Allegiance is a fastpaced standalone adventure, set pretty soon after A New Hope. We see Luke beginning his Jedi journey, Han struggling with his nonexistent position within the Rebel Alliance, and Mara at her peak as the Emperor’s Hand. My favorite part here was the Hand of Judgment guys, because they see what's wrong with the Empire but are fixated on trying to tackle all these problems themselves. Allegiance can’t do too much because of its postANH/preTESB time slot, so the stakes are low and the contrivances build up towards the end. But I still found it a fun read, and I enjoyed revisiting it after all these years.

Goodreads review:   / 6399077521  

“Timothy Zahn: Pledge of Allegiance” (January 2007): https://web.archive.org/web/200702020...

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00:00 Intro
02:04 Overall cast of characters
03:18 The plot
05:51 Luke
06:58 Han
09:06 Leia
09:58 Mara Jade
12:56 Hand of Judgment troopers
14:43 Ozzel, ISB, Vader
15:40 Disra & coconspirators
16:26 Issue 1: Slight, low stakes
17:49 Issue 2: Known outcomes
18:57 Issue 3: A lot of coincidences
20:44 In Short