Yes, yes, I know, I'm a procrastinator. Oh well, better late than never.

This entry is dedicated to everyone's favorite walking carpet, Chewbacca. Yes, after being missing from quite a few books, Chewie is back. His appearance just over one page in was a joy and I knew I would be enjoying this book more than the other SW books of recent publication.

SPOILER WARNING!!!!!! If you don't want to know what happens in Allegiance, stop reading now, although it's been out long enough that most people who are going to read it have it read by now.

Since you are still reading, I assume you either already know what happened (and good for you for reading the book ) or that you haven't read the book, but don't care about spoiling what happens (however, after reading this you need to go get the book and read it ).

While I did enjoy Allegiance more than I've been enjoying the Legacy of the Force series (I really need to get around to reading Exile and Sacrifice, sigh.....), it's only a so-so book. But it has Chewie and shows what Mara was doing during the Rebellion, which makes up for anything lacking in the book.

Where to start, where to start???

Many of the events in this book come from references made in other works to this time period. Since I don't read the comics (except for the Rogue Squadron Omnibuses), I don't know how much coverage has been given in them or how much they may have contributed to the plot line of Allegiance, but it's nice to finally have some of them expanded on in novel form.

The book begins with the Empire getting ready to make its infamous raid on Teardrop. Teardrop was a suspected Rebel hideout that, shortly after the battle of Yavin, the Empire blasted into a pile of ash. For years there has been speculation that by the time the Empire commenced it's attack, the Rebels had already left, if indeed, they had ever been there to begin with. It turns out that they were there, but the last ship, coincidently being the Falcon with Han, Luke, and a few others, left as the Reprisal came into the system. Only quick thinking on Han's part that made the Empire thing they were just arriving instead of just leaving, allowed the Falcon and its passengers to escape. This is only the first of many near misses/coincidences that occur in the book, all of which got real old, real fast. But we will talk more about that later.

Part of the ground crew ordered to take part in the destruction were less than happy with their orders. These five men (none of which were clones, btw), questioned their orders, but in the end complied, because stormtroopers always follow orders. However, one of them deliberately missed his shots. This was noted by the ISB (Imperial Security Bureau, think Gestapo) and he was questioned about in the presence of the other four men. The confrontation escalated and the ISB agent was accidentally killed. Since there was no way the ISB would believe it was an accident, even though it was the truth, the five stormtroopers steal a transport and get themselves off of the Reprisal before anyone can find out what they've done and execute them. I'll get more into their misadventures later, but for now let's look at another of the book's storylines- Mara Jade.

Mara is mixed up in all of this because she is on the trail of some stolen artwork (and no, I'm not making that up). I won't get into the details, so if you want to know- go read the book!!!

Moving on-
We have the first in-print meeting of Mara and Darth Vader (at least in the novels, again, I don't know about the comic books). It is a little weird as the reader knowing that he will one day be her father-in-law, but it's also interesting. Vader, of course, does not like Mara. She's not sure why, but figures it's jealousy. This first meeting takes place in the Emperor's private library and DV seems a little more on edge than usual. After DV leaves, Mara hacks the terminal he was using and finds out that he was searching for someone named Luke Skywalker, but, since she has never heard of him, she files the name for later reference and goes about her own work.

Ugh, this is already getting longer than I meant for it to. I'm going to try to sum up the best I can and if you want details- read the book!!!!!

Han: still can't wait to get quit of the whole Rebellion and back to actually making money. There's also the issue of a certain princess and his feelings for her. He spends the entire book getting sucked further and further into the Rebellion and coming up with harebrained schemes to get out of trouble.

Chewie: he, needless to say, is along for the ride. And, again, it was very nice to have him back in action.

Luke: very into the Rebellion, but still a farm boy. Sorta getting into the whole Jedi/Force thing, but lacking the skills and abilities that won't come until Dagobah.

Leia: ever the diplomat, and sometimes waitress. Trying to figure out her feelings towards a certain scruffy looking nerf herder.

Actually, little of the book focuses on the above, and most of their actions are to further the plotlines with the 5 stormtroopers and Mara.

The five stormtroopers: their first goal is to get away and find some place to hide from the Empire. However, as they make a supply stop, they stop to do a few good deeds (and unknowingly help the Rebellion). Eventually, they get caught up in what Mara is doing and they become her personal stormtroopers for a couple of days. After the dealings with Mara are over (and, yes, she knew there was something weird about them), they decide that, no matter what, it is their duty to protect the citizens of the Empire, even it they have to protect them from the Empire.

Mara: as is pointed out in other books, she really didn't believe in the evil doings of the Empire and worked hard to make sure that those who betrayed the ideals of the Empire (those things that Palps publically espoused), paid for it. Or, conversely, making sure that those who did not need to be brought down, weren't. She had little to do with fighting against the Rebellion, really only dealing with it if it was part of her other work. She also came close to meeting her future hubby a number of times, but darn, if they didn't always just miss each other.

As I said earlier, I enjoyed Allegiance more than I have been enjoying the Legacy series. And I liked the fact the Chewie was back and that we got to see Mara: the Early Years. However, the number of close calls, accidental helps, mistaken intentions, and almost meetings were just too much. I like Timothy Zahn, both his SW and non-SW works, and Vision of the Future is one of my all time favorite SW novels, but this is not one of his better works.

So here ends my blog. Probably not my best and certainly not the most detailed, but if you have any hopes of getting a Tempest blog soon, it's the best you're going to get.

Happy 30th everyone!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure why my answer got censored below, but the stormtroopers are: LaRone, Quiller, Brightwater, Grave, and Marcross.