Status Updates From Star Wars: Allegiance

And that's that. (The rest, as per usual, is EU novel excerpts.) Nitpicks aside, this was fine, but nothing special. I can see why I didn't remember any of it - nothing about it is really all that remarkable. Solid, but forgettable.
Next up is the sort-of sequel, Choices of One. It technically is a sequel, but was not labeled as such. I guess because it can standalone as well? I definitely have never read it.

Zahn is equal parts utilizing and ignoring the Force when its convenient for the story. For someone who has had next to no training, Luke sure is getting a lot of help from the Force. On the other hand, for someone who has been explicitly trained by Palpatine personally, Mara sure is NOT using the Force as much as she should be. Like, she should've easily been able to sense that the AT-ST was empty right away.

Vader being obsessed about Leia to the point where he goes into a violent tantrum and attacks Mara for literally no reason, and then comes to his senses and stops moments later, is really fucking dumb and lame. Vader in the OT always had a cold rage that he focused and harnessed. He wasn't some emo angry loser. Yeah, he did the infamously bad NOOOO rage at the end of RotS, but that was 20 years before this story.

Leia working as a waitress makes no sense. If they needed the money, that would be one thing. But they don't. It's purely for cover. But working that job causes her to be out in public. She would be magnitudes safer and less exposed if she were to just stay in the apartment all day. I don't get this.

Realized I wrote permissible when I meant permissive in my last update. I blame the fact I reworded it after I wrote it.
Obi-Wan's Force ghost talking to Luke more is fine, cool even. Obi-Wan's Force ghost telling Luke the specific sequence needed to unlock the hidden weapons cache in the room he's being held captive is REALLY fucking stupid, though. It's so stupid that it feels like a joke.

Just like in Scoundrels, Zahn writes his villains being a little bit too permissible and agreeable. They caught Mara in the control center, and are about to kill her, but then she says 'I have a deal for you' and they actually listen. They have no reason to! They just think she's an 18 year-old ship thief! She's snooping around! It comes off as being silly and non-threatening.

I feel like the main attraction of this novel is getting to see Mara Jade fully in her Emperor's Hand era. Maybe some comics covered that, but in the novels, it had never been explored before this AFAIK. So I'm wondering why she's not front and center in the marketing for the book (cover, title, etc.) Maybe they were afraid a female-centric book wouldn't sell as well? But she's on the cover for the sequel...

Mara was stowed away on a pirate ship for 4 days, and then they decided to try and ambush/kill her DURING their attack against the freighter? That doesn't many any sense. And how did they even find out where she was? That was never asked nor addressed. Kind of a plothole

The setup for this part is kind of dumb. They land on a new planet, get shaken down by local cops, a nearby mechanic just so happens to overhear all of this and gives them info. LaRone tells this random mechanic to gather people for a protest. Not only does this guy do it, but 300-400 people actually show up. Why would anyone listen to a COMPLETE stranger outsider and agree to meet up for a protest? It makes no sense

I thought that maybe after I started reading, some of the details would come back to me. Nope! I still don't remember a single thing about this.
I do like how stormtroopers here are portrayed as they were originally - elite soldiers. Even Lucas seemed to forget this, and just used stormtroopers everywhere. No, stormtroopers are supposed to be elites, and they're also NOT the entirety of the Imperial Army.

Now that I'm done with the cantina tales detour, it's back to Zahn block. This and the informal sequel Choices of One are back-to-back.
I've actually read this book before, around the time it came out, probably 08 or 09. I still have the paperback on my bookshelf. But I remember NOTHING about it. Not a single thing. I distinctly remember reading it, but nothing about its contents. Very weird phenomenon for me.