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Choices Of One (2011)

by Timothy Zahn(Favorite Author)

4.09 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0345511255 (ISBN13: 9780345511256)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Del Rey

review 1: I enjoyed “Star Wars Choices of One” by Timothy Zahn, because it was very interesting and action packed. The book speaks from different characters point of view. It starts with Han, Luke, and Leia trying to find a safe area for the rebellion to stay in. They found a guy named Fernandez, who volunteered to give them a safe area to stay, hidden from the empire. Things went bad after their was an attempt on Fernandez's life and Neus Esva and the Empire showed up. Jade saved Fernandez’s life and let the rebellion go, but said she would come after them in two hours. The rebellion got out without being harmed. Luke Skywalker is a young jedi in training and part of the rebellion. Leia Skywalker is one of the leaders of the rebellion. Han solo is part of the rebellion... more and the owner of the well known falcon. Mara Jade is the Emperor's first hand. Empire is an organization that is trying to wipe out the rebellion. “Star Wars Choices of One” takes place on Poln Major. This book takes place in 5 ABY. Poln Major is where the rebellion is trying to make an alliance with Fernandez. The two main settings on Poln Major is the governor's office and the caves, where the rebellion is hiding. Poln Major is the main setting that everything takes place in. This setting is significant because this is where the main storyline takes place. There are two main themes of this book. One for Luke to believe in the force, that way he can save his friends. The other theme is for Mara Jade to believe in herself and her squads capabilities. They both have to find courage and strength in themselves to save their friends. Otherwise they’ll all die, if they don’t. I would recommend “Star Wars Choices of One” to ages 16-32. Both males and females would enjoy this book even though the main character is a female. This book is very action packed with a good story line. It explains what happens really well with good details. It makes the book that much more enjoyable.
review 2: I am a Timothy Zahn fanboy. Ever since picking up the Thrawn Trilogy and Thrawn Duology to prepare myself for the upcoming sequel trilogy, I couldn't get enough him. So when I picked up this book after finishing Thrawn I went in expecting epic space battles, strong character development, and well written villains. What I got was, well....Story:The story takes place between episodes 4 and 5 shortly after the first Death Star is destroyed. Desperate to find a new staging point for their campaign against the Empire, the rebels end up negotiating a deal with imperial governor Ferrouz to use part of his sector in exchange for protection against the alien warlord Nuso Esva. Little do they know, however, Emperor Palpatine has already gotten wind of their plans and sends his agent Mara Jade to punish the governor for his treason. What follows is a series of betrayals and alliances between imperials and rebels alike to stop the true mastermind manipulating it all.Overall the story was mostly well written. Between all the uneasy alliances and backstabbing betrayals, the plot keeps you on your toes and wondering what is really going on behind the scenes. This is especially shown through Zahn's style of writing from multiple points of view; sometimes we find ourselves gazing through imperial eyes and others times it's the rebels' eyes. It's easy to tell that he has a good understanding of his characters because there's always a definite change in tone whenever the main point of view changes. Though sometimes the plot goes in some directions that just make you scratch you're head and wonder what he was thinking. Without spoiling anything, I thought some of the characters' actions didn't make sense in the grand scheme of the galactic conflict. In particular I found myself thinking that this or that alliance made no sense, but it never came to the point that I would stop reading. Really awesome stormtrooper battle scenes really helped me turn pages too.Characters:As previously stated, the book switches frequently between the points of view of imperials and rebels alike giving us a variety of characters to choose from. Fan favorite Mara Jade I particularly enjoyed since we got to see more of her life as the Emperor's Hand. Unlike the portrayals of imperials in the movies, you genuinely get the feeling that Mara has clear morals and truly believes what the Empire's doing is right. I also liked Han's portrayal as the 'outsider' in the Rebel Alliance. In the beginning, the rebel leaders don't completely trust Han having joined up so recently and throughout the book Han has to prove himself. Unfortunately those two were the only characters that really grabbed my attention as the rest didn't really develop through the course of the story. Luke was just the naive new recruit, and despite making a few appearances, soon-to-be Grand Admiral Thrawn gets barely any time in the book at all. Even the main villain felt like the generic evil guy the good guys have to stop.FINAL VERDICT (If you only read one part of this review read this):In some ways this book can be called disappointing, but that really depends on one's point of view. The story and characters were nowhere near the same level as in the Thrawn books, but considering that story went over five books, can one really expect the same from one standalone novel? Despite having less character development than I would have liked and a story that often left me wondering why certain decisions were made, I still found it highly enjoyable, if anything just to see Mara Jade in action and to see where the plot was going. I've also purposely neglected to mention much about the appearance of the stormtroopers that make up the Hand of Judgment from Zahn’s Allegiance, and despite them too failing victim to lack of strong development, were just AWESOME during the fights in the novel. Their skirmishes were by far my favorite part of the book, but you'll have to read the book to learn more.All in all, don’t go in expecting the next entry to the Thrawn series because you’re not going to get it. Instead, think of this book as the additional backstory behind Thrawn allowing us to examine the galaxy through the eyes of one of the deadliest characters in the Empire: the Emperor’s Hand, Mara Jade. less

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