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A review by lh_
Choices of One by Timothy Zahn
4.0
Another entertaining Star Wars book with a lot of originality by Zhan. This story is another one that takes place between ESB and ANH (with a neat tie into ESB). One main theme/objective of his books in this time period seems to be to flesh out the lines between good and bad in the Alliance and the Empire. In other Star Wars content, it can be super cut and dry, “Empire Bad”/Alliance Good”, but Zhan shows us the Star Wars universe is not that simple (far from it), and that good and bad isn’t solely about what side your world happens to be a part of, it is an individual person by person trait. This is the type of thing I find to be most ‘original’ about his work and it brings a nice intellectual aspect to Star Wars that isn’t necessarily there by default.
This book is a continuation of sorts from Allegiance, so you’ll definitely want to read that book first if you haven’t. I also recommend reading the post ROJ books by Zhan first, as the book ties in backstories of some of his characters we know, and these tie ins definitely enrich the story if you know their future. Beyond characters from Allegiance, the book also focuses a lot on the Star Wars characters we know and love: Han, Luke, Chewie, and Leia.
It’s 4 stars for me just due to the lack of space to build the antagonists, which has been the main issue for me in these Zhan books between major Star Wars installments. I can understand the inherent limitations here… Vader and Palpatine are THE bad guys in this period, and the artistic license with their characters has to be super minimal, and bringing in other major players wouldn’t make sense either, but I think the plot suffers a bit here because of this.
This book is a continuation of sorts from Allegiance, so you’ll definitely want to read that book first if you haven’t. I also recommend reading the post ROJ books by Zhan first, as the book ties in backstories of some of his characters we know, and these tie ins definitely enrich the story if you know their future. Beyond characters from Allegiance, the book also focuses a lot on the Star Wars characters we know and love: Han, Luke, Chewie, and Leia.
It’s 4 stars for me just due to the lack of space to build the antagonists, which has been the main issue for me in these Zhan books between major Star Wars installments. I can understand the inherent limitations here… Vader and Palpatine are THE bad guys in this period, and the artistic license with their characters has to be super minimal, and bringing in other major players wouldn’t make sense either, but I think the plot suffers a bit here because of this.