good but something made it miss the mark, albeit barely. I really enjoyed this story and highly recommend it. I felt the character development was good, although I would like to have seen more done with the renegade stormtroopers.

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.

Timothy Zahn is my favorite author, but this story really never seems to get going. It's fun to see Mara Jade as a young Emporer's Hand, but too little time is spent with our other heroes. The real stars of the book are a group of rouge storm troopers and they just aren't that interesting. The plot is a little too conviluted also. Mr. Zahn can do much better. If you want Zahn, check out "Night Train To Rigel" instead.

The Star Wars universe, like any is a place when a small ripple in the pool turns into a tidal wave at the other end. It was interesting to have the focus of the story centered on new characters, with plot intersections to established characters. I particularly enjoyed the brief glimpses at Darth Vader and the details of Mara Jade in her role as the Emperor Hand.

Timothy Zahn's eighth book in the Star Wars expanded universe and, unfortunately, possibly his weakest yet.

The story itself reads as though it were written for a very specific group of fans, and is at oft times childish. For the more adult die hard fans of Star Wars the continuity changes will draw frowns, with characters from previous books acting with greater skill than they appear to have later on in life.

Though, for these difficulties the simplicity of the story, and the ease of the writing will appeal to younger fans, and those looking for a simple and quick read with nothing challenging. Though these are not the trademarks of the intrigue and atmosphere that Timothy Zahn's other work has.

Not great, stormtrooper fans especially will love the Hand of Judgment and this story, so if you are; consider it recommended. But certainly this is not close to his best work, and it simply doesn't feel like it was written for the wider audience.

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.

In 1991, I was very excited to discover that the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia were continuing with a new trilogy of novels. At that time the prospect of new Star Wars movies was still uncertain. Since the potential new films would be prequels to the original films, the time period of the movie saga was off limits to the new novels. Happy to have more Star Wars, I enjoyed Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy as an exciting, dramatic and well-crafted "author's vision of what may have happened" after Return of the Jedi.

Well, I liked it all the way until the climax of the third book, in which Mara Jade kills both a clone of Luke and one of the two main villains, Joruus C'Boath. I felt it was such a disappointment that main hero of the trilogy eventually turned out to be one of Zahn's original characters. That killed even my youthful fantasies of Zahn's trilogy being another movie trilogy featuring the main three Star Wars heroes (at the time).

One of the main reasons the character of Mara Jade was so appealing was that she was an amalgamation of the main three movies heroes and Vader (Force-sensitive strong female smuggler struggling with her loyalty to Palpatine). Voila, instant new Star Wars character! But despite that, I still liked Mara Jade for what she was, and Timothy Zahn for being a good writer.

A few years later, I absolutely loved the Shadows of the Empire book from start to finish. It introduced interesting new characters, without taking any thunder away from the movie characters. Sure, while Han is frozen in carbonite the new protagonist Dash Rendar takes the role of the scoundrel of borderline loyalty ala Han, Lando, Mara and Talon Karrde. But contrary to The Last Command, (we are lead to believe) Dash dies in Shadow's climax. And another thing I really love about Shadows is that it fits perfectly between The Empire Strikes Back and Jedi.

James Luceno's prequel-era novels have also become some of my favorite books for the same reason I like Shadows so much: quality tales tying into the continuity of the movies with a strong emphasis on the characters of the movies. Granted, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader features a new main protagonist, but his story is also one that ends in tragedy, not unlike Dash and the protagonists in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.

Since I had enjoyed the vast majority of the Thrawn Trilogy, I was excited to finally have the chance to read a prequel-era novel by Zahn. As with the prequel movies with respect to the originals, I knew Outbound Flight would include part of the back-story of his six post-Jedi novels, and I was happy that Zahn would have the chance to retcon a few continuity discrepancies that crept up due the prequel films contradicting a few things in his previous novels. And Thrawn was such a cool villain! But what I was really looking forward to is Zahn having a chance to use Obi-Wan, Anakin, Palpatine and Sidious in a story.

But I was very disappointed as this wasn't a story about Star Wars movie characters. Zahn was completely self-serving to his own novels. Obi-Wan and Anakin have no important purpose to the story, appearing only as far as Zahn's plot allowed. Jedi Master Jorus C'Boath was a total dill-hole before he crossed-over to the Dark Side, which explains the personality of his insane clone in the Thrawn Trilogy, but doesn't jive with the Jedi created by Lucas. There is no way that Jorus C'Boath could be a Jedi Master with that attitude.

And to Zahn's credit, I actually sympathized with the character of Thrawn. But then I realized that Thrawn was created as a villain! I want to revile Thrawn! But by end he is portrayed as a renegade Chiss hero who saved his people by defeating C'Boath's Outbound Flight and the Vagaari. This novel is good for the fans of Zahn's post-Return of the Jedi novels and specifically the character of Thrawn, but not so good for readers who like books that focus on movie characters. Outbound had nothing to do with the stories of the prequel movies.

In the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars film, we have now come full circle with the newest novel depicting events from during the movie saga. Despite my experience with Outbound Flight, I wanted to give Allegiance a chance. Since Shadows of the Empire, I have dreamed of a series of novels that take place in the three years between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and now we have this new Zahn book. It was promoted as featuring Luke, Han, Leia and Darth Vader. Yes, I knew going into it that it would also include Mara Jade in Imperial service as Emperor's Hand. But I still thought that without a major back story to maintain (i.e. Outbound Flight's disappearance precluding Obi-Wan and Anakin remaining passengers), this novel could be a great book emphasizing the three main classic trilogy heroes. Boy was I naïve.

The story in Allegiance interweaves three main story arcs. Much to my chagrin, THE main protagonist of this book IS Mara Jade, who investigates a plot of corruption in the Empire. Zahn's second main story arc features five new characters that becomes known as the Hand of Judgment, a group of stormtroopers who go rogue. Last (and definitely least) is the arc of Alliance heroes Luke, Han and Leia.

Allegiance has many problems. Mara Jade is too powerful, wise and authoritative for a teenager, even one that is trained as an Imperial agent. She was snapping orders left and right, and even high-ranking Imperials usually just obeyed when she threw out a couple code words. She even bested Vader in a brief duel. Come on!

The premise for the Hand of Judgment was unrealistic, even for Star Wars. Even if the Empire did accept non-clones to be trained as stormtroopers, I imagine the non-elite ones would be completely amoral - brainwashed into thinking that nothing the Empire ever did could be wrong. The elite officers with greater experience and perception would probably just have had to become plain evil to get promoted. The Independent-minded, moral stormtroopers in this book seem very far-fetched in the movie saga's Empire. In all their years of service to the evil galactic Empire, they've never been ordered to do anything immoral before the beginning of this book? Come on! I have noticed that several readers would like to read about the further exploits of the Hand of Judgment. I couldn't care less.

And regarding the question of whether the Empire had non-clones stormtroopers, Lucas has already stated that the reason movie stormtroopers exist of varying heights and abilities is because multiple hosts were used to base clones on after the death of Jango Fett. So in the movies they could still all be clones, just not all clones of the same person. But yes it is true that long before this book, non-clone stormtroopers have existed in the Expanded Universe continuity, so Zahn isn't breaking new ground here.

And the formally-masterful story-teller of space opera has just gotten plain lazy. The movies don't portray manned AT-STs nearly as powerful as one automated scout walker is in a major scene in this book. Ewoks foiled multiple AT-STs with primitive traps! The Hand troopers are new fugitives that just happen to get involved in all these heroic missions, including leading a rebellion against a corrupt spaceport. The Hand knew Skywalker and Solo's names but in all their research they couldn't figure out that they had captured two of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy. Mara Jade just barely doesn't meet Luke and Han. The renegade Hand starts taking orders from Mara very easily, and their objectives just happen to become one in the same. And apparently the Hand tells their whole story to Mara without mentioning their association with Skywalker, Solo and Chewbacca, which is how the Rebels can conveniently escape the Empire's clutches without anyone knowing. Ugh.

However my major beef is that Zahn's plot could have easily been written without the heroes of the Alliance (and probably originally was). Zahn said that he couldn't find anything for Artoo and Threepio to do in this story, but they weren't even mentioned! Not even a cameo appearance in one scene? Not very creative. Chewie's role and the use of the Falcon are cheaply contrived to be minimal by leaving Chewie on the ship and out of most of the action. Vader and the Emperor's roles are very small. As the book moved closer to the end, I kept wandering what the Heroes of Yavin were doing. But the book would go on and on about Mara and the Hand troopers. When I did finally get brief glimpses of my heroes, I found that they hadn't done much of anything. The climax of the story does not feature the heroes at all. I actually feel cheated.

You may like Allegiance if you're a big fan of Zahn and Mara Jade. But I've finally learned the lesson about Zahn that I should have learned back in 1993 - he can't just write a story featuring characters he didn't create. He may be an excellent writer, but he is not a good Star Wars movie tie-in author. May Zahn please be exiled back to the post-Jedi regions, never to return.

And may James Luceno and Steve Perry please be brought in to do a series of novels set in the time period between the original movie and its first movie sequel, featuring the heroes of those movies? Pretty please? :-)

Instead of this book, I highly recommend the following 5-star novels that are extremely relevant to the film series:

Cloak of Deception (Star Wars)
Shadow Hunter (Star Wars: Darth Maul)
Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel)
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Shadows of the Empire (Star Wars)

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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The book fills in some more history in the Star Wars Universe, adding a slight twist here & there. It's good to see things from the Imperial point of view for a change. It also shows that the stormtroopers are more than mindless puppets. Definitely a book worth reading!

The best writer of the star wars genre,this book does not dissapoint as with all his previous books i couldnt put it down,great visuals, intreiging characters,great action and suspence,no letdown ,great book HIGHLY recommended.

In his usual form, Zahn focuses on elements of his own creation as opposed to George Lucas's. In areas this is a strength; in others, a weakness. Mara Jade has always been an enigmatic character, so this is a welcome development. Unwelcome, however, is the inclusion of non-clone stormtroopers. To my knowledge, Zahn was the first Star Wars author to explicitly state stormtroopers were not clones in the late 1990s. To Zahn's credit, Lucas didn't officially clarify the stormtroopers' true nature until 2002 with "Attack of the Clones," so Zahn couldn't have known his error.

Here in 2007 matters are different. Lucas has shown the world stormtroopers are clones by revealing their origins as created by the Jedi then coopted by the Sith in the prequels and "Labyrinth of Evil" (one could argue the point, but at least on-screen, this is the overwhelming suggestion). Zahn had the opportunity to smooth over his early blunder with a great story about clones turning against their conditioning to battle an oppressive autocrat, perhaps in the spirit of the noble Jedi who arranged for their kind's creation so many years ago. He could have even made it compatible with the Spaarti cloning thread from "The Last Command." Instead he told a tired tale of conscripts. As usual, Zahn sticks tenaciously to his version of Star Wars, despite revelations in a few inconvenient film releases. This is a shame because Zahn is an otherwise excellent story teller. See "Outbound Flight."

If you're one of those Star Wars fans who likes the idea of conscripted soldiers and can't let go of that overwritten notion, you'll probably like this story. If you prefer Lucas's Star Wars, in which cloning plays a vital thematic role throughout all the films, you might leave this book alone.

as described...great condition is being used in home school program. they will compare allegence and will learn a lot while thinking...you know that "THING" that is NOT ENCOURAGED in schools and students....

I frankly feel ripped off by this book. This book is NOT about Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader. I doubt they get a tenth of the pages. Zahn truly believes his characters are better and more interesting than Lucas's. Hence mostly Mara, and we're drowning in the stormtroopers I care nothing about.

I wanted what was promoted: the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Vader between A New Hope & ESB. I wanted to know how Vader feels about finding out he has son - nope. I wanted to know how Luke feels about the death of his aunt and uncle, learning about the Force, becoming a hero - nothing. How does Leia feel about the death of her world? - nothing.

This book isn't really about Star Wars or Star Wars characters. It's just set there to sell books. This about Zahn and his characters, not about the characters George Lucas created thirty years ago - and I still care about. I feel cheated.

Once again, Timothy Zahn gives us a new look at the empire. He always manages to show a new perspective on a new or old story.

The perspective of the empire from storm troopers and Mara Jade were the highlight of this book for me.

The only thing i really did not like about this book was that I felt too many character lines, however, this was easily overlooked by the feelings and emotions displayed by them, showing yet another wonderful Star Wars book.

In the books surrounding Kyp Durron and the Academy at Carida, it is apparent that not all stormtroopers were clones. I emailed Lucas about this and he replied, saying "You're right. They weren't."

Ok, that last bit was a lie. But the point stands.

The characters were not emotional and the story had no large effect on the Star Wars universe. I would not recommend that Zahn fans(such as myself) read this or else their faith in this writer will be shattered.

I love Zahn's books in general, and his Star Wars books in this vein in particular. It really gives a broader picture of the Empire as definitely messed up, but not evil through and through. It brings more realism to the universe to have dissident elements that joined the wrong goverment for the right reasons, and eventually figure it out and have to go it alone.