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Posted: **2006-06-16 01:38am**

Author Timothy Zahn returns to the Star Wars galaxy next year with his next book, Star Wars: Allegiance. Here's a first look at its cover, by artist John Van Fleet.

In Star Wars: Allegiance, which takes place during the time between Episodes IV and V, Luke Skywalker is still new to all this Jedi business. Han Solo isn't sure how much he's willing to commit to the Rebel Alliance. Princess Leia is trying to help run the Rebellion and wondering why Han is so infuriating. The young Mara Jade is one of the most valued agents of the evil Emperor. And a team of stormtroopers goes rogue, deciding to mete out justice their own way...

Del Rey Books is scheduled to publish this hardcover release on January 30, 2007. Keep checking starwars.com for all the latest in book developments.

Posted: **2006-06-16 02:52am**

Finally! An EU book by a SW author that I think doesn't suck, written in an era that is still pretty fresh and hasn't been done to death. In other words, it's not set in the NJO era.

Posted: **2006-06-16 03:25am**

written in an era that is still pretty fresh

Let's see... thirty-two or so Marvel comics issues, twenty-six or so issues of Empire, a novel, several comic strips, the new ongoing Rebellion series, a whole mess of RPG supplements, a number of video games...

Nope, that period's a clean slate.

Posted: **2006-06-16 03:28am**

000 wrote:Nope, that period's a clean slate.

Effectively. Those comics, last I heard, were published a long time ago. He can walk all over them no problem without much complaint.

Posted: **2006-06-16 03:30am**

Empire ended earlier this year, and Rebellion is just kicking off. We're only on issue #3.

Posted: **2006-06-16 03:44am**

000 wrote:Empire ended earlier this year, and Rebellion is just kicking off. We're only on issue #3.

Meh. Never heard of them, only the Marvel ones. So, yeah, novels can walk all over at will without ruffling too many feathers; there's masses and masses of SW comics stuff. Magazines of it are serialised over here. Not that I'm likely to buy this anyway. My willingness to pay for SW stuff basically died in the NJO.

Posted: **2006-06-16 06:18am**

Let me remind you all, there's a galaxy's worth of stories in each and every single period, yet we only usually follow a small group of people every time. I wish they'd make stories about completely unknown characters.

Posted: **2006-06-16 07:53am**

I'm not sure anybody'd read them much. Let's face it, the presence of familiar characters is something of a draw for a lot of people.
Frankly while I liked the comics that was way, way back when, and I never ran into the other stuff mentioned so I, too, have no problem with them being ignored.
I'm mildly optimistic, though given the clusterfuck that was the NJO I think I'll wait for the paperback.

Posted: **2006-06-16 08:30am**

I'll wait for the paperback.

And I'll wait for said paperbacks to appear on eBay

Zahn might be one of my favourite authors but the price of a new hardback scares me!

Posted: **2006-06-16 08:35am**

One wonders how Zahn will manage to include the Chiss.

Posted: **2006-06-16 08:51am**

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:One wonders how Zahn will manage to include the Chiss.

Thrawn's arrival in the Empire as a Vice Admiral would be my guess.

Posted: **2006-06-16 08:53am**

Chris OFarrell wrote:Thrawn's arrival in the Empire as a Vice Admiral would be my guess.

That would indeed seem to do it.

Posted: **2006-06-16 09:20am**

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:

One wonders how Zahn will manage to include the Chiss.

You know I had just felt a twing of excitement. Thanks for pissin' in my lemonade

Seriously, though would he really wank Thrawn that much?

Posted: **2006-06-16 10:04am**

Mmm...rogue stormtroopers.

I'm looking forward to this.

Posted: **2006-06-16 10:18am**

Darth Garden Gnome wrote:One wonders how Zahn will manage to include the Chiss.

Maybe just a brief message...this time it's Mara lovin!

As much as I like Zahn, he has this focus on either Mara or Thrawn...and after a bit, I'm starting not to give a fuck. Make someone new dammit.

Posted: **2006-06-16 10:55am**

VT-16 wrote:Let me remind you all, there's a galaxy's worth of stories in each and every single period, yet we only usually follow a small group of people every time. I wish they'd make stories about completely unknown characters.

The empire comics did exactly this. I would say that most of them focused on completely new characters. One of my favorite stories was written from the perspective of a lowly imperial army lieutenant who is just trying to do his job, and continually gets screwed over by the army command.

Posted: **2006-06-16 10:57am**

Mmm. It'd be much more interesting, IMO, if he focussed on the struggle of another rebel alliance cell. Instead of the same characters, and Mara (though Mara slaughtering a bunch of lovable characters would be... edgy). Arg.

Not to mention, there'd be hefty jepoardy.

Posted: **2006-06-16 11:20am**

We still haven't seen Mara during her time as Palpatine's lap-dog. If this is like OutboundFlight the ClassicCharacters will just make a cameo, while the focus will be on Mara and those rogue stormtroopers. My guess for the story would be, that an Imperial VIP screws up and that the Emperor's hand and the stormies go after him independently from each other. Add the RA to get their hands on this person and you have a nice, clean story.

Posted: **2006-06-16 11:55am**

One of my favorite stories was written from the perspective of a lowly imperial army lieutenant who is just trying to do his job, and continually gets screwed over by the army command.

Only to find out in the last Empire-story arc that he's really Tank, one of the friends Luke mentions in ANH, and accidently runs into him during a Rebel operation. He then reports his discovery to Vader, after feeling betrayed by him. How that will pan out, I have no idea.

Posted: **2006-06-16 12:21pm**

How that will pan out, I have no idea.

Probably not by just making him go over to the Rebels. I mean, Rebels are cool, but the Empire lacks cool chars and Sunber was one of them! All cool Imperials go over to the Rebels, so it gets boring. For once, get a decent adversary... like Thrawn

As for the Zahn book, looking forward. He's the only one of the bunch who I honestly think managed to pull of a continuation and a worthy self-contained story about "Star Wars" rather than just mindless shitty fiction or a simple copy-paste of George's ideas and storylines, which most of SW fiction sadly is.

Go Zahn.

Isn't he also the only Hugo-award SW author, nO?

Posted: **2006-06-16 01:07pm**

I mean, Rebels are cool, but the Empire lacks cool chars and Sunber was one of them! All cool Imperials go over to the Rebels, so it gets boring.

There's two things Rebellion's got going for it, one is that the author seems to want to write more about non-movie and unknown characters and the other is the artist, who likes to draw big battles and loves making PT/OT visual connections (even in some pre-PT designs, going by his work on SW Tales: Nomad). That's a good start. 8)

Posted: **2006-06-16 04:27pm**

This sounds really good, I'm hoping for Kelly's Heroes style by way of Starship Troopers (only for the memorable dialogue though, mind). To expand on FTeik's point, what would make this really good IMO would be each plotline intertwining, but in a humorous and clever fashion, ie say Mara was stuck at trying to enter a door or somesuch, and suddenly it magically opens because one of the stormies did a 'What does this button do?'.

I like the sound of these Empire comics, I've heard of them before, but I never bother with individual issues; if I like a series I get the compilation, so does anyone know if there is a compilation available for the series?

Posted: **2006-06-16 04:53pm**

I like a series I get the compilation, so does anyone know if there is a compilation available for the series?

Just get Volume 3 because it's the Imperial Chars' perspective which is essentially the only new and worthy thing about "Empire" - the Rebel-POV stories in Empire suck, and Empire is about Imperials. Previews are on Dark Horse, the short summaries could be found on customer and comic reviews.

Posted: **2006-06-16 06:17pm**

Stas Bush wrote:
I like a series I get the compilation, so does anyone know if there is a compilation available for the series?
Just get Volume 3 because it's the Imperial Chars' perspective which is essentially the only new and worthy thing about "Empire" - the Rebel-POV stories in Empire suck, and Empire is about Imperials. Previews are on Dark Horse, the short summaries could be found on customer and comic reviews.

Also look for the last story arc of Empire called "The Wrong Side of the War" (Issues 36-40). First issue of the story arc kicks off with a battle where we see Imperial Army Infantry that aren't stormtroopers, fighting with the stormies! It's another Imperial story arc which deals with Janek Sunber, the Imperial Lieutenant, and until he meets Luke it's not so bad as you get a nice look at what life would be like for an Imperial officer.

I havn't read any of the Star Wars EU novels though. Are any of them worth reading?

Posted: **2006-06-16 06:31pm**

Seydlitz_k wrote:I havn't read any of the Star Wars EU novels though. Are any of them worth reading?

Thrawn Trilogy, the Wraith Squadron novels, Republic Commando: Hard Contact, Shatterpoint, the Episode III novelization, and maybe a few more. This isn't to say everything else isn't is worth reading, but you can't go wrong with these.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

First Look at Timothy Zahn's "Allegiance"

First Look at Timothy Zahn's "Allegiance"