Conquerors' Legacy

The Conquerors Saga #3

by Timothy Zahn

While humans and alien Zhirrzh prepare for galactic war, a handful of individuals from both sides learn that the reason was all a misunderstanding. Both were mistaken. To avoid extinction for both their races, this band becomes the focus of a subtle dangerous force that intends overall destruction.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Aliens, Fantasy

Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Timothy Zahn attended Michigan State University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1973. He then moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and achieved an M.S. degree in physics in 1975. While he was pursuing a doctorate in physics, his adviser became ill and died. Zahn never completed the doctorate. In 1975 he had begun writing science fiction as a hobby, and he became a professional writer. He and his wife Anna live in Bandon, Oregon. They have a son, Corwin Zahn.

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Краят на тази трилогия ми дойде доста отворен - много от случилото се в нея не бе задоволително обяснено. Но като цяло "Войната на завоевателите" ми хареса повече от втората част.

Има и описана страхотна космическа битка, допадна ми доволно. Тимъти Зам е отличен писател!

Моята оценка - 4,5*.

Препоръчвам на всички любители на космическите опери!

[Mel Anie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5!!

Mini, spoiler-free review

Conquerors' Legacy, the 3rd book in The Conquerors Saga, is a cherry on a top of a cupcake - the best in the entire trilogy. In its final conclusion, we are finally able to learn the real reason for the war, motives of either of the sides, but also we get some answers to the most notorious questions about the trilogy.

I dare to say that I'm fairly positive about this space opera. I had a lot of fun while reading it. Some parts were hilarious, others were serious, while another gave away some profound aspects of a real life. All those made this book a pleasant and truly entertaining read.

[Luke Zwanziger · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the first two books of this trilogy were amazing, this book was a struggle to get through, having all of the pieces laid out and the conclusion basically in the bag by the start, but we had to wait over 400 pages to finally get around to it. Overall was a disappointing conclusion to what could have been a great trilogy.

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows why Timothy Zahn is such a great writer. In the first book of the series, he followed several different humans and in the second book, he followed the aliens. In this book, he follows both and creates one of the most compelling Science Fiction stories I've ever read.

To start off with, the plot of this book(and the whole trilogy really) was fantastic. I was rooting for all of the main characters, on both sides of the conflict, to find a peaceful settlement. I found myself racing, particularly in the last 150 pages to find out what had to happen. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire book, and that is exactly what I want from a writer.

I spoke about all the characters in my previous reviews, but in this book, all of the Thrr' family and the Cavanagh family were great and the Overclan Prime was interesting. The villains in this book were both well fleshed out and were quite surprising at times. I genuinly had no idea how the main characters would solve the problem. Every Tim Zahn story has a mystery in it, and this was one of the best mysteries in any of his non-Star Wars books.

As with all military science fiction books, I had a hard time following some of the action, particularly the space battles, but that's not Zahn's fault. There was also a very minor plotline including Aric Cavanagh and Adam Quinn that was ok, it was just not compelling to me. It was the only plotline I was not on the edge of my seat for. However, it was incredibly minor and barely affects my love for the book.

The inclusion of Max as a point of view character was interesting and actually quite funny. Zahn included him in a way that could have been a "Deus Ex Machina" but in reality wasn't. Zahn set up every shock and surprise and twist and turn in the book perfectly.

Really, this is not only a wonderful book, but an amazing series. I dare say that as a trilogy, this is Zahn's best original work(not including Star Wars). Cobra(the first Cobra book) was amazing, but the remaining series was lackluster. His Sybil's War trilogy was good, but not amazing. This trilogy, however, is just fantastic from start to end, and has one of the best conclusions to a story I've read in a while. 9.7 out of 10!

[Synful · Rating 3 out of 5]

I blew through the first two books of this trilogy, I think, mainly because I just wanted to get to the part where someone in the Human camp figured out the deal with the Zhirrzh. FINALLY it happened at the end of book 2. I thought/hoped book 3 would spend a good amount of time on them working together to get all sides to stop the war. That's not what happened. I ended up taking forever to finish this book because a solid 3/4 of the book just kept on throwing roadblocks preventing any communication from actually happening. That's extra ironic considering the whole cause of the war and the giant Zhirrzh "secret."

The ending was rather abrupt and a lot of it, I thought, rather convenient how it all came together, a criticism I had at the end of book 1 too, but by then I was relieved the different camps were finally communicating! The one other thing I mentioned with the other 2 books with which I had difficulties with remains the too-many-consonants, too-similar Zhirrzh names. Hell, the very name of the aliens annoys me. I just couldn't remember who was who other than by plot context. That really didn't help in the climactic scene since everyone was together. I just skipped over the names at that point. The most interesting part of the book was in the final chapter with the consequences to Thrrr-gilag for collaborating with the Human "enemy." I was left apprehensive with what "spook" Bronski would do with access to Zhirrzh Elders. Yikes. I think maybe those could be interesting stories.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Update July 2013: The Conqueror's series is one of the most impressive stories I have ever read (I've read 2000). Although not all the books earned an A grade on first read because of the complexity, the overall series is a strong grade A. I suspect each story will earn a grade A on second read. The story includes more characters, situations, interactions, species, and concepts than most authors deal with in a lifetime. Yet the author manages to keep it all straight for the reader, an impressive major accomplishment. In all this there are only two major villains, both politicians - very interesting. This definitely deserves a second read.)

2013 grade B+. The book is pretty easy to read, very enjoyable, and a good length.

Book three in the series completes the story.

This story includes all the characters and situations from books one and two which makes it just a bit more difficult to keep track of what is going on after a scene change. The only places I speed read through were from one of the two villains points of view. Each villain is a politician and there is one for each of the two warring species.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm being a little harsh on the scoring here. I really enjoyed the first several chapters, with the jumping perspectives and all the moving parts. It's nice to read a story where the underlying message is that people (or aliens) generally want to do the right thing, are generally good, and that giving an assumed enemy the benefit of the doubt has value. And I rather enjoyed the family parallels across the humans and Zhirrzh, even if it was a little heavy handed. It still resonated.

The problem with this book was that it was maddeningly frustrating as a reader. All of the information had been revealed in the previous two books to scattered groups, and this (much longer) book was essentially watching the scattered groups slowly gather that information together and connect the dots. The characters themselves and their interactions aren't nearly enough to carry the story or justify this kind of telling. It seems like 80% of the events in the book could have been left to the "gap" between Heritage and Legacy, and it would have been a lot more interesting to spend this book exploring the results and repercussions. Ah well.

[Troy G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is space opera at its best. Two species have a first contact that resulted in an inability communicate and a war based on a misunderstanding. The first book mainly tells the story of the humans. The second mainly is from the alien point of view.

The finale is trying to service both sides, and so is as long as the first two combined. This isn't necisarily a negative, but perhap an illustration of why the trilogy isn't always the best format for telling an epic story.

It is so refreshing for a series about a conflict to be told from both sides, and to have good an bad guys on each. Additionally the conflict comes down to people learning how to communicate in time to avert more violence.

There are many characters, and most of them have pretty compelling arcs, and it really felt like all of them reached some sort of conclusion to their personal story.

I loved this book, and recommend it to anyone that has read the other books in the series. If you haven't, you should start with Conquerers Pride.

[Jean-Luc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small handful of humans and Zhirrzh now understand that the war between their two peoples was due to a horrific misunderstanding. How many more will die before both sides can come together and talk things out? There's politics, fighting, bluffing, and lots of reasoning about what other characters are doing. Business as usual for Timothy Zahn, in other words.

There was some weirdly unnecessary sexism that took me right out. Any dude who thinks a woman isn't qualified to be an advanced space fighter pilot is probably too intellectually crippled to pilot *anything*, so why the fuck was he assigned to the task force? Oy... Other than that and what felt like a rushed ending, it was a good book and a worthy end to the trilogy.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book three in a trilogy. The big problem with this is that the payoffs were shown in one and two, and this book is a lot of muddling sideplots till the end of the book. The CIRCE weapon, the reason why the both sides of the war thought they were attacked first, and many of the big points have already been revealed.The overall plot of the book wasn't the strongest, and it was the wordbuilding that mattered, but this book is focused on resolving the plot threads, so it felt weak to me.

[Benny Alm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written sci fi, but the main plot point I guessed in book one.
Everything comes together around a billionaire family of heroes, and then their are some bad alien who is added for the spice. The family drama is not at all captivating.
It took me a long time to read this series, but it is written to be read quickly, without afterthought, preferably during sleepless nights.

[Loki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Zahn's best work - the ending in particular felt a little rushed, and the book as a whole over-plotted and under explained - but still a pretty good read.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Com tantas linhas narrativas pendentes dos dois volumes anteriores desta trilogia, este terceiro livro tem a tarefa difícil de levar tudo a bom porto. Zahn faz isso utilizando múltiplos pontos de vista, correspondentes aos diversos fios narrativos entretecidos na história, e um ritmo narrativo diabólico. Sabemos como a história irá acabar, mas o caminho para lá chegar é tortuoso e empolgante. Pelo meio, o autor faz um belíssimo fan service e regala-nos com uma batalha espacial, daquelas que só a mais divertida space opera nos dá.

O final é previsível. Sabemos que a humanidade e a espécie alienígena dos Zirrh se irá entender e alcançar uma paz equilibrada. É uma conclusão que já vem do segundo volume da trilogia. O problema, é o como chegar à paz. Os humanos têm de lidar com o seu medo de agressão. Os Zirrh de perceber que o consideraram ataque não passou de um mal entendido, uma vez que os humanos não sabiam o efeito de profundo desconforto e medo racial que as transmissões de rádio provocam nestes alienígenas. Entre batalhas, percebe-se um ponto de equilíbrio militar entre as duas potências espaciais. Se a tecnologia Zirrh, baseada em cerâmicas e com a vantagem das comunicações quasi-instantâneas permitidas pelas suas consciências desincorporadas, se parece sobrepor à humana, é também vulnerável a explosivos e a uma nova arma química que liquefaz armaduras cerâmicas. Já o grande temor, quer dos Zirrh quer de todos os alienígenas dentro da esfera de influência humana, é uma super-arma que não existe.

Para além destes problemas, com duas civilizações envoltas numa luta que pensam ser pela sobrevivência pura, a situação complica-se por interferências externas e internas. Por um lado, temos uma espécie alienígena dentro da esfera de influência humana, extremamente traiçoeira e persuasiva, que manobra os alienígenas Zirrh para atacar os humanos, e outra civilização alienígena com a qual têm uma rivalidade milenar, apenas travada pelas forças militares humanas. Essa civilização, desarmada no passado, acabará por se revelar a melhor aliada dos humanos nos momentos cruciais. Já entre os alienígenas Zirrh, há uma luta intensa entre fações, com um líder de um clã a manobrar para obter o poder supremo, mobilizando a parte das forças Zirrh tripulada pelos do seu clã para tentar, com ajuda dos alienígenas traiçoeiros, um ataque à própria Terra.

Zahn urde muito bem as suas linhas narrativas, entre aventura pura, cenários de space opera vasta e deslindar de complexas conspirações. Intuímos o destino do livro, mas somos levados em suspense quase até às últimas páginas. Neste aspeto, a leitura pode tornar-se irriante, quando percebemos que uma situação de crise está quase a resolver-se Zahn coloca outro obstáculo. Noutros livros, com outros autores, isto não passaria de arrastar desnecessário da narrativa, mas neste ponto final desta trilogia, funciona muito bem.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war between the Zhirrzh (known as Conquerors) and humans has heated up, and the humans are by no means assured of victory. Zhirrzh spacecraft have almost impervious hulls and they have also recently allied themselves with the Mrachni, another race, renowned for their manipulation of facts and subtlety. The humans too have managed to broker an agreement with a much smaller alien empire, that of the Ycroma, fierce opponents if the Zhirrzh are to be believed, but who have only recently been permitted to rearm. This is due to the actions of the patriarch of the Cavanagh family who, along with his children, have become strongly enmeshed in the struggle. But the war hinges on some secrets and a mistake. The whole war may be a mistake in fact, a misunderstanding in the communications of their first encounter, but the secrets are more damaging. Humans have let loose the existence of a superweapon known only as CIRCE and which the Conquerors are seeking to prevent final assembly. The Zhirrzh for their part have a secret about the special organ of their bodies known as a fsss. It enables them to communicate instantaneously over light-year spans via ephemeral bodies known as Elders. With war creeping ever closer the existence of all three pieces of intelligence finally start crossing into the knowledge of each species, but a rogue clan of the Zhirrzh sees an attack on Earth as a way to reclaim their lost glory days. Satisfying conclusion to this trilogy from Timothy Zahn. Peripherally military SF, it is a politically savvy and entertaining piece of space opera. Read all three books.

[Gilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lu en anglais

Tome trois et dernier d'une trilogie

Et la politique s'en mêle ! Le chef d'une des nations des Zhirrzh veut profiter de la guerre pour supplanter le chef des Zhirrzh. Et l'une des espèces de la confédération des humains, les Mrachanis, veulent s'allier avec les Zhirrzh pour attaquer pas moins que la Terre, le noyau central des humains. Pendant ce temps, certains humains et Zhirrzh se questionnent à savoir si le déclenchement de la guerre ne serait pas dû à un malentendu; car chacun des adversaires affirme que c'est l'autre côté qui a débuté l'attaque.

L'histoire se complexifie tout en nous mettant sous tension en attendant le dénouement.

Enfin, le rythme s'est accentué et on le droit à une bataille spatiale d'envergure. Les enjeux sont gros et les risques élevés. Et des deux côtés, on a les pro-guerre et ceux qui recherchent la réconciliation. Comment tout cela va finir ?

J'ai beaucoup aimé, car le roman est plus profond et divertissant. Une finale en montée par rapport au reste de la série.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space opera, military and political science fiction. A satisfying conclusion to the series. Numerous POVs (both human and alien) made this a much more challenging read then the last one, as I constantly had to ask myself, who's this again, what planet is he on, and is he a good or bad guy. When the book starts, you know a lot more than any single character. You know what has to happen in order for this to all come out right in the end. In other words, you are just waiting for the author to put all the pieces together so that everybody is on the same page. Zahn certainly juggles several balls in the air in order to make this happen (with a touch too much coincidental serendipity), but it would have impressed me more if there had been a clever surprise or two in there as well. There was also one loose end that I would have liked to have seen explicitly tied off.

[Ethan Plaisted · Rating 5 out of 5]

in the first book he told the story of humans, in the second he told the story of the zhirzh, now in this book he perfectly wrapped up both stories together. Great conclusion to a great trilogy.

I was wondering how this trilogy would compare to the many star wars books of his I've read, while the universe wasn't as good as star wars's ( basically nothing is) there was very good worldbuilding in this trilogy and zahn kept his great writing style and his ability to weave all these plot points and twists into a satisfying conclusion.

also the ycromae's battle vs the zhirzh was peak

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

As mentioned in my review of the 2nd book in the trilogy, I think Zahn whiffed on the concept a bit. He could have made a much more compelling and believeable scenario had this story focused on a true first contact for the Zhirrzh rather than a series of compounding mistakes. I know that real life is often confusing, truth is stranger than fiction and everything, but even so, sometimes expectations are there to be met. The reveal should have been a known factor for the Zhirrzh way earlier in their history than it became.

[Alejandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a blast! The final entry on the armed conflict between humans and the Zhirrzh alien civilization, it is grandiose, with a huge cast zooming back and forth between the locales we have been introduced to. It feels a bit like Star Wars, which should be no surprise given the author. I particularly enjoyed Max and the military intelligence agents. You do have to do a fair amount of suspending disbelief, but as long as you don't take it too seriously, it is a lot of fun.

[Mrgrush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've finished reading this trilogy for the second time.

It was just as good as the first (probably ten years ago). I was impressed with the first two books telling the story from opposite sides of the conflict then the third book tying the story together. It was well written and though there were numerous unique concepts they made a believable part of the story. Just read it and see.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible end to an incredible series! It made for a late night, because the pace of the ending was astounding, and the climax thoroughly satisfying. I can't believe this is not more mainstream, or a movie or something.

My only true complaint was that I wanted a few more pages of resolution, but that's because I think a lot about aftermath. He did wrap up well.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good ending to a fun series. Feels like it might be one of his earlier books, there's quite a bit of coincidence going on, so some of the ways it comes together feel pretty convenient. Also, the ending felt like it wrapped up quite quickly and was a little disappointing, the bad guy(s) maybe didn't really get their comeuppance. All in all though, it was a decent read, Zahn's book are very solid.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The numerous plot threads all come together quite nicely

It loses some slight marks is due to the numerous POV characters making it difficult at times to keep track of where all the key players were.

Overall I would recommend this trilogy as an entertaining sci-fi adventure.

[Pavel Lishin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun space opera. My only complaint is that the Zhirrzh seem *stupid* at times. They're very trusting, and the fact that despite conquering all the races wielding Elderdeath weapons, it wasn't until they faced humanity that they realized what they could be used for seems strange.

[Leonard E. Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to understand at times but I enjoyed it!

It took me awhile to get into it. Once I got the flow of the books I had trouble putting it down. I tried to limit myself to a chapter at a time, but that didn't always work. In the end, I enjoyed the series.

[Rob Markley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I simply read this as the obligatory last part of the trilogy and actually don't remember even an impression of this volume.

[Ariadne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wieder einmal top von einem meiner Lieblings SciFi Autoren.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting premise, but overly long - needn't have been a trilogy. Book 3 is the strongest and brings things together satisfyingly, but it takes an awfully long time to get to that payoff.

[Uriel Rosenzweig · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as good as the second instalment, provides an entertaining ending to the trilogy. The Zirzzh sections remain much better than the human ones

[Cokebeetle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the wait to get to the end. Tied up nicely. great