Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Zahn is able to present to us a grand tour of the Star Wars Universe. What seemed skeletal in the first volume now seems much more than introductory as we are able to see his reversals in plot as objects left by one group of characters is found and used in another. We see a “classical” bad guy, Grand Admiral anticipate each others moves, and read one another with such focus as to be nearly psychic. One of the great joys of such political and military intrigue is the sheer consideration of characters who are able to apprehend each other clearly enough to demonstrate a separate vested ruthless self interest. Zahn is able to present to us characters almost robotic in how rationally they assess one another. Their understanding of systems and the amount of agency involved is fantastic. Such as when Mara James and Luke go sneaking into a Star Destroyer in order to rescue someone. (As a testament to how incredible Zahn’s walk through the universe is, Zahn’s character Mara James apparently is now one of the favorite of the Star Wars cannon not expressed in Lucas’s movies…at least not yet).
Of course, in many ways this book suffers from many of the structural defects of volume 2 books of a trilogy. Here, we have neither the exposition nor the finale, but a development. And what better way is there to develop characters by presenting them in novel and contrary light? Of course with limited characters, such as ten or twelve, it is imperative that Zahn be able to show their relation to each other. As each tone of a character alights another, we get an increasingly dazzling display of surjective development in which their appraisal of one another becomes the topography of the book itself. In other words, we have plenty of mix’um ups in the process of merely getting the plot from this point of a small success in the beginning to the start of the final conflict, in which the true identities of all is told.
Zahn follows this process quite well, and manages to keep the story interesting as the characters we are most interested in (Leia and herself, Chewie and the aliens, Luke and Mara, Lando and Han) are able to reflectively dive deeper into showing us not only who they are but also the nature of the force, and trying to do what is right at all times. The bravery of these heros crawling in the myst of intergalactic machinery and Zahn’s grasp on right and wrong (as showing C’boath’s slide into the dark side) as well as the political mechanizations of people in power truly matches the epic setting of Star Wars which captivated so many like myself at such a young age.
In a way, what makes this book 4 stars is that the build up of the conflict is so little, that only when you are almost done do you realize what the conflict-resolution that is supposed to the end of this volume. Karade is made out to be a sympathetic character and will begin to see that perhaps his ban with the New Republic can only be the “logical” move he makes even as a disinterested smuggler. In a way, this book is as much about the coming of the New Republic and the development of the characters we so love through the eyes of Karade and Mara James, as the underbelly of those who would survive, as the most fitting judges of what is truly good and what is truly evil. Here the policies and care of the “good guys” speak out for themselves against established possibilities of tyranny, villiany and mis-application of justice.
The ending of the third volume is all but certain now, still, the beautifully austere mechanizations of the author do not bore, but only push harder what is at stake in human relations. Despite being sci-fi and fantasy-escapism, Zahn has still managed to touch upon the very heart of what it means, in this universe, to be human by talking about humans who strive for care, value and justice in a fictional universe, all the while fitting the form of a second (but very interesting) volume of a trilogy.
Zahn has not disappointed in this middle volume!
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The Last Command by Timothy Zahn
