Although Allegiance isn’t an awful book, Timothy Zahn has certainly done better. The plot is interesting, but had trouble keeping my attention.

I like how the main stormtrooper characters struggle with loyalty and principle, two of the main themes, but Karen Traviss has a better notion of dynamics within a squad, including each trooper’s inner conflicts. The troopers here aren’t nearly as fleshed out.

I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first novel in which Mara Jade is introduced at the beginning of her career. At the age of eighteen, her Force abilities are impressive, especially if she’d been training since childhood. More background on her would have been welcome. What makes her interesting is the combination of her abilities and her naivete.

Meh. That’s about it.

Zahn brought back Star Wars novels with the “Heir to the Empire” series. I was very excited about this book, but I didn’t really enjoy it until about halfway through. The ending was well done, but I didn’t really care about the characters…even Luke, Leia and Han. They just didn’t ring true to me.

Everything else Zahn has written has worked well and he is one of the few authors to introduce a character that has become part of the SW universe (Mara Jade).

Does it add anything to the SW universe? Not really. He makes Mara a more powerful jedi than before. The coolest part was bringing the 501st into the universe again.

I’ve avoided Star Wars novels for a while now, because of the plethora that have come out the last 8-9 years since I was actively reading all of them I didn’t want ot play catch up.

Star Wars has become like the dungeons and dragons novels I avoid – but Zahn – Zahn is the master and he managed to suck me back in so I think I may have to play catch up now.

It was a great novel – not up to par to Zahn’s earlier Star Wars works – but above and beyond anyone else in the field.